The Prophecy And in time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as : THE SON OF THE SUN. And he shall bring Balance to the Force. "Journal of the Whills, 3:12"
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April 2023
SW Movie news & Ahsoka trailer ! 30th April 2023
The London-based Star Wars Celebration was held over the Easter weekend, and not only was the Ahsoka trailer released, but there was news on three new movies now in pre-production ! Of course, with all the announced and now-cancelled productions, one is forced to take this new movie news cautiously.
According to SWNN, "the trailer for the eight-part TV series gave us our first look at some iconic animated characters now in live-action (check out our full breakdown here). We’ve known for a while that Sabine Wren was a big part of the series, played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo, but now we finally had our first look at her. The trailer also finally confirmed the rumors of Hera Syndulla being in the series, and played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Lucasfilm has also confirmed that Eman Esfandi is playing Ezra Bridger, who has a short hologram appearance in the trailer; David Tennant is also coming back as the voice of the droid Huyang from The Clone Wars.
We also got our first look at some of the show’s villains, particularly Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno as master and apprentice dark side Force-users, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, respectively; Diana Lee Inosanto was also confirmed to be reprising the role of Morgan Elsbeth from The Mandalorian season 2. The trailer included a shot of Grand Admiral Thrawn from behind, while being named “Heir to the Empire” by Ahsoka, in a shameless reference to the Timothy Zahn novels from the 1990s. And we see a fight between Baylan and Ahsoka in what appears to be the mysterious realm, the World Between Worlds, first featured in Star Wars: Rebels."
Additional footage shown at Celebration revealed a closer look at Lars Mikkelsen reprising his voiced role as Thrawn ; Sabine Wren wielding Ezra’s lightsaber and fighting Shin Hati ; a huge bike chase sequence that possibly takes place on the Lothal runway (in front of the Imperial dome) ; the Ghost coming across a purrgil, with both Ahsoka and a short-haired Sabine in the cockpit.
At the London SW Celebration, Kathleen Kennedy announced three new movies :
"Star Wars will head into the future, with a new film directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy set 15 years after the last events of the Skywalker Saga. The film will star Daisy Ridley reprising her beloved role as Rey and tells the story of rebuilding the New Jedi Order and the powers that rise to tear it down."
- according to SWNN, "This is a project that has been in development for over a year, and which first had Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof attached as co-writer and main driving force behind it. Lindelof departed the project earlier this year, after handing over the first full draft of the script. According to Variety, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has taken over from him and co-writer Justin Britt-Gibson as the main scribe. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed episodes 4 and 5 of Disney Plus’ Ms. Marvel, was hired last summer to helm the feature, though the announcement in London was the first time Lucasfilm officially acknowledged this. By mid April, the script was about six weeks away from being completed, which positions it as a likely contender to take the December 19, 2025, slot that Disney reserved years ago for a Star Wars film."
“Expanding upon Star Wars storytelling in the present, Dave Filoni will orchestrate the escalating war between the Imperial Remnant and the fledgling New Republic. Alongside producer Jon Favreau, they will bring together many of the threads of the Star Wars original series in a cinematic event.”
- according to SWNN, regarding a 'Mandoverse' finale, "Since December 2020, it had been reported that the Mandalorian and its spin-off shows would one day culminate into a climactic event.... and this overarching storyline is leading into a loose adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s 'Heir to the Empire'".
“Writer-Director James Mangold will take audiences deep into the past, telling the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”
- according to SWNN, "having worked with LFL on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and developing a great working relationship with Kathleen Kennedy, he apparently pitched to her a movie about the first Force user, which he described as The Ten Commandments meets Ben-Hur".
Fansite SWNN subsequently produced an editorial looking at the in-lore and timeline ramifications of these proposed movies.
In promoting the updated timeline for Star Wars, LFL produced the following graphic to illustrate it :
Of further TV news, Kennedy had the following to say :
Skeleton Crew - the series will feature a group of kids that get lost in outer space while trying to find their way home. As announced during the convention, the four kids are Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong ; they are led by Jude Law, who is playing a Jedi Master. The series is due late 2023 / early 2024.
The Acolyte - currently filming in the UK and will wrap in May 2023, due to premiere in 2024, but Kathleen Kennedy said she was "blown away by the first four episodes !".
