A throwaway line from Phil Lord may have just reopened one of the strangest “what if” questions in modern Star Wars. During a recent Happy Sad Confused interview with Josh Horowitz, Lord said one benefit of not being “on the hook for making like three Han Solo sequels” was that he and Chris Miller could go make original franchise material instead. It was not framed like a big reveal, but it landed like one. Because if you take that line at face value, Lucasfilm’s plan for Solo may once have stretched well beyond a single movie. That Is a Bigger Han Solo Plan Than Fans Ever Officially Heard About The key detail here is the wording. Lord did not say “maybe there could have been more.” He said “three Han Solo sequels,” which strongly suggests there was at least some version of a longer-term roadmap in the air when he…
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Maul: Shadow Lord Is Taking Inspiration From Heat — and That Might Be the Best News Yet
If Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord needed one more reason to look dangerous in the best possible way, here it is: writer and co-developer Matt Michnovetz says Heat was a key influence on the series.In a new interview, Michnovetz called the Michael Mann crime classic “a good touchstone for Maul,” framing the show around a noir-ish underworld atmosphere instead of a cleaner, more traditional Jedi-vs-Sith setup. If you want the broader picture around the series, release rollout, and earlier reveals, check out our Maul: Shadow Lord complete guide. This Is Exactly the Kind of Comparison Maul Should Be Getting Honestly, this makes a ton of sense. If you are building a show around Maul in the early Empire era, the obvious temptation would be to go full revenge opera and just let him glare at people in dark corridors for 10 episodes. That might still be fun, but it…
Maul: Shadow Lord Gets Its First Full Clip as Disney+ Premiere Nears
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord just took a small but meaningful step closer to launch. After months of teasers, posters, and trailers, the upcoming animated series has now released its first full clip, giving fans a more direct look at how Lucasfilm wants Maul’s return to feel in motion rather than in quick-cut marketing bursts. Star Wars News Net and Jedi News both flagged the clip’s arrival this week. For a broader breakdown of the series, release rollout, and what to expect, check out our Maul: Shadow Lord complete guide This Is Where the Real Promo Push Starts There is a difference between a trailer and an actual scene. Trailers sell mood. A full clip has to sell rhythm, dialogue, staging, and confidence. That is why this matters a bit more than it might seem at first glance. Maul: Shadow Lord already had attention thanks to its striking painterly…
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic’s “Modesto” Codename May Be a George Lucas Clue
The latest Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic speculation is not about a Sith Lord, a planet, or a returning character. It is about a possible internal codename: “Modesto.” The name surfaced through Star Wars community posts and leak chatter, but it has not been officially confirmed by Lucasfilm or Arcanaut Studios. That matters, because if the codename is real, it immediately points to something bigger than a random placeholder: Modesto is George Lucas’ hometown. Why “Modesto” Stands Out “Modesto” is not just any California reference. Lucasfilm has explicitly described Modesto as the place that shaped George Lucas’ adolescence and inspired American Graffiti, while StarWars.com recently called it the small California town where Lucas grew up before making Star Wars. That makes the alleged codename feel unusually specific. If true, it would be hard to read it as anything other than a deliberate nod to Lucas himself. Probably Not…
Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995): The Shooter That Gave Star Wars a New Kind of Hero
Before Star Wars games became known for lightsabers, morality systems, squad tactics, and giant cinematic set pieces, there was Star Wars: Dark Forces — a fast, grimy, surprisingly ambitious first-person shooter that helped kick open a whole new side of the galaxy. Released on February 15, 1995, by LucasArts, Dark Forces was the first Star Wars first-person shooter, and it did not just slap stormtroopers onto a generic corridor blaster. It introduced Kyle Katarn, sent players deep into Imperial installations, and built a campaign around sabotage, infiltration, mission objectives, and the Empire’s terrifying Dark Trooper project. Even now, that combination feels like a turning point. This was the moment Star Wars games proved they could do more than simply imitate the films. They could expand the universe in their own voice. For the SWTORStrategies archive, Dark Forces is one of those foundational entries that makes the whole timeline stronger. It…
The High Republic Returns to Comics With a Brand-New Mystery
The High Republic is not done yet. A new Dark Horse miniseries, Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Pathfinders, launches this week and sends a fresh team of Republic Pathfinders into the far edges of the galaxy to investigate the death of a Jedi Master. Lucasfilm first revealed the project at New York Comic Con last year, confirming that writer George Mann is leading the series alongside artists Partha Pratim, Jagdish Kumar, Michael Atiyeh, and Comicraft. A New High Republic Story, Set After Phase II What makes Pathfinders interesting is where it sits in the timeline. Lucasfilm says the story takes place about 20 years after Phase II, which gives it room to explore a different corner of the era instead of just replaying familiar beats. The official setup follows a brand-new Pathfinder team dispatched to a distant region to investigate the strange death of a Jedi Master, with…
