So uhh… there was a Star War that came out last weekend. You may have heard of it. A little indie film called The Last Jedi. Needless to say, we’re all losing our minds over it still. Because of said film, there wasn’t actually much in terms of news this week as it was essentially press junket after press junket but hey! We found a few things that you might have missed.
To start, The Last Jedi is currently on target for a $220 million opening weekend which is second only to The Force Awakens. Apparently people like Star Wars!
Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein is now available for purchase but if you’d like a taste of it first, you can read an excerpt over on StarWars.com.
Disney’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique locations have long been the go-to stop for kids who want to transform into their favorite Disney characters while visiting the parks. The folks aboard the Disney Fantasy have decided to take the makeover action to the next level by offering Star Wars themed makeovers in their onboard Boutique location during Star Wars Days at Sea. Kids ages 3-12 will be able to choose from Rey, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, or Princess Leia (my favorite) for their Bibbidi Bobbidi makeover. This service is currently only available aboard the Disney Fantasy and only during Star Wars Days at Sea, so if you’re interested, be sure to reserve space in advance. More information can be found on disneycruise.com
Weta Workshop now has you covered if you’re across the Pacific. Their new line of Star Wars costume pieces can help you transform into your favorite armor-suited villain. Offerings include both helmets and full suits and range in price from $250 (for a standard Stormtrooper helmet) to $2750 (for a full Vader suit) and are available on their website.
When top-end footwear designer Christian Louboutin announced earlier this year that he was collaborating with Lucasfilm on a line of shoes to celebrate The Last Jedi, I remember distinctly squealing with excitement. This week, the shoes were unveiled– and they do not disappoint. There are four Star Wars styles altogether: The Rose, The Amilyn Holdo, The Captain Phasma, and The Rey– each named for and styled in homage to one of the film’s stars. A fifth design, “The Spaceship” was revealed at the premiere. It was also announced this week that the shoes won’t be going into regular production. Instead, each pair is a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art. Each pair will be sold at auction to benefit Force For Change.
Battlefront 2 Takes us to The Last Jedi
The folks at EA have once again teased us with exquisite game content. This newest trailer, taking us into the worlds of The Last Jedi. The trailer takes us to Crait and beyond and features such familiar characters as Finn and Captain Phasma. It makes me want to get better at video games….
Friday saw the launch of the Columbia Sportswear Echo Base collection. The Coats, which come in Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia varieties, were available online beginning at midnight, EST and were sold out in minutes. The Luke jacket was out first (5 minutes, 22 seconds), followed by Han (6 minutes 23 seconds) and finally Leia (7 minutes 22 seconds). Friday morning, the brand’s thirteen retail locations opened to throngs of people hoping to get their hands on one of each store’s 160 in-stock coats. You can read about my experience at the Seattle store on the blog later today.
And finally, in news that we all knew about but couldn’t exactly fail to mention, The Last Jedi had its red carpet premiere on Saturday night. The red carpet featured appearances by the entire principal TLJ cast as well as Star Wars veterans such as Frank Oz and Warwick Davis and included a touching tribute to the late, great Carrie Fisher. Early reactions have been enthusiastically positive, and I’m sure I speak for all of us here at Tosche Station when I say we’re excited to see it for ourselves later this week.
Send Star Wars news tips to @ Tosche_Station, Send Kleenex to @MandaTheGinger. It’s going to be one heck of a week!
More news in the lead up to The Last Jedi? YOU DON”T SAY.
Let’s start with something that isn’t news but will make your life better: Kelly Marie Tran and Veronica Ngo promoted The Last Jedi in traditional Vietnamese attire and her Instagram post about it made me want to cry happy tears a little because REPRESENTATION MATTERS.
Entertainment Weekly kept having more fun with their Secrets of The Last Jedi pieces including this one on Kylo’s TIE fighter. EW also has a nice recap of the press conference from over the weekend. Hold on to your butts, folks, because it’s going to be nothing but nonstop press from here on out. Breath… just breath…
Google Home now has a Star Wars Trivia contest which is actually hosted by Andi and Anthony from the Star Wars Show. Also that linked video includes the cutest interview with Kelly Marie Tran ever and are you sensing a pattern here yet?
Finally, the Star Wars Databank added in entries related to Battlefront II and Inferno Squad. I’m going to link you to Del Meeko’s for no particular reason that definitely has nothing to do with the last line. Or the fact that he’s a perfect angel. Okay I think I better end this news post here. Until next week!
So, uh, there was some news last week. That tends to happen when Anthony Breznican and Entertainment Weekly grace us with pretty covers and articles.
We’re less than three weeks out from The Last Jedi and the TV spots have been airing in earnest. If you want to avoid them, be wary while watching any Disney-owned TV channel. If you, like me, are gleefully sucking up every bit of official news and footage, head over to the official YouTube channel to check out some of the spots in glorious high definition. (Be warned, one of them includes some Wookiee on porg violence.)
Entertainment Weekly continued its preview of TLJ, with an abundance of articles ranging from newcomers Kelly Marie Tran and Laura Dern, to Snoke’s evolution over the trilogy, to the relationship (or lack thereof) between Rey and Kylo, and teasing whether Luke and Leia will eventually reunite. There’s also an article about Luke’s return to the Millennium Falcon, complete with a new photo. If you want more pictures, check out the photo gallery here. EW also revealed the name of the so-called crystal fox: it’s called a vulptex.
We also got some book news, including a new excerpt from Canto Bight and the final cover for Thrawn Alliances. The cover is beautiful, the Vader-Thrawn dynamic is going to be awesome, and I can’t wait to hear more about this book.
