‘Star Wars Celebration’ returns to London

Imperial soldiers, “Jedi” knights and even a few nonsensical androids showed this Friday that it is possible to live in harmony and forget the old galactic feuds if the reason is to celebrate the return of space “Star Wars” to Europe seven years later.

For this reason, despite the amazed look of some passengers – and that in London it’s hard to surprise anyone with their appearance – most subway passengers naturally observed C3PO or Princess Leia sitting next to them, while the Rebel pilot chatted animatedly with the Dark Side emissary.

“Star Wars Celebration”, a convention that brings together thousands of galactic devotees every year, returns to London for the first time since 2016 to present an update on a saga that has gone far beyond the cinema.

On this first day of the ceremony, which will last until Monday, it was revealed that she is a teacher Eat King Skywalkerplayed by the British Daisy Ripley, will lead a new trilogy of films for the cinema, one of which will be directed by a woman for the first time.

Get news about the goose that lays the golden eggs that is the universe “Star Wars” This is not the only incentive for thousands of people who travel from all over the world to participate in the celebration at the ExCel conference center.

Compare costumes (“cosplay”), take a lightsaber class or try out the latest video game are some of the incentives that attract participants.

But above all sow camaraderie and the complicity that awakens the sharing of a passion that many have lived for as long as they can remember.

“My memories begin in the early 2000s. I was little, my brother and I were in the bathtub and mom came in and said: ‘Children, get out, they are putting ‘Star Wars’ on TV!’. I didn’t even start school yet (…) I was so young that I couldn’t understand everything, (but) it had a big impact on me,” German Mika Heeren told EFE.

Dressed in a rebel pilot’s uniform and helmet Wedge Antilles, A childhood friend of Luke Skywalker, Heeren was happy to attend the convention for the first time, traveling from his village near Bremen with his friend Joshua Meier,

For Meier, the big appeal of the saga is the “expanded universe,” that is, the video games, comics, and products created around it, although he admits he traveled to London for “the people and the environment.”

I don’t know how unfathomable, but so real that some call it “good vibes” reign everywhere in “Star Wars Celebration”. Perhaps it comes from this shared devotion to a fictitious world that managed to set itself up as an alternative to everyday reality. Or maybe it even has some kind of mystical origin, as Michel Sagar believes.

This young man from Burnley, in the North England, He declares that he is in love with “the idea of ​​the ‘Jedi’ and the concept of having a religion that is also a warrior.”

For whatever reason, Sagar did not hesitate to go to London dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi to meet the actor who portrays him in the movies, Ewan McGregor, and to celebrate their wedding anniversary with his wife.

From a much greater distance Maryland (United States of America) Traveling was Alicia Isom, who ended up mesmerized by the galactic epic as a student and is a veteran of these conventions having already attended four.

“I got into all this while I was in the Faculty of MedicineI’m a pediatrician. A friend of mine sparked my interest by playing a video game and I’ve been following it ever since,” says Isom, who has already booked a photo opportunity with Denmark’s Mads Mikkelsen, one of the actors in “Rogue One,” which he considers his favorite recent film.