Star Wars Celebration Anaheim Announced

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Nanci

It’s official: at Celebration Europe closing ceremonies yesterday, it was announced that the next US-based Celebration will be held in Anaheim, California from April 16-19, 2015. Unsurprisingly, Celebration will return to the pre-movie schedule it held during the Prequel Trilogy. And yes, it’s already been noted that the official site has gotten rid of the numerical designations, calling it Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, but among us fans it’ll still be known as Celebration VII. 😉

Tickets go on sale August 7. Yes, as in next week. Don’t say Lucasfilm hasn’t given you a lot of time to prepare! Here at Tosche Station we’re unsure whether any of us will be able to attend–Spring 2015 is still a long ways away, and attending an Orlando Celebration is a lot easier than one across the county–but no matter happens what we’ll be keeping up to date on all the news about the convention. We’ll just be (extremely) green with envy.

Cosplay Monday: The Sexy Lamp

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Bria

Welcome to another edition of Cosplay Monday where we try to brighten the start of your work week with some of the neat costumes we’ve seen around the internet lately. We’ve mentioned comic writer Kelly Sue DeConnick’s ‘Sexy Lamp Test‘ in the past which, in her own words is “If you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft.” Well, check out this cosplayer who embraced the concept tongue-in-cheek at San Diego Comic Con last weekend.

Star Wars Rebels Gets A Logo

Posted on July 27, 2013 by Bria

Dave 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 July 27, 2013 by Bria

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.

Tosche Station Radio #64: Comic Con!

Posted on July 25, 2013 by admin

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On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, Amy Ratcliffe joins the hosts for a San Diego Comic Con recap!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s New on the Blog. Nanci wrote Dear Star Wars Books: Thank You For the Women. She also wrote about the Monolithic Jedi as presented in the post-NJO EU. Bria wrote a review of Legacy #5. Meanwhile, Brian and Nanci will be on panels at Dragon Con! Yay?

It’s a dull week in Fixer’s Flash. Nanci’s been busy writing, but Brian’s been busy packing. No show next week as Brian ships the studio across the country!

Deak’s Dirt starts with news out of Comic Con! Mark Hamill talks Star Wars and it sounds like his hopes are high. There was a bit of Star Wars Expanded Universe news. Nothing earth-shattering, biggest reveal was Honor Among Thieves cover. Legend of Korra trailer. Book 2 coming in September, Brian and Bria are still recovering. Agents of Shield news. Colbie Smulders will be in the show! Zack Snyder will officially be directing a Batman/Superman film with an anticipated release date of Summer 2015. The Hollywood Reporter also says that Warner Bros. is aiming for a Flash film in 2016 and a Justice League film for 2017 but that wasn’t announced at the panel (or at least as far as we are aware). Lionsgate treated audiences to a new Catching Fire Theatrical Trailer. (The staff is still recovering from that one.) The film will be out this November. We also got to see some of the first footage for the Veronica Mars film. The anticipated Marvel Studios panel didn’t disappoint especially if you were in Hall H. Of course we have to have an Episode VII rumor. Is JJ leaving? Surprise, Lucasfilm says no.

This week on Camie’s Concerns, Amy Ratcliffe stops by to discuss San Diego Comic Con and general geekery! You can find Amy on Twitter and on her blog.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

Disney to tease new Star Wars and Avatar attractions at D23

Posted on July 24, 2013 by admin

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 July 24, 2013 by Bria

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 July 23, 2013 by admin

Are 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 July 23, 2013 by Nanci

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 July 22, 2013 by admin

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.