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Star Wars News & Features

News and information from a Galaxy Far Far Away, and sometimes a little closer to home.

    Attack Squadrons cancelled

    By Andy, in Gaming,

    Disney has announced that Star Wars: Attack Squadrons has been cancelled during beta testing.

    The game, which was heavily reminiscent of the classic Rogue Squadron series of games, promised a free to play multiplayer space combat experience in your web browser.

    Revealed in December 2013 Attack Squadrons was in the beta testing phase of development, but has apparently been shut down to focus on other Star Wars gaming experiences. Area 52 Games, are a first time developer who were responsible for the development of the game, and it is as yet unclear what impact this cancellation will have on the games studio.

    In case you never got to see the game in action, here is some player-recorded game footage to silently weep over:


    According to starwars.com the first stand-alone/spin-off film has gotten its director and its screenwriter.

    The director will be Gareth Edwards, who recently directed the new Godzilla movie. And Gary Whitta will pen the screenplay; Whitta wrote The Book of Eli, as well as for the Walking Dead video game.

    Due out December 16, 2016, there is no word on which stand-alone film this will be...

    Rumored subjects include Boba Fett and Yoda.

    Production company Bad Robot has announced that filming has begun on Star Wars Episode VII.

    The tweet from director JJ Abrams' production company shows a Star Wars branded clapper board and was accompanied by the hashtag #dayone. It is believed that the first scenes are being filmed in Abu Dhabi which, according to reports, is standing in for Tatooine.

    Oscar Isaac, one of the recently confirmed actors for Episode VII told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday that production was starting in the UK later this month. He also admitted to dressing up as a Star Wars characters when he was younger, "not as a Jedi Knight, but I dressed up as a Gonk droid a couple of times."

    Meanwhile, caught on the red carpet at the UK premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past Andy Serkis has described the new Star Wars script as "beautiful", but refused to give anything away.

    Carrie Fisher has been pretty vocal about her journey back to a galaxy far far away so far, and that still seems to be the case as she told reporters that she was thrilled to be asked to return for the sequel, but she had to lose 35 pounds to get the job. She also revealed that it was George Lucas himself who contacted her about the role.

    The official Star Wars Facebook page has also tweeted a picture of Pinewood Studios, suggesting an imminent start to filming there too.

    Metalocalypse director John Schnepp has stated in an interview that a Boba Fett movie is already in pre-production.

    It was reported several months ago that Disney planned to intersperse the movies of the main Star Wars saga with spin-off films unrelated to the main story, but focusing on specific characters from the saga. As Boba Fett is perhaps one of the most loved minor characters from the classic Star Wars trilogy, it may be no surprise that Disney want to create an origin story for him.

    Joe Schnepp revealed the information during a press interview where he said that he knew for a fact that one of the spin-off movies was a Boba Fett story written by Lawrence Kasdan and already in pre-production.

    Fett received the origin treatment in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, when it was revealed that Boba was a clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett. It is currently unknown whether a new film would explore this in more detail or take place in the gap between the classic and prequel trilogies.

    With the expanded universe no longer canon, it is currently assumed that Fett's death in Return of the Jedi has been reinstated.

    EA has confirmed that it's new Star Wars shooter will be at E3.

    Development on Battlefront (no longer titled Battlefront III) is apparently going very well, according to EA CEO Andrew Wilson. He stated during an interview that the teams use of the Frostbite 3 game engine has enabled the developer to push forward with a high quality quickly.

    It is still unknown whether the game will be playable at E3 as the expected release date is currently over a year away, having been set late 2015.

    Battlefront was announced during last years E3, and is being developed by DICE, the studio responsible for the Battlefield series of games that started with acclaimed World War 2 shooter Battlefield 1942.

    As the first Star Wars game to be released since the Disney takeover, the firms involved are likely to pull out all the stops to make this a huge success.
    Multiplayer support for popular Star Wars games Empire at War and Battlefront 2, meaning players who still use those games will find that the multiplayer functions of the game no longer work.

