Mystery surrounded Friday’s Lucasfilm panel at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H. Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and writer Lawrence Kasdan took the stage, but nobody knew exactly what surprises were in store. Surely something, right? Nobody could be more excited about what we could possibly see than yours truly. Bring on the galaxy far, far away!

Eddie Ibrahim already teases special stuff…here we go!

Moderator Chris Hardwick takes the stage with his usual exuberance. How could he not be excited? It’s Star Wars! Photos behind on the screen are all of production stills.

Fandom and presence of Star Wars: Fans are 100% responsible for this happening, says Kennedy.

Where are we in production? In editing, there’s a cut of the movie. Disney giving them the time to do it properly.

Kasdan’s first Comic-Con. He gives huge big ups to George Lucas who hired him for Empire and Jedi. He feels like the characters never left him. He went berserk when Abrams got brought on. The two of them spent a year writing the script.

They brought out the creature from the Unicef video, Baba Joe. One of hundreds of creatures they build for the film. All these characters were actually built, 100% practically, with robotics. Very important to everyone involved.

There will be CG, you can’t avoid it. Abrams wanted as much real, tangible stuff on set for people to interact with as possible. Applause break.

A Batman cosplayer asks a question about J.J.’s inspiration and things he pulled from. “We tried to ask ourselves what feels right. And the only mandate was what delights us,” says Abrams. “Something as simple as the texture of a wall, when someone casts a shadow,” said Kasdan. He talks about being in a docking bay on a Star Destroyer with Stormtroopers and they realize they got it right.

Just being on the Millennium Falcon doesn’t automatically make the scene good, says Abrams. They had to balance the really cool stuff with stuff to make the movie good.

Gareth Edwards will begin filming Rogue One in 3 weeks.

FOOTAGE!

Slates. Interior of Falcon and R2, very much stuff we’ve seen. Models of wrecked TIE fighters. Mark Hamill talking about how nothing’s changed but everything’s changed. Flamethrower trooper. Simon Pegg on set in the desert. Chewbacca. New creatures. Simon Pegg is in the movie! Stormtrooper battles. Domhnall Gleeson. Nien Nunb. Carrie Fisher. Han in the Falcon’s cockpit… My life is complete now…

Then Hardwick brought out Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac.

The guy behind me yelled “That’s me!” about a million times when a particular picture is shown of Boyega on the Con floor.

Ridley hasn’t really done other stuff, so she can’t really compare it to anything. Those explosions were real we saw in the teaser. Boyega makes a crack about being a stormtrooper in the desert.

Isaac talked to Harrison Ford about piloting and Han Solo said “It’s fake. It’s also in space, so none of the rules apply.” Poe Dameron was a kid during the first Star Wars movies so he looked up to those early rebels.

Despite the diversity of the cast, they didn’t write any of the characters to be any nationality. Abrams thinks it’s important everyone is represented on screen.

What was it like to work with the original cast? Harrison thought Oscar was wearing a wig. Daisy says it was everything they could have hoped for and more and made them feel part of the world. John took Harrison to a Nigerian restaurant and a guy asked if he was Harrison Ford to which Ford replied “I used to be.”

Hardwick then brought out Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, and Gwendoline Christie as Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Captain Phasma, respectively.

Driver can’t say anything, apparently. Didn’t have many conversations about being bad or evil, though. Difference between being bad and right. Morally justified.

Gleeson is just evil. He’s British so of course he is.

Christie is in armor top to bottom. She was just happy and excited that there’s a female stormtrooper.

Gleeson spoils that the First Order’s base is called Starkiller Base.

Sorry guys, there will be no reference to Darth Plagus.

Then Chris brings out Carrie Fisher! She says it’s a little like it was before but they looked a little more melted. She says the “Legacy Players” are a bit like a tap dancing group.

Mark Hamill! A picture is shown of Mark in 1976 at a fan convention, talking about the movie before the first film came out. He says “Without the fans, we’re nothing.”

Fisher says you want to make sure you watch the movies as a family. “If we don’t like the same characters, I’m not gonna like my kid.”

Harrison Ford is here! His foot is fine. He says it should have felt ridiculous to come back, and he sort of grew up.

The three returning cast members talk about being older and having less complicated stuff to say.

Hamill thought, after being in love with his sister, Luke would be living out in the desert with no contact with anyone but droids.

And Harrison Ford never thought he’d get to revisit Han Solo again but he’s delighted to do so with this cast.

And now a surprise…

Everyone in Hall H is going to get to walk to an impromptu Star Wars concert at an undisclosed location. Soooooo, I gotta go people!

Thanks for reading, okay bye!