Tag: droids

Posted on

Galaxy’s Edge roundup: Expect to pay $200 to build your own lightsaber

Galaxy’s Edge is opening soon, and we’re starting to get some details. The build-your-own lightsabers will cost you about $200 (which isn’t that shocking – that’s just a little more than a standard ForceFX lightsaber, which is – or was – the highest quality mass-produced lightsaber toy.)

You’ll also have the option to build your own droid. It’s $100 for a custom droid, and $150 for the DJ R-3X. To be fair, he is really neat:

Now that we’ve addressed the price tags, here’s a nice piece on the design process for the staff – err, cast member – uniforms.

That John Williams theme? You’ll probably not heard it-as is. Instead, it serves as “the musical foundation” for what you’ll hear in the park.

Also: Enforcing the time limit! Droid tracks! Bathroom breaks!

Posted on

Another familiar droid coming to The Mandalorian?

→ Jon Favreau’s latest snap from The Mandalorian seems tailor-made to promote debate: Could it be R5-D4? (AKA Skippy the Jedi Droid!) Maybe! But who knows at this point? Certainly not us!

→ Making Star Wars’ latest reports detail one of the series’ settings and the title vharacter’s ship.

→ Variety takes a deep dive into Disney+, how it’s working behind the scenes and what it means for the company as a whole.

Posted on

Solo’s L3-37 is “a completely different kind of droid”

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s droid L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story is “a self-modified droid,” co-writer Jon Kasdan tells Entertainment Weekly. “The idea is that she’s sort of a mutt, if you will, of various parts of different kinds of droids who has improved upon herself.”

“She’s a complete individual in the galaxy,” Jon Kasdan says. “We wanted to have it be a completely different kind of droid than you’ve ever seen in the movies. And we definitely wanted it to be a female. We thought it was more than time for that.”

She has a “working relationship with Lando” that is “very sophisticated” and has evolved over the years, Lawrence Kasdan says.

She’s very smart and advanced for a droid, “and Phoebe is hilarious and brilliant and really helped bring that character to life in ways that are funny and surprising,” Ron Howard says.

Posted on

The Force Awakens: Magnet droids, how do they work?

r2-bb8-swcaSo how does BB-8 work? One site has a guess – though warning, it slowed down every computer I looked at it on.

→ Making Star Wars has heard that John Williams will begin recording The Force Awakens score next month.

→ Our first glimpse of what is assumed to be Kylo Ren’s personal ship – or at the very least, a ship we may see briefly in the second trailer – comes from LEGO. Because of course it does.

→ Miltos Yerolemou talked a little bit about filming TFA with Asian Correspondent. “It’s not really a job where you ask any questions,” he said. (Also, I believe this may be as close as we get to an actual confirmation?)

→ Spoiler corner: Rey gets a gift and a very small cameo from the original trilogy.

→ Looking ahead: Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII notebooks. Keep reading the string for some of his process.

Posted on

EUbits: Movies are not wikis, or why backstory doesn’t mean that book characters can’t be in Episode VII

Mara in 'Vector Prime' art by Darren Tan from the Essential Reader's CompanionThe blogside. Nanci at Tosche Station points out how backstory isn’t an impediment to Expanded Universe characters appearing in the sequel trilogy. (If you really want to make that point, there are plenty of more legitimate reasons!) Meanwhile, on the Star Wars blog, editor Jennifer Heddle talks a bit about editing the roleplaying books.

Upcoming. The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi has a blurb now, and Kevin Hearn’s outline for his Rebels book – the Luke one – has been approved. Making of is due in October, while we’ve got a tentative January 2015 date for the Hearns. And while we’re on the topic, the first Rebels novel, the still-untitled Leia one by Martha Wells, has moved up a week to October 15. (via)

Excerpts. And on that note, the first chapter of Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void has appeared in the Random House catalog. That one is out in May. (via)

Podcasts. Our own Jawajames guested on the second episode of Star Wars Bookworms.

Conventions. Dark Horse will be selling a limited edition cover variant of the new Legacy at WonderCon.

Translation. Abel Pena will be translating some vintage Droids and Ewoks comics from Spain into English.

Reviews. James gives Dawn of the Jedi: The Prisoner of Bogan #4 a big thumbs-up, while he’s ‘intrigued’ by the new Legacy #1.