Posts

Posted on

Behind the scenes with E.K. Johnston on writing Ahsoka

e-k-johnston-cropAhsoka by E.K. Johnston comes out today from Disney-Lucasfilm Press in hardcover, eBook and audio. It tells a great story that helps fill in some of the critical gaps between her departure from the Jedi Order in The Clone Wars and her appearance as the Rebel agent, Fulcrum, in Rebels.

In early September, author E.K. Johnston was a guest panelist at Salt Lake Comic Con, where she discussed her novel on two panels: “The Life and Times of Ahsoka Tano” (alongside Pablo Hidalgo, Amy Ratcliffe, and moderated by Bryan Young; panel available from Full of Sith) and “Star Wars Books: Writing the Force” (alongside Christie Golden, Cecil Castellucci, Matt Martin, and moderated by yours truly). Here is an abridged transcript of the panel, focusing on Johnston’s responses to the moderator prompts and panelist discussion as relating to writing the newest chapter in the story of Ahsoka Tano.

Here’s what Johnston had to say (trying to stay spoiler free) on the behind-the-scenes of writing Ahsoka: Continue reading “Behind the scenes with E.K. Johnston on writing Ahsoka”

Posted on

Star Wars out this week: Ahsoka, Darth Vader #25

ahsoka-book2-crop

Tuesday is a big day for Ahsoka Tano fans, as E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka hits the shelves. The book fills in at least some of the gaps between her last appearance in The Clone Wars and her first in Rebels. The audiobook version, also out Tuesday, is read by Ashley Eckstein. You can check out a sample on Soundcloud.

Comic fans have a big Wednesday ahead as well, with Darth Vader #25, the final issue of the ongoing series. In true Marvel fashion, it has several variant covers. And StarWars.com has a two-part interview with writer Kieron Gillen for the occasion.

If that doesn’t do it for you, there’s also Han Solo #4 and The Force Awakens #5.

Also coming up in October we have Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars Propaganda on the 25th. Our next novel is Catalyst by James Luceno, which will give us some background on Rogue One, out on November 15. Check out our book release schedule for the rest of 2016.

Posted on

NYCC: Timothy Zahn says not to fear that Rebels is going to misuse Thrawn

s3-rebels-thrawn

We’ve already covered the news out of Friday’s Star Wars writers roundtable at NYCC, but there was a decent lineup of current writers: Novelists Timothy Zahn, Chuck Wendig, James Luceno, E.K. Johnston, comic writers Kieron Gillen, Charles Soule, plus Lucasfilm editor Jennifer Heddle. Tor.com has a nice roundup of their comments.

Zahn reassured fans that the Thrawn on Rebels is not too far removed from the Thrawn of Legends. Johnston revealed that Ahsoka begins “about ten minutes—slight exaggeration—after Order 66 comes down.” And Wendig had some wise words about what makes Star Wars so appealing. (He also joked about Jar Jar being in Empire’s End, of course. But is it really that far-fetched? Really?)

Here’s the panel video:

Posted on

NYCC: More Rogue One books revealed; 40th Anniversary publishing program coming

Details on the Rogue One book tie-ins and 40th Anniversary publishing program for 2017 were revealed at New York Comic Con Friday morning.

In addition to James Luceno’s Catalyst, the Rogue One fiction lineup will include a young adult novel about Jyn Erso from Star Wars newcomer Beth Revis (Across the Universe.) Greg Rucka (Before the Awakening) will return for a middle grade novel featuring Baze Malbus and Chirrut Îmwe. The preliminary versions of the covers above were spotted earlier by Jedi Bibliotek. They’ll both be out on May 2.

catalyst700Catalyst will be the first of the Rogue One books to hit the shelves, on November 15th. The second wave will drop with the film on December 16, and includes The Art of Rogue One, Pablo Hidalgo’s Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide and ebook versions of the two novelizations: Alexander Freed’s from Del Rey and the junior version by Matt Forbeck from Disney-Lucasfilm Press. Freed’s will be in hardcover on January 3, while it looks like Forbeck’s won’t be in print until March 28.

We’ll learn more about the 40th Anniversary publishing plans in the coming months, although the official site says “legendary Star Wars talent such as Louise Simonson, Walter Simonson, and Tom Palmer would be reuniting” for an anniversary book from Disney-Lucasfilm Press. One component of the program would seem to be a new collection of the newspaper strips, also spotted by – you guessed it – Jedi Bibliotek.

Posted on

Report: Tessa Thompson, Zoe Kravitz among actresses testing for Han Solo standalone

Variety reports today that three actresses have tested for the young Han Solo spinoff. Tessa Thompson (Creed), Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Naomi Scott (the upcoming Power Rangers) have all tested in London for the film’s female lead, they say.

Both Thompson and Kravitz are familiar faces who’ve have been around for a bit. I remember Thompson from her turn on Veronica Mars, but she’s recently got a lot of buzz with roles in Creed, Selma, and the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok. Kravitz has a heavy genre resume in addition to Mad Max, with roles in X-Men: First Class, the Divergent films and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy.

Naomi ScottScott isn’t quite as well known, but she was in Fox’s 2011 time-travel dinosaur drama Terra Nova and The Martian before landing the role of the Pink Ranger in 2017’s Power Rangers.

Variety also addresses the rumor about Donald Glover and the Lando Calrissian role, but there’s apparently a “second round of tests” in the offing. Until now, Glover is the only name that’s been publicly linked to the role, though The Hollywood Reporter now says that O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Netflix’s The Get Down) are also finalists.

Whoever wins the role(s) will be playing against Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the untitled film is currently scheduled for a May 2018 release.