Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
→There’s another concept art description from Making Star Wars today, perhaps one from the same sequence as the battle art we saw a few weeks ago.
→ Actor Pip Anderson was at the Imaginarium. Make of that what you will.
→ A report from a talk with editor Mary Jo Markey. She doesn’t talk about Episode VII, but you don’t really expect her to, do you?
→ New Tosche Station staffer Shoshana writes about diversity, race and Episode VII.
Star Wars Rebels debuted to 6.5 million viewers worldwide, a Disney press release says today. The Friday debut on the Disney Channel has 2.7M viewers and did 52% higher than average in the “target demographic.” (Boys 6-11, because of course.) ‘Spark of Rebellion’ airs tonight on the show’s permanent home, Disney XD.
Meanwhile, the first official episode, ‘Droids in Distress,’ is free on iTunes right now. And StarWars.com has posted the second part of their interview with executive producer Simon Kinberg.
And, per New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes, it looks like ‘Spark of Rebellion’ will air on ABC on Sunday, October 26 with an additional Darth Vader scene.
We’ve already heard once that a standalone Obi-wan Kenobi film may be in the works, but now the ante has been upped: There could be three, reports Cinelinx. Not a formal trilogy, but three different stories that all happen to feature Obi-wan in the 20 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Their source claims there’ll be flashbacks to the Clone Wars (and even The Clone Wars,) Qui-gon Jinn and, naturally, Owen Lars. (Assuming Joel Edgerton doesn’t price himself out anytime soon… But hey, if they can get Liam Neeson again, the sky’s the limit.)
Cinelinx’s Jordan Maison wonders if these are just various pitches, or if they’ll wait to see how an Obi-wan film does before they okay more. But one thing is for sure: There’s a lot of enthusiasm out there for more Obi-wan.
→ Making Star Wars has dropped some more concept art descriptions. Today, Han Solo’s outfit(s) and a ‘main’ hanger.
→ Frank Marshall tweeted a picture from Pinewood… Of the Loose Lips Bring Down Starships poster by Cliff Chiang, which dates back to the Star Wars Galaxy 5 trading cards.
→ We already flashed back to crazy 80’s rumors/speculation not so long ago, but with io9 bringing them up – and our latest batch of Episode VII stuff – it seems more than appropriate to revisit.
→ More on the big ‘I am your father’ rumor/megaspoiler, aside from the Full of Sith special we linked earlier. Indie Revolver (who’ve been behind a lot of the image leaks) is skeptical, while Making Star Wars digs up some old stuff that may (or may not) support it.
→ Robert Downey Jr. shoots down what I’m going to call swoop gang rumor. Because I can. (via)
→ And in case you missed it earlier, John Williams will be starting on the film soon.
Tuesday sees the release of a new picture book, The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. Written by Tony DiTerlizzi and featuring Ralph McQuarrie art, it’s the first fruit of an OT-based program with Disney Publishing.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, comic fans can pick up the collected Rebel Heist. Non-subscribers should start keeping an eye out for Star Wars Insider #152 on newstands.
John Williams will begin working on Episode VII in two weeks, he told an audience in Milwaukee. (Milwaukee!)
Author James Luceno talks about Star Wars, the new canon and his upcoming novel Tarkin with SciFiNow.
He says he’s seen the series bible for Rebels and that when it comes to the old EU:
I chose not to really reference too much EU material only because of the setting of the story, but it was still there. It was still there to pick and choose from.
Though he does point out that there’s not that much to begin with in the primary setting of the novel. (5 years after Revenge of the Sith.)
However, as far as Episode VII goes? He knows nothing. But he makes a good point as to the Story Group:
Without spilling secrets they can say, ‘I think this isn’t a good place to go with this book’ or ‘You might want to steer clear of this topic.’ This is part of an effort to maintain a so-called continuity where every book and every game and every comic will all be part of a single story going forward, and that wasn’t the case earlier on.
Tarkin is due out November 4.
Dave Filoni talks Rebels at Collider. Character design ‘easter eggs,’ and more.
Full of Sith’s Rumor Control #1. The podcast’s Bobby Roberts does a solo show on the spoilers that have emerged over the past week.
Rebels: Spark of Rebellion debuted this evening on the Disney Channel. Here we have StarWars.com’s episode guide and their latest series, Rebels Recon, above. It has a preview of the next episode (which is now streaming on WATCHDisneyXD.com, I hear) at the end!
In the meantime, here’s your discussion entry. (Spoilers for Spark of Rebellion only, please!)