Star Wars Rogue One trailer

Friday saw the release of the new trailer for this year’s Star Wars offering; Rogue One a Star Wars story and needless to say I am excited.

The movie is set just before the events of Episode IV (A New Hope) and is about the theft of the Deathstar’s plans and getting them to Princess Leia who of course is caught carrying them at the beginning of the first Star Wars movie when Vader aboard the ISD Devestator engaged her.

In the old Expanded Universe they were taken from the planet Raltiir whilst the Deathstar was constructed over the Penal prison at Despayrre which was destroyed during the test firing. Of course…. That was then… this is now.

With Disney’s takeover of the Star Wars universe the old lore is gone ( I may have mentioned this every time I have blogged about the new Star Wars developments and I promise I will stop moaning about it!).

So what makes Rogue One an appealing concept. Well for me it is an unknown – these characters are not the main canon characters and they are going up against the Empire’s best in a commando style mission to save the galaxy in the same sort of vein as Where Eagles Dare, Dirty Dozen or Heroes of Telemark which really appeals to the Role Player in me. Also as they are not canon characters it means that there is no guarantee as to who will survive and who will be killed off – there’s not even a guarantee that Jyn Erso, Felicity Jones’ main protagonist will make it to the role of credits. This makes the movie so much more enjoyable the first time you watch it. Let’s be honest, Family guy nailed it when they stated in “Something, something Darkside,” that “Don’t worry we have a ship of four of the main characters, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

There have been complaints about having a female lead in some corners of Youtube which I find as confusing as those who complained about a black Stormtrooper (John Boyega’s Fin in Episode VII). It is good to see a strong female character in the lead in a Galaxy which up until recently was lacking serious female characters within the movie branch of the franchise. Jyn looks to have the edge and combat skills of Han Solo with just as much balls. Ultimately I cannot judge until that great day when I get to watch the movie in full – and review it – but let’s give her a shot. From the trailer’s I don’t think she is going to disappoint.

There are also people who are complaining that this is not Star Wars and there are no Jedi (except Lord Vader) but to be honest – yes it is. The Star Wars universe is vast with a multitude of different species and backgrounds all trying to live their lives and force users were always in the minority and of varying strength. The draw of Luke Skywalker, Vader, Yoda, Palpatine and Obi-Wan was that they were a minority and put them above the other warriors. The prequels almost overdid the Jedi aspect with them pretty much everywhere making them somewhat less special. Rogue One offers us someone else’s story in the same vein as the old “Tales of:” books from the EU. To quote the old Wizards of the Coast advert “What’s this guys story?” I want to see someone else’s struggle against the Empire, their motivations, their perils, loves, losses – it is a huge galaxy let’s see other aspects and explore new worlds and possibilities. Rogue One has vast potential here.

The Imperial hardware is, as always, very impressive looking with the ubiquitous Stormtroopers, a new version of stormcommando(?) and AT-ATs, armoured speeders and TIE/LN fighters with the rebels running around with cobbled together and “appropriated” gear showing the desperation they face against unrelenting Imperial materiel.

I love the piano and slowed down Imperial march building into the Star Wars theme which compliments the cinematic shots and art including the Deathstar eclipse of a sun. It looks really well shot and I’m hoping that it will play out into a two hour movie but I am excited.

The return of the EU

Yesterday revealed more interesting developments in the new growing history of Star Wars under Disney as I stumbled onto the trailer for Star Wars Rebels season 3.

Last year I wrote in horror that Disney had officially announced the death of the EU (Expanded Universe) so that they would be free to create without being tied to the books and sequels written and approved by Lucasfilm back in the 90s until fairly recently.

Basically my entire life appeared to be wasted and in a Deathstar style blast all my favourite characters, all my favourite starships and events were all wiped out with the click of a "send" button.

But it appears that this was not the end.

