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

With four nominations and zero wins, The Last Jedi was shut out of the Oscar celebration on Sunday night. And this would be the seventh Star Wars production in a row from Lucasfilm to be shut out from the annual awards - a streak now spanning 37 years. Since the last winner was Best Sound Mixing for The Empire Strikes Back, it makes a person wonder: How much might this have to do with Hollywood ho...

This may be the longest interview I've ever done! On today's podcast, I'm sharing a snippet of an interview from the Star-B-Q Podcast, on one of their "Nibblers" episodes. Ironic, in a sense, since the full interview goes for two hours! For the snippet you'll hear here, I'm talking with their co-host Fode (yes, as in podrace announcers Fode and Beed) about Force users and non-users, and how the no...

Could Ahsoka Tano make an appearance in Star Wars Rebels during the series finale on Monday, March 5? I'm looking back at the 10-card Topps series from the Star Wars Card Trader app released in 2016, and discussed by Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration Europe. Ahsoka's fate after her showdown with Darth Vader in "Twilight of the Apprentice" was mysteriously hinted at in those cards. And after las...

Del Rey's latest timeline tells us nothing new about Solo: A Star Wars Story (even though a bunch of folks seem to think it does). We've learned more, in fact, from the news about the Solo publishing initiative courtesy of Lucasfilm's Michael Siglain, and from a brief excerpt of the upcoming Han and Lando novel. Also, Episode IX's script is finished, and could Leia be re-cast for IX? Punch it? ***...

The Star Wars Rebels episode "A World Between Worlds" re-introduced the concept of time travel back into the Star Wars canon. Based on how the episode turned out, it might not feature as a plot element again any time soon. And that would be in alignment with how time travel was treated in the old Expanded Universe as well - it was an exceedingly rare thing, usually caused by some freak hyperspace...

The fate of Ahsoka Tano is revealed - to a degree - in "A World Between Worlds," episode 13 from season 4 of Star Wars Rebels. in the process, we also learn that we've seen this world between worlds before, and in a huge leap for the Star Wars canon, an element that was pretty rare to begin with in the old Expanded Universe has been reintroduced: time travel. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! G...

In an episode that owes a debt to Raiders of the Lost Ark, "Wolves and a Door" gives us the first real idea of what's so special about the Jedi Temple on Lothal. "It's a conduit between the living and the dead," Palpatine says, which makes for some bold foreshadowing - especially when coupled with the visions and voices the remaining Ghost crew members hear on their journey with the loth-wolves to...

Once again, the creative team behind Star Wars Rebels is playing it close to the vest. Despite two clips shown for the upcoming episodes "Wolves and a Door" and "A World Between Worlds," the clips are only from one of them ("Wolves"), and they only show the moments before the big action of the episodes. That makes them very similar to the "Jedi Night"/"DUME" clips we got. But because we've already...

Recently I had the pleasure of being a guest on Tim McMahon's "Less Than Twelve Parsecs" podcast again, this time for his "Conversations" series - which are much longer interviews than his normal "fastest podcast in the galaxy" episodes. For the conversation, Tim had one question to start, and I'm sharing a piece of that conversation starter on today's episode. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported!...

I've been thinking a lot about how Rian Johnson revealed that the Force power Luke Skywalker used to project his image across the galaxy came from the (now-Legends) reference book "The Jedi Path." Some people were upset about this new power, and got really worked up over it. But it occurred to me that it should have been accepted much more easily. After all, every single Star Wars Saga movie has i...

Here we go ... if you want to know the story of Secrets of the Empire, I'm here to give it to you! This is a full-spoiler podcast - if you just want the review of the experience with no spoilers, check out the previous episode (1,329). But if you want to know what happens in Secrets of the Empire - including the characters you'll meet, and what the "secret" really is, then strap in for the details...

Episode 1,330 will have the spoiler-filled story of Secrets of the Empire, the new Star Wars virtual reality experience created by The Void, ILMxLAB, the Lucasfilm Story Group, and writer David S. Goyer (of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies). This one talks about the experience itself, and what it's like to step into the Star Wars galaxy as envisioned in this very unique creation. Punch it! ***I...

The "devastating loss" suffered by the Ghost crew is the focus of "DUME," episode 11 of season 4 of Star Wars Rebels. Each member of the crew deals with it in a different way, but the way forward after the loss comes in a dream featuring the biggest loth-wolf you've ever seen. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon.com/sw7x7 to donate to the Star Wars 7x7 podcast, and you'll get...

