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

He didn't utter a line of dialogue, and appeared in only five shots in the commercial and the teaser for Solo: A Star Wars Story. What is it about Donald Glover's performance as Lando Calrissian that they're trying to hide form us??? Just kidding, of course. It is kind of funny that no one complained about that, though ... but then again, Lucasfilm may have followed the "less is more" strategy tha...

Well, we've had our first extended experience of Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, and what can we glean from it? For one thing, he's not the Han Solo we meet in the cantina on Tatooine because he hasn't become that person yet. So what we're hearing in the commercial and the teaser for Solo: A Star Wars Story is the forming of that scoundrel. And in the process, we're getting a look at the depths of t...

in a surprise announcement from Lucasfilm, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss - best known as the creators of HBO's Game of Thrones - have been tapped to helm a new "series" of Star Wars movies. No release date has been set, except that that can't get to work on it until after the end of Game of Thrones. But that's enough information for us to project the Star Wars slate of movies all the way into 2026....

Hot on the heels of the teaser commercial released during Super Bowl Sunday, the good folks at Lucasfilm gave us a full teaser trailer, released during Good Morning America. In addition to offering new footage, it also helps to expand our understanding of things we saw in the Super Bowl commercial. I'll be digging into that today, and sharing seven top takeaways from the teaser. Punch it! ***I'm l...

There was a Super Bowl ad after all! And it gave us some meaty footage to fire up our imaginations about Solo: A Star Wars Story. In this bonus episode, I'm sharing seven top takeaways from that ever-so-brief but exciting first look at the young Han Solo movie. 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 r...

You may have seen various media outlets reporting that the "studio" - aka Lucasfilm - has "confirmed" the appearance of the first Solo: A Star Wars Story on Good Morning America on Monday, February 5th. (Today!) But if you look at all of Lucasfilm's official channels, as of 1:30pm ET on Sunday there's been no such announcement at all. So where is this "news" coming from? Is it legit? And to add to...

Yesterday, I talked with Jason Fry, the author of Star Wars: The Last Jedi Incredible Cross-Sections. Today, his other half (so to speak!) joins me - that would be Kemp Remillard, the illustrator who's brought his talents to the last two Incredible Cross-Sections books, as well as the Rogue One Visual Guide and the recently updated Star Wars: Complete Locations. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported...

Jason Fry is the author or co-author of a number of Star Wars reference books (and fiction books, too), including one of his most recent works, The Last Jedi Incredible Cross-Sections by DK Publishing. And though that's the focus of what Jason and I will be talking about on this episode, the conversation's going to take a couple of interesting turns, too. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to...

Why is Rose not on the Resistance Bomber with her sister Paige for the battle over D'Qar in The Last Jedi? The novel Cobalt Squadron has the answer, which involves a direct request from none other than Vice-Admiral Holdo herself. Also, the shot from Starkiller Base that destroyed the Hosnian system? If you were in hyperspace when it happened, you felt it big time. Punch it! ***I'm listener support...

When the First Order imposes a blockade on the Atterra system in the novel Cobalt Squadron, it has a devastating effect on the worlds of Atterra Alpha and Atterra Bravo. Thsi is a spoiler-filled podcast revealing just how awful the First Order really is - and how their actions in the novel have ramifications for the fate of Finn's parents. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to http://Patreon....

Paige and Rose Tico are new additions to the Star Wars universe, but we learn precious little about them in the movie. Paige, if I recall correctly, doesn't even have a line of dialogue! Rose tells us they escaped from the First Order devastating their home world, and she's never a fathier in real life. But in Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron, we learn where they're from, how they escaped...

In the days leading up to The Last Jedi, Cobalt and Crimson Squadrons - those would be the squadrons of Resistance bombers - we're on a secret mission in First Order territory, risking the provocation of open warfare first to spy on the First Order's activities in the Atterra system, and then to supply Atterrans attempting to fight back against the First Order occupation and blockade. That's the g...

With The Last Jedi on 700 fewer screens this weekend (under 1800 in total), and with weekend box office numbers projected at about $4 million, we're reaching the point where we can just about finalize The Last Jedi's performance in comparison to the top movies all time, domestic and global. I'm running down those rankings here, and revisiting (one last time) the reasons for why The Last Jedi perfo...

