Category Archives: News

Holonet Blast #113

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HAPPY DAY BEFORE Thrawn: Treason, y’all! (Unless you were lucky enough to get a copy at San Diego Comic-Con—then, ugh—I’m jealous.)

Speaking of, io9 has an exclusive excerpt from the new book. Check out both the text and Marc Thompson’s audiobook narration. We Stan a blue boy (and Eli, for that matter).

In exciting nomination news, Star Wars Resistance is up for for “Best Animated Series on Television” at the Saturn Awards. Oh, and no big deal, it’s also up for a primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program!!! Vader Immortal is ALSO nominated for an Emmy: 2019 Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media. Best of luck to these great titles and the teams behind them—fingers crossed for some wins!

Now, over to the comics side of things. IDW Publishing announced that Star Wars Adventures #27 (coming in October) will feature a three-part storyline that will nestle into the so-far untouched time between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. This series takes place in part on Kashyyyk, which is all I needed to hear to be excited. There’s more fun where that came from, so be sure to check here for the full story.

More comics: THE RISE OF KYLO REN IS COMING. It’s set for a December release date and should cover—you guessed it—Kylo becoming Kylo. That news came during a SDCC panel full of all-stars led by Michael Siglain, Lucasfilm’s creative director of publishing. No, seriously, the panel had Lou Anders (Pirate’s Price), Katie Cook (Creatures Big & Small), Zoraida Córdova (A Crash of Fate), Delilah Dawson (Black Spire), E. K. Johnston (Queen’s Shadow), George Mann (Myths & Fables), Brian Rood (The Skywalker Saga), Cavan Scott (Dooku: Jedi Lost), Kevin Shinick (Force Collector), Charles Soule(Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith), Timothy Zahn (Thrawn: Treason), and Rebecca Roanhorse (Resistance Reborn). Really, if you were lucky enough to be at that panel I am truly jealous. Other news via that panel included the announcement of Return to Vader’s Castle, written by Cavan Scott, dropping in the “Halloween season” and featuring spooky stories focused on the baddies. October will also bring a text version of Scott’s Dooku: Jedi Lost, which was released originally as audio-only. The panel also covered some very fun and interesting questions answered by some of our favorite authors. The rundown is definitely worth checking out and can be found here.

So, LOTS going on in the Star Wars universe—and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Until next time!

Holonet Blast #64

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It’s the news, y’all!

Fairly light week for actual news, but you know you can always check back here when The Last Jedi remake finally happens.

First, some toy news. In August, Funko will be coming out with its popular (and aptly named) Pop! figures from The Clone Wars television series that ran from 2008-2015. We can expect Anakin (complete with all his limbs), Obi-Wan, Yoda and TWO Ahsoka figurines (one of which will be a Hot Topic exclusive). If you need me, I’ll be in the corner rocking back and forth at the (extremely unlikely) possibility of finally getting a Pop! Fives.

Over in France, ILMxLAB and The VOID won two Cannes Lions Digital Craft awards for their incredible work on Secrets of the Empire hyper-reality experience. Now… who wants to fly me to Orlando or Anaheim so I can actually go play and write a first-hand account for TSR?!

And let’s not to forget to congratulate our friends over at The Star Wars Show for their 100th episode! (Does anyone actually know any of the cast and/or crew so we can be real friends? Asking for a me.) There was singing, there was dancing, there were several red Millennium Falcon shirts.

That’s it for now! Going to moonwalk into the night and go see Solo again.

Holonet Blast #36

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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!

Holonet Blast #28

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After last time’s flood of news, we get a little bit of a break in this Holonet Blast. Of course, there may be few items, but they are very relevant to our interests.

To start with, in response to a fan’s question, Rian Johnson declared The Last Jedi to be complete.

While we still have a few months to wait before seeing TLJ, we have less than a month before the premier Rebels‘ final season on October 16. The season 4 viewing schedule up until the holiday break is live and why must this show end????