The main cast was confirmed as series lead Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, a Jedi Master, Jodi Turner-Smith playing a powerful Force user who is neither a Sith nor a Jedi, Dafne Keen playing an alien Jedi character, Charlie Barnett and Dean Charles-Chapman, both playing Jedi Knights, and Manny Jacinto, who is a regular citizen of the High Republic forced into the adventure ; plus, Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo will be playing Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca ; Leslye Headland's wife, actress Rebecca Henderson, would be bringing to life the character of Vernestra Rwoh, who first appeared in the Phase 1 High Republic books.
Andor S2 - The second season of the Tony Gilroy-created series is currently halfway through shooting. Cameras will be rolling in the UK until August 2023, and they are targeting an August 2024 release date.
The latest artwork for the illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom shows the Second Emperor, Mas Amedda, and his Sith deputy, Sly Moore, also known as Darth Kayos, in the Imperial Palace throneroom discussing the latest developments.
Suddenly, they are interrupted by the holo news feed projecting Mon Mothma's broadcast to the galaxy, warning of Amedda's plans to usurp full control through the use of the gas drones !
As I did with the progression of the Virtual Edition Episode X, I will post below sections of the prose for Episode XI as I draft it....
Grand Jedi Master and Leia Solo’s brother, Luke Skywalker, strode across the barren salt flats, his long white robes fluttering behind him. His focused features were almost hidden by a short-cropped beard, the grey now dominant over the flecked brown. Following close on his heels were a squat blue and white wheeled astromech droid and a gold-plated protocol humanoid droid, who carried a small tray with an air of grandeur about him.
Their trail of displaced silvery dust traced back to a K-wing ship, outgassing softly to itself, engines still hot from their recent arrival. The vessel was a small-sized modified armoured passenger transport, more convenient for Luke to use than the larger multi-purpose transports that the Jedi Order utilised. The sky was a clear white and unbroken from flat horizon to flat horizon, while the salt deposits that they crunched over was a soft cream in hue. In random patches dotted all around were what appeared to be bushes of silvery glistening leaves. On closer inspection, these leaves were in fact slender clear crystalline shards bursting from the ground.
Luke came to a stop and, closing his eyes, he stretched out his left hand. He slowly turned to the left and then to the right, before settling on a patch of unspoilt sand a few metres away to his right.
His fingers imperceptibly gestured, and then he slowly closed them into a fist except for his index finger that remained pointing at the patch of ground. A dull rumble and soft cracking sounds emanated from the ground below.
The astromech droid whistled inquisitively, though the golden droid was less intrigued and more alarmed. “Oh my, an earth tremor ! Artoo, save me !” he wailed.
Luke, eyes still closed, gave a soft smile.
“Relax, Threepio, it’s alright....”
Suddenly, a new single crystal shard erupted from the salty dust, its colour a dull blue hue. It pushed upwards about half a metre, and then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it paused, and the eruption fell silent.
“My goodness...” Threepio, for once, was almost at a loss for words.
Artoo Detoo warbled.
“Really, Artoo ? Well, I never...”
Luke opened his eyes, and stepped over to the new geological arrival. The shard was only two or three centimetres in diameter. The Jedi Master reached over and snapped off its tip. As he held it to the light and marvelled at its clarity, the dull blue responded to his touch and shone softly, its luminescence energising the cobalt hue.
With his right hand, the robotic hand that replaced the one he lost in battle with his father on Cloud City about fifteen years earlier, he unclipped his lightsabre from his belt.
He tilted his chin, and the short cylindrical metal handle rotated at its mid point with several clicks, and then extended apart, revealing a green crystal inside. Two wire arms unclipped from the crystal, and the gem levitated into the air above the sword handle. With his left hand, Luke carefully inserted the rough hewn blue pearl into the empty cavity, and the wires moved once more to embrace the crystal. Again the lightsabre rotated of its own accord and clicked into place, sealing the power source inside.
Luke plucked the green crystal from the air, then raised his sword. His thumb flicked the activator switch, and, with the snap-hiss of legend, a blue and white glowing shaft of bright energy majestically arose from the emitter until it reached about a metre in length.
The Jedi skilfully rotated his wrist and then, more broadly, his arm, and the blade thrummed through the air.
