Holonet Blast #85

Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate it and happy winter/summer depending on your hemisphere to those that don’t! Welcome to another addition of Holonet Blast!

On Friday, the first six shorts of Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures, a new animated series for little ones, premiered on the official site and on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. The focus of the series is to “introduce the classic themes, pivotal moments, and iconic characters from the Star Wars saga to the next generation.” Keep an eye out for more shorts in December and regular releases in 2019.

In more somber news, Gloria Katz, Oscar-nominated screenwriter for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, American Graffiti, and many other films, has passed away at the age of 76. We wish the best to her family and loved ones during this time.

That’s it for this week, have a good one and, if you’re in the Anchorage area, remember to boil your water before using it until the water and waste systems are checked for earthquake damage and cleared as safe!

Holonet Blast #81

Happy Monday and Happy Almost-Halloween, everyone! I started watching Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and that has nothing to do with Star Wars or any of this week’s news, I just wanted to talk about it.

Today brings us the debut of LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars on DisneyNOW and the Disney XD Youtube channel! A new short will be posted every day this week through Friday, with a compilation of those five shorts as well as an additional three on Saturday, November 10 at 11am EST/PST. The next four Saturdays after that, from November 17 to December 8, will see a new half-hour episode each, airing at 11am EST/PST on Disney XD and DisneyNOW. All together, that’ll be eight shorts and four half-hour episodes.

In video game news, Battlefront II‘s October continues, with the special Halloween event (that is already happening, go check it out, there are night modes) concluding on the 31st. Before then, on the 30th, General Grievous arrives in the game! To celebrate the cuddly, four-armed murder cyborg of fun, October 31 through November 4 will have dedicated Clone Wars-era playlists for Heroes vs. Villains and Hero Showdown. Go shoot some blasters!

That’s it for this week, have a safe week and we’ll see you all later!

Holonet Blast #78

Happy Monday, friends, enemies, and neutral acquaintances! Even before New York Comic Con this past weekend we had a lot to talk about, so I hope you’re ready for some news!

Here are five illustrations from Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy that are ready to enter your eyeballs (they are all excellent but my favorite is the one of The Daughter). The full book comes on October 30 and will have even more wonderful art.

This past Wednesday, John Favreau posted the name and premise of the live-action Star Wars TV show on Instagram! The Mandalorian will be set “after the fall of the Empire and before the rise of the First Order” and will follow a lone Mandalorian (I know, shocking) gunfighter on the outskirts of the galaxy. The lack of gendered pronouns already has hopes up and speculation flying. And as if this wasn’t exciting enough, the next day we were given our first image from the show, along with a list of episode directors, including Dave Filoni (who will be directing the first episode), Deborah Chow, Rick Famuyiwa, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi (!!!!!!).

(I am excited for Taika to do a Star War)

Our very own Bria wrote about the NYCC Star Wars publishing panel for the official site! The panel covered both insights into and reveals of novels, comics, picture books, and more, including the covers for Claudia Grey’s novel Master and Apprentice, Caitlyn Kennedy and Brian Kesinger’s C-3PO Does Not Like Sand, and Who’s Who In the Galaxy, and, most definitely relevant to our interests here at Tosche Station, the announcement of Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed, due out June 2019, which “follows a unique team of pilots, each flying a different class of starfighter as they struggle to end the war they fought so long for once and for all.”

There are also details and insights on the tongue-in-cheek self-help books Be More Vader and Be More Yoda, the Thrawn comic, Lando’s Luck, Flight of the Falcon, Women of the Galaxy (including more art! like Ciena!), the Darth Vader comic, the Shadow of Vader comic, Han Solo: Imperial Cadet, the Age of Republic comics, the Age of Rebellion comic (the Leia issue involves Boushh!!), the Star Wars Adventures comic (now with more Prequel team-ups), and the next Choose Your Destiny book.

In toy news, yesterday at the Hasbro panel Black Series Doctor Aphra (and her droid companions Triple Zero and BT-1) and getting Black Series figures! Because I don’t need to keep my money!

 

Review: Lost Stars Manga (Volume 1)

You may recall the 2015 young adult Journey to the Force Awakens novel Lost Stars by Claudia Grey. You may recall Nanci recommending that you pick it up in her review of that novel. Well, guess what: it’s now a manga.

More specifically, it’s been adapted into a webcomic, published by LINE, by manga creator Yusaku Komiyama, and the world outside of Japan has finally gotten a taste of this adaptation in standard-manga-sized volume 1, published by Yen Press, and it’s…okay.

THE STORY

This is not a straight adaptation (for which I am very grateful. I strongly believe that material should be adjusted to fit the adaptation format. Would you like to see my hour-long powerpoint presentation on the Slayers NEXT anime versus the novels?). It does stick to the story but volume 1, at least, is presented as a framed story, with Thane recounting the past to his friend and snowspeeder gunner, Yendor (who I love in this). As such, it heavily focuses on Thane’s perspective of the story rather than splitting evenly between Thane and Ciena. You do occasionally get other points of view, but Thane’s thoughts are the only ones laid out explicitly on the page. Continue reading

Holonet Blast #68

It’s San Diego Comic-Con week which means there’s a heck of a lot of news so let’s get right to it!

