Holonet Blast #44

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Shoshana

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:

First #Solo: A @StarWars Story trailer released during the #SuperBowl

See the FULL trailer TOMORROW on @GMA! pic.twitter.com/NEfkCfwAN2

— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 4, 2018

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 #32

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Shoshana

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

Posted on October 9, 2017 by admin

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.

Brand new @starwars: #TheLastJedi trailer TONIGHT during Monday Night Football on @espn. pic.twitter.com/ie6tuE2SV6

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 9, 2017

Get hype, y’all.

Holonet Blast #9

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Shoshana

Things have slowed down on the news-front since Celebration, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some news for you! (And in case you missed the madness… we got a The Last Jedi trailer, Rebels is ending after Season 4, there was a bunch of publishing news, and holy crap Battlefront II!)

EPISODE IX HAS A RELEASE DATE! It will be coming to our eyeballs not December 2019 but instead May 24, 2019, and if you think people haven’t already spent a lot of energy trying to figure out what prompted the switch back to May releases you would be extremely wrong.

Oh, and according to the same release, the fifth Indiana Jones films will be coming out on July 10, 2020, with both Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg returning once more. But now that they’ve brought aliens into the picture, where else is there for Indy to go? We shall learn together.

Holonet Blast #1

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Bria

Welcome to the first edition of something new we’re trying here at Tosche Station: the Holonet Blast. Over the last year or so, we’ve gotten away from being primarily a news blog but we don’t want to completely ignore it so we’ve found a solution with this once weekly round up of all the Star Wars news that hits the internet! As a note, we’ll be dealing with confirmed news only and not rumors because if we did rumors, we’d be here all year. But hey! We did learn things this week so strap yourselves in and let’s blast off!

Celebration is less than two months away and we’re finally getting some news about guests! If you’re an autograph collector, start saving now because Felicity Jones, Ian McDiarmid, and Jeremy Bulloch will all be at Celebration Orlando! Hopefully more guest announcements will be made soon so people can try and budget accordingly.

The Marvel comics will be kicking off their next crossover in May! Titled ‘The Screaming Citadel,’ the story start with a one-shot by Kieron Gillen and then go back and forth between the main Star Wars book by Jason Aaron and the new Doctor Aphra book by Gillen. Per the official site, “Luke reluctantly team[s] with the shady-but-cool archaeologist to investigate the Screaming Citadel, an infamous castle located on the edge of space.” Given how well Vader Down went, Screaming Citadel is definitely something that fans are going to want to pick up. You should also give the interview with Aaron and Gillen a read because holy crap am I excited for this story!

In news much further in the future, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger announced on a call that the Star Wars Lands in Disneyworld and Disneyland will open in 2019. From what everyone’s saying, that’s a fairly aggressive build schedule. As a note, Iger didn’t say when in 2019 they’ll open. Some folks are speculating that it’ll be in time for Celebration (so hypothetically April 2019) but it could also easily be later in the year. And let’s be honest… they’re going to get our money either way. Personally, I’m guessing it’ll be later in the year because why not (hypothetically) get our money from park visits around Celebration and them again when the new attractions open? Again, that’s just speculation and we don’t know anything for sure except that we’re getting it in 2019. (For now.)

The New York Times ran a nice profile piece on some of the women help create the Star Wars universe, specifically those at Industrial Light & Magic. It’s definitely an interesting read if you have a few minutes especially since most of these mainstream “Women of Star Wars” pieces tend to focus on either the characters or Kathleen Kennedy.

And as always, the Star Wars Show is a delight! This week, they chatted with Laura Jane Grace, Pablo took us to the Rogue One creature shop, and Andi went skateboarding?

But most importantly… February 6^th marked the first birthday of Millicent Hux. For those of you who somehow aren’t aware, Millicent is Hux’s ginger cat imagined by Pablo Hidalgo and she uses Kylo’s vat of ashes for her litter box. Needless to say, fandom (including myself) took the concept and ran with it and basically she’s canon now. All hail Millicent!

