There are actual Star Wars Barbies and they are amazing

I have no idea how this happened, but Mattel is putting out three Star Wars Barbies. Yes, Mattel. Yes, Barbies.

They’re fancy collectors editions that reimagine three iconic A New Hope looks through a high-fashion lens and they cost $100 each, so yes: Collectors items. But honestly, I mostly just enjoy the fact that they exist at all.

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Please take this bushel of Rogue One links


Rogue One is all over the place, so let’s mop this up before more comes along. Above, the Rogue One VHS commercial by Damien Kazan.

→ Gareth Edwards shares some (ancient) Jedha history, about how the city got it’s high density of kyber crystals.

→ Entertainment Weekly’s final infodump on all the scenes that weren’t, Dantooine not making the cut, cameos and plot holes..

→ John Knoll is nursing another spinoff idea, but he’s not sure if he’ll pitch it.

→ Mads Mikkelsen on how much of Galen’s backstory he knew, Felicity Jones, Oppenheimer and more.

→ A look at a featurettes about Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, Saw Gerrera.

→ Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood talk about the film’s sound.

→ Gareth Edwards on Darth Vader’s final scene.

This week in Rogue One: Gareth Edwards on the ending, Leia, Vader and more

With the Rogue One home release imminent, director Gareth Edwards has been making the rounds. At SWSW, he talked about how Scariff’s name came about. With /Film, he explains the original ending and what changed, plus. how he got away with killing everyone off.

At Fandango, he discusses why we won’t see cut scenes, Carrie Fisher’s reaction to Leia’s cameo and how Vader’s big moment came to be. He also stopped by Reddit for an AMA.

Meanwhile, Ingvild Deila, the actress who helped recreate young Leia, talks to The Hollywood Reporter.

We’ve also seen a few aditional Rogue One guests named for Celebration, namely Riz Ahmed and Alan Tudyk. (There’s been some speculation that Tudyk might host The Last Jedi panel, as Gwendoline Christie did for Rogue One’s at Celebration Europe.)

Marvel’s Darth Vader relaunching as post-ROTS series

Marvel is doing a second Darth Vader ongoing series. Written by Charles Soule with art Giuseppe Camuncoli, it begins just after Revenge of the Sith. It will feature Vader building his red lightsaber and hunting down surviving Jedi. Soule told StarWars.com he considers the series to be “Vader: Year One.”

The previous Vader series was written by Kieron Gillen and ran for 25 issues. It was set in the gap between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Gillen is currently helming the Doctor Aphra ongoing, which spun off the first series.

Marvel has consistently only been running three Star Wars ongoings t time – right now that’s Star Wars, Doctor Aphra and Poe Dameron. It’s possible they might begin winding down Poe – which Soule also writes – for this new Vader.

The new Darth Vader #1 will be out in June.

Today in Rogue One: All the footage that didn’t make it, about the film’s most surprising locale


A nice video that shows many of the trailer/commercial shots that weren’t in the final film.

→ /Film takes a look at Darth Vader’s Mustafar digs, including the history, the ground-laying done in Rebels, and the hints that we may see it again fairly soon.

→ At The Verge, Andrew Liptak calls Mike Stackpole’s X-wing novels the “spiritual ancestor” of Rogue One.

→ And speaking of things revived from the murky Star Wars past, Force Material is all over the Whills, who’ve been around (vaguely) since the very beginning.

→ Rogue One has helped push Disney over the $7B global box office mark in 2016 – the first movie studio to do so.

→ DK has several behind-the-scenes photos | Alternate pun-filled titles for Michael Giacchino’s score | Gareth Edwards on the cameras and technology behind the film.