Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Three comics and a Legends reprint collection are headed to the comic shops for Wednesday, January 17. The comics are Star Wars #42, Star Wars Adventures #6 and Forces of Destiny: Hera. The trade is volume 2 of the Legends Legacy series, collecting #20-36, #41, #0 and #1/2 of the Dark Horse far-future title.
Disney has posted a few new The Last Jedi things on their award site, including several new stills, an extended score, production notes and the BAFTA Q&A with Rian Johnson and the cast.
Rian Johnson talks to People about how they filmed the “Force connection” scenes between Rey and Kylo Ren. Remember those paparazzi shots of Adam Driver flying into Ireland with Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill, and all those rumors of a big fight scene with the Knights of Ren? Jokes on us. Johnson has another wide-ranging interview over at the Daily Beast. He also explains Snoke’s big scene and the Kylo shirtless scene.
The NYT takes a look at the women behind Lucasfilm’s story group, mainly Kiri Hart. It’s not just Pablo!
You’ll never guess what from the Legends EU made it into the movie. Sort of. Hey, at least it’s not something Courtship of Princess Leia this time.
On that note, there’s a ton of meta happening on Tumblr. I’m reblogging a lot of it and hope to do a roundup of the highlights here, but for the moment, an analysis of “the sacred Jedi texts.” (There’s plenty more coming – the fandom is prolific and I have a ton of backlog in the drafts folder.)
Tech corner: Neal Scanlan on how they built the film’s creatures, and again | Visual effects supervisor Ben Morris on creating Crait and the Earth equivilants | How Yoda was rebuilt | The movie’s sound design | The creation and science of that silent hyperspace scene.
It’s our last gasp before all The Last Jedi books hit on December 15, with the novella collection Canto Bight hitting the shelves on Tuesday, December 5. It features stories from Saladin Ahmed, Rae Carson, Mira Grant, and John Jackson Miller and gives us our first detailed look at some of the characters inhabiting the casino world.
Continue reading “Star Wars out this week: Canto Bight novella collection”
Two comics and three trades will grace the comic book shelves on Wednesday, November 15. Our new comics are Darth Vader #8 and Doctor Aphra #14. The trades are the complete Captain Phasma, Poe Dameron Volume 3: Legends Lost (collects #7, #14-19) and Rise of the Sith Volume 2, a Legends collection that looks to mostly draw on works set around and during The Phantom Menace.
Oh, and Battlefront II is coming out on Friday, I guess? Or it’s already out for some? I don’t know – games are so very much not my division, so that’s all you’ll get on that from here. (At least until someone does the obligatory roundup post with all the relevant info/clips that may pertain to things we do care about.)
Continue reading “Star Wars out this week: Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra”
The next two episodes of Star Wars Rebels, ‘Kindred’ and ‘Crawler Commandeers,’ will have two special guest stars. Warwick Davis is voicing Rukh, the show’s second big Legends transplant, while Seth Green is doing duty as Captain Seevor, a Trandoshan. Nerdist has a preview clip.
Davis is also doing a Reddit AMA today.
A clip from ‘Kindred’ and stills from both episodes under the cut.
Continue reading “Next block of new Rebels brings Warwick Davis’ Rukh, Seth Green”
Ron Howard’s first really big reveal! For the purposes of our old-ass EU fan blog, anyway.
Tag and Bink are in the Han Solo movie. They’re played by Jon Kasdan (left,) who confirms it, and assistant director Toby Hefferman.)
The pair originate in the 2001 Tag & Bink Are Dead comics which are, technically, part of Legends. (Though even there the comics were considered “Infinities,” which today makes them doubly non-canon.) How much makes it to screen (and canon..?) Well, probably not much. But that’s fitting.
Technicalities aside, the original Tag and Bink comics (by Star Wars Tales MVP Kevin Rubio) are among the highlights of Dark Horse’s run with the license. They’re totally worth a read, require nothing at all in knowledge of the vast Expanded Universe, and are really, really funny. I don’t think there’s been any physical reprints since the comics license changeover to Marvel, but the collection is available on Comixology.
Honestly, this is exactly the kind of EU appearance I expect in this film: Brief and irreverent.
More recent stuff from Howard under the cut. Continue reading “Tag and Bink are coming to an untitled Han Solo movie near you”
Coming on Wednesday is Doctor Aphra #5 and a new Legends collection. The Old Republic Volume 2 collects #19-37 of Dark Horse’s Knights of the Old Republic series, plus the series’ handbook.
Yeah, we all heard it: “Emperor’s Hand” in Saturday night’s Rebels, ‘Legacy of Mandalore.’ The Hand in question is Gar Saxon, governor of Mandalore, a character who’s appeared on Rebels before.
So no, it’s not Mara Jade, the first and best known “Emperor’s Hand” in the no-longer-canon Star Wars Legends timeline. Per Dave Filoni himself, it was just a reference. He told ComicBook.com it’s “probably just a little sly nod to a character type.” Probably:
I think it would probably be meant more innocently, but the minute you say it I’m like, ‘Good grief.’ I know exactly where everyone’s going to go with that,” Filoni told us with a laugh. “I know, with the hopefulness of it all, but I wouldn’t dwell too much on that. It’s more of a generic reference to that type of character that exhibits in history of the world, like the emperor has a hand, there’s someone who’s always sitting at the right hand that’s gained great power.”
Yeah, Filoni could be playing games. But I’m willing to take the comments at face value for now… Even though giving the title to both a man and a Mandalorian seems particularly tone-deaf.
But the fact is, I’ve been rather wary of Mara returning to canon and would prefer it not be on Rebels – if at all. (Rebels is fine for what it is, but it just doesn’t do it for me. Take all the Thrawn you like, but I’m selfish and want more for Mara.)
But, you know… It’s complicated. Continue reading “The term “Emperor’s Hand” is canon again. Should Mara Jade follow? (I’m not so sure.)”
io9 rounds up some (most?) of the new canon’s Legends imports, or at least those that came up since the old Expanded Universe actually became Legends. I can’t really tell if this is complete, since most of them are fairly minor.
I would say Thrawn is about the most major, since the concepts of things like a “New Republic” and “Leia and Han’s kid going dark” are fairly broad. And in any case, this list is likely to grow with Aftermath: Empire’s End coming out in a matter of weeks.
There’s one new comic and two Vader-themed reprints up on the slate for Wednesday. The comic is Doctor Aphra #4, while the first reprint is the second hardcover volume of Marvel’s Darth Vader. The third item is the third Empire-oriented Legends collection.