Star Wars Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Andor was a great show but the Star Wars setting was essentially incidental.

You are an amazing realization of the Johnsonian ideal of choosing the one right word to convey the meaning intended.

Incidental.  Love it.

[HVC]

Yaddle was 477 years and spoke normally. Yoda was just weird.

Grogu is ~50, talking is probably an other 100 years off.

Yaddle was a female, doesn't count, for all we know, they are more advanced

It'd be funny if for her species Yaddle was the one with a speech impediment

[HVC]

Andor was a great show but the Star Wars setting was essentially incidental.  Mando may be not as good as TV, but it's solid and has the Old School Star Wars feel, updated and translated into serial format.

And while andor is probably the superior show overall, it just doesn't do anything for me. I stopped watching it, not because it was bad, but because I just didn't really care about it.

[viper37]

Andor was a great show but the Star Wars setting was essentially incidental.  Mando may be not as good as TV, but it's solid and has the Old School Star Wars feel, updated and translated into serial format.

The Mandalorian feels a bit like Knight Rider.  A knight and his companion going on adventures and meeting their friends along the way.

[The Minsky Moment]

The Mandalorian feels a bit like Knight Rider. 

You say that like it's a bad thing 

[viper37]

The Mandalorian feels a bit like Knight Rider. 

You say that like it's a bad thing 

No, I have fond memories of that show.  But it's an 80s show, we're in 2023.

[The Larch]

Seems like they're doing some reorganising to the Star Wars content pipeline.

Star Wars films by Kevin Feige and Patty Jenkins shelved
Taika Waititi is looking to direct and act in the first live action Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, according to a report in Variety

New films in the Star Wars series from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Black Widow director Patty Jenkins appear to have been permanently shelved, with another project from actor-director Taika Waititi now looking more likely, according to a report in Variety.

Jenkins' project, known as Rogue Squadron, was first announced by Disney in December 2020 as a standalone film about "a new generation of starfighter pilots ... in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride"; it was intended for release in 2023 but has since encountered a series of delays. In November 2021, it was reported that production was delayed due to Jenkins' commitments elsewhere, and removed from Disney's release schedule in September 2022.

In December 2022, Jenkins said on social media that, after the cancellation of Wonder Woman 3, Rogue Squadron was "in active development". However Variety quotes "sources with knowledge of the production" that the film is no longer in active development at the studio.

A projected Star Wars film from Feige is also no longer on the cards. Reports first emerged in 2019 that the president of the Disney-owned Marvel Studios was working on a project with Kathleen Kennedy, president of Star Wars producers Lucasfilm. In 2021 Variety reported that Loki writer Michael Waldron had been hired to produced a script, with Waldron saying in June 2022 that he was "into it in earnest".

However, Variety now reports that Feige and Waldron's commitment to Marvel and the Avengers: Secret Wars movie (projected for release in 2026) has meant their Star Wars film is, like Rogue Squadron, no longer in active development.

With no live action Star Wars films since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, Waititi's project, first announced in 2020, is a strong contender to be the next in the series to go before the camera. Having worked as a director on the successful TV series The Mandalorian, Waititi was announced to be working on a script with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Few details of the project have emerged, but in June 2022 Kennedy said Lucasfilm were looking to release it in "late 2023".

A "secret" Star Wars film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and written by Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, is also in the works.

[celedhring]

Liked this Mando episode far more than the first. The whole "getting a droid to explore Mandalore" business is so clunky and pointless that I don't know why they spend so much time with it. They could have perfectly started the season with this episode.

Bo Katan and Djarin have some great rapport together, I loved their scene together exploring the mines of Mandalore and contrasting their views of what it is to be Mandalorian - there was some pretty good dialogue there and Sackoff pulls it off perfectly with her dismissive-yet-longing remembrance of times past. I hope that's the heart of the season.

[viper37]

Seems like they're doing some reorganising to the Star Wars content pipeline.

Star Wars films by Kevin Feige and Patty Jenkins shelved
Taika Waititi is looking to direct and act in the first live action Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, according to a report in Variety

New films in the Star Wars series from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Black Widow director Patty Jenkins appear to have been permanently shelved, with another project from actor-director Taika Waititi now looking more likely, according to a report in Variety.

Jenkins' project, known as Rogue Squadron, was first announced by Disney in December 2020 as a standalone film about "a new generation of starfighter pilots ... in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride"; it was intended for release in 2023 but has since encountered a series of delays. In November 2021, it was reported that production was delayed due to Jenkins' commitments elsewhere, and removed from Disney's release schedule in September 2022.

In December 2022, Jenkins said on social media that, after the cancellation of Wonder Woman 3, Rogue Squadron was "in active development". However Variety quotes "sources with knowledge of the production" that the film is no longer in active development at the studio.

A projected Star Wars film from Feige is also no longer on the cards. Reports first emerged in 2019 that the president of the Disney-owned Marvel Studios was working on a project with Kathleen Kennedy, president of Star Wars producers Lucasfilm. In 2021 Variety reported that Loki writer Michael Waldron had been hired to produced a script, with Waldron saying in June 2022 that he was "into it in earnest".