*ahem*

Speaking of premiers, the new series ‘Science and Star Wars’ debuted this past Tuesday. The 10-episode series “will explore just how close we’ve come to realizing that technology, and take a look at the relationship between real-world science and Star Wars technology.” The first episode took on lightsabers and new episodes will air Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m. PT (3:00 p.m. ET). Star Wars is good. Science is good. Combining the two is good.

That’s it for this blast, except, of course, for me yelling about how by the time you read this a new Star Trek series will have aired its first episode holy Waru this is amazing! (Editor’s Note: We’ll allow the reference to that other Star Thing just this once.)

Holonet Blast #27

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Boy howdy, there was a ton of news last week. That’s what I get for going on vacation!

As reported in last week’s Holonet Blast, Colin Trevorrow is off Episode IX. Last Tuesday saw the announcement of Episode IX’s new writer AND director, none other than The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams. He will be writing the script along with Chris Terrio. Abrams is obviously experienced in directing well-received and hugely blockbuster Star Wars films, so there’s no doubt he’ll do a great job on Episode IX. While a woman or POC director (or a WOC director, there’s a novel thought) is definitely something that is needed in Star Wars, a safe choice like Abrams to finish out the trilogy is probably warranted here.

Not only did Episode IX get a new director, but it got a new release date, as well: December 20, 2019. Cue the cheers for Star Wars in December! Now, if only the Untitled Han Solo Film could get moved to December, as well.

In The Last Jedi news, CBR is reporting that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a cameo. This makes sense, as he previous worked with director Rian Johnson on Looper and Brick. Apparently he’s voicing an alien.

On Wednesday, the Star Wars Show announced the cover for the upcoming anthology Canto Bight, and the official site revealed some info about the four novellas: Saladin Ahmed’s “Rules of the Game;” Rae Carson’s “Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing;” Mira Grant’s “The Wine in Dreams;” and John Jackson Miller’s “The Ride.”

In other book “news,” The Last Jedi novelization will be released on March 6, 2018. This differs from the novelizations for The Force Awakens and Rogue One, in which ebooks were released on the same day as the film and the hardcovers a few weeks later. Pablo Hidalgo noted on Twitter that this is not a delay, as no previous release date was announced and this was the date initially agreed upon by all parties. If you follow Jason Fry on Twitter, he’s currently hard at work writing the novelization, which I am stoked for, no matter when it comes out.

Luke and Leia will star in a comic one-shot arriving December 27: Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Storms of Crait #1. The comic, written by Ben Blacker and Ben Acker and art by Mike Mayhew, will depict the Luke and Leia searching for a new rebel base during the Galactic Civil War. Crait, of course, is a new planet in The Last Jedi, and was also featured in the recently released Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray.

And in our last bit of literature news, the audiobook narrators for From a Certain Point of View were announced: Jonathan Davis, Ashley Eckstein, Janina Gavankar, Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris, January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Carol Monda, Daniel José Older, and Marc Thompson.

Not only that, but the anthology’s authors have been revealing the titles and subjects of their short stories on Twitter. Check the hashtag #FromACertainPOV on Twitter to see the nifty social cards. I also created a Google doc with all the stories announced so far.

Phew, that was a long post! Let’s see what news Star Wars has for us next week, shall we? Enjoy!

Holonet Blast #12

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Welcome to another installment of the Holonet Blast! I have returned to dry land to only two pieces of Star Wars news from Marvel – nothing nearly as major as J.J. Abrams being named director of Episode VII, but what will ever top that, truly?

First off, Mace Windu is the latest character to receive the miniseries treatment. Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu is a new five-issue series coming in August, written by Matt Owens and illustrated by Denys Cowan. It’s set just after the start of the Clone Wars, so expect an action-packed miniseries where the Jedi have to learn to accept their new roles as soldiers.

