Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The fourth and final season of Rebels will be avaliable on Blu-ray and DVD on July 31, StarWars.com says today.
There will be six audio commentaries from Executive Producer Dave Filoni as well as special features on the characters, the Force, and composer Kevin Kiner.
The Digital Bits is reporting that The Last Jedi will likely be out on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on March 27. This is still tentative, and both The Force Awakens and Rogue One had layered releases, so keep that in mind before planning time off for GIFmaking and the like.
Going by the previous releases, we could get official word on the release date in February.
We expect that the release will contain at least 20 minutes of deleted scenes in addition to the usual making-of extras. Hopefully a director’s commentary is included in this one: We had to wait for the 3D home release to get J.J. Abrams’ commentary on The Force Awakens, but we know that Rian Johnson was recording one back in November.
Announced on today’s Star Wars Show are the release dates for Rogue One on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. Like The Force Awakens, it’ll launch on Digital HD a week before (March 24) the Blu-ray and DVD options (April 4.) This also gets it’s own promo:
The other big news is that a 40th Anniversary tribute panel will kick off Celebration Orlando. Hosted by Warwick Davis and featuring Kathleen Kennedy and “the saga’s brightest stars.” They’re also laying it on a bit heavy about “surprises,” so keep that in mind.
According to Blu-ray.com, we can expect The Force Awakens Blu-ray (and presumably also DVD/digital release) on April 5.
UPDATE: Blu-ray.com has removed the date, but it could very well still be the release date… Stay tuned.
We all know by now (hopefully) that this Friday, September 4th, is Force Friday, when a huge chunk of The Force Awakens merchandise is going to drop. And naturally, what we’re most excited about are the 5 novels in the Journey to The Force Awakens line.
But first, there are other things coming out this week. Tuesday brings season 1 of Rebels on Blu-ray and DVD. Shockingly, there are no comics coming on Wednesday. (Shattered Empire, Marvel’s entry into Journey, will be out later in the month.)
You’ll also be be seeing things like coloring and sticker books for Journey, but for our purposes, here are the standouts:
From Del Rey, we have Star Wars newcomer Chuck Wendig tackling Aftermath, our first canon story set after Return of the Jedi. We know it stars Wedge Antilles and new character Norra Wexley, but not much more than that. First of a trilogy. An excerpt is available, though I wouldn’t be shocked to see another in the coming days.
Disney Lucasfilm Press has four novels total. Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars is a YA novel that follows two childhood friends, one who joins the Empire and one who becomes a Rebel. The last three are set during the original trilogy, one each for Luke, Leia and Han, though we’ve recently learned they all feature prologues (at least) set in The Force Awakens era. I’ve heard these described as both for young readers and as YA, but the presence of illustrations make me think it’s the former. Jason Fry’s The Weapon of a Jedi and Greg Rucka’s Smuggler’s Run are both set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, while Cecil Castellucci and Fry’s Moving Target is our first canon story to be set between Empire and Return of the Jedi.
A handful of reference books will also be out on Friday: Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know by Adam Bray, Cole Horton, Michael Kogge and Kerrie Dougherty and Benjamin Harper’s Ships of the Galaxy. Both are targeted to young readers, and we know that Ships, at least, has blueprints to TFA ships. We can also expect an assortment of things like sticker and coloring books, which may contain ‘new’ characters.
We’re expecting a lot of hints and small pieces in these books, but most of the heavy-hitting movie tie-ins will be out later. The Force Awakens novelization will be out on December 18 as an eBook, the same day as the film, with a hardcover edition to follow in January. We fully expect the traditional compliment of reference books – making of, concept art, etc – but those haven’t been formally announced yet. (Though are also expected in January at the very soonest.)
Rebels S1 coming to Blu-ray and DVD on on September 1. There’ll be some “never-before-seen bonus material,” but they’re not giving us any details on it yet.
The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions Blu-ray and DVD sets coming November 11, per TV Shows on DVD.
Rebelforce Radio says they’ve heard that neither of The Clone Wars DVD and Blu-ray sets that were spotted on French Amazon earlier this month will not contain the much-anticipated ‘bonus content.’ The sets, expected out in mid-October, include both S5 and a complete series box set. RFR also says that the complete series set comes with a book, Obi-wan will be featured on the cover of S5, and that we’ll be getting a formal announcement on Friday.
But RFR goes on to say that there won’t be an announcement regarding the bonus content anytime soon. One can hope this means that the stuff will eventually get a much more significant play than as mere special features. But given that near-rabid interest in it from some corners of fandom, the state of the bonus content is sure to come up sometime this weekend at one of Celebration Europe’s Clone Wars panels… I’d be very surprised if hint or two isn’t dropped at some point.
Or maybe I’m just sick of typing ‘bonus content.’
IGN has the scoop on The Legend of Korra Book 1 DVD and Blu-Ray: It’s coming out on July 16 and features audio commentaries on all 12 episodes.
Still no word about when Book Two will air, though…
It’s been about a week since the DVD release of LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out, and we’ve got a couple clips for you, as well as the highlights of several reviews of this 22-minute special. Above, Luke and Leia share an awkward moment in ‘Sister’, while below, Luke runs into trouble of a different sort: giggling groupies. Also, we’ll check in with what reviewers are saying about the DVD, which came out on March 26.
Here’s how The Empire Strikes Out is stacking up:
While LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out is a lot of fun to watch and re-watch (I still have it on my DVR from when it first aired on Cartoon Network), the lack of any extras (besides the exclusive LEGO Vader mini-figure) makes me hesitant to trade up for the DVD, while first special, LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace did have some additional material on its DVD/Blu-ray combo release. Still, if you haven’t checked it out, or you’re looking for something fun for the whole family with Star Wars, this will definitely entertain you!
And remember, there’s more LEGO Star Wars coming this year: three specials of The Yoda Chronicles, also by writer Michael Price, with the first coming May 29.