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Disabled Fans Rocked These Costumes at Star Wars Celebration 2022

Two wheelchair users face the camera holding up lightsabers. One is dressed as a Jedi and the other as Ahsoka Tano
Disney
Fae Aconite (as Ahsoka) and their father Yōda Ten Zen Ryu appeared in the official Celebration 2022 Highlights video!

It’s been one month since Star Wars Celebration 2022, and we hope everyone who attended has recovered from the excitement, exhausting, and possible COVID infections (seriously, there were a lot of COVID infections).

We weren’t able to attend ourselves, but we were excited to see a huge number of disabled and other physically impaired fans rolling into the Anaheim Convention Center in amazing style as their favorite characters, or embracing their mobility aids in custom creations.

So we want to highlight some of the great ones we’ve seen!

Let’s start with the High Republic meetup, where one cosplayer brought disability representation to that era:

Star Wars High Republic cosplayers pose for a group photo. A cosplayer dressed as Vernestra Rwoh sits in a wheelchair, one hand raised and the other holding a lightsaber.

From Anthony Reilly

A wheelchair-using Jedi (Vernestra Rwoh?) got in on this amazing group shot of High Republic characters and authors.

And another great group shot featured a couple of mobility devices, this time by Twi’Leks:

A group of Star Wars cosplayers are dressed up as Twi'Lek aliens and each have skin painted different colors with matching "head-tail" tentacles. One cosplayer is green, is wearing a suit, and has a Loki-style horned helmet and is holding a cane. Another with naturally dark skin and match head-tails is seated in a wheelchair.

By Robert T/Flickr

This Twi’Lek group included an amazing wheelchair-user AND an incredibly sharp Twi’Lek Loki (Twi’Loki?) with a cane. 

This adorable “GroguLorian-Jedi” – otherwise known as cosplayer Jaylah Marie, a 10-year-old girl with spiral muscular atrophy (SMA) – took to the Celebration floor and got to meet some pretty major Star Wars celebs. Or possibly other cosplayers – hard to tell.

A little girl dressed as a Mandalorian with Grogu/Yoda ears lies flat in a wheeled bed and holds a Princess Leia doll and a tiny lightsaber. Around her stand cosplayers dressed as George Lucas, an older Luke Skywalker, and a stormtrooper, with R2-D2 in the front.
A little girl dressed as a Mandalorian with Grogu/Yoda ears lies flat in a wheeled bed and holds a Princess Leia doll and a tiny lightsaber.

From Verenice “Cure SMA”

Jaylah had a great combination Grogu/Mandalorian/Jedi costume. 

Sharon Covington was lucky to have a wonderful co-worker build her this Razor Crest walker, complete with a spot for Grogu. She shared the build details on Facebook:

A very good friend at work built it. He used a heavy poster board, shaped it, then covered it with different metallic tapes and paint. We placed small puck lights in the engines. The engines are mounted on tubes that slide into my cup holders. He wanted to make sure my chair was still usable. We attached a metal basket to the front with velcro and zip ties and the front piece is held by velcro to the bottom and top of the basket. It took him a little over a month to make it.

This amazing work even drew the attention of Mandalorian modeler and ILM legend John Goodson himself while Sharon was in the Mandalorian Experience:

He said he loved all the detail. I told him my friend made it for me and he told me to tell my friend that he did an awesome job. My friend is a big Star Wars fan but doesn’t attend events but he was pretty giddy from the compliment.

A woman dressed in a Star Wars-themed costume holds the Darksaber - a lightsaber with a black and white blade - against a backdrop of a large, horned mythosaur skull. In front of her is a walker made to resemble the Razor Crest from The Mandalorian, with shiny silver sides and two protruding engines with blue lights. A plush Grogu sits in the middle of the walker.

From Sharon Covington

Sharon and her builder friend received huge compliments on her Razor Crest walker

Sue Contant was inspired by Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room attraction for her walker, but with a porg twist:

A woman stands behind a stroller covered with a variety of stuffed porgs, leaves, and flowers. She is wearing a tropical shirt and has a large flower in her hair. A sign on the front of the stroller says “Porg Enchanted Tiki Room.”

From Sharon Covington

We hope no kids tried to tackle-hug all those porgs.

The “Running of the Hoods” is a major tradition at Star Wars Celebrations, but not every Willrow has to be able to run. Roon Marchant brought his own spin on Willrow to the event:

A large group of sitting and standing cosplayers are dressed as the Star Wars character Willrow Hood, all of them in orange jumpsuits and each holding a white cylindrical container that resembles an ice cream maker. In the front-right of the group one Willrow is seated in a wheelchair and is wearing a fur horned helmet.