However, Variety now reports that Feige and Waldron's commitment to Marvel and the Avengers: Secret Wars movie (projected for release in 2026) has meant their Star Wars film is, like Rogue Squadron, no longer in active development.

With no live action Star Wars films since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, Waititi's project, first announced in 2020, is a strong contender to be the next in the series to go before the camera. Having worked as a director on the successful TV series The Mandalorian, Waititi was announced to be working on a script with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Few details of the project have emerged, but in June 2022 Kennedy said Lucasfilm were looking to release it in "late 2023".

A "secret" Star Wars film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and written by Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, is also in the works.

It's been known for a while that the Rogue Squadrons movie wasn't happening.  Kevin Feige one, I could guess as there was no news for a while.

[Syt]

Book of Boba Fett spliced in episodes from Mandalorian, so I guess it's fair that Mandalorian is having a quasi-Andor episode during its season.

It's funny. Last week, Bad Batch's Crosshair episode was incredibly bleak and depressing (a necessary breaking point for him), while Mandalorian did its usual pulp adventure stuff.

This week, Bad Batch was back to its more lighthearted ways, while Mando gave us a rather skeptical look at the New Republic - disinterested elites (like in Andor), slapping on a "We're the good guys" veneer on questionable practices, like the rehab of ex-Imperials.

For Bad Batch, I'm curious about the next few episodes. Much of the season was showing how the galaxy was a shitty place, often shittier than before the war, how the Empire disdains and wants to get rid of the Clones, and - most frustratingly - the Bad Batch basically trying to stay out of it best they can (I guess, they try to be simple people, making their way in the galaxy). It got to the point where Echo straight up left to join a bigger cause, and Omega is clearly edging to do the same, but the rest of the batch (well, Hunter - Wrecker will go wherever his mates go, and Tech will likely join, ebeit grumbling) can't make up their minds, really.

I feel this episode served as a little breather before the final three episodes - I'm sure next episode "Tipping Point" will end on a dramatic cliffhanger (Omega abducted and taken to Mt. Tantiss?) and close with an action filled two parter the week after. Maybe a reunion with Crosshair? It also dangled again the promise of "Hey just stay here and chill" in front of the crew before they're finally making fighting for the Clones and/or against the Empire their cause. Maybe the island is where most Clones go to retire.

Sidenote: I watched the S1 Clone Wars episode "The Hidden Enemy" recently in which the Clones need to find a traitor in their midst. The traitor, a Clone named Slick had a few lines that hit differently after seeing the treatment the Clones got after the war. "I'm not the traitor. You are! All of you just blindly following orders, for what? At least I got something out of all this suffering." It was kinda echoed in Mayday's line in the recent Crosshair episode: "We were good soldiers. We followed orders. And for what?" The Clones are one of the biggest tragedies in Star Wars - created as mere obedient tools of war but developing their own identity, executing Order 66 (mostly) against their will, and then tossed aside as "used equipment" as Lt. Nolan put it. (Tbf, most droids suffer a very similar fate on a daily basis, but it's easier to empathize with humans, of course )

As for Mando - I enjoy this season of Mandalorian Game of Thrones and Bo-Katan joining the Covert (no doubt with designs of her own after seeing there's a Mythosaur alive, and might help her regain her position as leader as "foretold in the prophecies" - per the Armorer's narrative) will be an interesting shake up.

[celedhring]

Yeah, I got Andor vibes too with this week's Mando episode. Not as well written though, Favreau/Filoni can't pull off the same tone. Still, an interesting departure.

But I agree that so far Bo-Katan has been the most interesting part of this season.

[Syt]

Yeah, I got Andor vibes too with this week's Mando episode. Not as well written though, Favreau/Filoni can't pull off the same tone. Still, an interesting departure.

True. For me, Mandalorian/Boba Fett are more reminiscent of the Star Wars comics (and I generally approach them with that kind of expectation - action, melodrama, some eye-rollying nonsense), while Andor is closer to some of the better novels.

Though I'm currently listening to the audio book of Heir to the Jedi, where Luke goes off on a special mission for the Rebellion after A New Hope. The story isn't great (very pulp - again, more like the 1970s Marvel comics), but the narrator puts his all into the voices. He does serviceable impressions of 1977's Luke (the book is told in first person from his POV) and Ackbar, his female characters aren't as great, but the highlight is him voicing an industrialist with a booming voice and theatrical mannerisms for which he goes with an amazing Brian Blessed impersonation/parody that had me actually laugh out loud.

[Syt]

Btw, the Bad Batch had tons of callbacks to Indiana Jones this season. So the opening of this episode had me raise my eyebrow because it was quite similar to Temple of Doom. Then, when they leave the club, the sign in Aurebesh saysm "Club Lao Che" - beautiful hommage to "Club Obi-Wan" where Indy meets Lao Che.

[Oexmelin]

Hello Syt 

[Barrister]

We're about a week behind in Bad Batch and Mandalorian.  I feel like Mando is just finding its way, but really digging Bad Batch.