star wars news

Star Wars at the AMAs

Last night everyone was talking about the American Music Awards (AMAs). I have to admit that I don’t really follow them. I know who all the performers are so I recognize them when I see the highlights scroll past my feed on social media but I don’t actually sit down and watch the AMAs. I’m just not that interested. I also don’t care what kind of face Nicki Minaj was making during the JLo performance. What I did find interesting was that there was a Star Wars performance at the AMAs. I can’t say I am surprised, really, with the mainstream popularity soaring due to The Force Awakens.  Pentatonix is an American a cappella group consisting of five vocalists originating from Arlington, Texas. They performed a tribute of the original Star Wars theme and we also got to see Harrison Ford himself. As for the performance, they were backed by John…

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The average Star Wars: The Force Awakens fan will be 34-year-old male

The new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie has been predicted that it will be one of the highest grossing films ever, and some experts are suggesting that box-office revenues in excess of the current record, Avatar’s gross of $2.78 billon are within reach. Researchers have now showed us who exactly will be purchasing the tickets. According to cinema marketing data firm Movio Media, the average person to purchase a ticket in advance for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be a United States 34 year old male. It’s predicted that 70% of ticket owners are men between the ages of 18 and 49. The average advance ticket purchaser is a typical movie theater goer and usually travels in order to see big-budget fantasies like Jurassic World or Avengers: Age of Ultron on opening night, according to Movio Media. Also, these in particular individuals spend 2.6 times more than the…

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Jar Jar Binks Inspired by Goofy, According to George Lucas

Jar Jar Binks just might be one of the most hated Star Wars characters ever. Honestly, I’m not sure why. I really didn’t think he was that bad. Unlike many who seem to have been annoyed greatly by the character, I found him a bit charming. (I know, I know… don’t shoot me.) When George Lucas was making Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), he famously said, “Jar Jar’s the key to all this, if we get Jar Jar working. ‘Cause he’s a funnier character than we’ve ever had in the movies.” That really didn’t work out so well for him since Binks ended up becoming one of the most hated movie characters ever. That doesn’t seem to sway Lucas very much, as he still loves Jar Jar At the recent Disney D3 Expo, Lucas explained how he feels about Binks, why he loves the character and how he was inspired by…

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What Happened to the Empire after Endor? We’ll Find Out Soon

With The Force Awakens taking place 30 years after Return of the Jedi, there’s been a lot of speculation about what happened in between them. Was the Empire crippled? Did it maintain its stranglehold on the galaxy? Where are the rebels now? On September 2, we’ll start to get answers to these questions. Shattered Empire, the new four-issue comic book series from Marvel, will focus on the events directly following the Battle of Endor and give us some insight into the state of the galaxy moving into The Force Awakens. In an interview with StarWars.com, author Greg Rucka points out that Empire is vast, and that even the loss of its two most important figureheads won’t sound its death knell. Some supporters will leave, but many others will stay and be forced to further defend their territory. He also stated that he used real-world events, like the fall of the Soviet Union and the…

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Official App For Star Wars Fans Is Released

There is amazing and exciting news for major Star Wars fans. Star Wars is proud to present to the public the official Star Wars app. It’s now available for those who use iOS and Android devices and it has some amazing features and great games, all in a Star Wars universe. After you download the app you will be able to enjoy the following: Get instant notifications on big announcements, including trailer releases and movie news Theme your app with Light Side, Dark Side, or Droid interfaces, each containing different designs, sounds, and animations Unlock 3D characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens using a special Augmented Reality camera feature Take and share a Star Wars “selfie” in various iconic costumes and settings, including Jedi, Princess Leia (with hair buns), Han Solo’s carbon freeze, and more Get Star Wars-themed weather and five-day forecasts, featuring original art and parallax effects of…

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LEGO MOVIE Directors Hired For HAN SOLO Standalone Film

The news is now official that Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are teaming up to direct a standalone Star Wars film that focuses on a young Han Solo. The film has yet to be given a title and it will be written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, a father and son team. The older Kasdan was responsible for co-writing the screenplays for Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Empire Strikes Back. The new movie is set to release on May 25, 2018 and the story will be about the young days of Han Solo and how he went from a smuggler and thief who Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker encountered first in Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. “This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience,…

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Boba Fett to Get Standalone Movie?