BB-8 Puppeteer Says Sequel Backlash Is Repeating Prequel History
Brian Herring, the puppeteer and performer behind BB-8 in the sequel trilogy, thinks Star Wars fans have seen this cycle before. In a new interview with Gamereactor, Herring argued that the sequel trilogy is “no more polarising” than the prequels were when they first landed, suggesting today’s online backlash says as much about generational turnover as it does about the films themselves. Herring has long been closely tied to modern Star Wars on screen, with StarWars.com previously spotlighting his work bringing BB-8 to life. The Internet Changed the Volume, Not the Pattern Herring’s basic argument is pretty sharp: people angry about the sequels are often too young to remember how intensely fans pushed back against the prequels when those films arrived. His point is not that everyone has to like Episodes VII-IX. It is that the reaction pattern feels familiar, only louder now because every debate gets amplified online. In…
Disney’s Star Wars AI Video Plan Dies With Sora Shutdown
Disney’s Star Wars AI video experiment is over before it ever really started. OpenAI has decided to shut down Sora, its consumer video product, and that move also kills the high-profile Disney agreement that would have brought more than 200 Disney-owned characters and settings, including Star Wars, into AI-generated fan videos. Reuters reported that the deal never officially closed and that no money changed hands, even though Disney had announced plans in December to invest $1 billion in OpenAI as part of the broader partnership. A Big Star Wars Bet That Never Reached Launch Back in December, Disney said Sora would be able to generate short fan-style videos using a licensed pool of more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters, plus costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments. The companies also said some curated Sora-generated videos could eventually stream on Disney+. In other words, this was not some…
Star Wars: Zero Company Breaks Its Silence With New Artwork Ahead of Hands-On Coverage
Star Wars: Zero Company is finally moving again. After nearly a year of relative quiet, the upcoming turn-based tactics game is back in the spotlight with new promotional artwork and a confirmed wave of hands-on coverage from PC Gamer. Bespin Bulletin reports that the game’s new art appeared alongside news that the May 2026 issue of PC Gamer will feature Zero Company on the cover, complete with interviews and hands-on impressions from the team at Bit Reactor. That matters because Zero Company has not had much visible momentum lately. The game was officially announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025 as a single-player turn-based tactics game from Bit Reactor, developed in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games, and set during the Clone Wars. Since then, updates have been pretty sparse. A New Look at the Squad According to Bespin Bulletin, the new cover art shows several familiar…
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996): The N64 Epic That Turned Star Wars Into a Multimedia Event
There are some Star Wars games that feel important because they were polished masterpieces. Then there are some that feel important because they captured a moment — a very specific, very chaotic, very exciting moment in Star Wars history. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire belongs firmly in that second category. Released for Nintendo 64 in 1996 and later for Windows in 1997, Shadows of the Empire was much more than just another licensed action game. It arrived as part of the larger Shadows of the Empire multimedia project, a massive Lucasfilm push that included a bestselling novel, comic books, toys, trading cards, a soundtrack by Joel McNeely, and the game itself. StarWars.com later described 1996’s Shadows of the Empire rollout as a “multimedia assault” that gave fans “everything but a film,” which is still probably the cleanest way to explain why this project felt so huge at the time….
Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s Internal Codename Appears to Have Been Project Griffin
A small but interesting detail has surfaced around Star Wars: Galactic Racer — and it looks like the game’s internal codename may have been Project Griffin. The clearest clue comes from the game’s public Epic Games Store listing. While the store page now uses the final title Star Wars: Galactic Racer, several of the page’s image assets are still labeled with filenames that include “Project Griffin”, such as Project Griffin-1qqie and Project Griffin-1fa8k. That is usually the kind of leftover internal naming you see when marketing materials move from development to storefront rollout. A Small Leak Hiding in Plain Sight This is not a dramatic Lucasfilm reveal, obviously. It is more the kind of tiny development detail that slips through because no one bothered to rename every backend asset before the page went live. But that is also what makes it useful. This is not rumor stacked on rumor. It…
Ryan Gosling Says One Star Wars: Starfighter Scene Was “One of the Most Fun” He’s Ever Done
Star Wars: Starfighter is still keeping most of its secrets locked down, but Ryan Gosling just gave away a very telling little detail about the movie’s creature work. Speaking in a recent interview, Gosling said he visited the creature shop early during production so he could see what was being built and figure out ways to interact with those creations in the film. According to him, he ended up spotting one “very special” creature that had originally been meant as a background character, asked if he could have a scene with it, and that moment turned into “one of the most fun scenes” he has ever done. He also said the team later gave him a model of the creature as his wrap gift, and that it is now sitting in his house. A Small Quote That Says a Lot That is not a plot reveal, but it is exactly…
