The first teaser for Rogue One is premiering on Good Morning America tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s a teaser for the teaser, because this is how we live now.
The weird and wacky history of Star Wars slash
We had The Atlantic looking at The Force Awakens fan fiction last week, but now there’s a historical look-back at slash in the fandom from Lady Business at Livejournal. Behold! Fans actually asking permission to fandom! Letters from the fan club president! “Fandom is about celebrating the story the way it is.”
The spectre of all this was still hanging over fandom when I first found it in the ’90s, believe it or not. (Or maybe I just knew a lot of zine folks in the Star Ladies.) It wasn’t until after The Phantom Menace – and the huge and (officially*) uncontested slash fandom that came out of it – that the paranoia eased.
* There were flame wars. Oh, were there flame wars. But Lucasfilm stayed out of it. Slash bans – like the infamous one at TheForce.Net’s Jedi Council forums that was only removed last year – were solely coming from fansite owners and operators.
Today in The Force Awakens: Costume concepts, books and more
Over at IGN, an interview with costume designer Michael Kaplan, and how the looks evolved for characters both old and new.
→ Our own James interviews Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens author Landry Q. Walker at StarWars.com, while comic writer Charles Soule talks to ComicBook.com about Poe Dameron #1. Soule also did a guest post for StarWars.com.
→ We all heard about Force for Daniel, but Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams showed the movie to dozens of terminally ill fans.
→ Vulture takes a look at who’ll buy physical copies of The Force Awakens. I’m guessing… A lot of people? They also look back at the box office.
→ A look at how Rey’s isolation is framed in the film.
→ StarWars.com also presents their list of the ten best The Force Awakens moments.
Spoilerphobes beware: Star Wars veteran headed to Pinewood for Episode VIII?
This is another one I feel little silly hedging on for the spoiler-free among us, so let’s head right to the cut.
Continue reading “Spoilerphobes beware: Star Wars veteran headed to Pinewood for Episode VIII?”
Luke Skywalker is 2016’s This Is Madness champion
Apparently all it takes is some intense staring in a $2B movie to go from zero to hero in This is Madness, the StarWars.com character tournament.
After disappointing showings in previous years, Luke Skywalker not only made it to the finals, but won the whole thing, defeating previous champions Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi along the way. Newbies Rey and Kylo Ren also made quite a showing, facing off against Luke and Vader in the final four matchups.
Abrams tells the ‘truth’ behind Kylo Ren’s helmet stand
In a striking blow to absurdity, J.J. Abrams tells Entertainment Weekly that the dusty substance Kylo Ren places his helmet on in The Force Awakens isn’t Millicent the cat’s litter box, but some emo ‘ashes of his enemies’ bullshit. Fandom is disappointed in you, Abrams. Millicent is disappointed in you.
Next up: Kylo’s dark side secret for avoiding helmet hair? We can but hope.
Force for Change to match fan donations in new campaign
Kathleen Kennedy and Mark Hamill announce Lucasfilm’s latest Force for Change campaign. And stare at things. Intensely.
Del Rey’s 2016 Star Wars sampler to be available April 11
First given out as a paperback at C2E2, Del Rey’s Star Wars 2016 Sampler will be available for the rest of us as an eBook on April 11. It can be preordered now from a variety of vendors.
The only new Star Wars excerpt contained within is Claudia Gray’s Bloodline (out May 3,) but it also features the complete short stories “Bait” by Alan Dean Foster, “Inbrief” by Janine K. Spendlove, and “Blade Squadron” and “Blade Squadron: Zero Hour” by David J. Williams and Mark S. Williams.
Today in The Force Awakens: Everybody dance now
From the Target special features (via Entertainment Tonight), John Boyega and Daisy Ridley rapping. Also, dancing! (There are GIFs on Tumblr, of course.)
→ The Facebook live chat with Daisy Ridley this morning went well. (Problems with Facebook? There’s a copy on on Youtube.)
→ J.J. Abrams talks to Entertainment Weekly about Mark Hamill and the table read.
→ Neal Scanlan talks to IGN about Snoke, while concept artist Doug Chiang is at Yahoo discussing technology, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber and Starkiller Base. 
Maz Kanata, watching you from the set of Episode VIII
Episode VIII director Rian Johnson shared a new image from the set today on his Tumblr, featuring Maz Kanata and (presumably) definitely not Lupita N’yongo.