His thumb deactivated the sword, and the deep blue glow was drawn back inside the hilt. Luke re-attached the sword to his belt.
Next, he raised both his hands, arms apart, and once again closed his eyes. The fingers of his cybernetic right hand shook slightly with the effort of re-channelling the energies of the Force, but he could sense the connection being successfully made between his own aura and that of the geology below his feet.
Another tremor, still subtle but wider and all about, softly shook the earth. Three nuclei of cracks appeared at roughly equidistant points in a radius about him, and new crystal shards burst forth. They remained pearly white, giving off no soft hue.
The Master Jedi stepped to each one, snapping off its tip in turn. Instead of testing all three as he had done with his own new blue crystal, he was satisfied that that they were of sufficient quality for the use of Younglings. He returned to his droid companions and held up the three white gem stones.
“Leia was right,” he grinned. “This world is indeed the vergence that she had detected. We’ve found another source of adegan crystals !”
Luke reached over to the small tray in Threepio’s hands and gently let the three crystals tumble into it.
“Oh, how wonderful !” exclaimed See Threepio. “Your students won’t only have the Kyber moon of Illum to go to !”
“Exactly ! With such huge numbers of Force-sensitives now being born across the galaxy, it does seem as if the Cosmic Energy is complementing them with new singing crystals,” explained Luke. “Artoo, encrypt the coordinates of this world and keep them safe until we return home to the Temple on Coruscant.”
Artoo beeped and warbled obediently, and spun his head in an apparent display of happiness.
Luke...
The disembodied voice was familiar, but still it startled the Jedi Master from his reverie. He turned to face where the sound had come from, and before him materialised the image of his sister, Leia. She, too, wore a long white over-cloak, with a cream under tunic visible, and cream skirt meeting her long tan-coloured leather boots. Luke and the droids understood that this was no hologram, yet it wasn’t entirely his sister, either, no matter how physically tangible she appeared.
“Congratulations, Luke ! This crystal lode looks very promising indeed !”
“Thanks to you, sis !”
Leia smiled, and dipped her chin modestly. “Thanks to both of us,” she clarified, and her brother smiled back.
“I wanted to tell you... I think I’ve found the remains of another ancient temple. It’s in the Ansenne system, in the Southern Reaches, not far from the Garrog asteroid field.”
Artoo beeped decisively at the mention of these intergalactic landmarks.
“Master Luke, Artoo says he recognises the name of the asteroid field,” Threepio confirmed. “He also says it’s not too far off one of our return routes.”
“Then we’ll head out that way before coming back home !” announced Luke.
“Good,” agreed Leia. “I have a feeling that the answers to our questions will lie in the past.”
“Yes, I do, as well. I get no sense of antagonism or upset from the Living Force that our new policy of embracing family relationships is in any way wrong.... no matter what the remaining Jedi Elders may assert.”
“They mean well, Luke, you can’t blame them for the doctrines they unhesitatingly followed for all those years. It was all they knew, it was their life !”
The Grand Master nodded.
“Yet there is discord, and I sense a storm brewing on the horizon if I don’t act decisively, but....”
“But you don’t want to split the Jedi Order that has only just been rebuilt,“ his sister finished. “I know, but both you and I know that the Force is leading us down this path, if we are to lay our faith in the Force, then surely it must be right...”
As brother and sister turned to walk back to the ship, Luke remarked without prejudice how Leia’s improved seer-journeying abilities was providing valuable oversight for the Jedi Order.
“Yes, it is affording me – us – a greater insight into Galactic affairs,” Leia agreed, “and I seem able to manage the balance of self-awareness across numerous split personas.”
“That’s good to hear, Leia,” answered Luke, reassured. “I sense no inherent evil to your journeying, yet I do see a darkness to it that I want you to be mindful of.”
Leia chuckled. “Ever the wise teacher !” She patted his shoulder. “I’ll be alright, and you’ll be the first to know if I feel anything is wrong.
“As it happens, Luke, I’ve recently had the vision of a strange flame... it briefly burned across the stars, towards a small planetoid. I think it’s related to the plasma hot spots I’ve also been sensing.”
Luke nodded.
“Well, Alana and her team are currently investigating those. She hasn’t reported anything untoward as yet.”
“I will speak to her directly about it though,” his sister agreed, “and ask her to meditate on it.”
