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Star Wars News & Features

News and information from a Galaxy Far Far Away, and sometimes a little closer to home.
    Disney are reportedly eyeing up a new Star Wars animated series for the Disney+ streaming service, and it will take the form of a sequel to the acclaimed Disney XD show, Star Wars Rebels, according to First Order Transmissions. They also report that Rebels and The Clone Wars producer/director Dave Filoni will be returning in some capacity. 
    Star Wars Rebels spans a period of time from 5 BBY up until after the events of Return of the Jedi, and ended in March 2018 after four seasons. The finale saw the crew of the Ghost face off against Thrawn, and ended with Ahsoka Tano and Sabine joining forces to search for a missing Ezra Bridger. All of the main characters of the show had a definite resolution to their arcs, with the exception of Ezra, with Dave Filoni remaining tight-lipped on the young Jedi's fate.
    With Star Wars: The Clone Wars returning for a seventh and final season in February 2020, exclusively on Disney+ and predicted to be a big success for the fledgling streaming service, it's a sure bet that Lucasfilm will be looking to bolster their Star Wars offerings.
    For those not in the know, The Clone Wars was an animated Star Wars film and Cartoon Network animated series, introduced Ahsoka Tano as the padawan of Anakin Skywalker, and developed their relationship and her eventual exit from the Jedi Order. As a fan favourite, Ahsoka's reappearance in Star Wars Rebels was met with praise.
    In The Rise of Skywalker, Ahsoka's voice is heard by Rey as she channels the power of the Jedi, appearing to confirm that she had become one with the Force by the time of the sequel trilogy, however Dave Filoni has since teased that we have not seen the last of Ahsoka, and perhaps The Clone Wars season 7 will not be the last time we do.
     
    Hot on the heels of the final episode of The Mandalorian, series showrunner Jon Favreau took to Twitter to confirm that the second season of the hit Disney+ Star Wars TV show will be coming in Fall 2020.
    The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal, and his costar, Baby Yoda The Child, are both set to return in series two, with Carl Weathers set to direct an episode and Favreau himself also stepping behind the camera this time around, having been unable to direct an episode of the first series due to his commitments to Disney's Lion King remake. 
    Favreau tweet also teased the appearance of a Gamorrean for season two:
     

    New Star Wars game in development?

    By Andy, in Gaming,

    Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launched last month and was widely hailed as a fantastic success for single-player gaming, with EA taking a hands-off approach and allowing Respawn Entertainment to do their thing, without insisting on features such as  microtransactions or lootboxes; which have become commonplace in gaming in recent years.
    Now, it looks like they are set to continue developing their Star Wars portfolio, as new job posting at EA appears to show that they are bolstering the workforce in their Star Wars team at Respawn. This could point to a sequel for Jedi: Fallen Order, which would be the safe play given that they have already proven to EA that the single-player story-driven concepts still work in 2019, or it could equally mean that Respawn are gearing up to tackle another aspect of the Star Wars universe. Fans were clamouring for a Bounty Hunter-esque game even before The Mandalorian won streamers over, and the success of the Disney+ TV show could have been the necessary push to bring us something similar to the once highly anticipated Star Wars 1313 which was canned in 2013 when Disney closed LucasArts.
    We eagerly await new information, although given the development cycle of gaming, we don't expect it to be forthcoming any time soon.
    Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is here, and many fans have been been waiting for answers raised in 2015's The Force Awakens. Does the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga have the answers we seek? 
    First, a warning: If you haven't seen the film, should you read this article?
    If you want to be given the answers, this article isn't for you; I'm not going to spoil the reveals. If you just want to be assured that The Rise of Skywalker will provide you with an answer, go ahead! If you want to go into The Rise of Skywalker completely unprepared for the rollercoaster that awaits you, stop reading! Now that's out of the way, let's take a look the big questions that get answered in The Rise of Skywalker.
     
    What does the title mean?

    When the title was revealed to be The Rise of Skywalker there was much speculation as to what this could mean or who this could refer to. Rest assured that this is answers, although the answer is more metaphorical than literal. 
    Is Palpatine really back?

    The big reveal of the first Rise of Skywalker teaser trailer at Star Wars Celebration this year was the fact that Ian McDiarmid had returned as the late Emperor Palpatine, although McDiarmid himself shrugged it off saying that he had only popped in for a laugh. Further trailers and marketing materials made it clear that there was more to the Emperor's reappearance than that. Luckily, the issue of whether Palpatine really has returned or not is cleared up pretty quickly.
    Who was Snoke?

    Supreme Leader Snoke was a mysterious character from the get-go, and The Force Awakens launched a thousand theories over who this guy really was. Then The Last Jedi came along and removed him from the picture without answering any of the questions about his backstory, much to the chagrin of many fans. Much like the issue of Palpatine, Snoke is handled very early on in The Rise of Skywalker, but whether the reveal is satisfying or not may depend on which of the many theories you had bought into.
     
    Why is Rey so powerful, and were her parents really just nobodies?

    Perhaps one of the least satisfying moments of The Last Jedi was Kylo's revelation that Rey's parents were nobody important, apparently killing off the fan theories about her parentage which ranged from descendant of [any major lore character] to reincarnation of [any major lore character]. One thing that has kept the theories alive is the fact that Kylo Ren isn't exactly what you would call a reliable narrator; his agenda was to manipulate Rey into join him. The Rise of Skywalker handles the issue of Rey's parentage as a major plot point, and I am sure the truth will prove to be one of the more satisfying answers you get from The Rise of Skywalker.
    Does Leia get a fitting send-off? 

