What Star Wars News We Hope To Learn At D23

Kicking off on July 14 is the fifth D23 Expo, the bienniel celebration of all things Disney, [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Kicking off on July 14 is the fifth D23 Expo, the bienniel celebration of all things Disney, attended by the most devout Disney fans on the planet. With the company having purchased the rights to and having created some of the most iconic brands on the planet, the exposition has become one of the best places to share news and details of upcoming projects from the company.

Naming itself after the year in which Walt Disney founded the company (1923), the event regularly shares exclusive information and footage from upcoming projects from Marvel, Pixar, and, of course, Star Wars.

With Star Wars skipping official representation at next week's San Diego Comic-Con and leaving lots of unanswered questions from Star Wars Celebration earlier this year, there are quite a few pieces of information fans are clamoring for.

Unlike Celebration, however, the events of D23 will not be broadcast online, so whatever information is shared or footage is shown, fans will have to wait to learn about it from word-of-mouth. Granted, given that the exposition is attended by not just the biggest Disney fans around but also a wide swath of journalists, we can expect lots of exciting announcements.

As far as footage is concerned, whether we have to settle for videos shot by fans in attendance or if official assets will be posted by Disney themselves is unclear.

Scroll down to see what we are crossing our fingers on learning more about!

The Last Jedi Footage

The first teaser for The Force Awakens came over a year before the film's premiere, but in the case of The Last Jedi, the first teaser was only debuted eight months ahead of its release. With a recent trailer seemingly being rated by the British Board of Film Classification, many are assuming that a trailer is a sure-fire bet.

Recent reports, however, say that it's much more likely that we'll see behind-the-scenes footage debut at the event, similar to the few minutes of footage shown at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015 to build anticipation for The Force Awakens, discussing not just the film's story but the entire impact of the saga.

With the passing of Carrie Fisher late last year and Han Solo being killed in The Force Awakens, there are plenty of powerful emotional moments that can be discussed for a featurette. There's also a possibility we will get both a trailer and behind-the-scenes footage, or, considering how Lucasfilm never shies from dominating the social media world, they could save one of these pieces for the weekend of Comic-Con to show the impact they can have on the weekend without even having to attend.

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Han Solo Details

To say fans were concerned about the current status of the Han Solo standalone film would be an understatement, as we've seen only one official photo of the cast in the Millenium Falcon, no official title has been announced, and the original directors left the project with only a few weeks left to shoot.

The recent hiccups in filming might have delayed any plans for a teaser or sizzle reel, but with reports that Disney is impressed with a current sizzle reel, the convention could be a good opportunity to show fans what they can expect from the film.

Since this event gives Lucasfilm the home court advantage, knowing that everyone in the room will take any piece of information they can get, it's possible they will only confirm the film's title, holding off on official photos or videos until closer to the release of The Last Jedi.

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New Standalone Film

In less than two years, all of the films Lucasfilm have officially announced will have been released, the last of which being Episode IX in May of 2019. Thanks to the success of Rogue One, fans knew they could trust Lucasfilm to make high-quality movies that explored the journey of characters only tangentially attached to the Skywalker Saga. The recent directorial shake-up of the Han Solo film has raised quite a few eyebrows about the status of that spin-off, which could result in a big announcement to shit focus.

At Star Wars Celebration in April 2015, all signs pointed to the official announcement that Josh Trank would be directing another spin-off that would be released in 2020, presumably focusing on the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Since that announcement never happened, many fans are wondering if plans for another spin-off were totally scrapped or if the foundation of those plans would be passed off to another director.

If Lucasfilm is looking to reignite fans' passion for spin-off films and potentially reveal very little about the Han Solo film, the announcement of another spin-off would generate tons of buzz.

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Star Wars Land Information

An integral component of the Walt Disney brand has been the theme parks, so we should definitely expect some amount of news about the debut of Star Wars Land at D23.

At Star Wars Celebration earlier this year, we learned that the new area of Disneyland would be opening in 2019, but the footage they showed proved there's much construction work to be done. We also know that the new attraction won't recreate any specific worlds previously seen in the films, but will definitely feel familiar to audiences.

Considering it's only been three months since we last got a look at the project, we won't hedge our bets on seeing anything much more substantial than what has already been shown, but with D23 being such a huge Disney event, we'd put good money on learning new details about what to expect of the attraction.

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