Category Archives: Star Wars

Lucasfilm part of D23’s live action film panel

Posted on by

Hold on to your butts. Maybe this means news is coming, or maybe it’s a whole bunch of nothing, but it appears Lucasfilm will be a part of the live action film panel at Disney’s D23 Expo.

Let the Adventures Begin: Live Action at The Walt Disney Studios

Go behind the scenes at The Walt Disney Studios with this revealing look at our upcoming roster of live-action adventures from Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. Fans will enjoy exclusive video clips, filmmaker discussions, and star appearances at this session hosted by Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn, Disney Live Action Production President Sean Bailey, and Marvel Studios President and Producer Kevin Feige. With Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Disney’s Maleficent, Saving Mr. Banks, Tomorrowland, and Muppets Most Wanted, coming down the pike, make sure to claim your spot for the total package—surprises included! Cell phones, cameras, and all recording devices will be checked for this presentation.

Don’t get too excited yet. This could simply be some Lucasfilm folks talking up Star Wars and not revealing any new details. Of course, with the lack of major news from Celebration (beyond John Williams returning), perhaps Disney and Lucasfilm decided to save things for the Mouse House’s big convention. Stay tuned!

Rumor: Episode VII Filming In August?

Posted on by

star-wars-episode-vii-logo

UPDATE: Turns out the title of this article is, in fact, a rumor.  A Lucasfilm spokesperson told Big Shiny Robot that Kathleen Kennedy as said that “Nothing has changed” and Episode VII will still begin shooting in 2014.  There was no comment on the codename.

Our friends over at Jedi News have a report up saying that a trusted source has told them that a deal has been struck to use Pinewood Studios in England for filming for the next ten years.

To quote their report:

Further to this we understand that the film has been in pre-production at Pinewood Studios for three and a half months in advance of an August 2013 shooting date. We hear they have block booked the studios for 10 years and that construction of offices and facilities on-site is underway. Also storage space is being located in the local area.

There’s also a mention in the report that Episode VII could be filming under the fake name of ‘Foodles Productions Ltd’.

As always, this is an unconfirmed rumor so take it with a grain of salt until we hear something official from Lucasfilm.

Star Wars Rebels Gets A Logo

Posted on by

rebels logoDave Filoni took the stage this morning at Celebration Europe to talk about the new forthcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.  Although there was no trailer since nothing’s been animated yet, the official logo for the show was revealed, as seen to the right.

He also said that the new show be very different visually from The Clone Wars and that the artistic influences of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art will definitely be evident.  Said Filoni, “We wanted to create a look for this part of Star Wars that precedes A New Hope by just a little bit.” and “We have created a set of digital brushes that replicate McQuarrie’s style…We’re going for something that’s much more an illustrative look.”  They’re hoping to try and match the look of the Original Trilogy.

Most of what Filoni showed was concept art for the new show and the artwork included a brand new ship that will be central to the main character of the show- the Ghost.

You can read a liveblog of the entire panel by the official site here.

John Williams is Back for the Sequel Trilogy

Posted on by

Kathleen Kennedy’s panel at Celebration Europe this morning didn’t yield much in terms of Episode VII news but she did announce that John Williams will be back to score all three Sequel Trilogy films.  A video interview (as seen below) was shown to the panel audience and he clearly seems to be as thrilled to be back in the galaxy far far away however he has yet to read the script.

You can read the entire official liveblog of Kennedy’s panel over on the main site.

Disney to tease new Star Wars and Avatar attractions at D23

Posted on by

Well this is interesting. According to Dave Fisher, show producer with the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Pavillion, D23 might prove to be very interesting on a Star Wars and attractions front. It sounds like confirmation of some new Galaxy Far, Far Away themed additions.

We’re also going to be doing sneak peeks at upcoming projects – including Disney Springs, the reimagining of Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World Resort. There will be teasers for new attractions based on Avatar and Star Wars that we’re working on now for the Disney Parks.

No idea what this means as far as the scale and size of these new attractions, but it appears D23 is something we should be keeping our eyes on now.

Via Slashfilm

Review: Star Wars: Legacy #5

Posted on by

If you weren’t already sold on the brand new Star Wars: Legacy comic, you almost definitely will be after this issue.  Legacy #5 by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman is out in stores today and draws the first story arc to a spectacular close.  If you haven’t been reading the book thus far, I would definitely suggest find yourself copies of the first 5 issues or preordering the trade.

As with before, this review contains mild spoilers for the issue.

Continue reading →

Catch Nanci and Brian on Dragon Con panels at the Star Wars track

Posted on by

dragon conAre you going to be at Dragon Con this year? If you are, you can catch Brian and Nanci on a trio of panels on the Star Wars fan track.