To start off, we have the home release dates for Solo! It will be available in the US on digital, Movies Anywhere, and 4K UHD on September 14th and on Blu-Ray on the 25th.

And if you like Hallmark Star Wars goodies, you can take a peak at some of their 2019 product line up, including mugs, itty bitties, a wookiee apron (I have…concerns……..about this product’s implications………….), and ornaments (SCOUT TROOPER ON A SPEEDER BIKE!!).

Meanwhile, STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS IS COMING BACK! Certainly one of, if not the, biggest Star Wars announcements to come out of San Diego Comic-Con this past week, there are 12 new episodes coming to Disney’s streaming service at a yet-to-be-announced date. We don’t yet have a ton of information about the new episodes, but we have a teaser trailer and the announcement on the official site includes an interview with showrunner Dave Filoni about the show’s return, so check that out!

Hasbro has some neat new releases coming up including Black Series figures for Chopper and Ezra and another Darth Revan figure.

In comics news, IDW will be releasing an all-ages five-issue mini-series of spooky Star Wars tales throughout October, called Tales from Vader’s Castle. It will feature characters from across the Star Wars timeline, including characters from Rebels, Dooku, ewoks, someone from Adventures of Wild Space, and more. You can read an interview with the creative team in the link.

And, finally, you can check out the highlights of the SDCC Star Wars publishing panel here. A lot happened. Like a Padmé novel by E.K. Johnston and a Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan novel by Claudia Gray! The link has a full list of the recently announced upcoming releases but other notable ones include a Solo comic adaptation and a maxi-series that will cover all three film eras.

Holonet Blast #62

After last week’s fairly light week, this week brings us quite a bit to talk about! Let’s jump right in, starting with the copious amounts of video game news.

Battlefront II is getting more content, starting with a continuation of Han Solo Season, bringing you more Solo content this Tuesday, June 12. This includes new locations (KESSEL!),  new appearances, and more. In July, Battlefront II will also see the addition of a new Starfighter Mode, which will focus on piloting (and destroying) Hero ships, and EA promises another, larger-scale mode later this year. Finally (as far as this week’s Battlefront news, that is), new Clone Wars content is coming to your consoles this fall, including Heroes Anakin, Obi-Wan, Dooku, and Grievous and also Geonosis. I would make a Clone Wars pun here if I could think of anything other than droids saying “roger, roger.”

One more piece of videogame news: EA has announced an action RPG coming from Respawn Entertainment during the 2019 holidays. A single-player RPG! I’m excited! Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be set after Revenge of the Sith and will follow a Padawan that survived the purge. No word yet on whether the Padawan will be customizable.

In less video game-related news that is still kind of video game-related, the virtual reality company The Void is opening nine new locations across the US. You might know them as the folks behind Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, but I sure don’t because I haven’t been to a Disney Park since last Celebration. No word yet on when the new experience centers will be opening or what experiences will be involved.

In Star Wars Celebration news, while some Celebration Chicago tickets are still available, both the 5-day tickets and the Saturday tickets are sold out. If you are hoping to attend, it is highly recommended you not delay your ticket purchases.

One last, not-Star Wars thing before I leave you to enjoy your week: ANIMATED MILES MORALES SPIDER-MAN MOVIE IN THEATERS THIS DECEMBER:

https://twitter.com/SpiderVerse/status/1004347175948693504?s=19

SPIDER-GWEN AND PETER PARKER ARE IN IT, TOO, BECAUSE IT’S INTO THE SPIDERVERSE

*ahem*

See you next time!

Holonet Blast #55

Tragically, unlike last week, this post does not heavily feature ewoks. Before you click away in disappointment, however, there is some ewok-related news, so take a moment to look over the news we do have:

Last week Empire revealed a few exclusive looks at Solo, the first of which is a glimpse of villain Dryden Vos, played by Paul Bettany. Empire also has an exclusive image from the Solo‘s Vandor Heist and has more Solo-related goodness in their newest issue.

Now for the aforementioned ewok-goodness: there is a special convention edition of Last Shot that that attendees of Phoenix Comic Fest have a chance to buy for $45. The book comes with a pin of the ewok hacker Peekpa as well as other, less-relevant-to-my-interests things like a tote bag, an exclusive dust jacket, and a poster. Information about all the neat stuff that comes with this edition of the book, and information about how to get a copy, can be found through the link. While it does involve going to the Del Rey booth (#1697), it is a little more complicated than just showing up and grabbing a book, so I very much recommend checking out the link.

In Episode IX news, Victoria Mahoney will be the second unit director for the film, becoming the first black woman to direct Star Wars! Congratulations to her!