Finally, are you excited for the new AR experience coming up at Disney Springs in Florida and Downtown Disney in California? Diego Luna teased the fun on Twitter.
That’s it for this week! Only two more blasts until The Last Jedi! Ahhhhh!
Do you want some news? STAR WARS IS GONNA GIVE YOU SOME NEWS. I’ll be honest, I thought that I was going to have it easy this week after the news storm that was last week but apparently it was not to be and now I have to tear myself away from playing the Battlefront II campaign mode again to write this. (Iden Versio is perfect, y’all.)
Let’s start with The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson confirmed that The Last Jedi will have a 150 minute run time which makes it the longest Star Wars film yet. The press tour has started and we’re getting to hear some of the new cast members talk about their experience. This Kelly Marie Tran interview is my new everything and there’s a new Holdo picture in this Laura Dern feature. You can also see the new IMAX poster featuring Rey in Red. EW also released an article about the film along with four covers featuring assorted character pairings yesterday. I did not read it but have been assured of the feels it induces.
Jumping over to the Disney parks, we learned that Star Tours is splitting their eras into two different paths. Brian and Nanci already got to ride the new The Last Jedi part and I’m incredibly jealous. We also learned the name of the new planet we’ll be visiting in Star Wars Land: Batuu.
And to close things out this week… Chuck Wendig made a lot of us shake our fists at the sky as we finally all realized that Mister Bones’ name is a pun. WEEEEEENDIIIIIIG!
Starting off on the literature side, upcoming novella compilation Canto Bight got an excerpt from John Jackson Miller’s entry. Are you interested in Huey, Dewie, and Louie expys in Star Wars? Boy are you in luck!
Hanging out in the Orlando area when The Last Jedi releases? If so, you can join in on Galactic Nights, which will feature a panel of Lucasfilm folks and Disney Imagineers talking about the upcoming Galaxy’s Edge expansion to the American Disney resorts.
Speaking of Star Wars games, EA has outright purchased Respawn. They’re the makers of Call of Duty and are also responsible for a Star Wars title in progress.
Now how about we get to the news that threw us all for a loop this week? First up, it appears a live action TV show might finally happen. This news comes out of a Disney earnings call on Thursday. I would caution against expecting this to be the previously rumored Underworld TV series, as I suspect that’s been parted out for other projects since the sale. This appears to be something that will anchor Disney’s streaming service.
Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.
As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud. In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.
Happy Fall-Back Monday, everyone! I trust you’re all well rested? Well, sit back, relax, and get ready for this week’s news from a galaxy far, far away.
Our favorite classic farmboy-turned-Joker sat down with NYT’s Dave Itzkoff to talk Star Wars, fandom, and nostalgia. And I thought I couldn’t love him more….
A new television spot for “The Last Jedi” debuted this week. The 45-second commercial spot, titled “Awake” is the first television-only trailer created in advance of the December release and features a shot that has brought me to tears every time I’ve watched it. I won’t spoil the content here for those who have yet to watch, but drop me a message in the comments or in the Tosche Station Patreon Slack channel if you have a guess.
This week also saw the debut of an international trailer for The Last Jedi. Although the footage used in this version is much the same as what we’ve seen in the US trailer that debuted last month, the edit differs just enough to make this one a very interesting data point for those who wish to speculate about the events coming to theatres in December.
Send your Star Wars news tips to us here at Tosche Station, and send porg memes to me: @MandaTheGinger .
Monday* has arrived again. However, dear friends, this needn’t be a day of sorrow alone, for we have returned once more with your weekly dose of fun pop culture news!
This week I have but one link** to share with you all but a what a link it is! This past Tuesday, USA Today published an interview with Rian Johnson a well as an exclusive new behind-the-scenes video for The Last Jedi. The video does include both “Han and Leia’s Theme” and a few words from Carrie Fisher, so brace for emotions before hitting play.
Enjoy the video and have a good week!
*unless you are in a timezone in which Monday has already occurred. In this case, happy Tuesday!
It’s that time of week again, time for the Holonet Blast! Last week, Ron Howard surprised us all by showing fan favorites Tag and Bink on set of the Untitled Han Solo film. This week, Howard celebrated the end of production by revealing the film’s official title on Twitter – SOLO: A Star Wars Story. Yes, it’s predictable, but what else were they gonna call it?
The official site also noted the occasion. The release date is still listed as May 25, 2018, but I know I’m not the only person who would like to see that date shift to December.
In a bit of bad gaming news, EA shut down Visceral Games, which was working on a single player Star Wars game. The game has been transferred to another studio. In happier news, we also got a trailer for the single-player campaign of Battlefront II.
Speaking of The Last Jedi, new character DJ will have some backstory revealed in a Marvel comic coming in December. New characters explored in books and comics?! This is my surprised face.
Good morning and happy Monday! More importantly… Happy Season 4 of Rebels Day! Some of you have probably already watched Heroes of Mandalore but if you have, shhhhh no spoilers!
In publishing news, From a Certain Point of View made the New York Times Bestsellers list! Congratulations to everyone involved! If you weren’t able to make it to New York Comic Con, you can watch the entire panel over on YouTube. Penguin Random House was also awesome enough to make the Lucasfilm Publishing panel from NYCC available as well.
Star Wars has also released a closer look at the Secrets of the Empire Immersive Experience and we’re literally all jealous of CERTAIN PEOPLE who live near Disneyworld and can go see it.
And finally, in the weirdest and most unexpected news…
