Podcast marathon to raise funds to fight childhood cancer. Teresa Delgado, of The Star Wars Report and Jedi News, will be among those helping to raise money for CURE tomorrow.
Marvel’s Darth Vader #1 on track to sell more than 300K copies to retailers
There are more than 300K pre-orders in for Marvel’s Darth Vader #1, reports ComicBook.com. It may not be a million like Star Wars #1, but that’s still a very high number for a comic these days. And of course… There are variant covers.
Navajo Star Wars to screen at Celebration Anaheim
The Navajo-dubbed version of A New Hope will be shown at Celebration Anaheim, along with “never-before-seen documentary footage” and a Q&A session with some of the people involved.
Returning to Celebration are the Tattoo Pavilion and Speed Dating.
Report: Tatiana Maslany, Rooney Mara testing for Star Wars spinoff
We’re months away from filming and there have been zero casting rumors regarding Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spin-off, but that changed this evening. The Hollywood Reporter says that Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) and Rooney Mara (David Fincher ‘s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) are among those testing for a role.
Felicity Jones, who’s been hitting the Oscar circuit for The Theory of Everything, is also in the mix. UPDATE: As is Rooney’s sister, Kate Mara, per Variety’s Justin Kroll.
In any case, it’s pretty heartening that the first casting we hear for the spin-off is a woman – and Maslany especially is an exciting option that’s already giving this rumor a lot of buzz. (No matter which way this goes, you should really be watching Orphan Black.)
Making Star Wars has a bit more on the spin-off this evening, including that it may shot partly in Mexico and a few other (potentially spoilerly, though only broadly) bits.
Today in The Force Awakens: How much of George Lucas’ outlines are in the sequels? Not a lot, he claims.
Today’s The Force Awakens controversy, or whatever you would like to call it: In a Strange Magic interview, George Lucas says that the version of the sequel trilogy that we’re getting are not the ones he wrote. Or, to be precise, per Cinema Blend:
The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote.
As with anything involving Star Wars and George Lucas, the reactions have been mixed. Bryan at Big Shiny Robot breaks out a Simon Kinberg quote where he maintains that George’s blueprint is still very much a part of the development, and points out that changes have been a part of all the Star Wars films.
Either way, I have a hard time getting upset. Even without Kinberg weighing in, it’s pretty clear that nothing in this franchise ever truly gets thrown out. To paraphrase Eleven-ThirtyEight, every bit of the buffalo gets used. And we’ve seen over the years that it’s just as possible to do a good Star Wars story without George Lucas as it is to do an unsatisfactory one with him. But the internet’s gotta internet, so I expect we’ll be hearing plenty from all sides of the issue before the week is out.
→ In other news, add a new name (and woman!) to the cast list: Leanne Best of Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death.
→ Shocking no one, LEGO confirms they will be making sets for The Force Awakens. The surprise is that they’re actually showing them off at the UK Toy Fair – along with a non-disclose agreement. But we can see the nifty tote bag that Jedi News got.
→ /Film maintains that we won’t be seeing the classic heroes in the second trailer, despite the Latino Review report.
Opinion: Cameos enrich Rebels’ character development
Cameos enrich Rebels’ character development, argues Ben Wahrman at Eleven-ThirtyEight, by giving the new characters “a known personality to bounce off of.”
Peter Mayhew recovering from pneumonia
Peter Mayhew recovering from pneumonia in hospital. “He will make a full recovery, and hope to be discharged within a few days,” wife Angie told Reddit.
Rebels Recon: “Idiot’s Array”
Lando came to town in tonight’s Rebels, “Idiot’s Array.” Does Lando lend a certain something to the show? Are we down with the canon pronunciation of “sabacc?” And how jealous are we of Pablo’s sweet VII jacket?
George Lucas has seen The Force Awakens trailer
George Lucas has seen The Force Awakens trailer. “It was intriguing,” he told Page Six at a New York screening of Strange Magic. He had more to say on the animated film, of course: “I have been working on this film for 15 years. I was thinking about Star Wars being designed for 12-year- old boys, and I thought maybe I’ll make a film for 12-year-old girls, because I have a lot of daughters. And girls go to the movies. I worked on it on the side for those years, and we finally got it done.”
Catching up with Marvel: April solicitations, reprints, and what can we do for more Leia?
Marvel solicitations for April are out. (Hattip to @DarthSpiriah.) It includes Kanan: The Last Padawan #1 (which has a little art peek at StarWars.com,) but the real curiosity may be Princess Leia #3 – or rather, the second woman on the cover. Some are suspecting it’s Winter, a Legends character it would make sense to bring back given that we know the miniseries is dealing with Alderaan, but I wouldn’t say no to a brand-new lady pilot. Either way, we’ll find out in April. UPDATE: She’s a new character.
And depite the million or so copies in circulation, Star Wars #1 is going back for a second and third printing. In CBR’s latest Axel’s In Charge Q&A, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso talks a bit about Star Wars #1 and the line in general. On that note, Darth Vader #1 is looking like it’ll sell more than 200,000 copies.
There was a report from Bleeding Cool yesterday that a Lando Calrissian comic is in the works. It’s a nice idea, but don’t expect any announcements today, per Marvel editor Jordan D. White.
Meanwhile, on his Tumblr, White has answered a few Star Wars questions. Here’s one to be aware of – while the current Leia comic is a 5-issue miniseries, it could lead to an ongoing if sales are good enough. As for Mara Jade? “Only time will tell.” Waru, on the other hand, gets a pretty firm “nope.”
But for those hungry for more prequel era stories beyond Kanan, Jordan does say he has “a couple of ideas for series I think would fit really well there.”