Category: books and comics

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Rebels takes the lead for Star Wars at SDCC

star-wars-rebels-sdcc-20141The Rebels panel is the highlight of SDCC for Star Wars fans, StarWars.com revealed this afternoon.

Producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg, as well as most of the main cast, will be at ‘The Heroes of Star Wars Rebels‘ on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.. There’s rampant speculation that the villain’s voice (as rumored…) will be revealed, but as of yet that’s it… Hell, I’d settle for an actual release date at this point.

Episode VII is sitting it out yet again, but the rest of the slate includes a dedicated book panel (2:00 p.m. Friday) with John Jackson Miller, Shelly Shapiro, Frank Parisi, Jennifer Heddle , Pablo Hidalgo, Vanessa Marshall and Dave Filoni. Hopefully they reveal some books beyond the four we know about…

J.W. Rinzler is also moderating panels on Star Wars Storyboards (with Joe Johnston on Friday at 11:00 a.m.) and kid’s book The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (with author Tony DiTerlizzi n Friday at 3:00 p.m.)

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Out this week: The Jedi Doth Return

jedi-dothYou have a reason to go to the bookstore today! Out now is William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher and Crucible by Troy Denning in paperback, though I can’t exactly recommend the latter. Still, we now know for sure that it’s the last gasp of the old (post-ROTJ) EU, so if you’re a completist, might as well go for it. Or not. I’ve done enough judging on that book.

As for the former, Cnet has a look at a few of the images.

Wednesday brings the hardcover collection of Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows to comic shops.

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Speculation gone wild: Is there a disguised actor on the Episode VII set?

Some Mara Jade speculation came up last week and I didn’t write about it, in part because it’s speculation and in part because from Star Wars 7 News, who have a history of wishful thinking ‘scoops’ – some of which feed into this piece. I’m not sure why Latino Review chose to highlight it, but they too say they’ve heard about a “disguised cast member” – And yes, I would trust Latino Review a smidge more than Star Wars 7 News – but only a smidge, particularly in this case.

Speculation gone wildSome of the other things they bring up don’t really hold much water for me: The whole Karen Gillan’s hair thing is for real but, IMO, neither here nor there. Nor do I think the Black Series figure means anything, as that’s been in the works since 2011 and came out much later than expected after the cancellation of the Droid Factory line.

As I’ve said before, I do hope Mara Jade makes the cut for Episode VII in one way or another. (Yesterday’s big plot rumor actually makes this slightly more probable to me, as it’s certainly something that could be used to reform Mara’s backstory in a few different ways.) If I was J.J. Abrams and I was using a major Expanded Universe character in my brand new Star Wars movie, she’d certainly be someone I’d lock in the mystery box. But y’know, that’s me. Of course there’s a case to be made here – who wouldn’t love to get their spackle knife out to save a favored character?

Do I hope there’s a 50/60-something actress in deep cover at Pinewood to play Mara Jade? Sure. Do I believe there’s a 50/60-something actress in deep cover at Pinewood? Not on these sources. The disguised person could be Lupita Nyong’o pre-announcement, or a familiar face such as Ewan MacGregor, Hayden Christenson or Ian McDiarmid set to make a Force ghost cameo. Hell, it could just be a random crew member or extra; Maybe J.J. is trolling again.

Basically: Yes, this is out there, but a lot of it seems to be grasping at straws. It is anything but solid, even for a ‘rumor.’ Don’t get your hopes up.