Epic Hosting Star Wars Toolset Office Hours for Fortnite Creators
Epic Games is continuing to expand the Star Wars presence inside Fortnite, this time with a community-focused developer session aimed at creators using the Star Wars toolset. According to an announcement from Epic’s Fortnite Creative team, developers will host Office Hours on March 27 at 1 PM ET inside the official UEFN Discord, where Epic staff will answer questions about the Star Wars creation tools available to map makers. Direct Access to Epic Developers These Office Hours are essentially an open Q&A session where creators can ask about workflows, limitations, and possibilities within the Star Wars asset ecosystem available in Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). Events like this usually signal Epic wants to push more creator-driven Star Wars experiences inside Fortnite rather than just relying on official limited-time events. A Small Bonus for Attendees Epic is also offering a limited-time Discord role for participants who join during the event. While…
A Live Concert at the Lars Homestead Will Mark 50 Years of the Binary Sunset
One of the most iconic moments in Star Wars history is about to get a very unusual anniversary tribute — and honestly, it is hard to imagine a better location for it. A free public live concert is set to take place at the Lars Homestead in Tunisia on March 29, 2026 at 6:00 PM CET, celebrating 50 years of the Binary Sunset scene. The event is being hosted by Galaxy Tours, with pianist Micah Anderson performing at the site made famous by Luke Skywalker’s defining look toward Tatooine’s twin suns. A Very Star Wars Way to Mark an Anniversary That is a pretty strong hook on its own. The Binary Sunset is not just another nice-looking shot from A New Hope. It is one of the images that came to define Star Wars itself — the moment where longing, scale, music, and myth all clicked into place at once….
John Boyega Says He’s Had Talks With Dave Filoni About Returning as Finn
John Boyega has just given Star Wars fans a small but very real reason to start paying attention to Finn again. During an appearance at MegaCon Orlando, an audience member reportedly shouted, “Get Dave on the phone,” referring to new Lucasfilm President and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni. Boyega’s answer was simple: “I actually have, actually.” Multiple entertainment outlets have since picked up the moment as confirmation that he has at least spoken with Filoni about a possible Star Wars return. A Small Quote With Big Finn Energy This is not a casting announcement. It is not Lucasfilm confirming a new movie, series, or Finn-led project. But it is still notable. Boyega has had a complicated relationship with Star Wars in the years since the sequel trilogy, openly discussing disappointment with how Finn’s arc was handled. That is why this quote lands harder than a throwaway convention soundbite normally would….
Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (2006): The Handheld Mission That Slipped Between the Films
Not every Star Wars game arrives with the same kind of cultural blast radius as Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefront, or Empire at War. Some games land in a quieter lane, tied to a specific platform, a specific moment, and a fanbase that only really discovers later that something interesting was hiding there all along. Star Wars: Lethal Alliance is one of those games. Released in late 2006 for PSP and Nintendo DS, Lethal Alliance came from Ubisoft during a period when Star Wars games were branching into all kinds of directions. On one end of the spectrum, the franchise had blockbuster strategy and shooter titles. On the other, it had handheld experiments like this one: an original story, a new lead character, and a mission set in the volatile gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Ubisoft positioned it as the first original Star Wars…
Hayden Christensen Says His Daughter Still Hasn’t Watched His Star Wars Movies
Hayden Christensen says his daughter still has not really watched his Star Wars movies, and the reason is honestly kind of perfect. Speaking at GalaxyCon, Christensen said she knows he plays “a significant character,” but has still not properly seen the films. According to him, the issue seems to be pretty simple: she knows he becomes Darth Vader, she knows Darth Vader is a bad guy, and she does not want to watch her dad as the villain. A Very Star Wars Parenting Problem It is one of those stories that only really works in Star Wars. For most actors, telling your kid you played an important movie character probably sounds pretty straightforward. For Hayden Christensen, it apparently comes with the added complication that the character eventually becomes one of the most famous villains in film history. That makes this less about franchise legacy and more about a kid understandably…
Marvel’s New Galaxy’s Edge Comic Brings Luke, Leia, and Chewie to Batuu
tar Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is getting a new Marvel comic, and this one is aiming a lot higher than background park lore. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Echoes of the Empire #1 arrives on April 22, 2026, with Ethan Sacks writing and Jethro Morales and Roi Mercado on art, plus a cover by Phil Noto. Marvel says the story sends Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca to Batuu in search of vital intel, where they uncover a dangerous relic that puts them on a collision course with the Empire. A Bigger Batuu Hook That setup matters because it gives Batuu something it has not always had in enough quantity: instantly recognizable Original Trilogy weight. For a lot of Star Wars fans, Galaxy’s Edge has always looked great but felt slightly disconnected from the most iconic parts of the saga. Putting Luke, Leia, and Chewie at the center of a Batuu…
