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Star Wars News & Features

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

    Rebels teasers and toys revealed

    By Andy, in Television,

    Disney have released two new teaser trailers for upcoming animated series Star Wars: Rebels. Meanwhile, LEGO and Hasbro have released images of figures to accompany the show.

    Rebels is set 14 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and will feature one central group of characters, and while each episode has its own unique story it will all form part of a larger picture, according to executive producer Dave Filoni.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cAwLmyARpE


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qogqaJ2aXQc


    We've already seen some of the new characters on the Rebels cast, but LEGO has recently released images of the accompanying mini figures and sets, which can be seen over at io9.com.

    Not to be outdone by LEGO, Hasbro have revealed their own line of action figures at Toy Fair 2014 in New York this week. You can see images of this line over at StarWars7news.com, including a closer look at some of the characters that haven't been properly revealed yet.

    Christopher Malcolm dies aged 67

    By Andy, in General News,

    Scottish actor Christopher Malcolm, who played Rogue Squadron pilot Zev Senesca in The Empire Strikes Back, passed away on 15th February 2014 after a battle with cancer, aged 67.

    In Star Wars you don't need to be a big character to make a big impression, and Malcolm did just that in his role as Rogue Two when he uttered the immortal lines "Echo Base, this is Rogue Two. I've found them. Repeat, I've found them."

    Malcolm had an extensive career, from playing Brad Majors in the original Rocky Horror Picture Show stage production, to a role in Jim Henson and Lucasfilm production Labyrinth, and a recurring role as Saffy's father in UK sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

    Rest in peace Christopher Malcolm, 19 August 1946 - 15 February 2014.

    Netflix is to air the sixth and final season of The Clone Wars television series, and add the entire series to its catalogue.

    The Clone Wars animated series, which was dropped from Cartoon Network when Disney purchased Lucasfilm last year, has been rescued by popular television and movie streaming service Netflix, and will launch on 7th March in the US and Canada region.

    Season six is titled The Lost Missions, and will be the final season of the show which first aired in 2008. The Clone Wars continues the conflict that kicked off in Attack of the Clones and provides an entertaining story for the time leading up to Revenge of the Sith.

    A trailer featuring Yoda has been released for the upcoming season:


    This deal further solidifies the partnership between Disney and Netflix, who also recently announced a Marvel mini-series would air on the service.
    In a universe where a civilisation can span a galaxy, there needs to be a way to communicate clearly with friends (and enemies) across the stars. In the Star Wars universe this language is Galactic Basic, also known as Galactic Standard or simply 'Basic', which has it's own alphabet known as Aurebesh.
    Basic is spoken across the galaxy and was the primary langauge of the old Republic and the Galactic Empire, although it is not the only common language; some factions have their own official languages, such as Huttese which is used by the Hutts and is common within their territories. Wookiees, among other species, are unable to speak Basic due to their differing physiology but can still learn to understand it.
    You may have spotted some instances of the Aurebesh in the movies and other media and a lot of them, especially in newer media, can be translated. Luckily, the glyphs used in the aurebesh transliterate easily into English, as you can see in the images below.

    New characters join Rebels roster

    By Andy, in Television,

    The latest characters to be revealed for the upcoming animated television series are to be voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr and Taylor Gray, Disney has revealed.

    Kanan Jarrus (pictured, left) has been described as a rough around the edges "cowboy Jedi" was forced into hiding after Order 66 was issued, and is one of the crew members of the starship Ghost will be voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr, who will no doubt be pleased to add the Star Wars franchise to his already impressive list of acting credits.

    Ezra Bridger (pictured, right), a young con artist from the streets of Lothal, is unknowingly Force-sensitive and meets up with and joins the team of the Ghost to be mentored by Kanan. It was revealed today that he will be voiced by Nickelodeon star Taylor Gray, who was chosen for the raw, authentic quality to his voice that didn't leave him sounding too contemporary.

