YOU GUYS IT FINALLY HAPPENED WE KNOW WHAT PROJECT LUMINOUS IS!!! (Don’t you love it when one of the hosts of the Book Wars Pod gets big lit news?! I DO.)

Straight from the horse’s (Star Wars Dot Com’s) mouth:

Later this year, Lucasfilm will launch an epic new era of Star Wars storytelling that will be explored through multiple voices in adult and young adult novels, children’s books, and comics from a variety of publishers including Disney Lucasfilm Press, Del Rey, IDW Publishing, and Marvel.

Hopefully you’re familiar with the great canon storytelling in Star Wars, and if you’re not this will be an amazing entry-point. Again, StarWars.com:

Star Wars: The High Republic, which has previously been referred to as “Project Luminous”, will be set in an era when the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order are at their zenith, about 200 years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This period on the Star Wars timeline will not overlap any of the filmed features or series currently planned for production, giving creators and partners a vast amount of room to tell Star Wars stories with new adventures and original characters.

HOW AWESOME IS THIS GOING TO BE?! We think really, really awesome. We’re so excited to discuss some “new” in-universe stuff on BWP and especially to talk about The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, described as  “a massive interconnected story that’s told across various formats by various publishers,” which, if you’ve listened to the Pod before, is Extremely Our Jam. Click through for all the book-y goodness. There’s a lot of it!

More book news: E.K. Johnston has a new YA novel about everyone’s* favorite queen (*my), Padmé Amidala that will be released on June 2nd. Having read and absolutely loved Queen’s Shadow, I’m ready for more of Johnston masterfully writing Padmé. Check out an excerpt here  on The Hollywood Reporter.

In Non-Book News, we have to pass congratulations onto the teams who gave us Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order–they were nominated for Best Narrative and Audio Achievement at the BAFTA Games!

That’s it for news this week! Go read a Star Wars book–it’s good for you.

News!

Happy Monday, y’all. Not a huge news week, but definitely some stuff we’re looking forward to–like the return of (MY BELOVED) Star Wars: The Clone Wars (I would die for Fives, please don’t get it twisted). Check out the trailer in that tweet and look for it streaming on Disney+ beginning February 21st.

In unsurprising news most of us found out about via Twitter, John Williams has another Grammy, bringing his total up to 25! (But who’s counting?) This time it’s in the Best Instrumental Composition for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Symphonic Suite. It’s available to stream places, so if you’re like me and haven’t been able to actually make it to Galaxy’s Edge, you can still hear the award-winning suite and pretend you’re in Orlando… er, I mean on Batuu. (Either sounds great in the middle of winter, if you ask me.)

Over in Disneyland (where you can also hear the Symphonic Suite mentioned above), there are some exciting things going on in Galaxy’s Edge. Click through to see the recently opened Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction, hear about building your own droids to take home, and read all about Star Wars Nite coming on the first night of Star Wars Celebration, August 27th. (Can’t imagine having any trouble getting my hands on those tickets…)

And to round things out, we have BOOK NEWS!

Star Wars: Poe Dameron: Free Fall, is officially slated for Aug. 4, 2020. Written by Alex Segura of the Peter Fernandez mystery series, and with cover art by Alice X. Zhang, the YA novel will wind back the clock to before Poe was a hot-headed pilot to a time when he was just a hot-headed teenager.

We’re excited to get this one on the list to read over at Book Wars Pod–especially given our issues with Poe’s checkered past (newly-introduced via The Rise of Skywalker) being painted with a bit of an overly-broad brush.

That’s it for this week. MTFBWY and all that jazz–happy February.

As we move through December, Lucasfilm continues to give us more to get excited about before The Rise of Skywalker. Let’s see what’s going on in the news this week!

EA has some news about Battlefront II–on the 5th, they put out the Celebration Edition of the game, which will give folks an easy way to get all of the updates from the last two years in one place:

The short version is this: The Celebration Edition will deliver instant access to every Hero Appearance, Trooper Appearance, Emote, Voice Line and Victory Pose available in Star Wars Battlefront II that can be unlocked with Credits or Crystals, including new content coming in December with our The Rise of Skywalker Update. Simply head on over to the collection menu and they’ll be ready and waiting.

Want to play as Anakin in his General Skywalker Attire? Go ahead. Feel like playing as Boushh Leia? The choice is yours.

What you get

• Base game with all past and future free updates

• 150+ Appearances, including 6 Legendary Appearances

• 100+ Emotes

• 90+ Victory Poses

• Make sure to click through to see the rest of the news around this release (including what’s not included in this edition). Speaking of updates, the Rise of Skywalker update is coming December 17th, with the “new [tropical] planet” that debuted in the latest trailer for TRoS dropping into the planetary rotation December 20th (when we find out what the planet’s actually called after we see TRoS). Again, click through for the full story, but they’re also already looking into 2020, where we’ll see additional sequel trilogy content, including BB-8 and BB-9E being added as heroes.