  • Friday 1PM: Intro to the Expanded Universe. We’ll be discussing how and where to get into Star Wars literature and offer our recommendations on books/comics/games. Daniel Eisenhauer and Tom Hutchens will be on this panel with us.
  • Saturday 7PM: Blogs, Podcasting, Vidding, and FanFic. We’re joining Riley and Bethany Blanton of the Star Wars Report and Bryan Young of Big Shiny Robot (and Force knows how many other media outlets) for a grab bag discussion of blogging, podcasting, vidding, and fan fiction.
  • Sunday 11:30AM: Where are the Women and Minorities in Star Wars? In a surprise to absolutely no one, Nanci and I will be discussing the role of women and minorities in Star Wars and offer our thoughts onto how the Galaxy Far, Far Away can be a more diverse and inclusive franchise.

The dates and times above are subject to change, but these are definitely the panels that you can find us on. It’ll be like the podcast! Except in front of a live audience. What could go wrong?

The Monolithic Jedi

Posted on by

Awhile back, I wrote a post on EUCantina about the prequelization of the post-Return of the Jedi era of the Expanded Universe. The article’s basic point was that in the early days of the EU, the authors had no official knowledge about the Jedi Order in the Old Republic. None of us did–all we had was our imaginations. We didn’t know that Jedi lived in a Temple on Coruscant, were taken from their families as babies, and trained from the time they were children. As such, Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy was full of adults from many different worlds, of different ages, and varying careers. Some of them even came from families of Jedi. Tionne was a historian, Corran was a pilot and a cop, Mara was a smuggler, Kirana Ti was a warrior, Streen was a hermit, etc. etc. No matter what your opinion of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, I have to give credit to Kevin J. Anderson for creating a diverse group of Jedi, personality and background wise (although in retrospect there could have been more non-humans and people of color). Even in other eras, like the Tales of the Jedi comics, being a Jedi seemed to be more “what you did” and less “who you were.”

Then the prequels came out, and everything changed.

Continue reading →

Rumor: J.J. Abrams leaving Episode VII?

Posted on by

Update: Lucasfilm responds, says “Yeah, no.” Original post below:

I guess it’s been too long since there was a bombshell of an Episode VII rumor, so here we go. Badass Digest suggests that J.J. Abrams wants out of the film.

Why is it that I keep hearing tons of rumors that JJ Abrams is on the verge of dropping out of Star Wars? This has been something I’ve heard for a while now, and from multiple insiders. I know that he didn’t want to shoot the movie in England and was overruled, but that happened a while ago. This weekend at Comic Con I continued to hear these whispers. No director for Trek 3 has been found yet – might Abrams end up coming back after all, leaving Star Wars to someone else?

Bryan Young over at Big Shiny Robot talked about why this doesn’t make much sense and I’m right there with him. I’m going with fan paranoia on this one and I just won’t put stock into this particular rumor until after Celebration Europe at the earliest.

SWEU News From Comic Con!

Posted on by

The intrepid James Floyd from Club Jade is at Comic Con this weekend, and he oh so generously livetweeted both SWEU panels.

From the Dark Horse panel, notable announcements included a new arc of Dark Times, the introduction of a new villain into Dawn of the Jedi, an Ewoks comic set in the arrival of the Empire era, Tom Taylor working on a secret project, and an upcoming Vader and clone story. For more, see Club Jade’s Storify feed from the event.

James also attended the Del Rey panel. Right at the beginning, moderator Leland Chee stated that the SWEU is in transition as a result of the Disney buyout and Episode VII. Therefore they’re unlikely to announce a new title…but we can dream, right?

Kenobi began as a graphic novel, but got so long it became a novel. Jen Heddle praised the novel, and John Jackson Miller compared Obi-Wan to a well-known superhero, saying he has to learn to be Clark Kent as opposed to Superman. Frank Parisi also praised the upcoming Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells, and Heddle added that there’s a good focus on the Big Three.

J.W. Rinzler, author of The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, said the book took two years to write and extensive digging into the archives. In a really cool feature, the enhanced e-book will have 30 minutes of audio and 30 minutes of video. Some clips were shown during the panel.

Other items of note:

  • There will be a Death Star Tech Manual.
  • Darth Maul: Lockdown will tie into Darth Plagueis. Apparently Sidious and Plagueis have different plans for Maul in this prison version of Oz and Scarface.
  • Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown, coming in August, will tell the story of middle school by a new character writing and doodling.
  • As to the future of the EU, it’s still in flux, but even before, Lucasbooks and Del Rey did their own EU without concern for films and television. Whether it’s used in those mediums is up to the writers and directors.
  • Regarding The Clone Wars, Chee said the possibility of tying up loose ends is a possibility. As to making a definitive timeline of the era, that’s not happening any time soon.

Notable announcements include the cover reveal to Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves, the Han-centric novel by James S.A. Corey, published March 4, 2014. Heddle compared the novel to Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures.

Han Solo Cover

A notable exception: no mention of Christie Golden’s Sword of the Jedi trilogy, scheduled for release next year. Is this good or bad news? We shall see…

Club Jade collected all of James’ tweets on another Storify, which you can find here. Thanks to James for his great reporting!