Via Huffingtonpost.com:
May 21 marked the 35th anniversary of the second “Star Wars” movie, “The Empire Strikes Back.” Perpetually curious about the series, The Huffington Post reached out to actor Jeremy Bulloch for stories. Notably, Bulloch played ruthless bounty-hunter Boba Fett and made his iconic debut in this installment of Lucas’ original trilogy.
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Via Ign.com:
The Star Wars galaxy is a perfect fit for nearly any video game, thanks to its enormous and varied collection of races, careers, characters and settings. But which games set in a galaxy far, far away are the best of the bunch? We’ve broken it down – below you’ll find the 9 greatest Star Wars games ever made:
Super Star Wars
This side-scrolling Super NES adaptation of Episode IV takes some liberties with the story told in the movie. For example, there was never a time where Luke had to battle a “Sarlacc Pit Monster” in a bed of quicksand on Tatooine’s Dune Sea, but that’s how the first level of the game ends. Despite this, the game was able to do a great job in the constraints of the 16-bit era in recreating the look, feel, and sound of the first Star Wars movie. It still holds up today, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but at the time it was an incredible electronic use of the Star Wars license.
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Via Washingonpost.com:
I’ve heard that the best part about being a dad is forcing your passions upon your children — sports, the outdoors, even progressive rock. For me, those passions include the classic film series “Star Wars,” and inspired by the teaser released recently for “The Force Awakens,” I sat down with my 6-month-old son to talk about why he should love these movies, too.
It didn’t go nearly as well as I would have hoped (my infant son is in italics):
Hey buddy, I have something really special I want to share with you. Are you ready to learn about “Star Wars”?
Okay. What are “The Star Wars”?
It’s just “Star Wars,” and they’re literally the greatest movies that have ever been made by anyone. There are space battles and a big hairy man-beast and spirituality and themes of friendship and cocky ne’er-do-wells and dramatic confrontations and a weird, incestuous love story, plus robots. All that stuff, plus robots.
I don’t know what most of those things are.
Doesn’t matter. I think you’re going to love these movies. I loved them as a kid, and I still love them today. Well, at least I love some of them.
Why don’t you love all of them?
So, there were three “Star Wars” movies that came out before Mom and Dad were born, and they were awesome. And then, three more came out when Mom and Dad were younger, and those weren’t very good. The second three movies were prequels to the first three, telling the story of how the characters in the first movies got to where they are.
How can something happen before something else even though it came out after the first thing?
It’s like the shows “Muppet Babies” and “The Muppets.” “Muppet Babies” began airing after “The Muppet Show” ended, even though it technically happened before “The Muppet Show,” because, you know, the Muppets were babies.
This doesn’t make any sense. Can I just play with my blocks? Or work on putting my feet in my mouth?
In a little bit, but I have to make sure you understand this, because it’s very important. They made the first three “Star Wars” movies, and everybody loved them. And just like with “Muppet Babies,” someone said “I wonder what it’d be like to see Luke Skywalker as a baby.” This was a terrible idea, but it still happened, and sometimes in life you need to deal with disappointment.
Via Buquad.com:
“Star Wars” is the first thing I can remember liking. I can only guess how I was introduced to “Star Wars” — I figure it was through my parents who, like anyone alive and watching movies in 1977, are “Star Wars” fans — but the series has been drilled into my brain as a wonderful, pleasure-inducing thing for, well, basically ever.
I’ve watched “Star Wars” a lot. I’ve seen the original trilogy innumerable times (certain, unimportant scenes — an A-Wing crashing into the bridge of a Star Destroyer in “Return of the Jedi,” that surreal moment when Han runs into Darth Vader in a Bespin dining room in the “Empire Strikes Back,” Obi-Wan sabotaging the Death Star shield generators in “A New Hope” — are burned into my memory), and I grew up with the prequel trilogy. That trilogy is roundly horrible, but I still love it. My lifelong relationship with “Star Wars” has reached a point where the sounds alone — a lightsaber igniting, the whine of an AT-ST blaster cannon, Tie Fighters, oh god, Tie Fighters–set my brain into happiness overdrive. These things just feel right.
