Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The Smithsonian’s Star Wars traveling exhibition is heading to New York next, StarWars.com has announced. Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen, Star Wars and the Power of Costume, which debuted in Seattle last year, will open at Discovery Times Square in November.
They’re also adding “select costumes” and a BB-8 from The Force Awakens. We’ve previously seen a number of costumes from the new film at Celebration Anaheim and D23 Expo.
Collider tonight reports that Gugu Mbatha-Raw is joining the cast of Episode VIII. A previous rumor says that she was up for one of two roles alongside Gina Rodriguez and Tatiana Maslany.
Mbatha-Raw is best known for her lead roles in Belle and Beyond the Lights. Sci-fi fans may also remember her from a supporting role in Jupiter Ascending or even as Martha Jones’ sister Tish on Doctor Who.
Whether the second VII role is still in play – or ever was – is unknown. However, a report from earlier today has Maslany in negotiations for the Boston Marathon bombing drama Stronger, which will likely take her out of the running for for Star Wars. (Deja vu much?)
StarWars.com has their schedule for NYCC, including the Rebels screening, Hasbro, and a Journey to The Force Awakens panel.
This week’s new releases gives us a pair of links to characters from The Force Awakens. One is in Shattered Empire #2, doubling down on what we learned from #1, while the other is in Jason Fry’s Servants of the Empire #4: The Secret Academy.
Neither has been out very long, so the relevant info is below the cut. I can’t see either of these things staying quiet for long, though, so consider yourself warned and be sure to grab these books ASAP if you’re spoilerphobic.
Continue reading “Reveals and hints for The Force Awakens characters in this week’s releases”
Jason at Making Star Wars discusses Rey’s staff. There are some spoilers in the piece, but since there is no way this is the case anyway, let’s put this out: It’s not Darth Plagueis’ staff. It was never going to be Darth Plagueis’ staff. I don’t know where this speculation originated, and I don’t really care, but save it for your fanfics.
→ Scott Mendelson at Forbes considers possible ratings for The Force Awakens.
→ At Yahoo, Domhnall Gleeson talks about how Harry Potter prepped him for Star Wars, and reveals that the ‘Starkiller Base’ slip up… Wasn’t actually a slip.
→ Looking ahead: Director Rian Johnson actually tweeted a photo of his Episode VIII script last night. (Just a cover page, spoilerphobes.) Here’s the story of how it happened.
→ Also, will Star Wars return to Skellig Michael for a third round of filming in 2016?
Yowie the Skunk, Baby Jawa, and Jawajames are back with another Unboxing Star Wars video! This time, we check out a BB-8 shirt, dive into the Journey to the Force Awakens book, Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry, and also talk about what was cool in the world of Star Wars at Salt Lake Comic Con!
For more on how Cecil Castellucci developed the character of Leia in Moving Target, check back to her Force Friday author appearance.
Of the many great Star Wars panels at Salt Lake Comic Con a few weeks ago, one of the highlights was the “Clone Wars & Rebels: How Animation Changed Star Wars” panel. Moderated by Bryan Young, the panelists included Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo, veteran voice actor Dee Bradley Baker, and artist Scott Harben.
Bryan Young moderated another panel that would interest EU fans. He had authors R. A. Salvatore and Mike Stackpole discuss “Why We Killed Chewbacca” bringing in how the decision was made and the fallout from that event.
In an interview with Empire, Benicio del Toro discusses his childhood love of Star Wars and says he thinks Rian Johnson will “bring a cool, sci-fi realism” to Episode VIII.
del Toro has yet to be confirmed by Lucasfilm (he may be playing a villain,) but he hasn’t been shy talking about it.
Between comics and comic reprints, there is a lot of Star Wars coming up this week. But first, on Tuesday, is The Rise of the Empire, a trade paperback that collects John Jackson Miller’s A New Dawn and James Luceno’s Tarkin, plus three brand-new short stories from Miller, Jason Fry and Melissa Scott.
But Wednesday is definitely the motherlode. If you’re keeping up with the comics in real time we have Shattered Empire #2, Star Wars #10, Darth Vader #10 and Lando #5, which finishes up the miniseries.
If it’s collections you’re after, we have the first set of stories from the new Star Wars and Darth Vader titles, plus the third hardcover omnibus of classic Marvel titles and a collection of covers from the new line.
James was able to attend a Rebels season 2 screening and press conference last week, and here’s his video of the presser.
Among the reveals: Dave Filoni said that S2 will have two episodes that explore Hera’s backstory: One that ficuses on her piloting skills, and another having to do with her family. There’s also going to be a new trailer debuting this week that will give us a look at something new regarding Sabine. He also talks about the importance of having a wide range of roles for female characters.
There are a few minor spoilers for ‘The Lost Commanders’ in the video:
The show returns October 14th on Disney XD.