Salvatore on Chewbacca’s death: “I don’t think I’d go back and do that one again.”

Author R. A. Salvatore is doing a question and answer session on Reddit today. Most of the questions are about his other works, but there is one about about Vector Prime and its most controversial event, the death of Chewbacca. Salvatore’s response:

I was in a conference call with DelRey and Lucasfilm when the editors expressed that they loved the outline. (paraphrasing here) “This is exactly what we want, but didn’t anyone tell you? You have to kill Chewey.”

I won’t type the next two words that came out of my mouth. After a couple of days of arguments and, well, terror, they had convinced me that they were doing it for the right reasons, and well, George was down with it, and it’s his galaxy far, far away, so I did it.

The responses have been mixed, with some people loving the new direction, other people devastated. I think it might be the only thing I’ve ever regretted; I don’t think I’d go back and do that one again.

I’m not sure how long the chat will be going on, but there may be time to slip in other questions about Star Wars. Salvatore also wrote the novelization for Attack of the Clones.

The 2011 Black List includes a Star Wars spoof

The Black List is an annual vote that picks the best unproduced scripts circulating around Hollywood. Among the top vote-getters this year is Evan Susser and Van Robichaux’s ‘Chewie,’ which Movieline describes as “A satirical behind the scenes look at the making of Star Wars through the eyes of Peter Mayhew.”

Previous Black List selections that went on to be filmed include Diablo Cody’s Juno and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network.

The catchup: Jedi and Sith in love, Vader in Ukraine

A very Star Wars engagement. This unnamed Bay Area Jedi/Sith couple put aside their differences for a Star Wars themed photo shoot by photographer Michael James. We have every faith those crazy kids will make it work, one way or another. (via)

Stunts. ‘Darth Vader’ submits a claim for 1,000 square meters of Ukraine. Good luck with that.

TV. Why is Chewbacca hanging out with the Glee folks? On second thought, having finally given up on the show this season, I don’t want to know.

People. James Earl Jones received an honorary Oscar.

Blast from the past. The internet has unearthed a 1978 interview with Mark Hamill.

Catching up with The Clone Wars

We’re just under a week out from the Clone Wars finale on April 1. I’m sure the media blast has only just begun, but here’s what we have so far.

Lucasfilm held a screening of the season finale at the Presidio Friday evening. Jeff Ellis send the ForceCast a spoiler-free report.

There have been a number of interviews: Dave Filoni in USA Weekend, head writer Christian Taylor at Hero Complex, Peter Mayhew with the Daily Record, and Chewbacca himself at Yahoo.

And over at Big Shiny Robot, Bryan Young talks about getting rid of his cable and (mostly) the annoyance of different air dates and times. It’s certainly made a lot of folks cranky this week!

And after the finale, if you happen to be in San Francisco and/or attending WonderCon, there will be a panel there on the 2nd with Filoni, Mayhew, and Ashley Eckstein! Rumor has it they might show a peek at S4. And Pablo is hosting it.