So, naturally, I was incredibly excited when I heard we were getting a new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer at Star Wars Celebration. “The Force Awakens” — even though it’s going to make heaps of money no matter what — has a lot of weight on its shoulders. It has to draw new fans into the series. It has to assure people that it is not the prequel trilogy without calling those films a failure. It needs to like, be a good movie.
So the trailer also had a lot to prove. Well, not prove. That’s up to the film. But it had to give jaded “Star Wars” fans a new hope, draw in non fans and excite everyone else. It had to, intangibly, feel right.
And it did. Oh my god, it did. I cried when I watched it the first time. I’m not at all ashamed to admit that.
The teaser trailer had everything: that Star Destroyer buried in the sand, an exuberant Oscar Isaac diving around in his X-Wing, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega looking more like “Star Wars” characters than Hayden Christensen ever did, Han Solo happily, gravely exclaiming “Chewie, we’re home.”
And the sounds. The sounds were marvelous. Luke’s voiceover, the blasters, the X-Wings swooping in on some unknown planet, the marvelous piece of music that is “Binary Sunset.” This was a thing of pure, unadulterated joy.
And joy, I realized as I watched the reactions on Twitter and Facebook, is what “Star Wars” is all about. These movies, especially the original three, trade on very simplistic themes. There are good guys and bad guys. Sometimes the good guys turn bad, but they must follow a specific set of steps to get there (thanks, Yoda!) And that’s fine. The joy of “Star Wars” comes from watching the good guys grow, make mistakes and eventually — inevitably — win.
My little brother called me the day the trailer went online. He was as enamored as I was. But that’s not why he was excited. He was ten when “Revenge of the Sith” came out, so he doesn’t remember seeing that movie in the theater with my dad and brother. He’s seen all the movies a million times, but he’s never had the experience of seeing a new “Star Wars” film in the theater. This time he will.
That’s got a lot to do with why the world is consumed with the prospect of this movie. The story has been around so long that it’s been passed through generations. And when we walk out of the theater after “The Force Awakens” — the good guys won, but there are some loose ends! — it will be part of one more.
Via Denofgeek.us:
Here are 22 alien species you absolutely need to know to understand the current Star Wars canon!
Alien life forms, from the bizarre Dugs to almost-human Nightsisters, have always been a big draw for Star Wars fans. The iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene famously introduced a vast creature cast, which included pseudo-Satanic beings and very large crickets. And in the new animated series, Rebels, the alien Zeb is one of the most important characters. His species, the Lasat, were based on early concept art for Chewbacca, and also bear a resemblance to the original, amphibious Han Solo.
In most cases, the memorable creatures from Star Wars began as rough sketches and simple phrases. Tauntauns were snow lizards. The two-mouthed Ithorian was known as Hammerhead, a nickname that entered official material. Some of the designs were made to be worn by people, while others involved puppetry or, in the case of Jabba the Hutt, a combination of both. Several designs were recycled or re-imagined as Star Wars grew, showing Lucas’ proclivities and style along with the franchise style.
Many aliens in Star Wars have tentacles and horns, or both in the case of the Chagrians. Others, like the Mon Calamari, are based on real animals. Hokey they may be, but the fishy heads are part of the charm.
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Via Forbes.com:
Over the past four days, more than 60,000 people descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center in order to take part in Star Wars Celebration, the top gathering of fans of the fictional universe.
Given that Disney—one of the largest companies in the media and entertainment world—shelled out a little over $4 billion in 2012 for Lucasfilm and all the Star Wars intellectual property therein, it seemed a worthy target for coverage.
Of course, adding to the intrigue was the fact that I’ve always considered myself a Star Wars connoisseur. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all the movies released during my lifetime the night of their launch at midnight; I can tell you the proper spelling of Chewbacca’s home planet; I even auditioned for the role of Anakin in my youth.
I still felt I there was a chance I’d feel a bit out of my league in Anaheim—and my suspicions were more correct than I could have imagined. There were people, sometimes dozens at a time (more on that later), dressed up as characters I didn’t recognize, as well as conversations about books I’d never read and a general level of knowledge I could never hope to attain.
And that’s precisely why I left Anaheim more convinced than ever that Disney’s Star Wars purchase will prove to be a $4 billion bargain. Far from driven away by changes instituted since the deal, the fan base is as energized as ever in the leadup to the new trilogy set to debut in December, beginning with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and continuing with Rogue One prior to Episode VIII.
