Whooooooa we’re almost there! Happy Solo Week! By this time next week, we’ll all have seen Solo: A Star Wars Story. Who’s excited? I’M EXCITED. Okay. On with the news.

In news that is not actually news, there is no confirmed Lando film. Kathleen Kennedy was misquoted. As a friendly reminder, if the official website isn’t reporting it, don’t believe it. In other Lando related news, Jonathan Kasdan was recently quoted in an interview as saying that everyone’s favorite cape-wearing smuggler is pansexual. Your mileage may vary in regards of how excited this makes you (personally, I giggled with glee) but as a friendly reminder, the best representation is the representation that is made obvious on the screen.

Entertainment Weekly has a special edition Solo issue that likely has some neat little stories and tidbits.

Solo also screened at the Cannes Film Festival and honestly? The biggest news here is Thandie Newton’s dress because HOLY SITHSPIT LOOK AT IT! She saw her chance and she took it and walked the red carpet in a custom made dress with fabric printed with action figures of black characters in Star Wars including Finn, Lando, and Captain Panaka!

And finally… WE KNOW WHERE CELEBRATION IS and it’s in… Chicago? Yeah, we’re all surprised too. Regardless! Everyone here is super excited and can’t wait for the next galactic family gathering. Tickets will go on sale at 1pm Eastern on June 5th so have your credit cards ready.

And that’s it for this week! We’ll see you on the other side 😉

It’s Monday! Happy Star Wars news roundup, everyone!

Flight of the Falcon Book Series Coming This Fall

More middle-grade riches, y’all! This series will cover the Millenium Falcon‘s journeys over a long period of time in the GFFA. The series begins just before the Solo film picks up, and continues to follow our favorite freighter through both the original trilogy and into the new trilogy.  PLUS all the books will come with maps! And timelines! I love timelines. Star Wars: Lando’s Luck (the first book in the series), is written by Justina Ireland and illustrated by Annie Wu. The series will also bring back the Space Twins (!) and will have my favorite pirate playing with my favorite Wookiee and scoundrel. (I can’t believe we’re getting Hondo in a story, guys!) IT SHOULD BE SO FUN AND I AM EXCITED!

Forces of Destiny 

There will be a new short included in the 5/25 Forces of Destiny: Volume 4 broadcast–just in time for Solo! Will Han be there? PROBABLY. Will he and Hera re-kindle their ship rivalry? A GIRL CAN DREAM.

More Han Solo-Centric Content Coming to Battlefront II

EA continues to tease out what looks like more great playable content in Battlefront II . Leading up to the with the Solo release, on May 16th some(?) new downloadable content will be available as part of the Solo Season. So far it sounds EXCITING–playing in Jabba’s Palace, BEING ABLE TO CHANGE LANDO AND LEIA’S OUTFITS TO THEIR Return of the Jedi DISGUISES, something called “Starfighter Custom Arcade” where you’ll be able to fly all kinds of ships from all kinds of eras, and a new mode called Hero Showdown which sounds like a load of 2 v. 2 fun!

Behind the Scenes Solo Happenings

The VFX Supervisor for Solo: A Star Wars Story has been promoted to a new role where he will lead Lucasfilm’s Industrial Lights & Magic. Aside from working on Solo, Rob Bredow has a great resume of past films (Independence Day, Godzilla, Cast Away, among others). I haven’t seen Solo yet, but I’m excited to see the visual effects (which, from the trailers look s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g). Good for you, Rob! Hire some cool ladies and people of color while you’re at it, eh?

Non-Dave Filoni Star Wars Television News

Jon Favreau, who will executive produce and write for the new Star Wars television series, gave us some info on the new show (see, Dave? IT’S POSSIBLE). We find ourselves seven years post Battle of Yavin and can expect an entirely new cast of characters with “cutting-edge tech”. He’s also written about half of the first season so far. Air date (and series title) are still TBD, but the show will be on Disney’s new streaming service, which is expected to launch sometime in 2019.

Live from the Solo: A Star Wars Story Premiere

It’s almost like the news has a theme this week. The Solo world premiere happened! In short, everyone on the carpet looked like a snack and I couldn’t be more excited to see them run and jump and blast their way through this movie.

Until next time!

Hey there one and all, it’s time for our weekly roundup of news from a galaxy far, far away.

A New Narrator for A New Hope

Solo: A Star Wars Story Director Ron Howard has had as storied a career as an actor as he has behind the camera. One of his best known roles was the narrator of the cult comedy hit Arrested Development, where his pithy commentary serves to underscore the hilarity of the Bluth family’s misadventures. Last week, the Skywalker family was given similar treatment as Howard lent his voice to a humorous, albeit truncated, version of Star Wars:  A New Hope complete with a shameless plug for Solo.

