This week we’re talking Star Wars games at EA Play.
Plus I sit down with Claudia Grey and Pablo Hidalgo talks to dogs in costumes in London.
This is a weird show.
STAR WARS, BABY!
This is The Star Wars Show!
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco, here’s your hosts Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to The Star Wars Show, the only Star Wars Show on the internet where
one host turn the other host’s office into a ball pit when she is not around.
You’re the worst.
Happy birthday.
Thank you.
Let’s go to the news.
EA Play took place over the weekend in Los Angeles and with it came a couple of pretty
big gaming reveals.
First up there was Battlefront II, which confirmed that, yes, more Clone Wars era content will
be coming to the game!
The highly requested era will bring Hero characters like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Count Dooku,
and General Grievous to the game, as well as Geonosis.
But that wasn’t all that was revealed for Battlefront II.
Hero Starfighters, a new hero and villain starfighters mode is also coming, which will
finally allow you to play as a hero starfighter, including the Millennium Falcon whenever you want.
Hero Starfighters launches this July with the Clone Wars era content dropping in the fall.
But probably the biggest Star Wars announcement came when Respawn’s Vince Zampella revealed
a new game entitled, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
The game will be a single player action adventure title, that tells a new story set shortly
after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is currently slated for a 2019 holiday release.
For more on all of the Star Wars gaming news that was revealed during EA Play check out
StarWars.com.
Finally this week.
Uh, can we get some dramatic lighting?
Thank you.
Emmy nomination nominations were released.
WHAT?!
No, it’s too soon!
It can’t be!
It’s true, Andi.
And StarWars.com made the short list in these categories.
How is that possible?!
What will people think if we manage to get nominated for another Emmy like we did last year?
I don’t know, Andi.
That’s up for the Academy voters out there to decide, to consider us for a nomination….
But for real, if you are in the television academy and you like what we’ve been doing
on StarWars.com this year, we’d really appreciate it if you nominated us for a nomination.
And for more breaking news from around the galaxy, check out StarWars.com.
I’m here at a Corellian fish market and beyond those curtains is some action that’s
happening, thanks to the work of Mark Ginther here, stunt coordinator.
So what’s your day been today?
I’ve heard a lot of engines, a lot of action, what’s going on?
This is the first time we see Han jumping into a speeder and taking off at high speed
being chased Moloch, a new gang in this film.
We are spinning the car and driving down these nice little alleyways at high speed.
We got effects working with us, spinning the car at 360 degrees.
We got a top driver, Mark Higginson here, and we’ve got Moloch running out at the same time.
So we have a lot of energy.
Hey, I’m here with Ian Kenny who plays Rebolt.
And here we are in a kind of seedy area of the planet Corellia.
I’m guessing you’re not a good guy.
Would I be right about that?
Uh, yes.
That would be right.
I’m not really Han Solo’s best friend, I don’t think.
We come from the same sort of background as vagrant youths that get taken in by organised
crime in order to survive is to blend in and try to work with them.
I’m here with Jo and Sherri.
And this is Saxon, who’s a movie star.
He’s done for quite a while.
He’s done quite a few filming jobs.
And for this particular film we’ve trained him to wear a suit to that he doesn't look
like a dog at all.
He looks like another creature entirely.
What are the challenges of getting a dog into costume?
We first start with a lycra bodysuit.
Which gets them used to getting in and out of a suit.
Build everything up very slowly and then once we’ve got that we start adding muscle shapes
and we just build it up from there.
That’s great.
So it’s really all about the dogs comfort, isn't it?
Yeah, that’s what it’s all about.
You can’t beat this.
[Porg sounds]
I’m really excited today, we are joined by one of my absolute favorite Star Wars authors
Claudia Gray.
Thank you for joining us.
No, thank you for having me.
I think the last time that we talked was the day that we met and it was for Force Friday
and Lost Stars had just been announced.
So since then you’ve got Bloodline, Leia, Princess of Alderaan.
Mhmm.
You’ve been very busy and you’ve been writing some great books.
It’s been incredible being able to dive in and take on these projects.
I mean the three books and then the story in From a Certain Point of View.
Yeah.
And I’ve gotten to write some of my favorite characters and make up others.
Lost Stars is actually one of my absolute favorite all time Star Wars books and probably
one of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
It’s a lot of fun and it tells kind of the story of the Original Trilogy on this macro
level but you’re following these characters.
