It’s that time of year–Star Wars movie promo season! J.J. Abrams and members of The Rise of Skywalker cast have been making the rounds on TV and in print. Of note: the runtime; John Boyega confessing it was his script that got swiped and put on Ebay; Daisy Ridley preferring Baby Yoda to porgs; and TRoS’s first word (at). There’s also a bunch of new TV spots over on YouTube, including Palpatine being menacing over Duel of the Fates, Leia holding the legacy lightsaber, and Poe back in an x-wing. There’s also a tear-jerking saga featurette reminiscent of the one that was shown during Celebration but including some new footage. And in sad yet heartwarming news, a fan in hospice was able to see TRoS early with his young son.

Baby Yoda–I mean, The Mandalorian–has become the top streaming show in the United States, knocking off Stranger Things. Four episodes of the show have been released on Disney+, and Baby Yoda has produced excellent memes in each of them. The latest? Baby Yoda drinking tea. Perfection.

Del Rey revealed the cover for Timothy Zahn’s newest book, Thrawn Ascendancy: Book One: Chaos Rising. Released on May 5, 2020, it’s set before Thrawn joining the Empire and takes place in the Unknown Regions, or what the Chiss call “The Chaos.” That’s not foreboding at all.

That’s not the only book coming out on May 5, however. The latest episode of the Star Wars Show announced that E.K. Johnston has written a prequel to Queen’s Shadow. Queen’s Peril will take place during the time of The Phantom Menace and feature the original handmaidens.

That’s it for this week. I leave you with John Boyega writing a Victorian inspired letter to Oscar Isaac.

Did you know that Disney+ has launched in the United States? No? Okay then you’ve definitely been living under a rock. We’re now three episodes into The Mandalorian and everything is Baby Yoda and nothing hurts. (Okay one thing hurts but we’ll talk about that in the staff writer round table at the end of the season.) Anyways! We’ve got a new Star Wars movie rapidly approaching which means we have news!

The Rise of Skywalker novelization has an official cover now! It’s pulled from one of the posters and features Rey and Kylo Ren battling it out. In other writing related Episode IX news, both Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly will received writing credit alongside J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio. This is due to WGA rules so don’t read too much into it.

Entertainment Weekly continues to be one of the go to places for Star Wars interview despite staff changes and had plenty for those of us eagerly anticipating The Rise of Skywalker this week. They’ve got a full interview/article about the film and debuted a bunch of new pictures. Let us all pause and take a moment to appreciate the beauty that is Finn’s new pants and also Poe’s ‘google earth, always taking photos’ pose.

In other news, John Williams is apparently done with his composing work for The Rise of Skywalker but he and the rest of the Galaxy’s Edge team have been nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition which is super cool!

And finally, in non-Episode IX related news, VIZ’s manga adaptation of The Legend of Luke Skywalker starts in January.

And that’s it for this week! For those of you in the US, enjoy your turkey dinners and always save plenty of room for pie!

Who’s ready to watch The Mandalorian in 5 months?!?

That’s right European Star Wars – we finally got an official Disney+ release date for the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and more to come. Fandalorians (not sorry) in those countries will be able to start streaming on March 31, 2020, which means you only need to avoid spoilers for the entire first season. In the meantime, though, you can enjoy the exclusive teasers that Verizon and other companies released on Twitter this week in the lead-up to the U.S. premiere tomorrow.

You know what you can do while you wait, though? Apply for a fan panel at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim! Applications are due by February 28, 2020, giving all of us plenty of time to come up with a concept, put together a crew, have a crisis of faith that our idea sucks, and put something together at the last minute. A time-honored SWC tradition unlike any other.

The Mandalorian launches in the U.S. this week, along with the release of Jedi: Fallen Order and the book Force Collector by Kevin Shinick. Vader Immortal: Episode III comes out next week on the Oculus Quest and Rift, and we are just about a month away from Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hitting theaters. We’re in the endgame now.

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!

Are you ready for the The Rise of Skywalker trailer tonight? And, more importantly, are you ready to grab your tickets? Happy Hunger Games! (Yes, it’s airing during a football game. No, no one cares that you don’t like sportsball. It’ll be online almost immediately afterwards.)

Disney+ started last week by tweeting every single piece of media that will be on the streaming service when it launches next month. And folks…. it’s a lot. Slightly more relevant to us here is all of the Star Wars content you’ll be able to find there including Episode I of The Mandalorian.

Speaking of The Mandalorian, the press junket was on Saturday and it’s only serving to get me more and more excited for the show. We’ve learned that they’re already a week into filming Season 2! We’ve also got the episode release schedule so plan your lives accordingly.

Finally, we got a sneak peak at The Art of Star Wars Rebels! Written by Dan Wallace, it’s looking to be a gorgeous book.

And that’s all for this week! You may now return to your anxious countdown to the arrival of the new trailer.

Hello there again friends, and welcome to our weekly round up of Star Wars news. Coming off all the rad releases of Triple Force Friday and the always exciting announcements from New York Comic Con, this week’s selection of happenings from the galaxy far, far away is a little lean, but I’m going to tell you anyway.

