Some beautiful new art for Star Wars Celebration 2023 celebrated 19 fan-favorite characters in the long-running franchise.
Right next to Marvel and DC, Star Wars has some of the most popular characters in all of pop culture. After all, who doesn’t know the name Darth Vader?
Ever since the first film in 1977, the heroes and villains of the franchise have been the centerpiece of the ever-expanding universe of Star Wars. Many fans all have their own favorites—whether it be from the original trilogy, an old Legends book, or The Mandalorian.
For those lucky few attending Star Wars Celebration this year, some special badges will be given out that celebrate those icons from a galaxy far, far away.
New Star Wars Art for Celebration Badges
Talking with StarWars.com, artist Alice X. Zhang talked about the special art she created to celebrate some of the franchise's top characters.
Each portrait, 19 in total (20 different characters, if one counts R2-D2 & C3P0 separately), will be used on the many badges given to attendees of this year's Star Wars Celebration in Europe.
The first 10 include...
- Bo-Katan
- Ahsoka
- Darth Vader
- Fennec Shand
- Greef Karga
- Inquisitor Reva
- Rey
- Luke Skywalker
- Din Djarin
- Grogu
The final nine showcase...
- Han Solo
- Yoda
- Leia Organa
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Cassian Andor
- Finn
- R2-D2
- C3P0
- Chopper
- Omega
Zhang admitted how "it's been a huge honor" to create these pieces and that "portraits are [their] favorite illustration subject:"
“Well, it has absolutely been a huge honor! I have never been to a Celebration, but when I was first approached and researched the history of Celebration badges, I was immediately inspired — not to mention, portraits are my favorite illustration subject... So, it was exciting for me to take this on, and I really wanted to do a memorable job.”
The artist also noted how she knew that "many collect the badges," something Zhang kept in mind while designing her pieces:
“I knew that Celebration has had a long tradition of commissioning a single illustrator to create the art on each badge, and that many collect the badges... I wanted to do something unique to ‘link’ the set together, like an Easter egg for those collectors!
Which Star Wars Icons Are Missing?
As exciting as it is to see those 19 characters celebrated, it's hard to ignore the many key characters missing.
Some notable examples are Hera, Sabine, Kal Cestis, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, and Kylo Ren—just to name a few. Not even Emperor Palpatine made the cut.
Though, at the end of the day, Star Wars has a treasure trove of heroes, villains, and many in between. It was always going to be impossible to give them all their due.
Those who collect these badges, as Zhang mentioned, will indeed have a field day trying to get them all.
Even better is that the next two Disney+ series, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew, are set to introduce plenty of new faces to audiences—so these fan-favorite selections could look a lot different a year or two from now.
Star Wars' current project, The Mandalorian, airs new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
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