"From a Certain Point of View" is just the beginning. I'm talking with Nick Martorelli today - he's a producer with Penguin Random House Audio who's responsible for casting and overseeing production of the Star Wars programs. And yes, we'll talk about Jon Hamm and how he became part of the project. You also learn about how they chose the narrators for the different stories, and much more. We'll al...

It's one thing to merely read Shakespeare, and it's another thing entirely to see it performed. By the same token, it's one thing to merely read The Force Doth Awaken, the Shakespearean-style adaptation of The Force Awakens by Ian Doescher. But it's another entirely to bring it to life in an audiobook performance. On today's podcast, I'm interviewing Aaron Blank, co-executive producer for The Forc...

After reading the lovable "Chewie and the Porgs" children's book, I've arrived at a rather inescapable conclusion: That our sweet Chewbacca is, in fact, a diabolical scoundrel. Because the book has to live in the same universe as the movie and The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, the kindness with which Chewie treats the Porgs is akin to how people talk about keeping the stress levels of chickens as l...

The history of the Rebel outpost on Crait, and more about the First Order's heavy artillery - that's what's on tap for today's podcast. Also, we're following up on Episode 1,299 about Finn's defection with a note about why, specifically, Captain Phasma wants Finn dead. And it's not just because he's a First Order deserter. It's a very personal reason. Punch it! ***I'm listener supported! Go to htt...

The Last Jedi scored four Oscar nominations yesterday, for Original Score, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. I'll be putting this in historical perspective on today's podcast, as well as discussing a couple of Twitter revelations from Rian Johnson about the source of inspiration for Luke's presence on Crait in The Last Jedi, and what may have happened to his robotic hand in the afte...

First, you need to know how the First Order reacts to disloyalty. (Hint: they're somewhat poor sports about it.) Then, you need to know just how wide a variety of duties and assignments are given to some stormtroopers. At that point, you can get a sense of how huge a deal Finn's desertion and betrayal of the First Order was, why they wanted to keep the lid on it, and how badly Captain Phasma wante...

We know for a fact that Pablo Hidalgo has hidden clues about future movies in plain sight before - just look at the mention of Crait in the Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide for proof. What might he be hiding in The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary about Solo: A Star Wars Story and Episode IX? Well, maybe Episode IX is a stretch because we don't know how much, if anything, of the work Colin Trevorrow did...

Star Wars fans love to talk about shipping in the new movies. Rey and Finn. Finn and Poe. Poe and Rey. Rey and Kylo Ren. Heck, people are even shipping Kylo Ren and General Hux now! Why do we care so much about shipping characters? Because we desperately want to see romance re-introduced as an element of Star Wars movies. And you only need to consider what the most critically acclaimed and fan-bel...

The return of Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine has to be one of the biggest surprises about the finale trailer for Star Wars Rebels. But the trailer is almost as intriguing for what *isn't* there as for what is. Naturally, this opens the door to questions about the survival of all the characters through the end of the series. And there are more surprises, too - including the return of a certain-...

We haven't been given the full picture of Luke's post-Return of the Jedi history yet, but we've been given some tantalizing clues thanks to The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary. In fact, we may be able to safely break that thirty-year time period into thirds based on what we now know about his activities. Whether that's an even three groups of ten years is still a mystery, but the book does potentially...

The Supreme Leader is dead. Long live the Supreme Leader! Just because Snoke is out of the picture, that doesn't mean it's not worth taking a deeper look at him to find out what the deal really is with him. After all, there could be more of him running around the Unknown Regions, right? Well, "running" may not be exactly right. But you get the idea. Also, apparently I'm teal color-blind, and that...

Before Captain Canady commanded a Dreadnought in the First Order, he served aboard a Star Destroyer in the Galactic Empire with the sweetest name for a Star Destroyer you've ever heard. Plus, more about the war profiteering in the galaxy; how many ships were sent after the fleeing Resistance ships; why Holdo's suicide shot was as super-damaging as it was; and the whole Star Destroyer/Battlecruiser...