Course of the Force, a charity lightsaber run that ends at Comic-Con in San Diego (and passes through Huntington Beach on the way), returns before the July 18-21 convention opens, but the franchise behind the lightsaber is reportedly sitting this one out.
That's because Disney is holding back the newest member of the corporate fold–Star Wars film, television and related properties–for the D23 Expo in Anaheim Aug. 9-11, when anticipation for new movie details will be epic.
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Deadline Hollywood reports it will mark the Star Wars franchise's first appearance at an official Disney event since the Burbank studio bought Lucasfilm late last year.
Special fan experiences Deadline says are coming to Anaheim include a “Darth Vader: The Evolution Of A Villain” exhibit and a Star Wars history panel whose name sounds quite similar to the title of the lightsaber run pimped by Nerdist Chris Hardwick: “Crash Course in the Force: Star Wars Saga 101.” It is to be hosted by expert Pablo Hidalgo.
“The studio has yet to reveal plans to present its upcoming Disney-produced Star Wars sequels at D23,” Deadline notes. “But Disney and Marvel made a point of using the exclusive confab to promote The Avengers with a cast and exec panel in 2011, and Star Wars cast announcements are speculated to be on the horizon…”
Set your phasers to “stunned.” Oops, sorry, wrong space franchise.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.