Star Wars Celebration cancelled due to COVID-19, won't be back until 2022

By Alyssa Mercante
published

Celebration will return to Anaheim, California in 2022

(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

Star Wars Celebration has officially been called off due to COVID-19 concerns, according to an announcement made today

See more

Star Wars Celebration is exactly what it sounds like – a massive gathering and celebration of all things Jedi, Sith, and more. There are special panels, celebrity appearances, new reveals, exclusive merchandise, and cosplay competitions. The 2019 Chicago Star Wars Celebration revealed the title for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as well as trailers for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, The Clone Wars season 7, and The Mandalorian. 

This year's Celebration was scheduled to take place in Anaheim, California on August 27 through August 30, but with the threat of COVID-19 still very much present, the decision was made to call off the annual gathering. What's surprising is that LucasFilm and Disney will not hold another until 2022 – the event will return to the Anaheim Convention Center on August 18 through August 21, 2022. 

For clarification, Celebration's schedule is typically all over the shop, but usually lines up with some major announcement in the Star Wars universe: Celebration 2010 celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, while Celebration 2015 hyped up Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This year's Celebration would likely have debuted a Mandalorian season two trailer and potentially given us more details about the newly announced game, Star Wars Squadrons. The 2022 Celebration could give us more info on the upcoming Star Wars movies (the first of which is due in cinemas December 2022), and future Disney Plus series, which includes stand-alone Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cassian Andor shows, and a female-centric series helmed by the co-creator of Russian Doll.

Those looking for a refund or a ticket transfer should head to the official Star Wars Celebration website, although as of publication it doesn't seem updated with the cancellation news - there's still a countdown for the 2020 event, and you can still buy tickets. 

For now, keep an eye out for upcoming Star Wars movies. 

Alyssa Mercante
Alyssa Mercante

Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.