OK, let’s get this out of the way first. Yes, they’ve edited the original trilogy once again. (Can we at least agree that “Maclunkey!” should only be used as an expletive from this point on?) And yes, there’s also a new (and very charming) trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order that came out a day before the game itself last week.
But let’s get back to the matters at hand. With the first two episodes of new series The Mandalorian now out on Disney+, and Jedi: Fallen Order also available, we’re officially in a new golden era of Star Wars as we count down to the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But don’t take our word for it. Just look at what’s been happening in the online Star Wars-verse over the past couple of weeks.
The Source: Mr. Mandalorian himself, Jon Favreau
Probability of Accuracy: He certainly seems to be into the idea, at least.
The Real Deal: For those who thought that the mention of Life Day in the first episode of The Mandalorian was a one-off joke, series creator Jon Favreau has some news for you: He wants to make an all-new Star Wars Holiday Special to make sure that Life Day gets the attention it deserves. “It’s ready, the ideas are ready,” he told Variety. “I think it could be really fun. Not as part of [The Mandalorian], but there’s an excitement around it because it was so fun and weird, and off and not connected to what Star Wars was in the theater. The Mandalorian cartoon, the Boba Fett cartoon, from the holiday special was definitely a point of inspiration for what we did in the show.” He even knows who would appear in the special, if it happened. “I’m not going to say who I would be interested in. But one of the people is a member of the cast in an upcoming episode of the [Mandalorian] show. So we’ll leave it at that for now,” he teased. Are we headed toward an announcement sometime soon?
The Source: Mandalorian director and executive producer Dave Filoni
Probability of Accuracy: There’s literally no reason why he’d make this up, so … pretty accurate, I guess.
The Real Deal: One of the surprises about The Mandalorian has been that, although it features characters that look like familiar faces, it’s actually stayed away from actually using characters that have appeared in the franchise before. There’s a reason for that, according to director and executive producer Dave Filoni. “If you’re going to use something that exists in Star Wars, you have to inherit its history, and you have to use it the right way, and you’ve got to really understand it,” he told Vanity Fair, explaining the show’s desire to stay away from established characters and storylines. “Those stories mean something to somebody … They certainly mean something to the people that created those stories. And so if I don’t have to pull up the track on something, I don’t want to. And Jon feels the same way.” In other words: Yes, characters will look familiar, but they’re not the same characters that you know and love, just in case using those characters would make you love them any the less.
The Source: Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy
Probability of Accuracy: If you can’t trust the woman in charge of the entire enterprise, who can you trust?
The Real Deal: Dave Filoni’s presence on The Mandalorian—going so far as to make his live-action directorial debut on the first episode—wasn’t accidental, of course. As the Vanity Fair profile on him made clear, Filoni’s importance in the current state of all things Star Wars is significant. “There isn’t a thing that we do in the storytelling space that I don’t check with Dave,” Kennedy says in the piece, which points out how close he is to the viewpoint of George Lucas himself. “What I find about Dave is you don’t just sit down and have a discussion about plot or review characters inside the Star Wars world. You end up having meaningful, thoughtful discussions about what it is we’re trying to say inside the storytelling. He has a lot of empathy.”
The Source: Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams
Probability of Accuracy: This one seems legit.
The Real Deal: As the Skywalker saga wraps up, it might make fans everywhere happy to know that those working on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a particular advisor on hand as a sounding board—and it’s not Dave Filoni. Writer-director J.J. Abrams revealed in a recent interview that George Lucas got involved in the new movie, but it sounds as if his advice was more thematic than practical. “He had a lot of things to say about the nature of the Force, the themes that he was dealing with when he was writing the movies,” Abrams explained. “Yes, there were some conversations about Midi-chlorians—he loves his Midi-chlorians. But it was a very helpful thing. Sitting with him is a treat, just to hear him talk, because it’s fucking George Lucas talking about Star Wars. I always feel it’s a gift to hear him talk about that stuff. Because the effect that he had on me at 10 years old is utterly profound.” Does this mean we’re going to have more Midi-chlorians than expected in Rise? Surely not. (We hope.)
The Source: Poe Dameron’s alter ego, Oscar Isaac
Probability of Accuracy: It’s certainly quite the tease, but accurate? We’ll have to wait until December 20 to know for sure.
The Real Deal: Meanwhile, in discussing the new movie, Oscar Isaac mentioned a name that fans haven’t heard in a long, long time—and one that just might change some people’s expectations about what The Rise of Skywalker is going to be about. “What’s amazing about the story and the script is that you learn that both the Sith and the Jedi have been playing a very long game,” the actor told Total Film magazine. “From the get-go, there’s been this chess match. All these pieces have been played. And now we get to see who gets checkmate.” Considering that the Sith haven’t been heard from much since the end of Return of the Jedi—although we already knew that the Emperor was back in the new film, changing things slightly—this indicates it might be time to revisit both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi before the final chapter reveals just how things really went down. (Well, in the fictional world, at least.)
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