Tag Archives: holonet blast

Holonet Blast #116

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Hey everyone! It’s time for a Galaxy’s Edge-heavy edition of the Holonet Blast, which is appropriate considering I visited Galaxy’s Edge in Disney World for the very first time yesterday! It was absolutely amazing and everything I’ve ever wanted. I got to BE a Star War! But for now, on to the news!

First off, Luke Skywalker is your guide in a new book called The Secrets of the Jedi, by Marc Sumerak. It will be released on November 19 from Insight Editions, and will feature commentary from Luke on the Jedi Order throughout the past and into the present.

Star Wars Roll Out, a new series of animated shorts for the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel, debuted on August 9. Created by Hideo Itoyanagi, the shorts depict the Star Wars characters in the style of beloved droid BB-8. It looks adorable.

If you’re lucky enough to have been to Galaxy’s Edge, you know it has some of the best quick service meals on property, in addition to other treats and drinks. Thanks to a new cookbook, you can recreate these items at home. Released in November, just in time for the holiday season, the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Cookbook is also written by Sumerak and released by Insight Editions.

Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World opens on August 29, and to celebrate WDW will be hosting several merchandise events. Ashley Eckstein from Her Universe will be signing at Launch Bay Cargo in Hollywood Studios on August 17. Also at Launch Bay Cargo, on August 18, artists Craig Fraser, Kevin-John, William Silvers, and Charles Wissig will be meeting guests and signing art created just for Galaxy’s Edge. Finally, on August 28, authors Delilah Dawson and Zoraida Córdova will be available to sign copies of their novels Black Spire and A Crash of Fate, while comic creators Ethan Sacks and Will Sliney will be on hand to sign copies of the comic Galaxy’s Edge.

Won’t be able to get to Galaxy’s Edge on either coast for awhile? Don’t worry, Disney has got you covered. The Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge special will air on Freeform network on September 29, and will showcase all parts of the land, including a preview of the Rise of the Resistance attraction, scheduled to open in December in Walt Disney World and January in Disneyland.

That’s the news for the week! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pass out and dream of Batuu all night long.

Holonet Blast #106

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Not a lot of news dropped this week, but that doesn’t matter – it was Vanity Fair week! Just like for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Annie Leibovitz photographed the cast of The Rise of Skywalker. The pictures, as always, are gorgeous. There’s also a rather long article by author Lev Grossman, heavy on speculation but also with some new tidbits. The Knights of Ren are officially back; Keri Russell was “revealed” to play the masked scoundrel Zorri Bliss; Richard Grant is Allegiant General Pryde; there’s a year between TLJ and TRoS; J.J. Abrams commented on using archival footage of Carrie Fisher for new scenes with Leia.

Check out the photos and article here. My favorite photo, of the two coolest cats in the galaxy, is below.

Holonet Blast #44

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Happy February! Solo is real after all!

Yesterday’s Super Bowl  saw the premier of the first teaser for Solo:

A full trailer is planned to air during Good Morning America this morning, which should already have happened by the time you read this but I’m writing this in the past and sadly cannot link the trailer for you. Here’s the tweet that officially let us know:

In comics news, The Last Jedi is being adapted into six-issue limited series, featuring Gary Whitta as writer with art by Michael Walsh and Mike Spencer. The first issue will be available May 2 and second is schedule to release two weeks later on May 16.

Last but certainly not least, Natalie Portman hosted SNL this past Saturday and did a follow-up to the rap sketch she did when she hosted the show in 2006. The part about Star Wars is very memorable.

Happy Solo-really-does-exist week and may the Force be with you…always.

Holonet Blast #43

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Star Wars, we got your Star Wars news here! Extra extra, read all about it!

The Academy Award nominations were announced on Tuesday, and The Last Jedi received four well-deserved nominations. Most notably, John Williams received his 51st nomination, more than any other living person on the planet Earth. (Walt Disney still has him beat, with 59 nominations.) The ceremony will be held on March 4. 

Did you like The Last Jedi? Do you like books? Well, you’re in luck! The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry will be released on March 6, but if you’re attending Emerald City Comic Con, you’ll have the chance to enter a lottery to purchase an exclusive version of the novelization a few days early.

What about The Last Jedi and games? We’ve got you covered, too! Amilyn Holdo and Rose Tico have joined the playable characters in Galaxy of Heroes. Also, more updates are coming to Battlefront II and Season 2 of The Freemaker Adventures will be available on DVD on March 13th.

Finally, in a bit of bittersweet news, Carrie Fisher received a posthumous Grammy for Best Spoken Word album, The Princess Diarist. We miss you, Space Mom.

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 #32

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Monday* has arrived again. However, dear friends, this needn’t be a day of sorrow alone, for we have returned once more with your weekly dose of fun pop culture news!

This week I have but one link** to share with you all but a what a link it is! This past Tuesday, USA Today published an interview with Rian Johnson a well as an exclusive new behind-the-scenes video for The Last Jedi. The video does include both “Han and Leia’s Theme” and a few words from Carrie Fisher, so brace for emotions before hitting play.

Enjoy the video and have a good week!

*unless you are in a timezone in which Monday has already occurred. In this case, happy Tuesday!

**[INSERT LEGEND OF ZELDA JOKE HERE]

Holonet Blast #29

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It was a very New York Comic Con week of news, with the bulk of interesting information coming from the Big Apple.

The Forces of Destiny multimedia line will be getting a comic treatment from IDW. A great list of female writers and artists are attached to work on the series.

2Thrawn2Furious? Thrawn 2: Electric Bluegaloo? Well in any case, Timothy Zahn has submitted the first draft for a sequel to Thrawn. There was also a fantastic Lucasfilm publishing panel containing this announcement, which was recapped here at the official site.

Oh, then of course there’s this.

Get hype, y’all.

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 #20

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In what we can only hope is a trend for those of us too lazy to fish out physical discs from various cubby holes, Rogue One is available now to stream on Netflix in the United States.

Excited about the Phasma novel? So is the author.

Boy howdy there was a LOT of Star Wars literature news out of D23 and Dragon Con. Thankfully, awesome person Anthony Breznican has it all covered over at EW.

Growing up, I had an awesome battery powered scale car in the shape of a Geo Tracker I could drive. Kids today have it better, with a battery powered landspeeder they can drive. 

You thought the publishing news out of D23 was nuts? Wait till you see what came out at San Diego Comic Con.

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.