Category: star wars

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The Force Awakens will be going to Starz

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The Force Awakens will be having its pay-cable debut on Starz. It’s the last film in the premium cable network’s deal with Disney, which will be taking their future films to Netflix.

There were earlier rumors that Netflix may have tried to buy out Starz in order to debut all seven Star Wars at once, but they came to nothing. (Unless you happen to be in Canada, where Netflix will stream The Force Awakens – but no word on the rest of Star Wars, which is currently only available digitally for purchase.)

We still await word on when the older Star Wars films will return to basic cable – Spike TV’s previous deal is either already up or expires very soon, and in any case they haven’t aired the movies in a couple of years. My money is on Disney taking them to ABC Family/Freeform, which loves them a Harry Potter or Hunger Games marathon, but time will tell.

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Keeping up with Rogue One, that other new Star Wars movie

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So if there’s one thing I’ve learned the past few months, it’s that it is really, really hard for me to get excited or inspired about Rogue One when there are actual Episodes in play. Well, to be specific, sequel Episodes, because the prequel apathy has always been strong with me. I may, however, be in the minority on this: The next Star Wars film – which is, technically, a prequel to A New Hope – is the most anticipated movie of 2016, according to Fandango.

On the other hand, The Hollywood Reporter’s Graeme McMillan wonders if the film is too early a detour, a sentiment I can’t help but agree with.

In any case, today’s big Rogue One rumor, per Star Wars Time, is that the trailer will be attached to May’s Captain America: Civil War. That seems less like a rumor and more like plain old common sense, as we’re certainly going to see it drop in the spring, if not before.

If you’re looking for some heavier rumors, Making Star Wars is back in the mix with some (possible) details on the characters played by Mads Mikkelsen and Felicity Jones, and a set description from Pinewood.

Rogue One is due out December 16, 2016.

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Star Wars out this week: The Force Awakens novelization (again) and Vader Down concludes

It came out as an eBook way back on December 18th, but Tuesday sees the release of The Force Awakens novelization in hardcover.

On Wednesday, the Vader Down storyline wraps up in Star Wars #14 and Darth Vader #15. There’s also the second Darth Vader collection, Shadows and Secrets, in trade… And although it shipped last week, Obi-wan & Anakin #1 was actually supposed to go out this week, so if your comic shop got the memo you may not have been able to find it on sale.

In other book release news, Del Rey officially announced today that Claudia Gray’s New Republic: Bloodlines and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Life Debt have both been pushed back two months each. (Something that’s been reflected on our book release schedule for a while now.) Bloodlines is now due out May 3, and Life Debt on July 19. They’re our next two new novels, though there are a handful of paperback rereleases in the meantime, including the first Aftermath on March 29.

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The Force Awakens continues to smash box office records

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The Force Awakens has broken yet more records with an $88.3 million domestic haul for New Year’s weekend, bringing the totals to $740.3M domestic and $1.51 billion globally.

This week it notably beat Avatar as the fastest film to make it to $700M – it took 16 days, as opposed to Avatar‘s 72. The James Cameron film made $760.8M domestic in 2009, and it gets to hang on to being the top-grossing film of all time in North America for (maybe) a day or two. The Force Awakens is currently #6 in all time worldwide grosses.

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What do Rey and Kylo want? Exploring The Force Awakens

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What screenwriter Todd Alcott writes on movies and TV is always worth reading, and his pieces on The Force Awakens are no exception. Check out his thoughts on Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, and finally Poe Dameron and General Hux.

Here are a few other nice posts about various aspects of The Force Awakens. I also have a ton of meta queued up over at the Tumblr beginning Friday morning. (Currently binging on fan art.)

→ What to do when you’re not the hero any more, Laurie Penny’s look at how this year’s new movies (including The Force Awakens) and TV reflected a more diverse way of storytelling.

→ James Whitbrook on how Kylo Ren succeeds as a character where Anakin Skywalker failed. Or, there’s Bryan Young on ten times The Force Awakens nods to the prequels.

→ Two pieces for everyone sick of the ‘remake’ talk: Chris Taylor’s 5 questions and Joseph Scrimshaw’s how to talk to your family about The Force Awakens.

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George Lucas on Disney: “They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that.”


George Lucas was on Charlie Rose (via Indiewire) recently, where he was about as outspoken as he’s ever been on Star Wars in the wake of selling Lucasfilm to Disney:

“They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. Every movie I work very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships, make it new,” he said.

George is gonna George, I guess.

An important read for this week – particularly in reflection of these comments – is Devin Faraci’s defense of George Lucas, and the importance of cultural context. (Something which also applies the “white slavers” comment you’re seeing around so much. Though George has apologized.)