Since we first heard about the Star Wars spin-off movies, there’s been a great deal of debate over what they’ll be focused on. We didn’t know if we’d be getting films on Han Solo, Boba Fett, the Death Star (looks like that rumor was right), or some combination of these and others. Now that the Rogue One teaser is out, speculation has already started about the next standalone movie, and a few people have been saying that it’s likely to focus on Boba Fett. This seems like an obvious choice for Disney, as Fett has one of the strongest fan followings in the Star Wars universe—people love him, and a Fett movie would almost certainly be a success. An interesting rumor that’s going around (it surfaced back in 2014 on Latino Review) is that Lawrence Kasdan didn’t like the idea of Boba being a clone, and has proposed a story…

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Stream the Star Wars Celebration Live!

Star Wars Celebration, which starts tomorrow in Anaheim, will be live-streamed on StarWars.com, which means you can get a live look some of the most anticipated panels, interviews, and The Force Awakens news on the planet. The biggest draw, of course, is the new TFA trailer. The kickoff panel, at 10:00 a.m. PST tomorrow, includes JJ Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy, and is focused on The Force Awakens. And you can expect to see the new trailer and a new poster debuted during this panel! Of course, there are a lot of other panels that viewers will be interested in. Other panelists for the event include Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and a wide range of other Star Wars-affiliated actors, actresses, and crewmembers. There will be panels on Star Wars and Disney parks, costumes, music, 3D screenings, insight into specific roles, and many other facets of the films. There’s…

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Want to See Another Star Wars Trailer?

Then go see the new Avengers movie! We’ve seen one trailer for The Force Awakens, and we’ll be seeing a new one soon—in front of Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s been rumored for a while, and with multiple sources reporting this release for the next trailer, it seems very likely. Age of Ultron comes out on May 1st in North America, but has release dates around the world starting on April 22nd, so you can bet that we’ll see some bootleg cell phone recordings of the trailer hitting YouTube before that. The trailer will also be shown at the Star Wars Celebration convention, which runs from April 16th to 19th. After JJ Abrams’ crackdown on leaks coming off of the set, it seems likely that Lucasfilm could try to stay one step ahead of bootleggers and just put the trailer out on the internet after the convention, before anyone has a chance to put up…

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Release Dates for Rogue One and Episode VIII Revealed

Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed a shareholder meeting this past Thursday and shared some interesting news with those invited. First, the news about the first standalone film (some of which we already knew): Titled Rogue One Planned release date: 16 December, 2016 Directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) Written by Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz) Includes Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) Idea for the story from John Knoll, award-winning visual effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic Knoll will also executive produce alongside Simon Emanuel (The Dark Knights Rises, Fast & Furious 6) Jason McGatlin (Tintin, War of the Worlds), Kathleen Kennedy, and Tony To (Band of Brothers, The Pacific) will produce John Swartz (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will co-produce This is a lot of information, and some big names that are involved. Although the filming hasn’t even started—and won’t until this summer—there’s plenty to be excited…

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The Spin-Off Movies: What Do We Know?

Ever since we found out that there were going to be standalone movies that focus on a single character in the Star Wars universe, we’ve had tons of questions—who would they center on? Who would be attached to write and direct? Who would be playing our favorite Star Wars characters? Although the first major announcement about these spin-offs came almost two years ago, we still haven’t learned a lot. We have managed to gather a few rumors, though. We’re confident that one of the films will focus on Han Solo, will take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Gary Whitta, writer of The Book of Eli and After Earth, was attached to the project, but left after completing the first draft of the script—though the split seems to be an amicable one, judging by Whitta’s support of Disney and Lucasfilm and director Gareth Edwards‘ public thanks to him for writing….

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Star Wars TV: A tribute to Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph McQuarrie is a name that doesn’t need any introduction to any Star Wars (SW) fans. He was the concept artist responsible for designing beloved characters of the franchise, such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, C3-PO and R2D2. In addition, he designed a lot of Star Wars concept paintings like the arrival of R2D2 and C3PO on Tatooine. Aside from Star Wars, McQuarrie has worked on E.T, Close Encounters of the 3rd kind, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future and Star Trek IV. To celebrate his contributions to Star Wars, the official SW website has posted an extremely interesting 40 minute tribute on Ralph McQuarrie’s that’s definitely worth of your attention.

