Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
In the midst of all the April Foolery yesterday, StarWars.com shared our first look at the official Celebration t-shirts, but they are indeed for real. I doubt these will be the only t-shirts – I’d expect at least one in-panel reveal, probably for The Force Awakens – but it’s almost certainly the bulk of them.
Celebration tips on Tosche Station Radio. James and Dunc joined Brian and Nanci for the latest episode as we look forward to Celebration Anaheim.
We learned a little about Aftermath, Del Rey’s key piece in the Journey to The Force Awakens, a few weeks ago: Namely, that Twitter-winning author Chuck Wendig is writing it, and that it involves “a fan favorite from the films” and “other familiar faces.” And Club Jade has learned who a few of those faces are.
So. Spoilers. Under the cut.
EXCLUSIVELY.
Continue reading “EXCLUSIVE: A major plot detail from Journey to the Force Awaken’s Aftermath”
We’ve heard a bit of this before, but Oscar Isaac tells Jimmy Fallon how his uncle scored an extra role on The Force Awakens
According to the official French Star Wars website (via Dork Side of the Force,) the opening panel with J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy at Celebration Anaheim is called Rise of the Force, and it’ll be simulcast worldwide at 35 theaters in 23 countries. The likewise official @StarWarsUK account posted about a showing at London’s Leicester Square, but as of yet there’s nothing on StarWars.com or from @StarWars.
A worldwide broadcast – even if only at 35 locations – does hint we’re going to get something big. Naturally, everyone is expecting a new trailer – and the rumors about it being attached to The Avengers: Age of Ultron were making the rounds again today, something backed up by a now-deleted tweet from the habitual butterfingers at @RegalMovies.
In today’s very spoiler-heavy report, Making Star Wars discusses the villains, what happens to them, and more evidence of a connection to some of the heroes. They also have some fan-made storyboards based on a previous report, and ‘the village people.’ Jason also has a few words on spoiler etiquette.
→ The Hollywood Reporter had an article last week about how Star Wars actors rarely become huge stars. Their point about “keeping yourself from any other franchises out there” seems to ignore that Oscar Isaac is going to play a pivotal role in the next X-Men movie, though, so take it as you will.
→ Simon Pegg talks about his Episode VII set visit with Collider, telling a sweet story about his daughter and BB-8.
Rumor: A few details on Rogue One. Making Star Wars has done some digging; Possible spoilers are mild at best.
It’s apparently Rebels week in releaseland, as we have the paperback edition of John Jackson Miller’s A New Dawn out on Tuesday. The hardcover dropped back before the show had even aired, so I expect the story of how Hera and Kanan met will find more of an audience now. James liked it! And hey, it’s John Jackson Miller, hard to go wrong there.
(If you have read A New Dawn, Miller posted the first part of his production notes last night. Naturally, they contain spoilers.)
For those already all in on Rebels lit, Marvel launches their fourth Star Wars title Wednesday with Kanan: The Last Padawan #1. It’s also a Rebels prequel, and Marvel’s first foray into the prequel era. StarWars.com has a five-page preview.
This one has been floating around for a bit, but if you look at the timeline in the upcoming novel releases, (see the previews for Lords of the Sith or the A New Dawn paperback) you’ll see a list of much of the canon content thus far. (Basically, everything save the comics.) Included on this list? Battlefront. We know a new Star Wars Battlefront game is coming, but a timeline placement for it between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back seems odd, seeing as we’ve heard that the game itself will cover several eras. (With much of the publicity art so far devoted to the Battle of Hoth from Empire.)
But it would make sense if this is actually a Battlefront novel tie-in that covers only one portion of the game. Jedi Bibliothek (translated) thinks this book may be Untitled Novel #24, which is set for November 3, 2015. It also features a bio for Steve Perry, but as usual, that is neither here nor there at this point.
We had feared (or hoped, in some cases) that #24 would be The Force Awakens novelization, but that is looking increasingly unlikely.
Since it’s the weekend, I thought I’d do some low-grade pimping. A couple years ago, I wrote a beginners guide to Star Wars novels on my personal blog, and I recently updated and overhauled it to reflect the current status of the older novels. (For the record, I still don’t mind.)
At the time, I figured if you were reading Club Jade, you weren’t a beginner, but it seems that since then, we’ve picked up some new readers. In any case, if you have any curiosity about what to read in Legends, these are my recommendations, and they are deliberately few. Maybe one day I’ll be able to do this for the canon novels…