    Rebels is set in the years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and follows the crew of the Ghost as they battle Imperial forces and stand up to the Emperor's rule. The series features many returning crew members who have previously worked on the Clone Wars series, and Pablo Hidalgo will be consulting on continuity issues.

    Star Wars: Rebels will make its debut in autumn with an hour-long special before moving to a regular half-hour slot.

    Visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic have announced plans to expand their UK-based operations in London, which will work on the new series of Star Wars movies.

    With Star Wars Episode VII expected to begin shooting at Pinewood studios in May 2014, ILM are investing in their London facilities to work on these and other projects.

    ILM president Lynwen Brennan announced that the new facility, north of Soho, would employ 200 people and will be a full-service studio, saying "we needed to expand, and London is a key place to find great talent. We also want to work with UK-based directors; there’s a lot of filmmaking going on in the UK. And, the government has invested in the industry there."

    The Soho area is already home to several leading visual effects houses, and ILM intend to open later this year, with only a small presence at the Pinewood studio as needed. It has also been revealed that ILM London's first project will be Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    In October 2013 Lucasfilm announced that Revenge of the Sith's visual effects producer, Roger Guyett would be returning for Episode VII. Guyett previously worked with Abrams on his Star Trek movies.

    Actor Gary Oldman has confirmed that he has been approached regarding a role in Star Wars Episode VII.

    The British actor with an impressive list of acting credits to his name, including top roles in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and the Harry Potter saga, revealed that he has been contacted by producers regarding an appearance in the latest Star Wars movie.

    Oldman told Sky News, "The deal isn't done, but yeah, they've inquired. I mean Planet Of The Apes, Harry Potter, Batman, and Star Wars… bloody hell!"

    He joins the extremely long list of names linked with Star Wars so far, despite no official casting announcements having been made.

    Games developer BioWare has revealed plans for two new expansions for it's massively multiplayer online RPG Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2014.

    Senior Producer Bruce Maclean told players that they can expect to see two digital expansions to be released in 2014, which will be similar to last years Galactic Starfighter and Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansions.

    Also confirmed was on-going maintenance and bug-fixing patches on a three-week basis, along with new many new features for PvP and PvE players alike.

    This is all part of plans to attract new players; The Old Republic, which reportedly cost $200 million to develop, moved to a free-to-play model with micropayments after failing to build a large enough player base to sustain a subscription model.

    More details can be found in the developers blog: http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20140203

    Disney are planning to bring their Star Wars and Marvel properties into the Disney Infinity experience with new toy packs.

    Despite recently announcing lay-offs from Disney Interactive Studios, Disney is reportedly pushing ahead with plans to release Disney Infinity toys for both the Star Wars and Marvel franchises.

    For those who have not played Disney Infinity, the game requires an "infinity base" connected to your console, on to which you place collectible toys and power "discs" that tell the game what to do, and drops your chosen character in an open world of missions to complete how you want. There are already a multitude of sets to chose from, including Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean, Nightmare Before Christmas, and many more.

    Infinity received mostly positive praise from critics, and has sold more than three million starter packs since it was released last year. The addition of Star Wars and Marvel will undoubtedly provide a hefty sales boost to an already popular product.

    LEGO Star Wars: Microfighters jump from bricks to bytes to become the latest mobile game to release onto iOS.

    You may already have seen LEGO Star Wars: Microfighters in your local stores, but now you take control of your microfighters in the new iOS game out now.

    Microfighters provides arcade-style action and lets you zoom across familiar terrain, such as Ender, Hoth, and Geonosis, and use your ships to blast enemies and objects to collect the ubiquitous studs, as familiar to anybody who has played a previous LEGO game as rings are to Sonic.

    There are a number of microfighters to choose from, from the rebel X-Wing to the mighty Death Star, and a multitude in between. Don't worry, of course the Millennium Falcon is there too.

    LEGO Star Wars: Microfighters is currently priced at $0.99 / £0.69 and is optimized for both iPhone and iPad.

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