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Did the Force Awakens trailer reveal its link with Star Wars Rebels?

Like all Star Wars fans we watched in amazement today the new teaser trailer for Star Wars the Force Awakens. The 88 second trailer offered a first glimpse on what J.J.Abrams has in store for the beloved franchise. Reading through the comments posted in various social media, it appears that the general reaction is very positive while the excitement is certainly very high. The trailer lit up twitter, reddit,facebook and many other social media the moment it was posted online. Dissecting the trailer one can find a lot of hints that were rumored to be true in the past but obviously there was no official confirmation. One that really got my attention however, was during the very first scene of the trailer. Spoilers below from Star Wars Rebels and the teaser trailer if you haven’t seen it. The trailer opens up with a view of a desert which one would assume that’s…

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Update (x2): Star Wars The Force Awakens trailer now available via iTunes / Youtube

We recently posted that November 28 will be the day that we get a first glimpse of the upcoming Star Wars movie via a teaser trailer. Starwars.com originally tweeted that the trailer would be available in US movie theaters, however, they also announced the following The Force is with you on #BlackFriday when #TheForceAwakens teaser hits@iTunesTrailers. — Star Wars (@starwars) November 26, 2014 So if you didn’t feel like heading to the movies or don’t live in the US, head to iTunes and get ready for tomorrow! SWToRstrategies.com will be posting updates as those become available. Update 2: The trailer is now available under this link or below via Youtube:

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10 hours of walking in New York as Princess Leia

If you’re following the news, then one of the stories that probably caught your eye is the video of a woman walking the streets of New York and getting harassed by random people. The video was well-made, got the point across and went viral pretty fast. It didn’t take long before the story was picked up by a number of different media outlets. At the same time, the before-mentioned effort also gave genesis to a number of different efforts with lighter context as compared to the original such as “10 hours of walking in NY as a Jets fan” and others. On top of that a Star Wars version recently surfaced titled “10 hours of walking in NY as Princess Leia” , showing what it’s like walking NY as Princess Leia.

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Rumor control: Bioware working on a separate Star Wars title featuring Chewbacca?

JunkieMonkeys.com posted a very interesting story about Bioware recently. As you might remember, Electronic Arts announced earlier this year that it had acquired the rights to developing Star Wars games. EA has also announced the developers working on these titles – Visceral (Developers of Dead Space series), DICE (developer of Battlefield series) and Bioware. While we have heard a lot about DICE’s efforts on Star Wars Battlefront, very little information has been released about Bioware’s separate title….until now. The good people of Junkiemonkey noticed the Craigslist ad posted below: We are a talent search team partnering with Bioware games and recruiting video game talent for new Star Wars game launching next year! We are inquiring for a Chewbacca growl and grunts for a small video game role. Offering $150 for 30 minutes of your time. Please call show contact info and leave your name, number and your best impersonation of Chewbacca. We will…

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Twitter reacts to Star Wars : The Force Awakens announcement

By now, you have probably already read that Star Wars Episode VII is now called “The Force Awakens”. The announcement was made recently by Lucasfilm and pretty much every official Star Wars media source (twitter, starwars,com, etc). What Lucasfilm people didn’t probably expect was the fan reaction as that was expressed through Twitter. Below you will find some of the most interesting tweets, shortly after the announcement was made: While the jokes continue on Twitter, most fans were obviously very excited by the announcement. Current rumors deal with an early release of a teaser trailer for the movie, but of course nothing has been confirmed yet. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. UPDATE – Even Mark Hamill tweeted his thoughts on the new title…

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Star Wars Episode VII gets a title and more plot rumors emerge

The people behind the official Twitter account of Star Wars had a surprise for fans today; they announced that “The Force Awakens” is the title of Star Wars Episode VII. In addition, they revealed that the J.J.Abrams crew has finished principal photography. While the title doesn’t reveal much, a lot of websites are already speculating about the story behind Episode VII. – Possible Spoiler alert-  According to Joblo.com : I’m told that in the back story for the film, Luke Skywalker does something amazing with the Force. He’s really powerful, more of “wizard than lightsaber wielding warrior.” Basically, Luke Skywalker has a “Force Unleashed” moment and realizes he might be bad for the universe. The aftermath of that event is difficult for Luke. Luke Skywalker has become the most powerful Jedi ever, but he doesn’t believe he’s the wisest. He doesn’t want to make the mistake his father made by thinking…

