ST New Canon Materials (novels, TV shows, comics, games) and Episode IX - SEE WARNING ON PAGE 41

Hello imagery for Balance in the Force.

 

Thanks for posting. So looking forward to Rebels coming back.

 

Ugh. I knew Thrawn would go back to the Twi'lek family heirloom. Thrawn collecting the art of his enemies is just so... annoying. The way he goes on and on about it in his elegant way of talking.

 

All these new Solo tie in books! Which one are you guys most looking forward to getting?

 

http://ew.com/movies/solo-star-wars-book-connections/most-wanted-by-rae-carson/



The author of Half-Resurrection Blues and Shadowshaper has penned this novel that connects three eras in the lives of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. “Part of it takes place before the events of Solo and focuses on Lando and L3-37,” Siglain says, referring to Lando’s droid sidekick in the new film. “Part of it takes place between Solo and A New Hope, and that focuses on Han and Chewie, and that’s where we get Sana Starros for the first time.” She would be the character, first introduced in the Marvel Comics, who claimed to be married to Han.

“Part of it takes place post-Return of the Jedi, and that’s where we see Han, Leia, a very young Ben Solo, and Lando come into the story,” Siglain adds. The cover is reversible — on one side is Han's silhouette, while Lando’s is on the other. There’s also a “convention exclusive” cover featuring L3 and Chewbacca …

“We bounce around through time,” Siglain says. “We always wanted to tell a story that had Han and Lando having one adventure after Return of the Jedi. At the same time, we really liked the idea of contrasting that with seeing them much earlier in their lives. A crime lord comes looking for the owner of the Millennium Falcon, but mistakenly thinks it was Han Solo at the time, but it was really Lando — which gets Lando mixed up in something else Han did that was Han’s fault. All these years later, the two of them have to right a wrong from much earlier in their history.”




This YA book by the author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns focuses on Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo and Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra, back in their teenage years. “This is about the younger, young Han solo,” Siglain says. “We’ll see what it was like for these two kids from Corellia to survive the seedy streets of this industrial world. They’re definitely products of their environment, and this story shows that.”




This Marvel Comics miniseries is written by Rodney Barnes (a veteran scribe from TV’s The Boondocks) and will play out over five issues. “It’s focused on Lando set during an incident right before the film, with backstory about Lando and L3,” Siglain says. The series debuts the Wednesday after the movie opens, since its story is so closely tied in. “Coming out of the film, we think everyone is going to want ot read more about Lando.”




“This is another of those really beautiful art books that shows various pieces of concept art that went into this film,” Siglain says. “You see the evolution of Solo through this book, and the insight that Phil gets from everyone in the production is incredible.”




“This one combines the popular formats of a Visual Dictionary with part of a cross-sections book,” Siglain says. “This gives you insight into the characters, and the props, vehicles, and tech that you see in the film. And it’s written by [Lucasfilm story group member] Pablo Hidalgo, so we have it on good authority that all of this is correct.”




This non-fiction title by Mark Salisbury is aimed at young readers and “strives to teach some of the history of filmmaking, makeup, and special effects through all the films, starting with 1977’s A New Hope and going up through Solo,” Siglain says.




In this middle-grade reader, a Wookiee is sent on a pet-sitting mission to care for a Golden Tooka. “Chewbacca thinks it’s a dull babysitting job, but he not only has to save the day, but save Han Solo,” says Siglain. “He gets mixed up with a droid he thinks is a cargo droid, but the readers will recognize as K-2S0 [from Rogue One], who is on a mission for Cassian Andor.” They will also cross paths with a new character, Mayv Trillick, who may have the coolest job in the galaxy: librarian bounty hunter.




This is part of an onging IDW comic book series, and the first of the three-part young Solo storyline by writer Cavan Scott will be released as part of Free Comic Book Day. The heroes are targeted by bounty hunters familiar to fans of The Empire Strikes Back — Zuckuss and 4-LOM.




“They’re being chased by the bounty hunters and go to a planet they don’t know,” Siglain says. “Once they get into the atmosphere, everything shuts down and the Falcon crashes into the water.”




“Everything on this planet is powered down, and no technology works,” Siglain says. “Then they figure out a way to turn it on and realize that was the worst mistake they could make — the planet comes alive and attacks them.”