The second half of the final season of Star Wars Rebels started quietly and ended with a bang. This is a no-spoiler description of the fact that this podcast episode will be a full-spoiler discussion of "Jedi Night," episode 10 from season 4 of the Star Wars cartoon series. If you haven't watched "Jedi Night" yet and don't want it spoiled for you, save this podcast for a later date. Otherwise... P...

The log line for "Jedi Night" tells us Hera will be rescued. Nothing new there - we saw as much in the mid-season trailer for Star Wars Rebels. But the log line for "DUME" mentions a "devastating loss." Of course, that's more fuel for the "Kanan Dies" fire. But based on what we saw in the mid-season trailer, there's another very logical explanation that could also explain how the Ghost crew needs...

Yoda's infamous line from Return of the Jedi has something to do with this notion. But basing the theories of Kanan's death during Rebels means you have to make a couple of assumptions that I don't think are safe to make. One of them has to do with whether Kanan actually remains a Jedi, and the other has to do with how long it will be in-universe between the end of Star Wars Rebels and Yoda's proc...

The first half of season 4 of Star Wars Rebels finished off the storylines for the Mandalorians and Saw Gerrera as they related to the Ghost crew in its first four episodes, and then turned its focus to Lothal for the final five. Now, we've got seven episodes left in the series, but before those start dropping on Monday the 19th, we're recapping the major events of the first half of the season. Pu...

Jon Favreau voicing an "very cool & important alien character." Warwick Davis involved in post-production recording work. And new toys announced ahead of New York Toy Fair confirm the existence of a planet in the movie that had been oh so strongly hinted at by director Ron Howard. Plus, the outside inspirations on Solo: A Star Wars Story, and a message from J.J. Abrams about Episode IX that was sh...

Back in March 2017, Bob Iger said four very crucial things about Solo: A Star Wars Story. This was back before they had even announced the name of the movie! Iger revealed the timeline of the movie; the fact that he'd be "acquiring a certain vehicle and meeting a certain Wookiee"; and that we'd learn how "he got his name." Well, now, with all the footage and the Entertainment Weekly features, we c...

Yes, I did a podcast earlier this year about how we're missing romance as a crucial element of the sequel movies. That's not to say there aren't love-like relationships happening in there - or in the other movies as well. Today, I'm looking at what I'd consider to be the most important love relationship in each movie. And again, that could also be brotherly love, comrade-in-arms love, familial lov...

Two planets in Solo: A Star Wars Story have been confirmed outright: Corellia (Han's homeworld), and Mimban, the swamp planet you may remember from the earliest days of the Expanded Universe. A third one has been strongly hinted at: Kessel, of the infamous spice mines. Now, thanks to the commercial and the teaser for Solo - and one other source we've talked about before - we now have information t...

Dryden Vos (no relation to Quinlan Vos), Tobias Beckett (no relation to anyone one else that we know), and that old smoothie Lando Calrissian all get write-ups in Anthony Breznican's coverage of Solo: A Star Wars Story for Entertainment Weekly. Today, I'll be pulling out information from his coverage of particular interest for fans wanting to know more about the movie to come. Punch it! ***I'm lis...

Han Solo is surrounded by strong women in Solo: A Star Wars Story ... even if one of those "women" is a droid with a female personality. Still counts. :-) In today's podcast, I'm digging into the details shared about Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke), Val (Thandie Newton) and L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) in the Entertainment Weekly cover story on Solo: A Star Wars Story. I'm focusing on the details I think yo...

It's the first of our episodes focused on gleaning the most relevant and interesting details from the Entertainment Weekly cover story featuring Solo: A Star Wars Story! Today, revisiting the whole director change, and the unexpected sources of inspiration and contribution to the movie - including the advice given by Harrison Ford and also by the man who invented this whole crazy mixed-up galaxy t...

The commercial, the trailer, the performance of Alden Ehrenreich, the "troubled" production ... these are all topics up for discussion when I join Todd van der Heyden from CTV News in Toronto to talk about Solo: A Star Wars Story. This is the audio version of the interview, and you can check out the video version at the blog post for this show's episode at SW7x7.com. Punch it! ***I'm listener supp...