Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 - Hayden Christensen, Mads Mikkelson, Katee Sackhoff Joining As Guests

Well, well! Red Dot Diva just published an article about the first wave of guests for Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 , and more guests were just announced by Official Pix. Official Pix are the folks in charge of the autograph hall and photo opportunities.

The additional guests announced are Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader), Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles), Mads Mikkelsen (Galen Erso), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan), and James Arnold Taylor (voice actor in The Clone Wars, Tales Of The Jedi)!!

Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 Announces First Wave Of Guests - Anthony Daniels, Ashley Eckstein and More

Star Wars Celebration is an official Lucasfilm event that brings together Star Wars fans from all over the world to enjoy everything about the franchise. The bi-annual event is organised by ReedPop, who are also the organisation behind New York Comic Con.

Red Dot Diva had tickets for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (SWCA), which was supposed to happen during summer of 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was cancelled and postponed to May 2022. At that time, Red Dot Island continued to be on lockdown regarding out-going flights till a few months later. That means that Red Dot Diva was not able to make it to Anaheim last year either.

Fortunately, her good friend and Star Wars buddy Ashley managed to help score 4-day tickets for Star Wars Celebration Europe (SWCE) 2023. SWCE is set to light up the galaxy at London's ExCeL Centre from 7 to 10 April 2023! After all that pent-up Star Wars feels, Red Dot Diva is more than ready to party with the fans who will be converging at the event hall that Easter weekend. Finally, she will be travelling overseas for the first time in 3 years since the pandemic lockdown began.

Star Wars Celebration Chicago - Spot Highlight on Digital Artist Darren Tan

Whatever you may think about the latest trilogy, Star Wars has the innate ability to bring people from all over the world together.

At this year's Star Wars Celebration held from 11 April to 15 April 2019 in Chicago's McCormick Place, several well-known as well as up-and-coming artists will be showcasing and selling their Star Wars inspired art at the exhibition floor.

One of them is freelance Singapore-based digital artist Darren Tan, who has built up a sizeable fan base locally and abroad with his beautifully rendered Star Wars themed artwork that spans from the three movie trilogies we all love to the expanded universe.

Darren's artwork is also featured on RPG and card games by Fantasy Flight Games, like Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Outer Rim.

It is only a week till the start of Star Wars Celebration Chicago, Red Dot Diva asked Darren some nosy questions, so that you will get to know him better.

Red Dot Diva: How did you get started in the career of illustration?
Darren: I actually started in animation but through it, I discovered digital illustration and Photoshop. I bought myself a wacom tablet and thought myself how to paint by imitating other famous artists on the internet. Eventually, I got good enough that I left the animation field, and got hired at Imaginary Friends Studios (IFS), a local illustration studio led by Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau.

Will Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 Be A True Celebration For Fans?

For the last 17 years, a convention called "Star Wars Celebration" has been held for Star Wars lovers to celebrate everything about the franchise. ReedPop took over as the event organizer in 2010 with "Star Wars Celebration V" in Orlando, where the 30th anniversary party for "The Empire Strikes Back" was also hosted.

This year, Red Dot Diva is heading to her first such meetup held at London's EXCEL Centre from 15 to 17 July 2016. The current edition has been entitled "Star Wars Celebration Europe" (SWCE). Although with BREXIT, the "Europe" header seems to be simmering like an embittered soon-to-divorced spouse.

For the last month, many fans were unhappy and voiced their concerns that ReedPop had yet to announce sufficient guests for them to feel that the event was a true celebration of sorts. At that point, only the key guests Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Kennedy, Gareth Edwards and Dave Filoni were announced. Inevitably, the number of guests listed was compared to the huge line-up at Anaheim 2015, which saw the entire cast of "The Force Awakens" make their presence on stage.

Prior to BREXIT, ReedPop announced a few more guests like Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, Ray Park and Daniel Logan as well as a list of autographing guests. Which was all well and good, but there has still been no word about celebrity guests from TFA, Rogue One or Episode VIII. However, what caught most attendees unprepared were the exorbitant prices charged for the celebrity photo ops.