This Little Golden Book is part of another ongoing Star Wars series for younger readers. “We’ve done I Am a Rebel, I Am a Jedi, I Am a Sith,” Siglain says. This Chewbacca tale brings some adorableness to the world of Wookiees.


Hop aboard the Conveyex for a ride through the mountains as Han Solo and Chewbacca do their best to steal what’s secured within. Basically, it’s a retelling of this action scene from the movie. “It gives kids a piece of the film to take home with them,” Siglain says.




Should Han and Chewie fire against the TIE Fighters or try to outrun them? In original story, young readers will be able to skip around making their own decisions. “They’re on a seemingly easy smuggling gig, but then to save himself and Chewie and the Falcon, Han tells [the people of this world] he’s Jabba the Hutt, and things go from bad to worse before they have to get out of there,” Siglain says.




This is a Star Wars remake. It’s based on a five-issue Chewbacca comic book series from 2015, by Gerry Duggan, with art by Phil Noto, in which the Wookiee teams up with a new young friend. “We’ve taken that story and adjusted it so it’s appropriate for 6-, 7-, 8-year-olds, rather than the 13-plus audience of the Marvel Comic,” Siglain says.

 

This art is great.

 

Looking forward to reading these. Great to see K-2SO will meet Chewie.

 

Excited to read Last Shot. Also interesting that they’ve redone the Chewie Mini from way back. Also super pumped about more Lando!

 

I just started reading the Star Wars Adventures comics, and I love it. It’s frequently freaking adorable, the art is great (miles better than the lazy tracework a lot of the Marvel series try to pass off as photorealistic), and the stories are fun, with no delusions or aspirations of being Big Important narratives. They’re fun little asides that let you get to know the characters more, and there’s a nice balance of material from acros the entire canon timeline.

If anyone ever loved the old Star Wars Tales comics, I’d recommend checking it out. It’s not the same thing, but Adventures does remind me of it.

 

Do I see a potential Han and Chewie animated series???

If so -- I'm game!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe we're about to get our first bit of Lando post-ROTJ.

 

We saw him very briefly in the 'Aftermath' trilogy, musing over a gift for the newborn Ben Solo.

 

And in BF2

 

Definitely looking forward to picking up Last Shot and Most Wanted.

 

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dave-filoni-digs-into-the-events-of-star-wars-rebels-big-double-feature

The voices in the beginning... I recognize some from the episode. Am I correct about that? I had to go back and listen several times. Was there anything in there from previous episodes?

Dave Filoni: It's a tricky thing. Sound is very important to me as a storyteller. I think part of that stems from my love of Skysound and the work Matt Wood and Ben Burtt and Dave Acord have done, and I've worked with them for years so I have a lot of appreciation for what sound can do for you in a story. To the very last moment of this series, we really orchestrated the sound to tell you important third and fourth layers of the story.

You will hear [more] voices before the end of the season... Everything is pulled specifically. Bonnie and I worked quite a bit on getting that sound to tell a story. It's the kind of thing that if you don't hear it... you don't lose anything from what you're watching. But if you're into this sort of thing and like a deeper dive in some things, like how the Force works, the sound will help tell you parts of that story.

Is Kanan seeing the future?

I always subscribe to the possible future idea. I don't think anything's ever set in stone. When Yoda warns Luke that, "If you leave now, help them you could." I always think that when Luke sees his friends suffering on Cloud City he sees that, but he doesn't see whether or not his friends get out. By taking his own action he kind of robs them of their own agency and he can be throwing them into more peril and he could be throwing himself into peril, so I think you have to be careful how you read what you see in the future.

You have to be careful how your own feelings are coloring it. Which is why Kanan's asking Ezra to take up the point on the mission to rescue Hera, so his own feelings don't color the rescue mission. But then also you know there are other forces at work in the universe that do try to manipulate the future to their advantage. We'll see how that plays out as we go forward.

What is the significance of the haircut?

Well, I think for me it just deals with an idea of purification and Kanan knows something's going to happen. I play in my head with the idea of how much he actually knows is going to happen in a literal sense. But he knows this is a transformative moment for him. So in that there's almost this ritualistic idea that he needs to recenter and somewhat transform himself. The way that he became, growing his long hair and growing the beard and all those things are kind of things he inherits and takes on as he lost his sight and as his world got strange and complex. So it's almost like him revealing himself again by taking away these things, letting go, taking his hair off symbolically. It plays to me in that realm of a transitional thing.

