Star Wars Celebration Day 1

I wasn't originally going to really talk much about Star Wars Celebration going on this weekend, but then when I tuned in during the second panel for the upcoming sequel series Willow, I knew that I had to at least share a couple of screengrabs and talk about my excitement.  After the second panel with Erin Kellyman (Enfys Nest in Solo and Winifred in The Green Knight), Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (Tyene Sand in Game of Thrones), and Ellie Bamber (haven't seen her in anything), I went back and watched the first panel with Warwick Davis (Wicket in Return of the Jedi, and fricking Willow Ufgood), Joanne Whalley (Sorsha in Willow) and writer Jonathan Kasdan (Solo, and Willow).

I do not remember specifically when I first saw Willow, although I know that it was within a year after it was released in theaters, although I never saw it in theaters and I can only blame my parents for not taking me.  Maybe they thought that it would be too scary?  But I would have been eight at the time, a prime age for that kind of story.  But I first saw it some night that it was aired on TV and like our family, we taped it off of TV while pressing pause on the VCR when commercials came on so that we would not have to fast forward the commercials, but also it meant we used up less tape.  This was the only version of Willow that I knew until the 20th anniversary DVD edition was released in 2008.  Now, not only was I able to watch the entire movie, including scenes that had been cut from the broadcast version from 1989, but I could now also see the entire movie and not the "modified from the original version and formatted to fit your screen."  I have since seen Willow in a theater of sorts, as it was a desanctified church turned movie theater a number of years ago in the before-times.

There is just so much that I love about the movie Willow that anything I say will end up looking like a list.  James Horner's score is some of the best fun adventure music ever written, but at the same time has such a majestic and emotional theme for Elora Danan and the mystical world that this story takes place in.  Similar to Star Wars, you feel as if you are thrown into the middle of a world full of history and prophecy that you are able to catch up on along the way.  With a story that follows a simple character thrust into a larger world that they never expected or really wanted anything to do with.  For me, there is something special about watching Warwick Davis' portrayal of Willow, the obvious love you can feel and see between him and his on-screen family and the hope that he inspires in the other characters he meets along the way, not by being the strongest fighter or the most powerful sorcerer, but by being the most genuine to himself.  At the end of the movie when he touches the braid of hair given to him by his wife Kiaya to help him find his courage as he faces down a wall of charging cavalry.  Ughgjslhgjkdha!!

I have mentioned it before, but I have the sequel trilogy of books that take place after the events in the movie, and I ended up stopping a few chapters into the third book because I felt lost as to what was happening.  The story also felt very different from the movie and more like a story that existed before Willow and a couple of characters from the movie were placed over existing characters.  Such as Willow, who experiences a form of mental transportation and witnesses the destruction of Tir Asleen, and I think, several other areas in the world.  He then goes into exile/hiding and changes his name to Thorn Drumheller and from what I recall, very little is mentioned about other characters (including his family) or places from the movie.  It was just a little disappointing.

So when it was announced a few years back that a sequel to Willow was going to happen on Disney+, I was pretty excited, more so when it seemed like they were not going to be using the books as a source material; which does fit in line with Disney's approach to the Star Wars novels and their approach to the sequel trilogy.  And that trailer had a lot that I did not fully understand but it definitely looks like they are expanding the scope of the story and possibly exploring more of the land, but I am excited by the look of the series, although I guess that is what a trailer is supposed to do.

I think that is really all I wanted to say.  That I am very excited for this series involving characters from 34 years ago that I love, and I was very happy to see two panels of actors on the first day of Star Wars Celebration, especially when I wasn't anticipating anything but to read a couple of articles talking about highlights throughout the weekend.  But don't go expecting consistent articles to come out of Star Wars Celebration.  I mean, unless something completely unanticipated gets announced, like an Enfys Nest series, because I will definitely ride that hype train.

November 30th cannot come soon enough.

Goodtimes.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

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