    GameSpy, which was owned by entertainment network IGN, was effectively shut down in February 2013 and Glu Mobile maintained servers up until recently when it was announced that the remainder of the legacy multiplayer servers will cease operating.

    This news comes as a blow to Star Wars gamers, particularly Battlefront fans who still have a while to go before the newest iteration of Battlefront is released next year.

    The Han Solo and Lando Calrissian Adventures novels are to be reissued under the new Legends banner, according to an official Star Wars Books post on Facebook.

    Way back in the early days of the sadly defunct Star Wars Expanded Universe two series of novels centred on the characters of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. These novels were significant in bringing Star Wars off the screen and into our own imaginations, and the powers that be have recognised this by making them among the first books to be reprinted with the newly created Star Wars Legends branding.

    These fun filled trilogies were originally published between 1979 and 1983, and while they may not be the brightest shining beacons of the old expanded universe, but they are a must-read for any die-hard fan.

    The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley focus on Han and Chewbacca as they travel the Corporate Sector of the galaxy during the years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, while the Lando Calrissian Adventures by L Neil Smith recount Lando's exploits as captain of the Millennium Falcon several years previously, before he lost the vessel to Han.


    Han Solo Adventures
    Han Solo at Stars' End
    Han Solo's Revenge
    Han Solo and the Lost Legend

    Lando Calrissian Adventures
    Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu
    Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
    Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka

    As part of the Star Wars Day celebrations, Disney XD have released the full trailer for Star Wars: Rebels.

    Following a teaser yesterday, the full length trailer for upcoming Disney XD animated series Star Wars: Rebels, which is due to debut later this year.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_soLH5MWGOg

    Rebels takes place in the new Star Wars canon and will be in line with the Lucasfilm Story Group's new policies and vision for the overall saga, but executive producer Dave Filoni says "it’s important that Rebels be its own thing" in relation to previous animated series The Clone Wars.

    Enjoy the trailer, and May the Fourth be with you!

    Disney Store update suggests that Star Wars will not be joining Disney Infinity.

    Previously rumored to have been in the works, it has been suggested that Disney currently has no plans to bring Star Wars characters and worlds to its popular Disney Infinity figure-collecting gaming universe.

    The update came via the Disney Store's Facebook page where they stated that while there were no plans for Star Wars to join Infinity, there were still exciting things to come for gaming and collectibles fans alike.


    This may just be a sign that Star Wars is currently off-limits while the dust settles around the Star Wars Episode VII announcements, including the new all-encompassing single continuity that has replaced the Expanded Universe.

    One big new acquired franchise is coming to Infinity however, as it was recently announced that Marvel characters would be introduced into Disney Infinity 2.0, a backwards compatible upgraded version of the game which will debut on all consoles used by the previous version plus Xbox One and PS4 later this year.

    Episode VII cast revealed!

    By Andy, in The Movies,

    Disney and Lucasfilm have issued an announcement confirming returning and new cast members for the next Star Wars movie.

    The big day has come at last where we finally get a look at the cast list for Star Wars Episode VII! The list was announced on the official Star Wars website today and confirms several returning cast members alongside some new faces to the Star Wars saga, with this quote from director JJ Abrams:



    Confirmed returning cast:
    Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.
    Harrison Ford as Han Solo.
    Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa.
    Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.
    Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.
    Kenny Baker as R2-D2.

    Confirmed new actors:
    John Boyega, 22 year old British actor best known for Attack the Block.
    Adam Driver, best known as Adam Sackler from HBO's Girls.
    Oscar Isaac, 35 year old American actor and singer.
    Andy Serkis, who famously portrayed Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
    Domhnall Gleeson, the Irish actor who played Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter series.
    Daisy Ridley, a fairly unknown young actress who has appeared in several British television shows.
    Max von Sydow, a Swedish actor with a film career stretching back to the 1940s.

    What are your thoughts on the casting? Any ideas on who each actor could be playing?

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