The third Forces of Destiny short, ‘Ewok Escape,’ features Leia on Endor, and how she got that dress.
Video: Forces of Destiny continues with ‘BB-8 Bandits’
The second episode of Forces of Destiny, ‘BB-8 Bandits’, is up. Like the first, it features Rey and BB-8 on Jakku in between scenes of The Force Awakens. It debuted on the French site CNEWS Matin.
Video: Forces of Destiny begins with ‘Sands of Jakku’
The first Forces of Destiny episode, ‘Sands of Jakku,’ went up this morning. Over at Mashable, Dave Filoni talks about the series, which will be debuting new episodes all week on the Disney Youtube channel.
Link: Star Wars won four categories at the 2017 Saturn Awards
Star Wars won four categories at the 2017 Saturn Awards. Rogue One took Best Science Fiction Film as well as Visual Effects, and Gareth Edwards took Best Direction. Star Wars Rebels was named Best Animated Series.
It’s an animation free-for-all on this week’s Star Wars Show
There’s more Forces of Destiny talk in today’s Star Wars Show, including an interview with Ashley Eckstein.
We also get the announcement of the Star Wars Rebels S3 Blu-Ray/DVD, which will be out on August 29. On the show, a short bonus clip focusing on Mon Mothma.
See the Blu-ray cover under the cut. Continue reading “It’s an animation free-for-all on this week’s Star Wars Show”
Forces of Destiny begins airing July 3 on Youtube
Forces of Destiny will debut online July 3 – next Monday – on Disney’s Youtube channel. New shorts will then premiere on the channel every day at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT.)
Eight in total, the shorts will feature Rey, Jyn Erso, Leia Organa, Sabine Wren, Padme Amidala, Ahsoka Tano “and others.” (We get a glimpse of Luke, Yoda and… a tree in the preview video above. Is the tree female? Or is that supposed to be Anakin?)
Rebels’ Hera Syndulla will reportedly appear in an episode set during Return of the Jedi.
Their broadcast debut will be Sunday, July 9 on the Disney Channel. Merchandise drops in August – early looks at the toy packaging are floating around now.
SWCO sets new Celebration attendance record
Another Celebration is in the books, and that means another attendance record. Celebration Orlando attendance was more than 70,000 people, StarWars.com says. That’s up from Anaheim’s 65K in 2015, and double our last Orlando outing in 2012. No wonder things got a bit… Messy. Attendees, look out for the surveys and be sure to fill them out.
We learned before the con that the next Celebration won’t be until 2019 – probably skipping the overseas outings that we had in 2014 and 2016. The leading speculation seems to be that we’ll be headed back to Anaheim, but since we didn’t get a location on Sunday we’ll be left hanging for a while longer. On the plus side, Pablo made a cannon canon.
In the meantime, here are a few other things we learned that I never got around to writing up, because cons are crazy.
→ Here’s a bit more from the Forces of Destiny panel.
→ Hasbro’s panel included looks at the new 6″ Thrawn and Jaina Solo figures, both of which will be available in the fall. Thrawn is also the SDCC exclusive, in a special box resembling his Rebels office. Also: The new Hallmark ornaments.
→ A few details on how the Star Wars lands will work. They’ll be “set” on a brand-new planet and be super interactive, which sounds like… Something. Something very new. Meanwhile, there’s a survey going around that seems to indicate that Disney is considering a Star Wars-themed resort hotel/experience in Florida that ties in with a lot of what they announced.
→ Doug Chiang talks Rogue One concepts and designs.
→ A bit of The Clone Wars and Rebels from Dave Filoni and Pablo. Filoni also told /Film that we won’t see the battle of Scariff on Rebels. (Though note that doesn’t count out other mediums.)
→ Meet the costume contest winners.
Rebels to end after Season 4; Another Thrawn trilogy character returns to canon
Two big things (for our purposes, at least) came out of Celebration’s Rebels panel. It will be the show’s final season, but Grand Admiral Thrawn’s bodyguard (in the books) Rukh will make an appearance before it’s gone for good. The character will be only the second character from the Thrawn trilogy to make it to canon on Rebels. And, the kicker: He’s being voiced by Warwick Davis.
Given the timeline, I wouldn’t expect him to play quite the same role in the show that he did in the books – but you never know.
The show itself ending is not a particularly big surprise, but as Dave Filoni pointed out at the panel, this gives him a chance to take it out properly. This certainly won’t be the last we see from Lucasfilm Animation – and I’m not talking about Forces of Destiny.
We also got to see the first episode of S4. I won’t say much, but it was the first part of a two-parter set on Mandalore.
New “micro-short” series Forces of Destiny to highlight the women of Star Wars
Announced overnight, just ahead of the official opening of Celebration Orlando, is Forces of Destiny, a new series of animated shorts highlighting Rey, Jyn Erso, Sabine Wren, Leia Organa, Ahsoka Tano and more.
The series will launch in July on the Disney Youtube, with additional shorts debuting on the Disney Channel in the fall. Daisy Ridley, Felicity Jones, Tiya Sircar, Ashley Eckstein and Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata) are among those returning to voice their characters.
The series will also have book and action figure tie-ins. We’ll learn more later Friday at the “Heroines of Star Wars” panel here in Orlando.
Rumor: What’s tap for Star Wars in the future, maybe
Star Wars News Net has a new post up where they allege to know quite a bit of what Lucasfilm is planning for the next few spinoffs and scheduling of the saga films. The films themselves are, with a single exception, things that have already been heavily speculated on and wanted by some corners of fandom (Obi-wan, bounty hunters.) The “exception” seems to be a bit inspired by Lost Stars and “this is what fangirls want, right?”
The saga scheduling issue – which draws on another perpetual rumor – is somewhat plausible but fairly common sense.
In other words, there are a lot of parts here we’ve seen before, but I’m doubtful they all actually add up the way it’s presented. So naturally, I’m more skeptical than usual. It’s an interesting read, but I wouldn’t put too much faith in the overall.