The Immaculate Cape Closet and So Much More

The world got a tour of the Solo: A Star Wars Story version of the saga’s beloved Millennium Falcon, hosted by the caped charmer himself, Donald Glover. Glover takes fans in an intimate tour of his shiny spacecraft, complete with a visit to the Captain’s quarters and a walk inside the cape armoire.

Becoming Solo

In yet another video tease leading up to Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s release on the 25th, the featurette Becoming Solo also debuted this week. Take a look inside the creative process behind bringing this iteration of the galaxy’s favorite scoundrel to fruition at the link above.

Return of the X-Wing

Fantasy Flight Games announced a new edition of the X-Wing miniatures game this week. X-Wing Second Edition expands on the success of the original game including the added ability to use the Force in ship-to-ship combat. The core set comes with everything a would-be flight leader needs for a thrilling two-player adventure.

Forces of Destiny

This week we saw the debut of new episodes of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. New content includes a long-anticipated episode featuring young Queen Amidala, a Luke and Leia team up on Endor, and a meeting between Ezra and Ahsoka. All of the new Forces of Destiny episodes are currently available on YouTube and will air on May 25th on the Disney Channel.

Han Solo Season

The folks at EA Games have a very good feeling about this week’s announcement– and frankly, so do we. The Han Solo Season (a cryptic yet thrilling moniker) is coming to Battlefront II this month.

Run to the Light!

Or to the Dark Side, if that’s your thing. runDisney announced this week the 2019 Star Wars Rival Run Weekend. The race weekend will be hosted by Walt Disney World on April 4-7, 2019 and will allow participants to choose which side of the Force they’re running for. The Star Wars Rival Run weekend will have new features highlighting famous Star Wars rivalries as well as traditional favorite challenges including the Rival Run Challenge (running both the 10k and the half marathon over the weekend) and the Kessel Run Challenge (running both the in-person and at-home/virtual half marathons).

Donald Glover on SNL

The Galaxy’s smoothest cape wearer was well-represented by fan favorite Donald Glover, who hosted this week’s Saturday Night Live. While not all the jokes were about Star Wars, Glover represented himself and the brand well, raising hype for Solo and reminding us all what it takes to be that cool.

The Falcon has Landed

This week saw the first volley of fans invited aboard the Millennium Falcon as it tours the country. A perfect replica of both the cockpit and the crew lounge as seen Solo: A Star Wars Story opened to the public this week in Atlanta. The exhibit is housed at The Battery, adjacent to Sun Trust Park (where the Braves play baseball), and free to tour. If the photos we’re seeing are any indication, it’s glorious.

And that’s it for this week! As always, send Star Wars news tips (and pictures of yourselves visiting the Millennium Falcon Experience!) to us here at Tosche Station. And May the Fourth Be in our hearts all the year through!

“Welcome to the Resistance.” – Leia Organa, and, probably, Dave Filoni.

That’s right, this week Star Wars Resistance was finally announced as our newest animated series based in the galaxy far, far away. Filoni, who previously worked on and created Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, respectively, said that this will be an anime-inspired show about a young pilot recruited to spy on the burgeoning First Order. (Editor’s Note: Bria is VERY excited about Christopher Sean being a part of the voice cast.) With voice roles by Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie already announced, it’s a safe bet that Resistance will tie in heavily with both the sequel trilogy and, possibly, some characters that we just said goodbye to in Rebels.

In other news this week, Lucasfilm and the team behind StarWars.com won three 2018 Webby Awards. But they’re not the only winners, because we, the fans, get to step inside the Millennium Falcon  – at least, if you live in northern Kentucky, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, or Denver. Slightly smaller (but it could still make the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs) is the scale model of everyone’s favorite freighter made out of – you guessed it – SOLO cups.

Meanwhile, Disneyland will be adding a second Star Wars Nite to their schedule next week, as part of their popular “Disneyland After Dark” series. Presumably, they’ll use the profits from ticket sales to fund their legal defense after being sued by Ren Ventures, who own the trademark to the game Sabacc.

Finally, in Tosche Station-specific news, a new Vorkosiverse novella, “The Flowers of Vashnoi”, will be gracing the screens of thousands of e-readers soon, and Nanci is here. for. it.

That’s a wrap for this week – stay classy and may the Force be with you.

