When Star Wars announced the full panel schedule for Celebration Japan, one panel caught my attention above the rest. Sure, there are panels for some of the franchise’s headliners, like The Mandalorian & Grogu, Andor, and Ahsoka. But there’s another panel that has the potential to really steal the headlines.
On the first day of the convention, Friday, March 18, there will be a Lucasfilm Animation’s 20th Anniversary panel. It is described like this:
Join Dave Filoni (Chief Creative Officer) and Athena Portillo (Vice President, Animation Production) as we celebrate 20 years of Lucasfilm Animation’s critically acclaimed stories and beloved characters including a sneak peek at what’s to come.
It is no secret to fans that the animated shows have been some of the very best Star Wars content ever made. They’ve been quite busy in these two decades, too: they’ve made The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Bad Batch, Young Jedi Adventures, Tales of the Jedi, Tales of the Empire, Forces of Destiny, and more.
But as that panel description hinted, there will be “a sneak peak at what’s to come” as well, with Filoni and Portillo on hand to talk about it. This has me thinking that the next major show from Lucasfilm Animation will be announced here, after The Bad Batch concluded last year. That will be major news for the franchise and major news for fans, and I really can’t wait to learn what they’re working on. It’s also possible that we could get an announcement of another volume of the Tales of series, too.
We shouldn’t get our expectations up too much until stuff is announced, but if they do announce a new major animated show, I think that has the potential to be the most exciting news to come out of Celebration this year. And I really can’t wait to learn about it.
Star Wars Thoughts 