“Scary teddy bears,” Emperor Palpatine himself, Ian McDiarmid, said. “The end of Palpatine.” The iconic actor behind Star Wars’ greatest villain was one of four actors to appear on the 40th-anniversary panel for Return of the Jedi at Star Wars Celebration 2023. McDiarmid was joined by Lando Calrissian’s Billy Dee Williams, Wicket the Ewok’s Warwick Davis and C-3PO’s Anthony Daniels. It was moderated by Fennec Shand herself, Ming-Na Wen.
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Though the actors were only on stage for half of the panel (the rest was modern Star Wars creators Rob Bredow, Neil Scanlan and Doug Chiang talking about how Jedi influenced them), they provided plenty of excellent insights and stories. For example, Daniels talked about how the first scene shot for the movie was on a stage in the UK, and it was supposed to be the heroes getting on the Millennium Falcon in the desert. However, the sand was so messy on the stage, shooting was incredibly difficult and even when they did get the shots, they were cut.
Warwick Davis shared that part of the reason why Wicket stood out among the Ewoks is that most of the actors playing them were much older. He was 11 years old at the time so he was always raring to go and had tons of extra energy. Plus, the fact he could pass his tongue through the suit made the character much more enduring.
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