The EU had many great ideas and fan favourites like Starkiller, Grand Admiral Thrawn (the only alien Imperial Commander), Dark troopers, Mara Jade and many more. There was such a large number that it was some what inevitable that some might slip in to the new Star Wars canon. At first it was in small ways with Starkiller base in Episode VII, that Han and Leia's son turns to the darkside (Ben rather than Jacen Solo as it was in the original EU), the end of the Empire/New Republic conflict but now a whole character is back:

Grand Admiral Thrawn.

His biography is well known to fans of the old EU, especially the original trilogy by Timothy Zahn (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force rising and The Last Command) and he was one of the mourned lost characters as he had so much to offer and such a rich history and was a definite fan favourite.

The Disney Channel's Star Wars Rebels has already reached its third season (airing this autumn) and has been broadly excellent. It has used stereotypical characters from the old West End Games Star Wars Role Playing Game (Brash pilot, Bounty hunter, fallen Jedi, Warrior and Kid) and pitched them against the Empire who have slowly escalated their response in dealing with them starting with local commanders (Commandant Aresco and Task master Grint) up to ISB (Agent Kallos) and an Inquisitor (another nod to the EU which made great use of the Inquisitors) up to Grand Moff Tarkin. For season two it was escalated to Darth Vader.

I've not seen Season Two yet, I'm waiting for the DVD and a weekend off with the kids but from the clips I have seen on Youtube it looks quite dark with the return of characters from the Clone Wars cartoon series (Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano) and Darth Maul as well as the Empire forcing the rebels to leave Lothal.

Season Three looks just as intriguing but with Vader seemingly taking a back seat, maybe he was to powerful a bad guy or as a busy Sith may have been called to another part of the Empire or it might have something to do with a dual between him and Ahsoka?!?

Thrawn appears to be as he was originally written by Zahn with his calm intellect using art and history to understand his enemy's method of thinking so that he can predict their reactions with his attacks being surgical rather than the usual Imperial blunt clumsy sledgehammer attacks.

His return gives me, and hope that the EU is still acknowlegable with the desperate hope that my favourate may return (although unlikely) but able to settle that a Legend of the old EU is back possibly opening the way for Pelleaon, the Captain of his Star destroyer Chimera but who knows, will have to wait and see!

Any way here is the trailer, what do you think?

Disney have destroyed the Star Wars Expanded universe

A small section of my Star Wars Library

It is as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced...

Yesterday it was announced that the entire Star Wars Galaxy had been destroyed... Not by a Death Star, nor the Sun Crusher or the Galaxy Gun but by Disney.

I was born in 1980 and grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy at Christmas every year, I was a teenager when the Special Editions came out and I was beside myself with excitement when I saw my favourite movies in the cinema, an experience I never thought I would get. Before that I had got into the Expanded Universe.

In the wake of Return of the Jedi many people wanted more. The Role Play Games expanded a lot so that gamers (like me) could experience more of the Galaxy far far away and do the things we had seen in the films, be it flying X-Wings against a Stardestroyer (I lost my port engine by the way) take on Dark Lords of the Sith or Boba Fett...

There were also works of Fiction. Timothy Zahn started the ball rolling with Heir to the Empire,  Dark Force rising and The last Command and if you haven't read them and call yourself a Star Wars fan you have to read them. These were followed by books by Kevin J Anderson, Dave Wolverton, Kathy Tyers, Aaron Allston and Michael A. Stackpole which I spent my teenage years digesting and falling in love with. My favourite character Imperial Admiral Daala has, in recent books, become head of the Galaxy's Government.

I bit my tongue through the prequels... OK not hard and I admit I did rant a little... and often... about how some of the stuff from the Expanded Universe had been neglected or altered by the early films but ultimately most was left in tact so my room for complaint was small and Timothy Zahn et. al started bringing in Prequel stuff into the EU including Luke Skywalker encountering a Droideka some twenty years after Return of the Jedi having never mentioning them before hand. It was OK... I accepted it, so did everyone else - it was a necessity to link Original Star Wars, the EU and New Star Wars.

