The Clone Wars returning for one last run

The Clone Wars is coming back for a twelve episode final run, Dave Filoni announced this afternoon at San Diego Comic-Con. The new episodes will air on Disney’s upcoming streaming service.

“I honestly didn’t think we would ever have the opportunity to return to The Clone Wars,” says Filoni in a statement. “Thanks to the relentless fan support and the team behind Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, we will now get to tell more of those stories. We feel a tremendous responsibility to make something that lives up to the legacy that George Lucas created with the original series and I think our team, many of whom worked on the show from the beginning, has risen to the challenge.”

Continue reading “The Clone Wars returning for one last run”

Forces of Destiny is back on March 19

Disney has announced that we can expect the next set of Forces of Destiny shorts on Monday, March 19. All eight new episodes will debut at 10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 p.m. ET) on Disney’s Youtube and Disney.com. The special will air on the Disney Channel the following Monday (March 25) at 9:50 p.m. ET/PT.

Voices include Mark Hamill (Luke), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose), Tiya Sircar (Sabine), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka), Vanessa Marshall (Hera), Catherine Taber (Padmé) and Matt Lanter (Anakin).

Titles, descriptions, and images in a gallery under the cut. Continue reading “Forces of Destiny is back on March 19”

More Forces of Destiny coming October 1

The second wave of Forces of Destiny will begin with two half-hour specials on the Disney Channel and Disney Channel app. The first will debut Sunday, October 1 at 8:00 p.m., followed by the second on October 29 at 8:00pm. They’ll appear on Disney’s Youtube after the specials, a departure from the first wave, which debuted online.

Would you name your baby Kylo? ‘Cause a lot of people are

There were a lot of baby Kylos last year. The name jumped the popularity ranks from #3269 in 2015 to #901 in 2016, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration. So it’s not incredibly popular (to contrast, Ben was #704, and Benjamin is #6) but it is getting more popular. And note – it’s still less popular than Anakin, which is #778, up from #910.

At #175 Finn is the most popular sequel-trilogy related name associated with a major character – but it’s in been in wide use and gaining in popularity for more than a decade now, so we can’t peg that to Star Wars alone. Rey hasn’t shown any major growth, though it did jump from 904 to 868 (though as a male name – it’s not in the top 1000 for girls.)

As for the old standbys, Leia is #321, while Luke is #29. Poe, Han, Padme and Armitage (I had to look it up just for kicks) are all unranked.

NYCC: Next Marvel limited series goes back to the prequel era for Obi-Wan & Anakin

obi-ani-1-crop

Obi-Wan & Anakin, a 5-issue limited series from writer Charles Soule (Lando) and artist Marco Checchetto (Shattered Empire) will debut in January, CBR reports. Here’s the official synopsis for #1:

“Before their military heroism in the Clone Wars, before their tragic battle on Mustafar, and many decades before their final confrontation on the Death Star… they were Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan learner, Anakin Skywalker. It’s been a few years since Obi-Wan pledged to train the young “chosen one,” but even as they have grown closer through training, it has been a difficult road. Now, called to a remote planet for assistance, Master and Padawan may be pushed to the breaking point. Writer Charles Soule (Lando, She-Hulk, Daredevil) and artist Marco Checchetto (Star Wars: Shattered Empire, Avengers World, Punisher) bring us a tale of the Jedi at the height of their power…”

Marvel has previously touched on the very end of the prequel era with the Rebels tie-in Kanan: The Last Padawan.

UPDATE: CBR has an interview with Soule about the mini-series.

The first image of Padme and Anakin… From 1993?

brian-ashmore-padmeHere’s a little oddity from the past: Brian Ashmore’s painting of Anakin Skywalker, his wife and baby Luke from 1993. Originally painted for Topps’ Star Wars Galaxy 2 card set, it may very well be the earliest depiction of the couple, for all it was pulled from the set by George Lucas himself. Here’s what Ashmore himself had to say about it back in 2008:

There are a couple things that I find interesting about the image. First, my depiction of Padme (I had no idea of her name at the time…this was 6 years before Episode 1) looks a bit like Natalie Portman. Second, Anakin’s shadow on the wall is in the shape of Darth Vader. I’ve always wondered if this image might have influenced Lucas even just a little tiny bit in his casting of Natalie Portman or even the decision to have little Anakin’s shadow be in the shape of Darth Vader in an early Episode 1 promo poster. Probably not, but I can dream. Can’t I?

I don’t know about the casting choice – Iain McCaig seems to be the culprit there – but the shadow? Stranger things have happened… In any case, the painting eventually saw the light as ‘The Skywalker Flame’ in the Star Wars Galaxy 5 set.

On that note, the Skywalker family is our current Tumblr theme – queued through Friday and including a reblog of the original post that reminded me of this.