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May 25th, 1977 a movie called ‘Star Wars’ was released and the world as we knew it changed forever. How ‘Star Wars’ changed a seven year old kid.
![2015-04-12 23_21_26-A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far.doc [Compatibility Mode] - Microsoft Word](http://www.yodasnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-04-12-23_21_26-A-Long-Time-Ago-in-a-Galaxy-Far.doc-Compatibility-Mode-Microsoft-Word.png)
Growing up myself and my sister and two cousins would always spend the night with my Aunt Sue. That night was always a Friday night and then on Saturday she would always take us to a movie. As kids we would all get to stay together with her one weekend during the summer. The other times we would all take turns staying with my Aunt. This particular time it was my turn to spend the night by myself.
It was Friday evening and my Aunt was now home from work and she asked which movie I wanted to see tomorrow. She gave me the newspaper and I started looking at the movie ads. I came across this movie called ‘Star Wars’ and it looked cool. So I said “I want to see ‘Star Wars'”. My Aunt had heard good things about this movie and she also wanted to see it. My Aunt was a big movie buff and I got that from her growing up.
The only problem with me wanting to see ‘Star Wars’ was it was rated PG and me being only seven my mom had already told me I could only see a G rated movie. Well I really wanted to see this movie, especially since my Aunt wanted to as well. My Aunt said I had to call my mom and ask. So I called and asked, who are we kidding, I begged my mom. Well after my mom talked to my Aunt about it, she said yes. BIG mistake mom…lol
Saturday came and I was always excited to go to the movies with my Aunt, this day was no different. We got to the movie theater and I got my drink and popcorn. The movie starts and I see this A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….. Then BAM, the ‘Star Wars’ logo comes up and starts fading back into the opening crawl. Then this ship comes barreling across the screen as if it is coming from over my head…WOW. Then this other ship even BIGGER than the first comes following it. I was hooked, I didn’t move from my seat the whole movie.
Once I got home I called my mom jacked up with excitement telling her all about it. Then I called my cousins to tell them about it. My Aunt and I were the first ones in the family to see ‘Star Wars’, but that didn’t last for long.
My cousins and myself were all hooked on ‘Star Wars’ for years after that with the toys and going to see the movies over and over again. For years after I loved playing with my ‘Star Wars’ toys alone in my bedroom having adventure after adventure. Anytime I was together with my cousins we did the same thing. Growing up ‘Star Wars’ was completely ingrained in me.
Years later my parents tell me I wouldn’t shut up about this movie until they took all of us back to see this movie again. On that day in May of 1977, I was completely changed by ‘Star Wars’, to say I was obsessed would be an understatement.
Well that is the story of the my first experience with ‘Star Wars’. What was your experience? (share with us on Facebook)
-Chris Hoth Iceplanet
Via Ign.com:
Welcome to Star Wars School, where we delve into the past, present and future of that franchise we all love so much. Today we’re discussing Han Solo’s one and only Millennium Falcon, uncovering some of the lesser known facts about that beauty.
She’s been every kid’s dream machine for nearly four decades — the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy that can outrun Star Destroyers, successfully navigate asteroid fields, and evade the hungry chompers of space slugs. All, of course, while looking really good doing it.
We’ve all loved her for years, but here are nine things you probably didn’t know about the Millennium Falcon!
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Via uk.yahoo.com:
t’s arguably one of the most popular film franchises ever and all 6 ‘Star Wars’ films (soon to be 7!) have been completely analysed to death by its legions of fans.
However, the richly-detailed worlds created for ‘Star Wars’ means that new hidden jokes and references can be revealed with each new watch.
Here are some of the best in-jokes that George Lucas’ sci-fi saga has to offer.
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Via uk.yahoo.com:
Even if you only focus on the movies and not the extended universe – which includes entire galaxies of forgettable aliens and no-mark cantina dwellers – there’s no shortage of terrible characters in the world of ‘Star Wars’.
Narrowing them down to a tidy ten was a task worthy of a Jedi master, but we persevered and managed to single out these lame losers who deserve to be banished to a galaxy far, far away…
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Via techradar.com:
The game’s scope could belong to an unlikely sounding Kickstarter pitch, so perhaps it’s little wonder that Sony Online Entertainment shuttered its Star Wars MMOG in December 2011. In its final form, Star Wars Galaxies was a mess of contradictory creative urges whose design and technological foundations had been stripped out from under it – but it was an ambitious mess, the type of game that players often ask for but rarely get.
