Disney makes it official: Star Wars Celebration 2020 is canceled

By Rick Marshall June 15, 2020

That disturbance in The Force you just felt was the sound of millions of Star Wars fans crying out in anguish over the cancellation of Star Wars Celebration 2020.

The biennial celebration of all things Star Wars will skip 2020 due to the danger posed by the coronavirus pandemic and return in 2022, according to an announcement made by Disney and Lucasfilm on StarWars.com. The next iteration of the popular convention will be held August 18-21, 2022, in the Anaheim (California) Convention Center.

Ticket-holders for the 2020 convention, which was originally scheduled for August 27 to 30, will have the option of transferring their tickets to the 2022 event, receiving a refund, or receiving credit for Star Wars Celebration merchandise. Anyone who transfers their ticket to 2022 will also receive an exclusive stormtrooper pin. All of the convention-exclusive merchandise for Star Wars Celebration 2020 will be made available online, according to the announcement.

The first Star Wars Celebration event was held in 1999, ostensibly to promote the release of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. It was also framed as a celebration of the wildly popular sci-fi franchise. In recent years, the event shifted to a biennial schedule, often alternating years with Disney’s D23 Expo.

To date, there have been 13 Star Wars Celebration conventions held around the world, including events in Japan, Germany, and the U.K.

The window for receiving a refund or credit for Star Wars Celebration 2020 will begin Monday, June 22, and run through August 26. Hotel reservations for the 2020 convention will be canceled automatically.

Ticket-holders can get more information about transferring their tickets, getting refunds, or receiving credit at starwarscelebration.com.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Entertainment

Every time we’ve seen Order 66 in Star Wars movies, video games, and TV shows

Anakin marches to the Jedi temple in Revenge of the Sith.

Twenty years ago, if you asked a Star Wars fan to name the most pivotal moment in the franchise’s fictional history, you could be confident that they’d answer with the Battle of Yavin, the climax of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. After all, this event serves as the starting point of the official Star Wars calendar; fans and producers alike measure time in Star Wars in terms of years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or years ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), endowing the destruction of the Death Star with a historical importance within the fictional galaxy that's equivalent to the birth of Christ. Though the BBY/ABY calendar is still in service today, the ever-expanding Star Wars continuity now revolves around a different moment of historical import: Order 66, the flashpoint of the Jedi Purge and the rebranding of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire.
First depicted in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Order 66 has become the most revisited moment in the current Star Wars canon, and explored from a multitude of perspectives. Then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s directive to execute the entire Jedi Order, from the ruling council to the youngest student, is now the inciting incident for Star Wars as we know it. Every character active in galactic affairs in the year 19 BBY has their own Order 66 story, and several of them have been depicted in film, television, and video games. Let's takea look back at each substantive on-screen portrayal of the Jedi Purge to determine what (if anything) each of them adds to our understanding of the tragedy and its repercussions on the Star Wars galaxy.

Revenge of the Sith shows the broad strokes of the Jedi Purge

Computing

Not even Nvidia’s RTX 4090 can handle Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Cal holding his lightsaber with BD-1 on his shoulder.

Nvidia's RTX 4090 is overkill for a vast majority of games, but it seems to have met its match in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. That's right -- even the best graphics card struggles to maintain more than 35 frames per second (fps) in EA's upcoming title.

Of course, this kind of performance is unintended, and it stems entirely from poor optimization. Will your computer be able to handle the game when it launches tomorrow?

Entertainment

All The Mandalorian episodes ranked from worst to best

the mandalorian every episode ranked worst to best 1

The Mandalorian was an important show in the current era of Star Wars. After two trilogies of divisive films, The Mandalorian was a piece of Star Wars content that just about everyone liked -- especially in the first season. It's the lowest common denominator in terms of Star Wars storytelling, but that's exactly what this agitated fan base has needed over the past few years.

With season three in the books, let's look back at all 24 episodes of the show so far (Book of Boba Fett not included), and attempt to highlight the very best the show has offered so far.
24. Chapter 6: The Prisoner