I came across a trove of photos from Star Wars Celebration II and thought it might be nice to share them with the public at large.
Here is the Convention Center where Star Wars Celebration II took place in Indianapolis on the first morning of the event.
Here is a shot of me meeting Rick McCallum, the producer of the Star Wars prequels.
Here is one of Rick McCallum on stage at Celebration II, answering questions.
This shot is of me in front of the Millennium Falcon… I was a sweet, sweet baby…
This one is of my old friend Paul Green, my travelling companion for this con, and myself, in front of Obi-wan’s starfighter. At this point, I’m not sure we knew it was Obi-wan’s starfighter. There was only a brief shot of it in the trailers.
Here is a pair of Padme’s costumes…
One of the things I loved the most about these Celebrations was the ability to get close to artifacts from the films, the costumes and the props…
Here is a shot of the Celebration store with what I remember being a pretty tame crowd compared to how it got other times. I’m so glad the stores are so much more organized at Celebrations these days. This was more like the wild west…
Here is Hayden Christensen, Nick Gillard, and Anthony Daniels. Shots like this make me wish I was a part of the press at this convention, because I’d be able to go back and look at my notes and remember exactly what was said…
I had a chance to meet Ben Burtt that year for the first time, and this was taken in the R2 Builder’s Room…
This is a shot of the late Phil Brown… The original Uncle Owen…
Kenneth Colley… Admiral Piett… And maybe my favorite Imperial Officer. It was an incredible treat meeting him and he was terribly nice.
Bonnie Piesse, Aunt Beru in Attack of the Clones, might have been one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in a situation like this. I was completely smitten. And after a mishap with the first batch of autographs (lost forever by Lucas Animation’s Jesse Hildreth) I was more than pleased to go back and get her autograph a second time.
This is the first time I met Lando Calrissian himself, Billy Dee Williams. I spent hours in line trying to think of the perfect thing to say and the only thing that came out was, “You’d have made a great Two-Face…”
Stormtrooper ordering pizza…
And a massive LEGO Yoda I included, only because Scarlett Robotica would have wanted me to.
Celebration II was an interesting time and an experience I’ll always cherish and never forget. Looking back at these photos feels like they’re from a completely different time and era, and they really were. As I write this, this was almost 12 years ago. Things have changed so much since then. Not just me, but Star Wars, fandom, the sophistication of Celebrations (a lot of that is the influence of people at Lucasfilm like Mary Franklin…) and the nature of the media.
I can’t wait to see what the photos from Celebration VII (or Celebration: Anaheim or whatever it’s being called) look like.
Until then, May the Force Be With You…
Oh, and don’t forget to listen to Full of Sith.