Category Archives: Star Wars

SDCC 2014: Rebels and Books

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Two days down of San Diego Comic-Con and we’re already rolling in Star Wars news.  Well sort of.

Last night was the Rebels panel that featured the main cast along with Dave Filoni.  You can read StarWars.com’s liveblog of the event here.  While we didn’t get the official release date for Rebels (groan!), we did learn a few things.  The cast agrees that Vanessa Marshall is the biggest Star Wars fan out of all of them although apparently Freddie Prinze Jr. makes all the Force motions while recording.  The show will definitely be embracing the idea of this crew as a family and bringing in some comedy; both concepts they’re taking from the Original Trilogy.  Another point of note from the panel is that Filoni made mention of establishing a hierarchy of villains so if Darth Vader shows up, people should definitely be running.  Also, Rebels will be much more of a contained story than the Clone Wars as they won’t be jumping from character to character and creating new locations each week.

In addition to showing several clips from the show, they also debuted a second brand new trailer which you can watch below.

The Star Wars Books panel just wrapped up and needless to say, the highlight was the new book announcement.  Christie Golden will be penning a novel about Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos.  The book is due out in Summer 2015 and is taken from a plot line for the intended Season 7 of The Clone Wars.

asajj vos

As for the rest of the panel, it was moderated by Vanessa Marshall and there was a lot of discussion about John Jackson Miller’s forthcoming A New Dawn.  Vanessa has apparently read the book already and said it gave her a lot of insight into Hera.  Tarkin will be, as expected, akin to James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis and will take place very close to Revenge of the Sith.  Heir to the Jedi was described as a character study of Luke Skywalker and Lords of the Sith was dubbed “kind of a Vader/Palpatine road trip novel” by Jen Heddle.  You can read the rest of the live blog of the panel by the main site here.  I’d particularly suggest that readers take note of their comments about the newly minted Legends books.

If you’re looking for comic news though… well that’ll be dropping tomorrow during Marvel’s Cup of Joe Panel.  You’ve been warned.

Review: Star Wars: Legacy #17

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The final arc of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman’s fantastic Star Wars comic continues as Legacy #17 hits comic store shelves today!  (And this review continues to be sad that we’re in the last few months of this book.)

Ania and company have followed the coordinates from Jao’s transmission to the rogue planet but their mission to rescue the Imperial Knight is far from over.  They no more free Jao from his bonds when a literal army of Sith arrive hell bent on taking out Darth Wredd once and for all!

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Episode VII News Update

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So, our Intrepid Leaders are on their honeymoon, which means the B-team is subbing in this week (we’re sorry).   Here’s what we’ve got:

J.J. posted another video for UNICEF’s Force for Change, and this time, he’s showing off an X-wing in the video.  Take a look at Mashable.com.  Personally, I’m thrilled at yet another look at practical effect props showing up here, and I’m looking forward to a comparison of this X-wing to those from the original trilogy.

Meanwhile, Badass Digest claims to have plot details for Episode VII.  I don’t think I need to note how very, very, very unconfirmed that is, but if you’re wanting to stay unspoiled, you might want to avoid, just in case.  (TOTALLY UNCONFIRMED, BY THE WAY.  And some of it doesn’t make ANY sense.  Like, at all.)

That’s the news for this morning.  Naturally, since The Intrepid Leaders are on a boat, Bria and I are expecting some sort of exciting news to drop at some point this week.  (You might remember that Brian and Nanci were on a cruise when Episode VII was announced.)  We will be exacting revenge for this later.

Review: Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3

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Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3 by Jeremy Barlow and Juan Frigeri hits comic store shelves today and Maul’s vendetta against Darth Sidious continues!

Count Dooku and General Grievous are now captives of Darth Maul after a fierce battle in the last issue. Maul tries to convince Dooku to abandon Darth Sidious and work with him and Mother Talzin instead.  Meanwhile, the Jedi have gotten wind of Maul’s latest victory and spot an opportunity to take out two enemies at the same time…

It’s difficult to discuss this issue without going into the “surprising facts from Maul’s past” that the solicit alluded to so from this point onward, this review will have spoilers despite my usual policy to write spoiler free.

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Marvel’s First Act: Reprinting Their Classic Comics

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Those expecting something a bit more noteworthy might be somewhat underwhelmed by today’s news, but it is something. The official site announced today that Marvel would be reprinting their classic Star Wars comics in an all-new hardcover omnibus.

The comics will be released in a multi-volume set starting with the first omni containing issues #1-44 plus Annual #1. And yes, this will be released under the Legends banner.

Volume one has a list price of $125. Head to the link above for more information.

Reddit AMAs today with Jeremy Bulloch and Timothy Zahn

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Expanded Universe author Timothy Zahn and Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch will be on Reddit today for a pair of Ask Me Anything threads.

Bulloch is slated for 9AM Pacific:

Zahn meanwhile will be chatting at 4PM Pacific.

If you want to ask questions of Zahn and Bulloch, you’ll need to register for a Reddit account.

Episode VII filming in IMAX, will be post-converted to 3D

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First bit of news: As the above tweet from Bad Robot shows, Episode VII is filming with IMAX cameras as we speak.

Second bit of news: Episode VII will be released in theaters with a post-conversion 3D option.

It’s perhaps not too surprising that Disney and Lucasfilm want to have a 3D version of Episode VII in theaters, but it will no doubt disappoint many that this will be done in post. Films in 3D that aren’t shot natively with specialized stereoscopic cameras tend to be odd looking. Characters and objects in the foreground look oddly flat in front of the background.

Lucasfilm does have some internal experience with the post-conversion process, having re-released Episode I as a 3D film a few years ago to mixed reception. The film did look a fair amount better than most hastily thrown together conversions, but there were still a number of moments where the characters appeared jarringly flat. We’ll see how this conversion turns out.