Category: Star Wars

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Star Wars: Rogue One, What Is In A Name?

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Bob Iger made two big announcements yesterday, Start Wars: Episode VIII will open in May 2017, and the name of the new stand-alone Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Rogue One that comes out December 2016.  If you are any kind of Star Wars geek at all this name will sound familiar.  Rogue One is a call sign in the Rebel Alliance’s elite fighter group the Rogue Squadron.  The Rogue Squadron, as I am sure you know, used to include Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles.  I am guessing Luke and Wedge are no longer part of the Squadron, though they may be advisors.

This name means that probably everyone was wrong when they were thinking this was going to be a bounty hunter movie, or a smuggler movie.  So either this is a side story to the events of Episodes IV-VI, or the Rogue Squadron is now on Empire clean-up duty and galaxy policing.  If it is galaxy policing than I guess it could contain bounty hunters and smugglers, but just not in the way people were thinking.  I am very excited to see where they go with this flick, and I am glad all the “insiders” were wrong.

Here is to a new Star Wars movie every six months!

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Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 Wrap Up!

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I have to say that I was really disappointed when Disney stopped Star Wars: The Cone Wars to start their own show, but Rebels has been great, and season one ended even better.  There will be some spoilers in this piece, but so be it.

I was always hoping that they would bridge the gap between The Cone Wars and Rebels and with the season finale they finely did it.  They brought in Darth Vader and Ahsoka which is great, but it raises all sorts of continuity questions.  Like if Darth Vader knew that Ezra and Kanan existed why does he think that Luke is the last Jedi?  You would think he would have mentioned that to someone that there are Jedi seemingly all over the place.  That makes me think this series may end in a dark place.

All that aside what really sold me on this show is how all the characters have grown.  Ezra is learning to trust in others, and Kanan is learning to be the Jedi that he was training to be before Anakin killed them all.  The show can get a little too silly at times, but hey it is still a kids show, so why not get a little silly.  They are also breathing more life in to the rest of the cast as well.  I would love to see more solo episodes with Hera and Sabine.  They seem like they have a lot to offer, but the Jedi are taking center stage.  Sabine especially as a Mandalorian would be interesting.

Anyway.  If you are not watching Star Wars: Rebels, you really should be.  It is a great show, and it is getting me even more excited for the new movie coming out THIS CHRISTMAS!!!!

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Kickstarting A Star Wars Fan Film? Bad Idea.

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So you may have heard of the Star Wars fan film Rise of the Empire on Kickstarter.  It has a lot of great people working on it, and it seems like a fun concept.  The problem is that I can’t see anywhere that mentions that they have Disney’s approval.  Why would you ask for people’s money when you know that you could be shut down at any moment.  I don’t get why people do this.  They think because they are not making a profit that their fan projects will be able to move forward.  They are wrong.  Big companies protect their intellectual property vigorously.  I can’t see Disney allowing someone the opportunity to make a film without properly licensing it first.  Plus Disney has to make sure it will work with their new universe.

If you want to try and make a fan film go ahead, but asking for people’s money to do it is irresponsible.  This goes for any sort of fan project based on a licensed property.  If you are going to do it, you will have to do it completely with your own money, and even then it will still probably be shut down, but at least you are just wasting your own money.  This is just a bad idea.

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The Untitled Star Wars Film Has Its Lead!

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Disney is very serious about getting one Star Wars movie a year made, so they are doing their best to get the casting done on the Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars spin-off by all but signing the Theory of Everything star Felicity Jones.  Jones had a great year in ’14, and to be able to cash in on it by landing a lead in a Star Wars film would a great way to start ’15 off.  If this movie is successful she would become a very big name indeed.

I am curious to see what the director of the latest Godzilla film will bring to the table, and to see how much freedom Disney will let him have to come up with something new inside the Star Wars Universe.  I hope they make something amazing!  But, before I get too excited, (it is already to late) we will have to see how Disney does this Christmas with Episode VII.