Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Star Wars Books announced today that author (and Jader!) Janine K. Spendlove is writing a short story tie-in to the upcoming novel Battlefront: Twilight Company. The story will appear in Star Wars Insider #161, which will be on sale October 20th.
Janine is the author of the War of the Seasons trilogy and numerous short stories, including the Athena’s Daughters anthologies. She is an active pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Out Tuesday is the fifth of the new canon novels, Christie Golden’s Dark Disciple. Based on eight unproduced scripts from The Clone Wars, the novel features a brief introduction from Katie Lucas.
And on Wednesday, look for Lando #1 from Marvel, the first of a new limited series.
We heard the other day that Disneyland wants $1 billion for upgrades that will presumably include something Star Wars, but on the other side of the country it’s $3 billion worth of changes for Hollywood Studios in Orlando. According to Billy Donnelly (via) it’s for a pretty dramatic makeover that includes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Pixar.
One addition? A Dagobah makeover for Echo Lake. How very Florida!
Details – and an official announcement – are expected at D23 in August.
There’s already one piece of supposed concept art for The Force Awakens character played by Lupita Nyong’o out there, but Making Star Wars has another that seems to be more connected to the tiny glimpse we get of her in the trailer.
Of course, we won’t know for sure until the powers-that-be choose to reveal her… Or some sort of product leaks. Start placing your bets now, I suppose.
Well, the votes are in, and Rebels’ Sabine Wren was the only woman to make the finals in the Hasbro Fan’s Choice poll, up for vote now on StarWars.com. The other finalists are Ben Kenobi (A New Hope,) Lando Calrissian, Darth Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic games, General Grievous, a Gamorrean guard and a snowtrooper. When I voted, Revan had a strong lead, with Obi-Wan second and Sabine in third.
The winning character, to be announced at SDCC, will be made into a 6″ Black Series figure.
Several other women made the finals at individual sites: Mara Jade was #1 at Topless Robot , #2 at Making Star Wars and #3 at Yakface, among others. Asajj Ventress and Ahsoka Tano (The Clone Wars version) also made a strong showing – here’s an informal countup of all the sites that posted their results publicly.
Jedi-Bibliothek was first to spot the blurb for Shattered Empire, Marvel’s first foray into the post-Legends, post-Return of the Jedi galaxy, on Previews. Here’s the relevant bit:
Emperor Palpatine’s twenty-year reign of terror came to an abrupt and fiery end in the skies above the forest moon of Endor. A decisive victory for the Rebel Alliance, to be sure, but even with the loss of its leadership, the Empire’s Moffs and regional governors retained their hold on important systems from the Core to the Outer Rim, thanks to the might of the Imperial Starfleet. Now, with a power vacuum atop the Empire, those Moffs will jockey for position and control, and the heroes of the Rebel Alliance will soon discover that a wounded and fractious Empire may be more dangerous than any threat they faced before!
…We’ve been here before. I recognize that tree. Sounds like the differences at this point will be in the details, but then, this is a blurb: The most sanitized, spoiler-free form of story there is, painted in the broadest strokes possible because they know how we analyze them. And it’s not like the old Legends version of this didn’t leave plenty of room for improvement.
That’s what Making Star Wars has heard, anyway. Not sure we’ll get any big splash on it officially, due to the Mission Impossible situation, but here’s hoping.
As San Diego Comic-Con approaches, actual The Force Awakens news is thin on the ground. Here’s what we have so far:
→ That promo art from last week has now appeared on a basketball hoop, of all things. (Now 200% tackier and more cluttered!) But it is newsworthy if only because this version contains a few additional figures, most notably Threepio, confirming that his cosmetic change is not limited to Mexican soda cans.
→ In a new interview, Alan Dean Foster talks a bit about novelizing The Force Awakens.
→ Rumor has it that a Star Wars exhibit may be coming to Disneyland in November which probably means at least some of it will be themed to The Force Awakens. On that note, Disney’s also looking to invest a billion dollars at the park for ‘new attractions,’ among other things.
→ Record revenue for Pinewood this year, helped along by Star Wars and others.
→ Spoiler corner: On how Skellig Michael might fit into the rest of the sequel trilogy.
The booklet of Star Wars novel excerpts that Del Rey was giving out at Celebration Anaheim is now available to all as a free download. You can get it at Amazon or from your preferred eBook vendor.
It contains excerpts from the upcoming Dark Disciple by Christie Golden and Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed, as well the other new canon books that are already out.
Well, after a few weeks of nothing, we finally have an actual lineup for this week’s releases – at least if you’re collecting comics. Wednesday brings Princess Leia #5 (preview) and Darth Vader #7 (preview,) plus the third printing of Star Wars #3. Then Marvel’s third collection of Legends/Dark Horse stuff, or, the Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 1. It reprints Knights of the Old Republic 1-18.
Also, if you’re really bored, the Tarkin paperback is out tomorrow.
If you’re new to buying comics, Eleven-ThirtyEight had a nice piece last week on the hows and whys of the industry. For the record, I always use Diamond for new release posts – the dates on Marvel’s site have proved no less reliable than Dark Horse’s were!
Our next novel, Christie Golden’s Dark Disciple, drops next week on July 7.