    When Carrie Fisher passed away in 2016, the fandom mourned for our lost Princess, who was set to play a larger role in the final part of the Skywalker Saga. Unused footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have been used to ensure Leia could remain a part of the story, and I think that this was done tastefully, with her passing handled in a suitable poignant way which paid respect to the character and to the memory of Carrie Fisher.
     
    So what about that Jedi Prophecy?

    I'm throwing this in here, because although I haven't heard many people explicitly asking about the prophecy, it and the concept of balance are a kind of meta thread running through the Skywalker Saga. The Jedi Prophecy was a major plot point of the prequel trilogy, with Anakin Skywalker being believed to be the Chosen One, only instead of bringing balance to the Force he was seduced by the dark side and corrupted by Palpatine, only to later turn against his master and destroy the Sith's hold over the galaxy. Many argue that Anakin's choice to destroy his master in Return of the Jedi doesn't actually bring balance to the Force, and wonder if the prophecy was just planted by the Sith. There is a case for arguing that The Rise of Skywalker delivers the promised balanced in the Force in a way that leaves the text of the prophecy unambiguously true - but that's a debate for another time.
     

    Jedi: Fallen Order launch trailer

    By Andy, in Gaming,

    The official launch trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has been released, along with new gameplay footage available across the web from a portion of the game that was made available to previewers in the games industry.
    Feedback from those that have played the game is mostly positive at the moment, with reviewers saying the game is far deeper than initial previews lead them to believe. Even for non-Star Wars fans, Jedi: Fallen Order represents an interesting proposition - a AAA title focusing on a singleplayer story mode, with no micro-transactions or multiplayer mode in stark contrast to the usual offerings from EA who have previously derided these types of games as being unwanted by modern gamers. Success has the potential to spin EA's current ethos on its head and drive more investment to singleplayer story driven gaming.
    Check out the trailer below:
     
    Jedi: Fallen Order releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on 15 November 2019.
    The creative duo behind the hit TV show Game of Thrones have reportedly stepped away from Star Wars, according to a report by Deadline.
    David Benioff and DB Weiss joined the Star Wars family with much fanfare earlier this year, to head up a new series of films starting in 2022. Rumours had circulated that the film was to be based in the Old Republic era, possibly an adaptation of the beloved Knights of the Old Republic RPG games.
    The pair have cited their reason for leaving the project as being due to commitments with their recent $200 million Netflix deal which would require attention that they felt would not leave them able to focus fully on Star Wars.
    In response to the news Kathleen Kennedy has left the door open for their return in the future, but despite this apparent setback there is no shortage of other Star Wars projects in the works; with Kevin Feige becoming involved recently and the Rian Johnson trilogy not completely off the cards (yet). There are also TV projects in the works, such as the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Cassian Andor series, and of course The Mandalorian which launches with Disney+ on 12 November, and video game Jedi: Fallen Order also releasing in November.
    The second official trailer for The Mandalorian has landed, and the hype continues to build as we see new scenes, creatures and ships that make the new Star Wars TV show look every bit a part of the Star Wars universe. 
    Werner Herzog's character's monologue provides the background for this trailer, with Pedro Pascal's finally speaking the first words we have heard from the titular Mandalorian.
     
    The Mandalorian will be available to DIsney+ subscribers on 12 November 2019.
    Yeah? Good.
    With Kathleen Kennedy recently revealing that the scripts for the upcoming live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series are already finished, the main man himself has finally started talking; and it turns out Ewan McGregor is pretty good at keeping secrets, even when speculation was at a fever pitch.
    During an interview, McGregor is reported to have revealed that his series won't start shooting until summer 2020, and that there will be a total of six hour-long episodes. McGregor intends to play the role of the erstwhile Jedi Master closer to Sir Alec Guinness' portrayal of the character in the original Star Wars trilogy, and at the age of 48 he will be pretty close to Kenobi's canonical age in this series, which is set around 11 years before the events of the first movie.
    The Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show will likely not hit the Disney+ streaming service until 2021, but there is plenty more in the pipeline to keep Star Wars fans happy until then.
    Before Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released, it was announced that the director was already working on a new Star Wars trilogy of his own, that would be set apart from The Skywalker Saga, much like Rogue One. However, after the mixed reaction to his stab at the main series, and the subsequent lackluster box office performance of Solo, things went quiet on the anthology film front.
    Recently, Johnson was caught on the red carpet at the Toronto Film Festival, and was asked about his Star Wars project:
    This has cast further doubt on the fate of his trilogy, which was expected to pick up on a few of the seeds sown in The Last Jedi.
    In May 2019 several Star Wars film release dates were confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger, with the next spin-off film being pencilled in for 16 December 2022 and confirmed to be the David Benioff & DB Weiss project which is heavily rumoured to be set in the Old Republic era.
    Lucasfilm and Disney have yet to make any official statement about the status of Johnson's future in the Star Wars franchise, nor have they confirmed any details for the Star Wars movies set for release in 2024 and 2026.
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