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Read or listen to a excerpt from “Star Wars: Tarkin” by James Luceno

StarWars.com is offering a unique opportunity for all fans of Star Wars science fiction books. The website is previewing the second book released since Disney took over Lucas’ franchise, titled “Tarkin” in an audiobook form. The latest publication is set to be released today (November 4,2014) so if you’re on the fence about it you can either listen or read a 50 page excerpt that was also made available. The book’s back cover reads: He’s the scion of an honorable and revered family. A dedicated soldier and distinguished legislator. Loyal proponent of the Republic and trusted ally of the Jedi Order. Groomed by the ruthless politician and Sith Lord who would be Emperor, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin rises through the Imperial ranks, enforcing his authority ever more mercilessly . . . and zealously pursuing his destiny as the architect of absolute dominion. Rule through the fear of force rather than force itself, he advises…

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Blast from the past! X-Wing, Tie-Fighter to be re-released for modern PCs

For those of us who are of a certain age, there  was a period where using your computer required using MS Dos, floppy disks and in some cases dial-up modems. Gaming in that period introduced us to some legendary Star Wars titles from Lucasarts such as X-Wing and Tie-Fighter – two amazing space combat simulators that are still being talked about today. While many DOS emulators exist, one of their main drawbacks is that they’re not very intuitive and difficult to use. At the same time though since most of these games run on either 5¼-inch or 3½-inch floppy disks (remember those?), few people have held on to their games from 20 years ago. A screenshot from X-Wing in a all its Super VGA glory! Good Old Games (GOG) decided to address these issues by re-releasing both X-Wing and Tie Fighter as downloadable content for $10 each. The former also includes the Imperial Pursuit and…

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NYCC 2014: Star Wars Rebels discussion panel and exclusives

The New York city Comic Con ended earlier this month and videos from the event are starting to surface on the web. Of particular Star Wars interest is the one for Disney’s latest TV series called Star Wars Rebels. In the four-part video posted below, we take a closer look at the connections between the original Star Wars movies and the series as well as the back story of Rebels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo2u1gJJhos&index=2&list=PLZRd3qFud5ts40VL4OarQ2sLQgVKaxDWj During NYCC, Disney also revealed an exclusive clip titled “Phantom Chase” that you can watch below. SWToRStrategies is certainly watching “Rebels” with a lot of interest. The show has the right balance to appeal to both new and long-time Star Wars fans. It is Star Wars done right. One can certainly see the connections between the original movies throughout all the episodes of the series. Voice is acting is extremely nicely done. The dynamic between Hera and Kanan remind us a lot of Princess Leia…

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Rumor: A Star Wars Trilogy Of Obi-Wan Kenobi Movies In Development

What would you think of a trilogy of Obi-Wan Kenobi films? I think I’d be interested in seeing it, in hopes they don’t mess it up and that it’s actually interesting. We talked before about the new Star Wars films being in development and how there were talks of many more Star Wars films and shows in the works. Could this rumor be of one of those? According to movie website Cinelinx, a rumor is going around about the making of three Obi-Wan movies set betweenRevenge of the Sith and A New Hope. If Disney and Lucasfilm are making such a series, it would definitely be of interest to Star Wars fans. When elaborating of what they films would be about, it was said that they would be interconnected but also able to stand alone as independent films (think like James Bond). The unnamed source of the rumor says that Lucasfilm already…

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Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion movie now available to stream

“Star Wars Rebels” is the earliest sample of Disney’s collaboration with Lucasarts after the latter’s acquisition by the former. The series is set 14 years after Episode III and 5 years before Episode IV, when the Empire is trying to firm its grip on the galaxy. While the official series premier is set for October 13 on Disney XD, fans have the chance to watch the opening to the series in the form of a short 45 minute movie titled “Spark of Rebellion”. You can stream the movie through Disney’s XD page once you enter your cable provider’s information (in the US).

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