From Roon Marchant

Roon (front right) had his own interpretation of this classic character

Star Wars Show co-host Andi Gutierrez shared another great picture of Roon:

One theme that was prevalent among disabled cosplayers at this Celebration was Leia Organa.

Here are a couple of great takes on Endor Leia. (Jen Eyre‘s Ewok spear cane is especially inspired.)

A woman on a scooter is dressed as Princess Leia in a camouflage poncho and furry Ewok Mickey ears. Behind her and her partner is a large Rancor beast head.

From Audra Lynne Atkins-Reeves

A man and woman stand in front of a bunker and speeder bike from Return of the Jedi. She is wearing a camouflage poncho and helmet, with a green mask. Her left hand holds a wooden cane with a stone spear tip. He is dressed as an Imperial officer with a badge and shoulder tassels.

From Jen Eyre Cosplay

Jen Eyre also used a lightsaber cane for the Padme costume she was wearing when she met the Bobas. (Jen has made the files for her lightsaber canes available on Thingiverse for anyone who wants to adapt one for their own cane.)

A woman dressed as Padme Amidala in her black fireside gown holds a cane shaped like a lightsaber. Around her stand Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan, and a man in a Jedi costume.

From Jen Eyre Cosplay

Two Bobas, a Jedi, and Padme with a lightsaber cane.

Jorie Goldsmith also brought a lightsaber cane for her Leia costume, and wore this great First Order-inspired outfit that was designed for cane use.

A man and woman stand in a hotel room. She is wearing a white Princess Leia dress, a Death Star purse, and is holding a lightsaber-shaped cane.

From Jorie Goldsmith

A woman stands outside wearing a First Order outfit, with a black dress and red cape over her right shoulder. In her right hand she’s holding a dark cane.

From Jorie Goldsmith

Speaking of Leias, there were a couple who really utilized their seated mobility aids, starting with this pic Jackie Dobson’s got of her mom dressed as Leia in a wheelchair with a Star Tours attendant who’s got the right vehicle for the job:

A woman in a wheelchair wears a white Princess Leia costume with hair buns. Next to her is woman in a scooter converted into an angular StarSpeeder shuttle from Star Tours. She is dressed in an orange and blue Star Tours attendant outfit. It has Uber and Lyft signs on the front.

From Jackie Dobson

Love this wheelchair-using Leia, and this Star Tours attendant has been bringing her amazing ridesharing Star Tours StarSpeeder to several Celebration and D23 events for the past few years

This Leia fan really nailed the General’s look in her scooter:

An older white woman with grey hair sits on a scooter dressed as General Leia. Behind her stands another woman with pink hair. They are each holding up blaster pistols.

From J Krolak on Flickr

An older General Leia and her friend Admiral Holdo look ready to fight. (She’s always be royalty to us)

One of our absolute favorite Instagram accounts belongs to IndieSpeeder, a young cosplayer with down syndrome. And she and her father really brought their A-game to Celebration, transporting Indie in her advanced TIE stroller, and debuting several new costumes.

Her parents also posted a great recap video that summarizes Indie’s whole experience at Celebration:

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by IndieSpeeder (@indiespeeder)

A few of our featured cosplayers have been a bit older, and let’s be honest – some of us early Star Wars fans are getting up in years. Dan “Junkyard Jedi” Thompson – father of Smugglers Room creator Brian Thompson – and his wife-err-… assistant embraced this reality by bringing the right companion to Celebration with their droid AARP-65, complete with walker assistance capabilities and built-in defibrillator.

(This list certainly isn’t a competition, but if it were, Junkyard Jedi here would likely win it.)

And just in time for this piece, Smuggler’s Room actually posted a great build video of Dan’s medical droid. 

We can really see where Brian gets his skills and fandom from.

Finally, we should mention a special “official” cosplay that we feel also falls under this category.

During the Star Wars Visions panel, Mizuno Takanobu, director of “The Duel” apparently appeared via video to thank the audience while dressed as the Ronin character from that animated short and its spinoff novel. We spoke with the author of Ronin, Emma Mieko Candon, on our 8th podcast episode, in which we discussed that character’s prosthetic jaw and chronic pain.

Check out the tweet below for more photos and the creation process!

(We’d love to see this video.)

If you happen to know either the identities or photographers of any of the pictures above, please let us know so we can add them.

Or if you have a picture of your own disability-related costume from Celebration, we’d love to include it in this list! Feel free to send us images on any of our social media accounts:

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