Star Wars: A New Hope Began Filming 50 Years Ago Today
Fifty years ago today, Star Wars stopped being an idea and started becoming a movie. On March 22, 1976, principal photography began on what was then called The Star Wars, with cameras rolling in Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara. Lucasfilm is marking the date today, framing it as the moment one of the most important films in modern pop culture officially went into production. The Day the Galaxy Really Started Moving That date matters because it was the point where George Lucas’ risky space fantasy became something real. By then, Lucas had already pushed through years of development, multiple screenplay drafts, studio skepticism, and the early build-out of the creative machine that would eventually become part of Star Wars legend, including Industrial Light & Magic and Ben Burtt’s sound work. But March 22, 1976 was when the project finally moved from concept art, scripts, and headaches into actual…
Kelly Marie Tran Reflects on The Last Jedi Backlash Nearly 10 Years Later
Nearly a decade after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kelly Marie Tran is reflecting on the backlash she faced after joining the sequel trilogy — and the biggest change now is how she sees it. Speaking recently about that period, Tran said the hardest part at the time was believing the abuse meant she did not belong. Looking back now, she says the thing she did not understand then was simple: it was not her fault. She also said that after ten years of therapy, support groups, and personal work, she believes she would experience it very differently now. A Star Wars Wound That Never Really Left the Conversation Tran joined The Last Jedi in 2017 as Rose Tico, becoming the first Asian American woman in a leading role in a Star Wars film. In the aftermath, she became the target of racist and sexist harassment online, a response that…
Star Wars Outlaws and Jedi: Survivor Both Get a PS5 Pro Graphics Boost
Two recent Star Wars games just got a quiet visual lift on PS5 Pro, thanks to Sony’s latest system software update. Star Wars Outlaws and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are both benefiting from Sony’s upgraded version of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, better known as PSSR. Sony says the updated tech improves image stability, fine-detail clarity, and overall consistency across supported PS5 Pro games. Both Star Wars titles were already using PSSR on PS5 Pro, which is why they now appear to be getting a boost from the newer version. This Is More Sony Update Than Game Patch That distinction matters. This is not really a case of Ubisoft and Respawn suddenly dropping big new content patches for their games. The bigger change is happening at the system level through Sony’s PS5 Pro update, which rolls out broader support for the upgraded PSSR and lets compatible games benefit from the newer…
Ryan Gosling Says Star Wars: Starfighter Will Use Practical Puppets
Ryan Gosling has confirmed that Star Wars: Starfighter will feature practical puppets, dropping one of the most reassuringly Star Wars details fans could have hoped to hear this early in the film’s rollout. The comment came during press for Project Hail Mary, when Gosling was asked whether the upcoming Lucasfilm movie would include practical puppets. His answer was brief, slightly cautious, and very on-brand: “Yes… I think I can say that.” That may sound like a tiny production note, but in Star Wars terms, it is not. Puppets, animatronics, suits, and tactile creature work are part of the series’ visual DNA, from the Mos Eisley cantina to Yoda, Jabba, the porgs, Neel in Skeleton Crew, and just about every weird little alien that makes the galaxy feel lived-in. Star Wars has a long history of blending practical creature effects with digital work, and Lucasfilm has continued highlighting that mix in…
Star Wars: Dark Forces Trilogy Author William C. Dietz Has Died
William C. Dietz, the science fiction author best known in Star Wars circles for writing the Dark Forces novella trilogy, has died at the age of 80. A memorial published this week states that Dietz passed away on March 15, 2026. For a lot of Star Wars readers, Dietz was not just another tie-in writer. He was the author who helped give Kyle Katarn a life on the page through Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire, Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, and Dark Forces: Jedi Knight—three books that adapted and expanded the story of one of the most beloved Legends-era characters. Wookieepedia’s record of his Star Wars bibliography lists those three Dark Forces books as his core contributions to the franchise. A Name Star Wars Readers Remember Dietz built a much bigger career beyond Star Wars. His official biography says he published more than sixty novels, with work translated into multiple…
Disneyland Is Quietly Erasing Another Galactic Starcruiser Detail From Galaxy’s Edge
Disneyland has quietly removed a Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser reference from Oga’s Cantina, and it looks like more than a simple background update. Reports say a Halcyon-related message on the cantina’s notice board has been replaced as part of the venue’s recent refresh. A Tiny Change With Bigger Timing On its own, this is the kind of detail most guests would never notice. But the timing makes it much more interesting. Disney has already confirmed that starting April 29, 2026, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland will expand beyond its old narrow timeline and start featuring characters from more eras of the saga, including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Darth Vader. That means this Oga’s Cantina change lands right in the middle of a much bigger creative reset for Batuu. What Was Actually Removed The removed notice reportedly referenced Captain Keevan of the Halcyon and called for a…