Then I started thinking... what did he look like when he first met Hera? I don't think for him it's as conscious as that. For me, creatively, to say he looked more like this. You know, you look younger when you shave and cut your hair. So it's kind of an interesting identity that he takes on at the end.

I have to know, what was he gonna say to her? Kanan to Hera? "I have to tell you something...".

Well, I put that in really late. Because I always played with the idea that if he has an inkling that he might die that day during that mission, I thought he would have an instinct to want to tell her, but that could be dangerous... I think it's very human in that moment to say "I need to tell you this, something really bad might happen today." And how he feels about her. I thought without that moment where he wants to be completely truthful to her it just feels false.

Speaking of which, having the whole moment between Hera and Chopper... the second they show up Chopper just rolls right for her.

That was a super important moment to me. I've always felt Chopper has this secret high emotional level. People don't realize sometimes the reason someone is cantankerous or picks on them is because they care a great deal. You start to see the beginning of Chopper's little facade break there a little bit and the idea that he would be the one that could approach her and know not to say anything but just take her hand was a powerful image.

For me, how Hera deals with this is very important. She's very distraught but she's also a powerful leader. I didn't want her to melt into nothing because Kanan was gone. I think she has a lot of pride. For me, finding images to depict that, just her hand closing on her little droid's hand, at one point she had a line there where she said, "I don't know what to do." I got rid of it. I was like, "I don't want to hear her say that right now".

I always get worried about the audience hearing the writer... I want to read it on her face. Vanessa can deliver so much through her voice, she's so good in those scenes. Her and Freddie, frankly, it's the best they've ever been. They're so great together. I want to do 20 episodes with these two...

How did Ezra not pick up on [the Dume Wolf being] Kanan? The marking on the forehead, the blue eyes...

I think that's a subjective question. Is that Kanan? I have answers for all of that... What I will say...is that Dume the Wolf can't exist until Kanan the Jedi is gone. Those two things don't exist at the same time. Dume the Wolf has a lot in common with Bendu as far as what kind of thing they are.

There's a similarity between these type of occurrences. The only wolf that's particularly what you would call real are probably the gray ones that are always running around but don't really say much. The white one is more of a guide. We can get into that later. There's a little more you need to see before we really break it down. Since season 1 I've been obsessed with this idea of Ezra falling asleep in the wilds and waking up and there being this giant spirit guide there to talk to him. For a while, it was this giant Loth-cat.

It worked later for the mythology to change it to this wolf. But you know you have these ideas and kind of figure out where they fit and then later it actually works. It's interesting how that happens. I drive the crew nuts with these wolves because they have to look a certain way and move a certain way but they did a brilliant job bringing them to life. They're equal parts friendly and ferocious.

Do you have a message for the fans, anything you want to tell people that you want to let them know after you break their hearts?

It's very simple, they just have to trust me. They have to trust me here in where we're going with it. None of it is done recklessly or because of a line in a different movie. It's all important. It's as important to the people making it as it is to the people watching it, the reason we're trying to do this so well is because we value the people that have stuck with us for all 4 seasons. This is how the story has to go. I think we'll see what they think when they come out the other side.

You can read more of my interview with Dave Filoni, including more about Kanan and Hera specifically and why Kanan's death was so personal for the showrunner himself later this week. Until then, may the Force be with you.

 

I really like the creature on Chewie's back reminds me of a lothcat.

 

Man, finally got around to watching the midseason premiere of Rebels...


Forget about best episode of Rebels. That right there was one of the best Star Wars expanded universe things ever. Right in the feels.

 

It sounds like the wolf could represent sonething like the Norse Fylgja

"In Norse mythology, a fylgja (plural fylgjur) is a spirit who accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune."

"Other ideas of fylgjur are that the animals reflect the character of the person they represent. Men who were viewed as a leader would often have fylgja to show their true character. This means that if they had a “tame nature”, their fylgja would typically be an ox, goat, or boar. If they had an “untame nature” they would have fylgjur such as; a fox, wolf, deer, bear, eagle, falcon, leopard, lion, or a serpent." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fylgja

Alternatively, it might be that Kanan has reincarnated as the wolf, but Filoni's answer seems to suggest that the wolf is spiritual, rather than a physical being.

 

rebels is still great.