The Clone Wars Sneak Peek was the Highlight of My Star Wars Celebration

Last weekend my son and I were lucky enough to attend the 20th Star Wars Celebration. Although I am clearly a Star Wars nerd, I approached the day with one goal: make sure my son has an unforgettable experience. Although Star Wars is loved by people of all ages, at its heart, it is for kids... and kids at heart.

The Star Wars universe is so vast it may seem like it simply never ends. It is more than just a dozen movies. There are books, toys, comic books, games, horrible Holiday Specials and cartoons. My son's favorite part of the universe is the Dave Filoni helmed 3d CGI cartoon: The Clone Wars which began as a movie released in the theater in 2008.

Being born with Star Wars in my son's DNA made the timing of the release of the movie and subsequent Cartoon Network series simply perfect. My son was three when the movie premiered. Although he was definitely too young to sit in a theater and watch it... I took him anyway. He loved it. Each week he and I sat together on the couch and watched every episode. At first, he asked me a lot of questions and we had to pause quite a bit. When we watch it now, I am the one asking the questions which he patiently answers. He loves everything about the show and has become a walking encyclopedia of its plots, characters, and planets.

When the show ended in 2013, both he and I felt like we had lost an old friend. What made it worse was that there was no closure. The show simply stopped. The new characters we had fallen in love with were simply hanging in limbo. Then a year after being cancelled, the show made a triumphant return for a too-brief 13 episode arc released on Netflix. Although we were thrilled to have this reprieve, it was still not complete.

As the creative team went on to other projects, my son dealt with the fact that his favorite show ever was gone forever. He did stumble upon some unfinished scenes from an arc titled "The Bad Batch". But it simply wasn't the same. He moved on and lived off the DVDs of the episodes he loved so much.

As I began strategizing for the Star Wars Celebration, one panel stood out. It was titled "Clone Wars Sneak Peak with Dave Filoni". Not only was the Clone Wars returning to close out the stories of our favorite characters, if we were lucky (or hustled enough) my son and I could get to hear the creative genius behind it and the talented voice actors speak about its triumphant return. Even better, we could be the first to see actual footage from the new episodes!

Knowing how crazy these conventions are and having heard stories of thousands of fanatics camping out over night just for the privilege of sitting in the audience of these panels, I prepared my son to have to watch the live stream on the jumbotron in the middle of the show floor.

Ninety minutes before show time, we decided to see if the Force was with us and headed over to the celebration stage where the panel would be held. The Force guided us and we made it in! Fourteen year old boys spend about 99.99% of their time being "too cool" for whatever is happening. This was the other .01%. My son was thrilled! He reminded me of the tiny boy I had brought to the theater 11 years ago.

The panel did not disappoint. Not only did we hear a bunch of funny and touching stories from the creator and the cast, Dave Filoni blessed us with three significant clips from the new show and an awesome trailer! Most exciting of all is the fact that several of the episodes will be completed versions of "The Bad Batch" that my son had watched so many times.

Because nothing I say can do it justice, check out the trailer below (it is at the 52:20 mark of the official panel video below). By the way, the crowd was so excited to see it that after it was played, Dave Filoni said, "Wow that took so much work I think we should show it again." The crowd exploded and sat back down for a second helping.

For those of you who are super fans of the show, the fact that the unit is called "99" makes me get a bit teary eyed.

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