Last night I read this....strw.rs/1nNvyUm

Disney have killed it all off. All those characters, all those planets, all those events... gone...

Oh yeah there will be new books and new stories based on the sequels and the new project Star Wars Rebels but everything else... all those books that made George Lucas and now Disney buckets of money are all irrelevant. They don't exist and they never did in the narrative of the Star Wars Universe.

Yeah it does mean that the film makers have a lot of freedom to write and create the new series of movies but...

It feels like a big middle finger to the fans who have followed the Expanded Universe for over twenty years. For me the films (even though Episode I and II were not great they did add to the story) and the Expanded Universe were Star Wars, for the majority of my lifetime and for millions of fans like me. 

This news will have sent ripples through the Star Wars fan base and a great many people will be most displeased.

Star Wars VII - don't do it George!

There are somethings that are more important in life than the political squabbles of a few or the oneupmanship of Gunwharf party politics.

The most important thing? Star Wars.

Following yesterday's announcement I have been shocked to my very core. For those of you who missed it, Disney have splashed $4bn and bought out Lucasfilm - to cap that they've announced the release of Star Wars Episode VII for 2015.

Am I excited that I get to go and watch a new Star Wars in the cinema? Hear the opening music and read the scrawl as it treks over the star-field for the first time and await the inevitable space ship? That I get to take my little girl to share a precious lifetime moment?

No, I'm deeply vexed and hurt. I've not been this hurt since Nick voted for the rise in tuition fees.

But it is only a movie... I hear those of you who don't know me say.

Star Wars is my thing. You might think it was being a Libdem or German aircraft but those are only facets of who I am. For a decade Star Wars defined me. I grew up watching it every Christmas on ITV and the old Betamax recording of Return of the Jedi every weekend until at the age of twelve I rediscovered The Empire Strikes Back. Watching the AT-ATs crossing the Hoth wilderness I fell in love. I've always been an Empire man.

I've got all manner of merchandise, including two lightsabers, models, lego, Darth Vader pen, action figures, computer games, around 4000 of the Decipher CCG cards, Role playing game books (D6 and the controversial D20) - coincidentally I came 2nd in the Star Wars RPG category at the Student Nationals in '06. I've also got a good chunk of the sequels.

Sequels?

After the curtain went down at the end of Jedi in 1983 many thought that was the end and kids like me (aged 3) would only see them on tv. In 1992 an author called Timothy Zahn wrote a trilogy of books, that were sequels to Jedi, often nicknamed the Thrawn trilogy which relit the touch paper. Great series like Mike Stackpole's X-wing books, Kevin J. anderson's Jedi Acadeny series... We've watched the lead characters grow up, get married, have kids, lose loved ones and yes *spoiler* even Chewbacca died.

For two decades now George Lucas has reaped the financial rewards of these books and watched his universe expand and develop and now they will probably deny its very existence.

A Galaxy far far away without Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jacen & Jania Solo or my favourite Admiral Natasi Daala just doesn't bear thinking about.

Now I've put up a lot of crap from George in the past. Boba Fett a clone, getting rid of the original Emperor scene and subbing in Iain McDiarmid in ESB, Han Solo shooting first and Jake Lloyd as Anakin. It is easy to look down on Episode I but it was a good cinematic film and Jarjar... Well kids like him and at least Ahmed Best's performance was good (and better than Natalie Portman, Ewan MacGregor and Jake Lloyd put together). Episode II was like watching Dawson's Creek in space but Return of the Sith redeemed the lot.

I fear the future... I fear the Galaxy I know and Love will be torn away and ruined.

On behalf of the fans, the geeks, the nerds - my fellows and brethren who have dedicated themselves to this franchise, who have dressed up as a Jedi or Sith, who have stood next to Daala on the burning Knighthammer, who know what a MT-AT is, or who Lt. Tanbris is - Don't do it George. Please leave it be.