Jake Lloyd, Mental Illness, and Laying Off on the Bullying

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Emily

Jake Lloyd, the actor behind Episode I’s Anakin Skywalker, was recently moved to a psychiatric facility after spending ten months in jail following a high-speed chase with police in South Carolina in June 2015. While the information has been out there for a while, the fact that Lloyd suffers from schizophrenia is once again in the news, perhaps in a higher profile way than it had before.

There are about a hundred things we could talk about with this. Psychiatric facilities versus jail, support for mental illness, lessening the stigma of mental illness.

Because let me tell you guys something. As someone who suffers from a mental illness herself? It sucks.

Continue reading →

Star Wars News from C2E2

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Bria

Star Wars fans didn’t have to wait very long to get comics and books related announcements from C2E2 out in Chicago but it was all rather vague. At a retailer breakfast this morning, it was announced that Marvel will be releasing a three issue comic plus a standalone issue in October that will be related to Rogue One. No writer or artist has been announced yet. We don’t know any other details but it’s likely filling a similar role to what Shattered Empire was for The Force Awakens. The Star Wars Free Comic Book Day offerings will be $1 a pop copies of some of the previously released books, mostly #1s.

At the Star Wars books panel this afternoon, the big announcement was Star Wars: Catalyst. Arriving on October 4th, the novel will be a prequel to Rogue One… and that’s all we know. Author announcement is forthcoming. Start the betting pool.

Outside of the Rogue One pattern, we did learn from Claudia Gray that a character from Lost Stars will make an appearance. You may also start the betting pool on this one. Claudia Gray also mentioned that the reason for the Bloodline’s delay was that she wanted to see The Force Awakens before finalizing her draft but also that this is a book about Leia herself and not Leia defined by her roles as wife or mother. For fans of Mark Waid’s run on the Leia comic, it sounds like Gray had the option to pull from the book but didn’t so don’t expect Queen Evaan to appear.

The Star Wars books panel featured Claudia Gray, John Jackson Miller, Jeffrey Brown, Adam Bray, and Elizabeth Schaefer. You can read Newsarama’s liveblog here for some of the more fun tidbits that panelists mentioned throughout the hour.

The Force Awakens Japanese Trailer!

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Nanci

There’s a new trailer! We didn’t know we were going to get this! I’m freaking out! Ahhhhhhhhh!

(Note: For spoilerphobes, it doesn’t give much story away. We’ve seen most of the footage before, but there’s some new images — like GENERAL ORGANA WITH POE DAMERON!)

The Force Awakens Character Posters Revealed!

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Nanci

Oh hey, were you looking for some The Force Awakens pretties to tide you over until December 18? You’re in luck! Feast your eyes on five character posters featuring Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, Han, and Leia. (No Poe Dameron, sadly.)

Leia’s sporting her look from the Official Poster, not the trailer, which has me intrigued. One is very political-looking while the other looks like a military uniform; do we get to see both sides of Leia in The Force Awakens? I would not complain.

#LukeWatch, the successor to #beardwatch, continues.

Hold on to yer butts, we’re getting a trailer.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Nanci

Yesterday afternoon starwars.com graced us with the official poster for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, along with confirmation that, yes, we’ll be getting a new trailer (the first full-length trailer, and the last one, apparently), tonight during Monday Night Football. The trailer will air during halftime, which should be around 10 pm eastern time.

Around the same time yesterday afternoon, three short teasers started airing on TV and were released on the internet. You can see them combined into one video below.

Tickets will go on sale immediately after the trailer airs. If you’re lucky enough to live near Disney World, there will be a special opening night event at Hollywood Studios. Brian and I will be there with bells on!

Last but not least, after the trailer drops I’ll be taking part in a special “Trailer Council” organized by Bobby Roberts from the Full of Sith podcast, and featuring voices from other Star Wars podcasts. You’ll be able to catch the recording on our feed within the next few days. And of course, we’ll have our own trailer analysis on this week’s episode of Tosche Station Radio and a reaction post tomorrow on the blog.