Star Wars Celebration as a Fan, with Family, and as a Writer.
The newsletter for this week is all about my experience at Star Wars Celebration in London. Regular newsletter resumes next week.
“This is every writer’s dream,” says Tony Gilroy, the showrunner of Andor, as he turns toward the cheering crowd.
Along with Diego Luna, they smile. It’s a joy to watch them succeed. It’s even more joyful when 1) you also loved what they created, and 2) when you’ve peered beyond a small part of the veil of what it takes to produce sci-fi.
I was at my first Star Wars Celebration this past week, and I went there:
As a Fan.
With Family.
As a Writer.
Star Wars Celebration as a Fan.
My first real foray into Star Wars came when I saw Phantom Menace in the cinema as a 10-year old. My love for cities, in part, stems from seeing worlds like Coruscant and Naboo on a big screen. It made me pine for being among big, faraway cities in the same way I enjoyed watching the travel channel. I loved all of it. The action. The humour (yes, I loved Jar Jar). The music. The feeling. The space swords. The works. Magical.
So, yes, I’m a fan of films that start with a trade dispute in space and end up traversing through space cities, sci-fi magic, and on top of it, actual good drama and myth surrounding fate, power, and what we are willing to sacrifice for the people we love.
Thus, being among all these fans for the first time, is great. To see everyone dressed up, to see all the creators involved with (from actors to producers), is great fun.
It’s also particularly interesting to physically experience fandom as-a-thing in the 21st century. A few compounding factors since the turn of the century has elevated fandoms beyond just people enjoying things together.
You could find “your people” much easier. This one is obvious.
MUCH cheaper distribution + access has meant that choosing what entertainment to enjoy, trends towards more popular things (because we are social beings). I’ve said a few times on this newsletter: new technologies often make popular things more popular while also increasing the the long-tail. There’s never been as much sci-fi as there is today, but Star Wars has never been this mega big too.
The communities you were required to be a part of dropped away to communities we want to be a part of. And so, even though Star Wars deals with spiritual themes, it has become, in part, like many fandoms, a form of secular religion. It provides community, support, and meaning, moreso than what our local communities do for many (for good and bad).
And it’s particularly true for Star Wars when one of the core themes through its canon, is that of “found family”.
Star Wars with Family.
I’m also here, because I’m with my twin. We’ve shared this joy of Star Wars since we were young. As I’ve moved to a different continent, coming to the celebration, with him (and his daughter), is a pretty awesome reason to connect again, especially over something we both love.
Star Wars is unique, in that, due to its long existence, it’s become generational. Standing at a merchandise booth, I overheard a father showing his boy a figurine that his own father bought him several decades ago.
The OG trilogy fans watched the prequels with their kids. The prequel parents are watching the new Star Wars with their kids. Star Wars, for many, is in part, about rekindling play and childhood. The older generation dresses up and passes the baton (or lightstaber) of play down to the younger generation.
A common trope within Star Wars, is also the concept of “found family”. Characters in Star Wars are notoriously not from healthy family relationships and had to find family in others. For example, Anakin being taken from his mother in the prequels, Ezra Bridger pining after his parents in Rebels, and Rey waiting for her parents to come find her in the sequels. So, being among fans, is like being among the found family of fandom. Whether you’re from UK, South Africa, or Japan, in a galaxy far, far, away, we’re also from Tatooine & Coruscant.
One evening, tagging along with my twin to a podcast meetup (by the awesome What the Force), I met many new, amazing people, and that’s a part of the found family and fandom of Star Wars. It was great!
Star Wars as a Writer.
Before I started coding back in high school, I was a writer. I’d read and write a lot. And so, in some sense, the past few years, I’ve come full circle back to a passion I always had: to write and tell stories. It’s not that it had disappeared, but it was deprioritised due to other stronger feelings of existential drive. As I’m growing older, I realise it’s equally important to spend time working on things that (and I paraphrase the famous quote from EB White), save the world, as well as things that help us savour our world.
And, so, being at Star Wars Celebration is also the writer in me, learning and paying attention to how this machine works: from Disney to the fan wielding the lightsaber. It’s why I particularly enjoyed hearing Tony Gilroy speak about the joy he felt as a writer seeing the fans cheering. I think, in part, any writer who grew up loving Star Wars would love to not just contribute some story to that universe, but also, make it a success that’s worth celebrating on its own. The Andor team has definitely succeeded.
The work of producing sci-fi (at any level) is not easy. At the scale of Star Wars, hearing ILM talk about VFX, hearing the showrunners talk about their challenges, the difficulty in finding the right actors, the actors, and even those who design and make the merchandise, made it clear how much work goes into getting this actually made. A lot. Star Wars is one of the biggest media franchises in history, and most of that revenue is not from box office sales, but merchandise. There’s so many wonderful trinkets/toys/posters/accessories: something for everyone.
I spend my time currently writing and producing short readable and listenable sci-fi and sell digital merchandise to support the production, and even just that, takes a lot of time. So, there’s an immense amount of respect for anyone willing to tackle all parts of the production of something like Star Wars.
At the end of the day, it’s all very inspirational, picking up and learning about what makes Star Wars work. The hardest part is not actually getting too much into its orbit, for fear of just emulating a space opera. As a writer, you have to sometimes be, just a fan, and sometimes, be the writer: trying to take what works into your own worlds and stories you want to tell. It’s easy to be comfortable and just write what makes you feel good: retelling stories that already exist. It’s not bad, but I think, that truly great writing tells us something new about ourselves. To get there, you have to stay our own course and collect what you feel is great from the stories you discover along the way.
Learn from the masters, like Star Wars, and then, trust in the force to forge your own way. To go on your own hero’s journey and come back having made people FEEL something: to help us savour our world.
That’s it for this week, folks. I see the next one is 2025 in Japan. Definitely putting this one on my radar!
Next week resumes the regular newsletter!
Have a great (twin suns) sunset! May the force be with you! AAAHHH (to quote Ewan McGregor)!
Simon
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