Moving onto a different type of game–we’ve got a game show coming to Disney+ in 2020! Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge “will test young contestants’ abilities in the core Jedi principles of strength, knowledge, and bravery as they face thrilling and fun obstacles in an attempt to achieve the rank of Jedi Knight” and be hosted by none other than Ahmed Best. Star Wars is for kids, and we’re excited to see a new generation of fans continue to fall in love with this franchise through different media.

Another way to tell the story–Disney hasn’t forgotten about their original bread and butter–resorts. Walt Disney World just announced its 2021 “immersive vacation” Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Think of a cruise-style itinerary, but you’re the hero of your own adventure. There will even be immersive transport to bring you between Galactic Starcruiser and Galaxy’s Edge. We can’t wait to hear more.

To round out this week, head over to Vanity Fair and check out their Star Wars: Episode IX  Week. Check here for Chapter 1 on Finn’s backstory and how it will play into Episode IX, and continue through for stories on the Rey-Kylo connection, Lando, and much more.

11 more days till TROS!!!

LOTS of news this week–let’s get into it!

First, some personnel changes. As you likely heard… well, everywhere, David Benioff & D.B. Weiss have bowed out of their much-discussed 2022 film trilogy. The two cited their (frankly, gigantic) Netflix deal as the reason for their departure; they said their schedules are full-up. Some fans don’t view this as a particularly big loss, given the negative buzz surrounding the last season of Game of Thrones and the dearth of other Star Wars screen media already in the hopper.

Speaking of giant sums of money, as George Lucas’ $1-billion art museum inches closer to its scheduled 2021 completion, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has named Sandra Jackson-Dumont as its director and CEO. Check out the post here for why I think she’s such a great choice–it’s not Star Wars, per se, but it’s great to see a woman of color at the helm, nonetheless.

Now onto book news!!! (You know we love book news at Book Wars Pod. Go figure.) Tomorrow, Rebecca Roanhorse’s Resistance Reborn is out from Del Rey! Check out an excerpt and Roanhorse’s highly #relatable thoughts on writing Leia here. And read an excerpt and about Wedge’s triumphant return in the book here! (How amazing is that final cover?)

And finally, some video game news! The final (or at least launch trailer?) is out for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. As I’ve mentioned in previous Blasts, the visuals are simply stunning. If you’re into that sort of thing, the game drops on November 15th. Stay tuned for our impressions and #feelings, if the narrative of previous games (e.g. Battlefront II) are any indication.

Additionally, get ready to break out your Oculii and/or Rifts–here comes Episode III of Vader Immortal, out November 21st. It’s back to Mustafar, but this time you get to actually battle Vader (finally!). Click through for the full rundown. I, for one, am I looking forward to more videos of my co-hosts flailing around when they spend the Thanksgiving holiday together later this month.

Lots of news, right? I told you! Until next time!

HAPPY FALL, EVERYONE! Even if you’re not in a place that has seasons or it’s not feeling like fall yet, just remember we’re one step closer to The Rise of Skywalker and be happy. Onto the news!

First things first! Lucasfilm surprised us all on Friday by announcing that Deborah Chow will direct the Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+. Her resume has some pretty awesome shows on it, including The Mandalorian, and it’s great to see a woman of color get to play a key behind the scenes role like this. Lucasfilm also announced that Hossein Amini will write the series and that Amini, Chow, and Ewan McGregor will all executive produce alongside Kathleen Kennedy, Tracey Seaward, and John Swartz.

Lots of TRIPLE FORCE FRIDAY *rap airhorn* content! A bunch of our favorites (think Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, & etc.) previewed what will be available this Friday, October 4th (aka Triple Force Friday). The merch will include things from the three BIG scheduled Star Wars drops for the remainder of 2019: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Here’s the press release for the event, and the event itself, which was streamed live on YouTube this past Thursday. There’s also this handy roundup of the highlights from the reveal.

There was a surprise drop this week of Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series – Episode II. I know some of my Book Wars Pod colleagues were PUMPED about this one. I think it’s great that it was a fun mid-week surprise, AND we get more videos of people flailing while they enjoy more (assumedly awesome) immersive content.

In other video game news, a new trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released this week (during the aforementioned Triple Force Friday preview livestream). It comes as no surprise that the visuals are stunning—here’s to hoping the gameplay and storyline live up to the high bar the trailers have so-far set!

In some Disney crossover with other Disney because everything’s actually just Disney news, Marvel’s Kevin Feige is going to develop some Star Wars content! Looks like it’ll be a film, but we don’t know a ton else, yet; that said, there’s no surprise that Feige is a huge Star Wars nerd AND Lucasfilm is thirsty to get more Star Wars developed for the big screen. Hand, meet glove.

SO! Buckle up for another big week with Triple Force Friday coming. May your hauls be plentiful. Until next time!

Monday means it’s the news, y’all!

Should we start with the good news? Okay. So, Emmy nominated Star Wars Resistance has a SUUUPER LIT season two trailer out. Check it out. It premieres Sunday, October 6, on Disney Channel and DisneyNOW. The bad news? This will be its last season.