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 a wrap on post production! #Solo @HanSoloStory #SkywalkerRanch Wow. What a movie-making adventure it’s been! Thanks to a terrific cast & extraordinary folks behind the camera as well. You’ve worked so hard to fully realize this cool story. Hope fans have a blast! #May25 pic.twitter.com/SeSSXZirBZ

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) April 22, 2018

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

Welcome to a very video game and book centric edition of the Holonet Blast! I’d write some more stuff here but… EWOK HUNT MODE

That’s right, folks! There are updates coming to Battlefront II this week and while the appearances, ability tweaks, and all that are neat… YOU’LL GET TO PLAY AS AN EWOK. From the Community Transmission:

The ambush begins as the Ewok attacks the unsuspecting stormtroopers, using spears, Wisties, and whatever abilities they can muster to take down the intruders. Each defeated stormtrooper spawns as another Ewok, multiplying until the Empire’s forces have been completely eliminated, and the Ewok celebration can begin. Imperial forces will need all their training to survive until their evacuation arrives. Do so, and they’ll make it off of Endor and claim the win.

Our bodies are ready.

In further video game news, backwards compatibility is coming to Xbox One games on Tuesday including a bunch of old school Star Wars games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Republic Commando. If anyone needs me, I’ll finally be setting up the Xbox I got and buying KOTOR for a third time to play a game that’s well over a decade old.

Solo: A Star Wars Story products were revealed and (mostly) were made available for purchase on Friday so now you can go buy yourself a Black Series Lando and then take him to Denny’s with you for a Solo themed dinner.

Speaking of Solo, Last Shot will be released on Tuesday. If you can’t stand the wait, you can check out an excerpt or go look at the awesome character cards made by friend-of-the-blog Heath! (We’ll also have a review of Last Shot tomorrow but trust me… you’re going to want to buy it.)

Hello and welcome to our weekly round up of news from and of interest to the Galaxy Far, Far Away. The news this week was a little lean, but excellent nonetheless. Have at it, folks!

D23 2019 Announced!

This week, Disney announced dates for 2019’s D23 Expo. Disney’s next magical fan convention is officially scheduled to occur on August 23-25, 2019 at the Anaheim Convention Center with tickets on sale as soon as this August. Details on programming (including the annual Mousequerade and Design Challenge) are yet to be revealed, but if the 2017 convention is any indication, it’s sure to be a delight.

Looking for Leia on Seed & Spark

Our friends with the Looking for Leia Documentary have launched a campaign on Seed & Spark to help them turn what was originally a feature-length documentary into a six-episode docuseries. The series, which has been called “a joyous gender justice project” highlights the experiences and contributions of women in the Star Wars fandom. Some of us here at Tosche Station have contributed our own fandom stories to the project and we hope to see it come to fruition. Learn more about the project on LookingForLeia.com and by following @LookingForLeia on Twitter.

That’s it for the week, stay tuned to us here at Tosche Station for more news and information from a Galaxy Far Far Away. As always, send Star Wars news tips our way when you see them.

To defeat an enemy, you must know him. You must share a novel with him and journey to the Unknown Regions. – Grand Admiral Thrawn*

*Ok, not actually, but the biggest piece of Star Wars news this week was the first excerpt released from the upcoming novel Thrawn: Alliances, by Timothy Zahn. While the excerpt doesn’t contain much in the way of plot spoilers, it does appear to confirm that the novel takes place before Thrawn’s disappearance in the tentacled grasp of the purgill in the series finale of Star Wars Rebels. Still, it certainly seems like we can all get ready for a fun journey to Batuu with our favorite Imperial villains.

A bit closer to home, we got to see some technological developments that make the galaxy far, far away feel just a bit less distant. Epic games, in collaboration with NVIDIA and ILMxLAB, released a gorgeous new short demoing their advanced CG tech – could we be seeing an “animated” Star Wars story in the future that looks true to life?

Music fans also got some exciting news this week, as Lucasfilm announced that on May the 4th (be with you), they’ll be releasing remastered versions of the soundtracks from all six original Star Wars films, including a collectible mini-poster for buyers.

Speaking of movies, departed Solo: A Star Wars Story directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller announced this week that they’ve accepted Executive Producer credit on the upcoming film in light of their contributions before “creative differences” drove them from the project. This news is definitely not awkward at all and totally won’t provoke snickering from in-the-know fans upon seeing the former directors’ names in the credits.

And finally, let’s all keep our dear Nanci in our thoughts as she may or may not be dead after being tweeted at by Master Skywalker himself.

♥️♥️♥️ you back! pic.twitter.com/syPYsrBHc1

— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) March 21, 2018

And that’s a wrap! Until next week, may the Force be with you, friends.

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.

The Last Jedi’s out today in the states for digital download, blu in two weeks. Of all the special features, my favorite one is kinda hidden, so wanted to call it out. If you buy the movie anywhere online (or the blu) you have access to a music only version of TLJ.

— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) March 13, 2018

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.