This week’s news is all about toys and games, and as we head into the holiday season, I’m sure this is only the beginning.

First up, TOYS! This week, StarWars.com’s Dan Brooks had a chat with designers from Hasbro about the newest Star Wars offerings from the iconic toymaker. From elegantly detailed Black Series figures from The Rise of Skywalker,  to colorful celebrations of the Galaxy of Adventures stories, to an item called a Scream Saber (yes, it’s real, and yes, I want one) the toy landscape is lush and delightful. Look for these and more from Hasbro wherever toys are sold.

And in game news: General Anakin Skywalker has entered the realm of mobile gaming. Players of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes can now access General Skywalker by playing through the event Clash at Kamino. Anakin is touted to be the most powerful character available to date, and should be a boon to players looking to up their game. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is available for Android and iPhone devices.

And that’s it for this week. As always, send Star Wars news tips to Tosche Station, and send your favorite home-made lightsaber noises to @MandaTheGinger. MTFBWY!

“Reading is fundamental” – Lucasfilm. Okay, not really, but that’s basically what we found out this week.

That’s right, this week was all about the written word, with news coming from all corners of Lucasfilm’s publishing arm. In addition to not just one, but two excerpts from Rebecca Roanhorse’s upcoming Resistance Reborn, we got a look at the upcoming Star Wars: Allegiance miniseries coming from Marvel, which starts this Wednesday, 10/9. But, while everyone loves a preview, the real headlines came from New York Comic Con.

During Friday’s Lucasfilm Publishing panel, we learned… ok, not much about the super secret Project Luminous, except that we will learn more in January 2020 (right after the Skywalker saga concludes, what a convenient time to launch something new). We also got confirmation, via logos on a graphic, that all arms of Lucasfilm publishing – Del Rey Books, Disney Lucasfilm Press, Marvel, and IDW comics – will be involved in this new chapter in the Star Wars galaxy. From there, though, the real news came quick:

• The official The Rise of Skywalker novelization will arrive on March 3, 2020, written by Rae Carson (who previously wrote Most Wanted and contributed to From A Certain Point of View). The junior novel version will be written by Michael Kogge.
• Christian Blauvelt will continue his work in the galaxy far, far away by writing Use The Force, aimed at teaching children how to be a Jedi (with, hopefully, no risk of lightsaber burns in the process).
• Nine authors will contribute to a middle grade anthology of tales about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, retelling stories from the perspectives of major characters from the animated series. The book will be out on August 25th, 2020.
• George Mann, author of Myths and Fables which came out earlier this year, will return to the mythical and fantastic side of Star Wars with Dark Legends, which, as one would expect from the title, reveals the myths that the galaxy tells about the Dark Side of the Force.
• Marvel’s Star Wars ongoing comic series will officially be relaunched in January with Charles Soule at the helm, picking up right where The Empire Strikes Back leaves off. But that’s not all: Greg Pak will write a new Darth Vader ongoing that covers the same timeline – that series will launch in February.
• Alexander Freed’s Alphabet Squadron trilogy will continue on June 30, 2020 with Shadow Fall, as the ragtag squad of misfits takes on a resurgent Shadow Wing.
• And finally, Tim Zahn’s streak of omitting the truth from Nanci continues, as The Ascendancy Trilogy will launch in May 2020 and act as an origin story for Thrawn before he goes to the Empire. The series will also give us our first look (in canon, anyway) at the inner workings of the Chiss Ascendancy.

So, all in all, a pretty slow week.

Oh, right, we also got a look at a new character from The Rise of Skywalker, and learned details of how to enter to win a trip to the premiere this December. We’re pretty Frik-ing excited (I’m not sorry)!

Strap in, folks – only two more months til December, and between book launches, Disney+, and the leadup to Episode IX, it’s going to be an exciting ride.

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!

It’s a comics heavy Holonet Blast this week! First, the official site released a preview of Age of Resistance: Kylo Ren, which releases on September 25. (Mark Hamill’s birthday!) The issue shows Kylo following in his grandfather’s footsteps on the planet Benathy. In Kylo-adjacent news, Charles Soule talked about his upcoming The Rise of Kylo Ren, the first issue of which will be released on December 4. The rest of the comic drops AFTER The Rise of Skywalker on December 20. Soule confirmed the comic will touch on Kylo’s training with Luke Skywalker, leading up to the night he destroyed the Jedi temple.

The official site also announced a new comic event, Empire Ascendant, which will close out Marvel’s flagship Star Wars series, as well as the ongoing Doctor Aphra, with the Rebels building Echo Base on Hoth. The 56-page comic will be written by Charles Soule, Greg Pak, Simon Spurrier, and Ethan Sacks, with art by Luke Ross, Roland Boschi, and more. The announcement promises to reveal the fate of Aphra, which has several Tosche Station staff members very nervous.

Finally, in non-comics news, Slashfilm revealed the complete list of movies and TV shows coming to Disney + on launch day, thanks to a preview event in the Netherlands. All the Star Wars films except for Solo will available (due to Solo still being on Netflix), as well as The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance.

That’s it for this week’s news. May the Force be with you!