That’s something I have noticed a lot through your work is that it’s all very focused
on the more human interactions of Star Wars.
Could you tell me what drives you to tell stories in that way?
To me what is interesting about the Star Wars universe you look at it and there’s all
this amazing detail and action and history and adventure.
But the thing that makes it fascinating is like what would it be like to be there, to
have this happening to you.
Without that to me at least the events and everything don’t seem nearly as interesting.
Right.
So I like to just sort of get into the characters and imagine really truly being them and how
that would feel.
You mentioned that you’ve gotten to work with your favorite characters and you worked
a lot on Leia.
Your stories with Leia have created such a rich understanding of that character.
Yeah, I mean I would say the best thing about writing Princess Leia is that everyone knows
and loves her.
And the worst thing about writing for Princess Leia is that everyone knows and loves her.
[Laughing]
Yeah.
And has their own idea of her and you have to try and live up to that.
And of course she’s so iconic and she’s so much larger than life.
I do think it’s important to show some grey sides of morality but Leia is somebody who
fights very, very hard on the side of the right her whole life.
So you want to do that in a way that doesn't seem automatic or simple, that it does credit
to being a set of difficult choices and sacrifices and the process of some thought.
It’s not impressive if she’s always doing the right thing because of course naturally she would.
So now Lost Stars and Leia, Princess of Alderaan has been adapted into mangas, which is super cool.
It’s the first time that has ever happened with a Star Wars novel.
They’re so great!
I mean I was just actually taking a picture of the one where little Thane and little Ciena are
introducing themselves and they’re these cute little anime style tykes and it was adorable.
But no yeah, that’s awesome.
Your work is being adapted into comic books that are really helping to form young fans
relationship with Star Wars.
I mean it would be great to think tons of kinds came to Star Wars through the books.
I have a feeling that the movies and TV shows may have a little more to do with it.
But I mean books have always been right up there with how people consume Star Wars.
It’s always been a formative thing for everyone.
So to be apart of that now is like wicked awesome.
The thing that I actually enjoy the most about writing Star Wars both for younger people
and for adults is these books reach non readers.
To have somebody discover that they love reading because they picked up something that they wouldn't
have tried because it came from Star Wars, that’s incredible to me.
I love that the more stories we have the more we open up.
It’s this sort of snowflake pattern, you tell more stories and then there are other
stories that connect to those and then there are other stories that connect to those.
And it’s this huge galaxy that’s so rich.
I think George Lucas is almost there with Tolkien in terms of the epic scale and depths
of sort of that world building.
And the fact that we get to play in this world and discover new areas in it all the time,
that’s incredible.
I can’t wait to see what you have coming up next.
Thank you so much.
No, thank you.
It was so good to see you.
Last week we asked for your favorite #SoloEasterEggs and boy did you guys have some opinions!
Yeah, we should start off with a lot of people sharing the same one that was my favorite,
which you called, and that was as Maverick Bohn put it, “Aurra Sing’s special trip
with Beckett”
Matt Kloberdanz said that he liked when Lando talked about The Sharu, the Oseon System,
and the Star Cave on Thon Boka, all references to the L. Neil Smith novels.
And also kind of in a roundabout way hints that they’re all just transcripts of his space vlogs.
Star Wars is Life mentioned the return of Weazel, Supreme Leader Smeagol citing the
canonization of Teras Kasi by Q’ira,
I was big on that one.
Yeah that was a good one.
And Erin liked the call out to Needles from Back to the Future.
But the clear favorite was the fertility idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark being hidden
amongst Dryden’s treasures in his study.
Which a lot of people called us out on last week for not mentioning in our Be-Han the
Scenes segment with Pablo, but if you watch it again, you’ll see it wasn’t there on
set when he was shooting.
There you go.
Quite yelling at us.
So leave us alone!
Finally, next week will mark our 100th episode if you can believe that!
I cannot!
Not with my outbursts.
So make sure you watch next week because it’s gonna be Holiday Special bonkers.
And as always remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, talk to us on the community tab on YouTube and download the
Star Wars app.
Thanks for watching and may the Force be with you.
Also if you have one of those little Livejournal cubes like Lando did be sure to talk about us there.
That’s important.
[Laughing]
Oh, thanks man.
This is horrible.
[Laughing]
Yeah!
[Laughing]
This is the most ridiculous thing anybody has ever done.
Wow!
Thanks Anthony.
[Laughing]
Yeah!