Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
If you’ve been holding out for a physical copy of Rogue One, Tuesday is your day for the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack and DVD. In the book aisle, there’s the latest Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia by Adam Bray, Cole Horton and Tricia Barr. You can get a preview (via our own James) at StarWars.com.
It’s a no-slouch week for comics as well, with Star Wars #30 and Marvel’s Rogue One #1 dropping on Wednesday. In reprints, there’s the A New Hope: Special Edition and a gigantic box set.
Last week, we held a prize drawing for the new Star Wars: Darth Vader and Family coloring book featuring the artwork of Jeffrey Brown, donated by Chronicle Books. And the winner is Stephanie! She will be getting a copy of the coloring book that contains tons of the best Star Wars scenes from earlier Jeffrey Brown books, like Vader’s Little Princess, converted into coloring pages, and includes nine new art pieces just for this book. (Adorable Wookiee and other books for illustrative purposes only.) Thanks to our friends at Chronicle Books!
Watch for another prize giveaway this week!
Hayden Christensen will be returning to Celebration for the first time since 2002 as part of the 40th Anniversary panel, joining Mark Hamill, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy. “Many galactic-sized surprises” are still being promised, but this is a fairly big one. (And yes, he’s signing.)
In other Celebration news, there’s now more previews up for the Store, mostly t-shirts.
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.
Of course there’s a BB-8 cake mold, and of course Thinkgeek carries it as part of their wide variety of geeky kitchenware. My only question: Do you eat his head first?
A first look at some of the first products for The Last Jedi, which will support the Force for Change charitable initiative and launch at Celebration Orlando. Bonus: A new outfit for Rey!
→ There was some footage shown yesterday at CinemaCon as part of a Disney sizzle reel. They were brief shots of Rey on Ahch-To with the blue lightsaber. Unfortunately, there’s also some faked footage floating around that contains none of this. So don’t be fooled. (Seriously, other than a fairly well done photoshop of Adam Driver with a scar, it’s super fake.)
→ Now, rumors! Making Star Wars has two since we last checked in. The first is regarding a piece of scenery that hasn’t yet been officially revealed, and the second says that The Leftovers’ Justin Theroux has a role.
All about Leland Chee! Also: Mark Hamill, the Ralph McQuarrie art book, a new mobile game and more.
Not only does he get to actually speak in The Last Jedi, but Mark Hamill has been officially announced as a guest at Celebration Orlando. He’ll have two panels: A tribute to Carrie Fisher on Friday and a solo show on Sunday.
(We also expect he’ll make an appearance at The Last Jedi panel.)
The news was announced on today’s Star Wars Show, and you can check out the con schedule as well.
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.
Time to catch up with all The Last Jedi rumors that have been flying about recently. Our first batch is from Making Star Wars, which hints at Captain Phasma’s new weapon (check out a fan art interpretation) and a new form of walker. Plus, Jason Ward is tweeting about the look of things in general: “The Last Jedi looks like the Star Wars prequels took “Game of Thrones” on a date and they had a baby.” This does fit with several things we saw out and about throughout the filming, both in Dubrovnik and the U.K.
Meanwhile, Star Wars News Net is reporting about several classic planets making a return in VIII and beyond, as well as how they may tie into the plot. As usual, I recommend reading this with a healthy dose of skepticism, but there are some intriguing things there.
→ Marvel is plotting something for November. WHATEVER COULD IT BE? (Does Threepio get another new arm? Another set of parents for Poe? Stay tuned.)
→ There’s also something going around about a guy from some British pop group having a cameo. Spoiler: It’s Gary Barlow, who also apparently hosts a talent show on the BBC. He’s older than me so it’s not a N’SYNC situation, at least.
→ In officially-sanctioned vagueness, there’s Laura Dern talking about how she can’t even tell her kids who she’s playing.