How Rey’s Return and a Tired ‘Mandalorian’ Season Riled Up the Fandom at Star Wars Celebration
Amon Warmann Guest Contributor On almost any other day, a train car full of Mandalorians, Grand Admiral Thrawns, Ahsokas, and Obi-Wans may have seemed strange. But for the four days of Star Wars Celebration, this was the norm on the 8 a.m. DLR train. Even before you stepped foot inside the event’s vast ExCeL Centre venue in East London, the Star Wars community was well represented, with people of all ages and ethnicities cosplaying as their favorite characters, be they as popular as Darth Vader or as niche as the umbrella-like lightsaber-wielding Sith Lord from “Star Wars: Visions.” If you need a reminder that, sometimes, fandoms can be good, Star Wars Celebration is it. Without the racist backlash against new characters played by people of color, or interminable hate tweets about specific movies, the event showcases the fandom at its best — as a joyous, inventive, inclusive and delightfully weird affair; a place where you’re as likely to stumble upon a mob of prisoner-attired fans chanting “One Way Out!” in unison as you are to witness an Orson Krennic striptease.