Nevertheless, season two opens with Kaz and his Colossus-mates on the run from the First Order. During the trailer we see a bunch of other familiar faces–Kylo, General Hux, Captain Phasma, as well as some new faces. Some of those new faces are voiced by an all star cast:

“Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike) as Ax Tagrin; Daveed Diggs (from the original Broadway cast of the musical Hamilton) as Norath Kev; Matthew Wood (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Kylo Ren, and Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as the Aeosian Queen. Christopher Sean stars as Kazuda Xiono alongside co-stars: Suzie McGrath as Tam Ryvora; Scott Lawrence as Jarek Yeager; Myrna Velasco as Torra Doza; Josh Brener as Neeku Vozo; Donald Faison as Hype Fazon; Elijah Wood as Jace Rucklin; Jim Rash and Bobby Moynihan as Flix and Orka, respectively; Liam McIntyre as Commander Pyre; Jason Hightower as Captain Doza; and Sumalee Montano as Agent Tierny.”

Holy cast, Batman. Anyway, go check the trailer and then lament about it getting canceled with my Book Wars Pod co-hosts, Kate and Chris.

In other news this week, we got a peek into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson, which is set to drop August 27. It tells the story of the Resistance arriving at Batuu, which also happens to be the setting at the Galaxy’s Edge themed land at some of the Disney Parks (hence the tie-in novel). If you were looking for more Vi Moradi (and if you weren’t, what is your deal?), you’ll find it here–and Leia too. In the exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming novel, we see General Leia Organa setting Vi on her new mission, and–spoiler alert–Captian Cardinal of “I tortured Vi Moradi” fame is going to be her partner. I, for one, cannot wait to read this and also probably cry because Delilah S. Dawson wrote it and she makes me FEEL my FEELINGS.

Until next week!

YES we have news this week! (The news last week was “idk there’s no news I think it’s just Galaxy’s Edge opening?????” which is plenty of news for my delicate heart.)

Folks got their first in-depth look of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order this week at EA Play so—VIDEO GAAAMES!!!

First, we have the Official Release from Star Wars Dot Com: some stuff we already know–the main character is named Cal and he’s a Jedi in hiding after Order 66. In this “TOTALLY CANON” (emphasis mine, obviously) story, we see Cal on Kashyyyk to help the wookiee natives. We also know he’s got a buddy named BD-1 (VERY CUTE DROID), and we’re seeing Saw Gerrera again, voiced by Forest Whitaker (!!!).

The game looks beautiful. This is not surprising. Using the Force, though, and what that will look like is kind of a surprise: new abilities like running on walls, Force push/pull, lightsaber throws, and more. We also got our first in-game look at Purge troopers, which basically sound like specially trained Jedi-hunters. AT-ATs are back and we get to see Inquisitors–count me in.

Over at Game Informer, we get an exploration of what sets Jedi: Fallen Order apart from some of the Star Wars games that came before it. (Though, I’d argue, since Lucasfilm decided to move forward with an integrated story-telling approach, they’ve included the gaming properties and talked about continuing that approach moving forward.) Read the piece if you want more info on the choice to go with Respawn for this particular game, game play (lots of lightsaber talk), story (plus the author’s ideas about how this may tie into the larger canon), music, effects, and lots in between. Disappointingly, there isn’t anything about how the game/game play might translate to the accessibility controller(s) for various consoles. As people are having more and more discussions around accessibility and ableism, we would love to see this highlighted in future reviews!

Over in other media, my tardiness on the news today is your gain because we’ve got some bonus lit content! SyFy Wire got an exclusive excerpt (text and audiobook, woo!) from the upcoming Alphabet Squadron  “standalone prose novel and also a dynamic crossover title with Marvel’s Star Wars: TIE Fighter comic miniseries!” There’s also an exclusive interview with Alexander Freed (WHOM WE LOVE). Go read/listen. Right meow.

And that’s the news! Talk to y’all again soon.

Happy Mother’s Day to Leia and Padmé and Shmi–y’all the real MVPs.

Not a ton of news this week, but Entertainment Weekly gave us a great first look at Vader Immortal. On the off chance you haven’t heard the buzz around it, Vader Immortal from ILMxLAB will be coming to the Oculus Quest virtual reality wireless headset that releases May 21. Vader Immortal will be the first of a trilogy of VR experiences and will set you back $9.99. (The Quest headset itself is a much steeper $399, but I’m impressed with the price point of the first episode, given the playing experience described here–mind you, the creators would not love me referring to the volume as even having a “playing” experience–click through for more on that.)

All that to say, you’re thrown into MUSTAFAR which sounds WILD. Creators said they posed the question “what does Vader do on his off hours?” (my paraphrase) and this first volume is an exploration of that. The author of the EW piece compares the experience to a haunted house–the journey is the point, in a way. Timeline wise, this first “episode” slots in before Rogue One. The other two volumes will drop later this year.

We are all very grabby hands about this. Is anyone getting an Oculus I can just take from them forever so I don’t have to justify spending $400 on what would be (for me) a Star Wars toy? K thanks!!!

Oh, and Lucasfilm publicist Chris Argyropoulos tweeted the following on May 7:

No big deal. Right? RIGHT?! *shrieks into the night*

Until next time!