After yesterday’s big reveal of the new show, the Star Wars Detours crew came back to the Celebration Stage at Star Wars Celebration VI for a second panel, showing off their new show to a completely packed house. The trailer was greeted by lots of laughs and cheers as Matt Senreich, Seth Green, and Todd Grimes showed off their new comedic Star Wars property.
They reviewed yesterday’s news of the three environments, the general idea and tone of the show, but then changed things up by showing some new clips.
The first was of the goofy stormtrooper pair played by Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer
The trio wanted to make sure its known that “these aren’t vignettes. These are actually stories with beginning, middle, and ends,” divulged Senreich.
Another clip showed Greedo meeting up with Lando Calrissian – while dressed as him. Lando of course will be voiced by Billy Dee Williams once more.
“Omigod I love Billy Dee so much,” said Green. Grimes said there’s a scene where Lando is teaching some other guys how to flirt with women, and Grimes is trying to direct him. “Look, man, I’ve been hitting on women a lot longer than you have,” Williams retorted.
Of Obi-Wan’s character in the show, they say he’s gone a little crazy living alone in the desert “waiting for Luke to be old enough to talk to without being creepy!” said Green. A clip showed Obi-Wan being a makeshift recruiter trying to restart the Jedi order. Hilarious stuff, and they gave promise of Obi-Wan and Luke interacting as well.
“We are desperately in love with Star Wars guys, so we’ll never let it go completely off the rails,” promised Green.
Head writer Brendan Hay came out on stage once more, just as he did yesterday, and did a cartwheel that was… interesting. “For a writer, that was incredibly athletic,” proclaimed Hay.
Hay ran through the writers once more, like Jane Espenson from Buffy and Dave Mccullough from Venture Bros, who has invented Biff Tarkin, Gran Moff Tarkin’s son. David Goodman from Family Guy who did their Star Wars specials has joined the crew too. Hay promises each character has their own unique favorites.
“Radda the Hutt, who is Jabba’s son, in our universe, is a really surly teenager who hates his dad, and everyone who works for his dad,” said Green for an example.
Producer Jennifer Hill came out on stage to tell a story of arm-wrestling George Lucas before talking about the big, talented voice cast for the show. There will be guest voices like Weird Al Yankovic and Felicia Day, as revealed in yesterday’s sizzle reel, as well.
Now one actor from the show, the aforementioned Donald Faison, came on stage and asked everyone to ignite their lightsabers while singing the imperial march. The Behind-the-Scenes clip was shown once more. Dee Bradley Baker, Grey DeLisle, Hugh Davidson, Cat Taber, Dan Milano, Cree Summer, Zeb Wells, Nat Faxon, Jennifer Hale, Abraham Benrubi, Ahmed Best, and of course Seth Green does some of the voices on his own! Billy Dee Williams got a huge pop when he appeared on screen.
The Jane Espenson-written parody of Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream was shown, with Donald Faison’s stormtrooper singing about his dream of being a mattress salesman.
Grimes then told a story about screening an animatic for George Lucas, and how there weren’t really any notes – then he said, “No wait, let’s go back to the beginning where Darth Vader is doing this recruitment video, we should pull it back a little bit and see someone directing him. Show a guy with white hair and a white beard and a flannel shirt…” And Grimes asked if he was asking to be put in the show, because the artists had all already drawn him.
They showed a clip of him on the show, and then George Lucas took the stage himself! The entire crowd was on their feet cheering for the creator of their beloved Star Wars.
Lucas: “I want to make it clear, the writers were only around for two weeks, but all the shorter people, the director, Seth, and Jen were at the Ranch for the whole thing.” Thanking them for no longer making him the shortest guy in the room.
Senreich asked, “What’s it like working with us?”
Lucas said, “The question I get at noon when I’m writing with these guys is ‘why do you leave at noon?’ Um, don’t you think it’s obvious?” he joked.
Seth Green asked him if all their nerdy questions are annoying, and he said, “yeah.”
The other panelists thanked him greatly for his support, with Grimes saying he specifically felt pushed by Lucas in a great way.
“George called me into his office one time. He was like, ‘all these drawings you did? Let’s not do any of those, let’s start over. If I liked your stuff I’d just call you on the phone, I wouldn’t have called you in here.’ Luckily, I haven’t been called in since.”
Senreich asked Lucas “Why do this? Why do Star Wars comedy?”
Lucas said, “I’ve always wanted to do this. I think it’s fun, and we’ve created something that’s truly for all ages.
“We’ve always been a little outside the box, but this is so far outside the box, it’s in a space shopping mall!”
Green said that because the “universe is inherently intellectual” the show will be smart. Lucas said “You’ve successfully made it either so dumb that it’s smart or so smart that it’s dumb.”
That’s all she wrote! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more from Celebration VI.