Galaxies’ creative director, Raph Koster, had been a lead designer on Ultima Online. In the view of Koster and his team, an MMOG was a persistent world driven by systems that emphasised player participation at every level. If the player wanted to be an adventurer, the logic went, then they should be an adventurer in an ecosystem that also included craftsmen, doctors, dancers, pilots and farmers. If an aspiring Han Solo wanted a drink, then they should be able to buy one from a player who – for whatever reason – aspired to be that bartender from the Mos Eisley cantina.
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Via Ign.com:
For decades, children have stood by their bedroom windows, looked out upon the stars, and imagined they could see the distant lights of a war waging in a galaxy far, far away. Of course, that war was a long time ago, but light only travels to us so fast. We see the past when we look at the stars. And we relive a piece of our childhood when we watch the original Star Wars trilogy.
For some, the wait for a return to that galaxy has been excruciatingly long. But tabletop gamers have been reveling in the classic Star Wars universe for several years now thanks to a resurgence of board games and pen and paper RPGs. For those with a hankering for dice rolls, the warm memory of the greatest science fiction trilogy of all time can still be felt.
If you’d like to know that feeling again, to thrill at shooting first and gritting your teeth in the midst of an X-Wing dogfight, check out these modern Star Wars tabletop games. There’s a little something for everyone. So, find your something and use the Force to outduel your friends. Just don’t get cocky, kid.
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Via Digitalspy.com:
JJ Abrams’ new Star Wars movie is still a few months away, yet already seems to looms on the horizon.
Despite the arrival of the first trailer late last year, concrete facts about The Force Awakens are in meagre supply. We know Luke, Han and Leia are back – and that their progeny are likely to appear too. But Abrams is too canny a filmmaker to reduce the most beloved franchise in science fiction (sorry Star Trek!) to Family Fortunes in space.
If his Trek reboots are any guide, Abrams will be keen to keep fans onside by including other favorites from earlier installments. It’s probable the director will include relatively obscure aliens and humans from the annals alongside the better known. Who will make the cut? For now, only the director and an elite cabal of insiders can answer that question. However, it’s fun to speculate – so here is our countdown of the Star Wars characters that ought be brought back from deep space purgatory.
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Via io9.com:
Last week, Lucasfilm announced the title of the first Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One. And this has us excited for a movie that’s hopefully about badass X-Wing pilots. But will this film live up to its soaring potential? Here are all the things we need to see from Star Wars: Rogue One.
Badass Pilots
Newly cast Felicity Jones could potentially be joining some of the most beloved characters from Star Wars’ former pantheon. The Rogue group made their début in Empire Strikes Back, but went on to gain a legendary reputation in the Expanded Universe, most notably in the beloved X-Wing book series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. The very best the Rebel Alliance had to offer, this squadron of X-Wing pilots was home to familiar names like Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker (and less familiar movie characters like Zev Senesca, “Hobbie” Klivian and Wes Janson), but also a host of new characters, including ormer imperials like Tycho Celchu, aliens like the Duros Lensi, and plenty of female pilots too like Kasan Moor and Plourr Illo. The Star Wars films may have given us a variety pilots to root for, but the Rogues represented a diverse best of the best, and the chance to see versions of characters that fans have adored for decades coming to the big screen is incredibly enticing.
But the Rogues aren’t the only elite Rebel pilot squad. There was also Wraith Squadron.
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Via Comicbook.com:
How ‘bout that season finale, huh? By now, if you’re a die-hard Star Wars fan like me, you’ve probably watched the Star Wars Rebels season 1 finale at least 3 times. If you haven’t yet, well, obviously, spoiler alert! And get watching, I bet you’ll love it!
Now that the first season is over, of course there will be more viewings of the product as a whole to see what we might have missed, but instead of looking back, we like looking forward. The nature of animation means season two is already well underway, as evidenced by the picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar in the recording booth that was tweeted out to announce her joining the cast (and her husband, Freddie Prinze, Jr. who plays Kanan). Still, if Lucasfilm is reading, here are some things we’d like to see in season 2 of the DisneyXD animated series.
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