For over a thousand generations, the Jedi have been the peacekeepers of the galaxy…but now, at the dawn of the Clone Wars, they find themselves in a new role: generals in the Army of the Republic. As Mace Windu, one of the Jedi’s greatest warriors, leads a small unit of Jedi into battle shortly after the war begins, the Jedi must make peace with their new role, or be lost to the violence around them!

The second bit of Marvel news jumps a bit farther ahead in the timeline. Star Wars: Rogue One — Cassian & K-2SO Special #1 is a 40-page short that tells the story of how – you guessed it – Cassian met K-2SO. Also released in August, it’s written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Fernando Blanco. Prepare to have your head-canons smashed!

A few other items on starwars.com caught my attention this week. First, James Floyd interviewed Greg Rucka, author of Guardians of the Whills, as well as Beth Revis, author of Rebel Rising. They’ve also got an interview with Pablo Hidalgo about how the real-life history of the atomic bomb inspired Rogue One. Finally, if you weren’t able to attend Celebration, the official YouTube channel recently published the full Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates panel.

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Holonet Blast #8

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Slow news week in the lead-up to Celebration; we’ve got one bit of convention news, and one HUGE piece of publishing news!

The convention news is: Forest “SAVE THE DREAM!” Whitaker will be at Star Wars Celebration! He will be signing autographs at the Star Wars Celebration Autograph Hall. Please scream-whisper your best crazy Saw impressions at him for me. (source)

The other piece of news is a huge deal: As part of the Star Wars 40th Anniversary, Del Rey has announced From A Certain Point of View, an anthology of 40 Star Wars short stories by a murderer’s row of talent — ranging from old Star Wars hands like Jason Fry and Christie Golden, to newcomers like Meg Cabot and Paul Dini, to podcast darlings Ben Acker & Blacker and Griffith McElroy. The project sounds like the Tales From … anthologies published way back in the Bantam days, as it concerns itself with the characters filling out the background in A New Hope. The anthology is due to be published in October, and you can see a partial list of the contributing authors at the (source).

via StarWars.com

That’s it for now! Enjoy those Rogue One Blu-rays, enjoy Celebration, and we’ll see you back here in two weeks!

Holonet Blast #5

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Only a few items of note this week, so let’s get to them!

OMAR JOINS HAN

Michael Kenneth Williams, perhaps best known as Omar on The Wire, has joined the as-yet-untitled Han Solo spinoff film! That’s literally all we know; no character hints whatsoever. Seems like LFL is at least starting to get the “wow, that’s a lot of white folks” memo, though. Faster than Marvel is, at any rate. (Source)

via StarWars.com

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Holonet Blast #2

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Lots of news this week! New books! New The Last Jedi details! New hair! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

ARTOO-DETOO RECAST

Though rumored as early as December 2015, it’s now official; following the death of original Star Wars actor Kenny Baker, going forward (beginning with this December’s The Last Jedi) the adorable astromech will be portrayed by Doctor Who veteran Jimmy Vee. I guess this makes him R2-D2-2. (source)

via OhSoSmall.com

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The Jedi Pledge

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At Tosche Station, we’ve never supported people telling fans how to be “good fans” or gatekeeping of any sort.  It’s rude, discriminatory, and frankly, quite stupid.  It doesn’t matter if you saw A New Hope on opening night in 1977 or if you just discovered the franchise last year.  Anyone can be a fan of Star Wars and there’s no right way to be one.

Friend of the blog Bryan Young brought the Jedi Pledge to my attention.  Started by Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance, the Jedi Pledge asks fans to promise to make all new fans feel welcome in this galaxy far, far away; to call out the bad behavior exhibited by other fans; and to make the Star Wars fandom a safe place for everyone.  To quote the pledge’s final line:

Rebellions are built on hope, and it is our hope that Star Wars fandom can become the most welcoming and inclusive fandom in the galaxy…

You can check out the entirety of the Jedi Pledge and sign it over at jedipledge.org.