And back to Solo news! Yesterday Ron Howard tweeted that post-production has officially been wrapped up!

That’s it for this week! Tune in next time for…possibly more ewoks, I guess?

Holonet Blast #50

Welcome to the 50th Holonet Blast! We have a lot of news for this auspicious occasion, so let’s jump right in.

Battlefront II fans: there’s a major update on the way that will change the progression system to linear and do away with micro-transactions on March 21.  You won’t lose any of your unlocked goods and heroes, but to earn new ones you’ll need to gain Skill Points through gameplay. Also, come April, you’ll be able to use in-game credits to purchase looks for your units. More details, and a few other changes, through the link.

There’s eight new Forces of Destiny shorts coming to Disney’s YouTube and website today at 1:00pm EDT and to Disney Channel on March 25 at 9:50pm EDT/PDT. They span from the prequel era to the sequels and feature Sabine, Ahsoka, Rose, Jyn, Rey, Leia, Luke, Maz, porgs, the emotion known as “joy,” and more. Episode titles and descriptions can be found through the link.

Folks lucky enough to be able to make it to Disneyland on May 3 will be able to attend the second Disneyland After Dark event: Star Wars Nite. It’ll be a May the Fourth kick-off event of sorts and costumes are encouraged. Tickets for the event will go on sale March 27 for Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders and March 29 for the rest of us.

Meanwhile, on a less news-ish front, you can now take a look at concept art from the cancelled Battlefront 4— as in, the game that was going to follow the Battlefront 3 that was cancelled over a decade ago. There are dark side versions of everyone and the designs are a thing to behold.

And as The Last Jedi is finally available for home-viewing, blu-rey and digital copies apparently contain music-only versions of the film in the special features.

this is barda and i love her.

In superhero news, Ava DuVernay will direct New Gods, based on the Jack Kiby-created DC comics characters of the same name. DuVernay directed this year’s film A Wrinkle in Time, becoming, in the words of the link, “the first woman of color in Hollywood to helm a live-action film with a production budget of $100 million,” as well as directing critically acclaimed Selma and 13th. Also, Big Barda of the New Gods is apparently her favorite superhero, making DuVernay a woman after my own heart. If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to be over here screaming about Big Barda on the big screen.

On the Marvel side of things, a new trailer was released for Avengers: Infinity War. Hyped for the movie yet? Good, because AMC theaters is conspiring to destroy our sleep cycles with a 31-hour MCU movie marathon leading up to the film’s release. And they aren’t even showing all the MCU movies. Check out the link for a full list of which 12 films will be shown and good luck to those of you who are even thinking of attending; you are made of hardier stuff than I.

Finally, if you’re in the DC area between March 30 and April 1, Awesome Con will be hosting an exhibit of The Last Jedi props and costumes. Also, a lot of Tosche Station staff members will be at the con. I’ve lost track of how many of us are attending. I want to say six? Anyway, come say hi if you can! Tickets to Awesome Con are available here.

Holonet Blast #44

Happy February! Solo is real after all!

Yesterday’s Super Bowl  saw the premier of the first teaser for Solo:

A full trailer is planned to air during Good Morning America this morning, which should already have happened by the time you read this but I’m writing this in the past and sadly cannot link the trailer for you. Here’s the tweet that officially let us know:

In comics news, The Last Jedi is being adapted into six-issue limited series, featuring Gary Whitta as writer with art by Michael Walsh and Mike Spencer. The first issue will be available May 2 and second is schedule to release two weeks later on May 16.

Last but certainly not least, Natalie Portman hosted SNL this past Saturday and did a follow-up to the rap sketch she did when she hosted the show in 2006. The part about Star Wars is very memorable.

Happy Solo-really-does-exist week and may the Force be with you…always.

Holonet Blast #40

It’s been a few weeks but the Holonet Blast is back! We took some time off for the holidays and to see this little film called The Last Jedi. You may have heard of it. It was the biggest film of 2017.

Solo will have music composed by John Powell but it will also have a main theme composed by John Williams himself.

If you are someone who runs or someone who is looking to be someone who runs but could use a little Star Wars-shaped motivation, prepare yourself: registration is open for the inaugural runDisney Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon. You can register for it through the end of February and complete it by March 31. Participants will receive an exclusive medal in the mail and can run anywhere; either do it all in one go or spread it out over several days. And if you’re planning on attending the Dark Side Half Marathon on April 22 at Walt Disney World, you can combine it with the virtual half marathon for the (brace yourself) Kessel Run Challenge. Yes, that is really what it’s called, yes, everyone in my family makes awful puns constantly, and, yes, I did groan at this one. Check out the link for more details.

In less athletic news, the official site has posted instructions for DIY porg nesting dolls! Like the run, you can make a friend and/or family event out of it, and like the run, you end up with a nifty Star Wars thing at the end!

Also Frank Oz is now on Twitter and is the hero we didn’t know we needed.

Until next time, goodbye and good luck in all your endeavors.