Star Wars 7x7: A Daily Bite-Sized Dose of Star Wars Joy

Seven members of the cast of The Last Jedi joined Rian Johnson in two separate Facebook Live Q&A sessions where they picked pre-screened questions out of a stormtrooper bucket. The questions were fluffy in some places; in others, they allowed little rays of sunlight in to illuminate some things about The Last Jedi. Here's what Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Laura Dern, Gwendoline Christie...

Rian Johnson answered a bunch of questions from Twitter users this week, and for the Twitter Q&A he didn't do what he did with the Facebook one. Instead of one 20+ minute video, this time he did a handful of videos at 30 seconds or (often) less. I'm breaking down the details of his most interesting answers on today's podcast. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to d...

Rian Johnson took part in a Facebook Live Q&A session from Instagram headquarters and answered questions from the moderator and a few carefully selected questions from Facebook users. I've pulled the key moments from his interview here, and added a bit of commentary and context for you... Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, an...

Will The Last Jedi be the longest Star Wars movie to date? Why does Leia care so much about Crait? What has Daisy Ridley been saying in interviews of late? (Sorry, once I hit the first rhyme, I couldn't keep myself from the next one.) All this and more in a news roundup on The Last Jedi as we head into the final two weeks before its premiere. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patre...

Back in June, I listed off seven huge challenges General Leia Organa could/would face in The Last Jedi. Well, thanks to the trailer release last month, and the Entertainment Weekly cover story this month, a new light has been shined on Leia's predicaments in The Last Jedi. With Vice Admiral Holdo taking the reins of Resistance leadership, what will Leia's mission become? The answer, it seems, has...

One of the stories in "The Legends of Luke Skywalker" takes place largely in the Unknown Regions, around a planet only referred to as The Deep, with a space station orbiting it called The Gem. Based on the details of the story, and on Andy Serkis' comments about Snoke's character in Entertainment Weekly this week, is it possible that the events on The Gem are the inciting incident for Snoke's grud...

Now that we've studied the Legends of Luke Skywalker, what do we *really* know about him and his life in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens? What have we been told - via one specific character's narrative - that might be totally incorrect? And if that's the case, how would a set of incorrect assumptions flip the story of Luke and Ben Solo on its ear? Punch it! ***I'm listener support...

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker missed out on the fun of accidentally going inside the body of an exogorth - also known as a giant space slug. If "Big Inside" is to be believed, then Luke got his chance to explore one himself, in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. It's the final Legend of Luke Skywalker... Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x...

Was Lugubrious Mote there at Jabba's palace and at the Sarlacc Pit? Probably so. Did the story he told happen the way he told it? Probably not, but it's a wild ride all the same. "The Tale of Lugubrious Mote" is the fifth Legend of Luke Skywalker I'm examining... Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, and you'll get some fabulous...

I know I said that yesterday's "Fishing in the Deluge" might have had the most factual information about Luke Skywalker out of all the Legends of Luke Skywalker. But today's story, "I, Droid," has been passed on by droids to other droids. Why isn't this the most accurate story? Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, and you'll ge...

As opposed to yesterday's story, "Fishing in the Deluge" is quite possibly the Legend of Luke Skywalker that has the most truth to it. Why? The things Luke is quoted as saying, and the very familiar setting (despite the name given in the story). Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, and you'll get some fabulous rewards for your...

It's the second of six stories in The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, and in all honesty, it probably has the least to reveal to us about Luke Skywalker. But it does give us more insight into the Battle of Jakku and its aftermath. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, and you'll get some fabulous rewards for your pledge.**...

What more can we learn about Luke Skywalker and how he spent his time in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens? Let's find out, shall we? On today's episode, I'm looking at the first of six stories in The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, this one entitled "The Myth Buster." And for a barnburner of a kick-off story, Ken's got a character cooking up the most incredible conspiracy the...

Finally! The cover story I've been promising you for months is arriving at newsstands now. It's Entertainment Weekly's final installment on The Last Jedi, a big cover story with lots of new photos and more information about the working relationship between Poe Dameron and Vice Admiral Holdo, to name one thing. But I'm burying the lede, so to speak. Anthony Breznican, the author of the cover story...

A new update to Star Tours rolled out at Disney Parks over the weekend, and it included a trip to the Graveyard of Giants on Jakku, the battle between the Resistance and the First Order on Crait, and a final arrival on Batuu, the planet we'll all visit when Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opens at Disney Parks in 2019. More details about Batuu in the podcast today... Punch it! ***I'm listener supported!...

At Star Wars Celebration Europe, Rian Johnson named a few movies that he asked the Lucasfilm Story Group folks to watch, so that they would have a common cinematic language when it then came to discussing and preparing for his creation of The Last Jedi. One of those movies is Twelve O'Clock High, the 1949 movie about daylight precision bombers in World War II. I'm analyzing that movie with a speci...

How might lightsabers work in real life, and how close are we to having them? Did Jango Fett make sound in space possible? And could Han's line about doing the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs have been an actual fact - not a mistake by Lucas, and not a retconned explanation of Han testing Ben and Luke? These are the topics I'll be discussing with Patrick Johnson, Georgetown University physics p...

How Rey and Daisy think differently about the porgs in The Last Jedi. What Carrie Fisher did that set Kelly Marie Tran at ease in a brand-new situation. What Ron Howard has been up to recently for Solo: A Star Wars Story. What I've been up to that will lead to interview podcasts this Saturday and Sunday. All this and more on today's podcast. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreo...

"Kick," "Permission," "Fight," and "Destiny" - those are the titles for four new commercials for The Last Jedi that have found their way online. I'll be discussing all of them today, but fair warning - if you don't want to know who says "May the Force be with you" in The Last Jedi, don't watch the "Kick" commercial, and only listen to this episode of the podcast through the commercial break. Punch...

Dave Filoni intends to give Star Wars Rebels the definitive ending that Clone Wars never got. Knowing that, how does that affect how we look at the first half of this final season of Rebels? Is he "finishing business," as it were, and if so, what's left to finish in the final seven episodes that will make up the rest of season four? Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7...

If you were saying to yourself, "I've got a bad feeling about this," your instincts were correct. You probably weren't sure where the bad news was going to hit you in "Rebel Assault" the mid-season finale of Star Wars Rebels. I've got the Rebels Briefing on Season 4, Episode 9 right here. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, an...

When you think about it, isn't it crazy that Rian Jonson's The Last Jedi is still more than a month away from theaters, and Lucasfilm is so high on it, they made a new three-picture deal with him? And that new trilogy he's creating will be worth at least $12 billion dollars in revenue, when you include the licensing and merchandising revenue? Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patre...

This has to have been my favorite episode of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny yet, out of all 16 episodes. "An Imperial Feast" confirms your worst nightmares about the Ewoks dietary habits; reveals that Hera and Chopper have survived the events of Rogue One and the whole Original Trilogy; and features deftly executed slapstick. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to don...

Well, not exactly, but close. Sabine Wren from Star Wars Rebels, in the middle of a job in Garel City, has a run-in with Rogue One's own Jyn Erso. Plus, Rey gets slimed by a happabore who ultimately does the right thing, and the Mandalorian-turned-bounty-hunter-turned-Rebel Ketsu does a few things I just don't understand. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donat...

This may be the biggest Star Wars news of the year that's not related to The Last Jedi. Even though it kind of is related. Lucasfilm has revealed that Rian Johnson will be creating a brand-new Star Wars trilogy for the screen, and will write and direct the first of the movies in the trilogy. On today's podcast, I'm talking about the big questions that arise as a result of this announcement, and wh...