- This week we're sitting down to talk to Charles Soule
about Marvel's "Star Wars."
- Plus more.
- Just more?
- Well, yeah.
You've got to entice them to stay for the whole episode.
Whew.
- How did we do it?
Stick around.
- Magic.
- 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 celebrating May the 4th on May
the 1st.
- We're early because we care.
- And also because we're locked into this Wednesday time slot.
- It's going to be awkward next year when we're all
may the April 29 be with you.
- It rolls right off the tongue.
Let's go to the news.
[WHOOSH]
Because May the 4th is upon us, there
are all sorts of "Star Wars" related celebrations
and deals going on.
- Deals like up to 75% off of select video games and packs
across mobile PC and console platforms, giveaways of in-game
items, characters, and more.
Basically if it has "Star Wars" in the title of the video game,
odds are, there's a deal to be found on it this week.
- For more information on these deals
and upcoming May the 4th deals of all kinds,
check out StarWars.com/SWS.
- As I talked about last week, Star Wars-Galaxy's Edge is
about to open up its free reservation system
to access the new land at Disneyland
Resort in Anaheim tomorrow.
- Beginning at 10:00 AM Pacific time on Disneyland.com,
the free reservation system will go live for the dates falling
between May 31 and June 23.
- For more information, including how to register
for a Disney account to reserve your time,
go to StarWars.com/SWS
- Star Wars Day isn't the only unofficial holiday
happening this Saturday.
Free Comic Book Day is also taking place on May the 4th,
and "Star Wars" is participating.
- This year you'll be able to grab a free copy of "Star Wars
Adventures" from IDW, which follows Han and Chewie as they
race against pirates in a search for one
of three identical droids that contain the location
of a legendary treasure.
- Additionally, Marvel is also handing out a free preview
issue of their upcoming comics.
Inside you'll get samples from "Galaxy's Edge," "Age
of Rebellion," and "Tie Fighter,"
as well as an interview with Kieron Gillan.
- Both free comics will be available at your local
comic book shop this Saturday.
- And speaking of comics, our friends over at Marvel
will be debuting a bonus episode of "Earth's Mightiest Show,"
which highlights some of the best Marvel "Star Wars" comics
to pick up during May the 4th.
- The episode will go live on Saturday
morning on YouTube.com/Marvel.
Enough said.
- And for more breaking news from around the galaxy, be sure
to check out StarWars.com/SWS.
- For real.
There's a whole bunch of stuff going up there on Saturday
that we can't talk about until next week.
- Curse you, Wednesday time slot.
Curse you.
- (YODA'S VOICE) Much to learn you still have.
- Aha, A-T-A-Ts.
Or is it ATATs?
Whatever.
First scene in "The Empire Strikes Back,"
stomping their way towards Echo Base on the icy planet of Hoth,
the all-terrain armored transports
are the four-legged vehicles that stand over a staggering 22
meters tall.
With armor impervious to most blasters,
as well as four front-mounted cannons,
the ATAT is an unstoppable war machine.
Sometimes.
Their legs have been shown to be their weak spot.
From tripping over cables in "The Empire Strikes Back,"
to getting sliced with a lightsaber
in "Star Wars Rebels," the results
are ultimately the same.
Another weakness of the ATAT is their sight.
The ghost crew was able to evade a group of ATATs
by entering the sandstorm.
Don't let that weakness fool you,
they're very good at blowing stuff up.
Want to learn more about ATATs, like how
they're modeled after the movement of an elephant?
Check out StarWars.com/MuchToLearn.
- Hey, guys, today we have Charles Soule with us.
- Hey. - Hey.
Thank You so much for joining us.
- Thank you for having me. This is fantastic.
- So let's talk a little bit about your experience
writing "Star Wars." - Sure.
- You've pretty much just been in the comics space with us.
- Yeah, I've done four projects.
It was Lando, then it was Obi Wan and Anakin, both of which
were minis.
And then I did a long Poe Dameron series.
- Mm-hmm.
- But, really, the biggest thing I've done for you guys
has been the Darth Vader series.
It was set right after Episode 3,
so, as I call it, it was Baby Vader, when he was just
in his suit for the first time, didn't have a lightsaber yet,
didn't really know how to use the robot limbs and so on.
And so it was him in a way that we haven't really seen before,
where he's learning about things,
he's not as incredibly confident and terrifying.
He's still pretty terrifying, but he's not
terrifying in the same way that we've
seen from the other films.
- Yeah, and I find that so fascinating.
What did you do to get in that headspace?
And how did you approach writing about someone
who maybe used to be so mysterious and enigmatic,
and you're really breaking him down
to like the finest details? - Right.
I mean, that's one of things you really
want to be careful s with Darth Vader, with any big villain,
because you don't want to demystify them or take away
what makes them frightening.
And so one of the first things I decided,
when I started writing the series,
is that Darth Vader would almost never talk.
And if he talked, it would be literally the bare minimum.
If he could get it done in one word,
he'd get it done in one word.
And no captions, so you never got in his head.
And so everything you learned about him
is through his actions.
And his actions are generally pretty terrifying,
because he's Darth Vader.
And so that was the way I approached the idea of keeping
him frightening, even though revealing how he got
that first lightsaber, you're revealing how he built
that huge castle on Mustafar, like that's one
of the big story arcs we did.
So you want those stories to feel as epic as anything
you saw on any of the films, but also give new layers
and show new things about Darth Vader.
And the main goal for that series
was taking you from the place where he remembered
being Anakin Skywalker, to just letting go of Anakin Skywalker
and saying, OK, I'm Darth Vader, I'm ready to do
what I need me to do.
- That's such a cool space to play in.
- You're telling me.
- I know, right?
- I know, it was great.
- And a lot of us around here really
loved the Lando mini series. - Thanks.
- And there weren't that many stories about him.
- Right.
- And you got to dive into Lobot a little bit more.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- And that relationship was so cool.
- Yeah.
So when we see Lobot in "The Empire Strikes Back,"
he's a robot or an android, like he
doesn't any personality really.
But in the "Lando" miniseries, it's
set before that when Lando's like Straight Man,
like his buddy.
And over the course of the story, you find out how Lobot,
and why, more importantly, Lobot became
the sort of blank-faced automaton
that we see in "The Empire Strikes Back."
- Are there any characters in "Star Wars"
that you really, really want to write for that you haven't yet?
- I have written one panel of Luke Skywalker, and that's it.
I would love to write more for Luke Skywalker.
I think hopefully I'll have a chance to do that at some point
soon.
I'll write Palpatine any chance I get, all the time.
But, hey, you know, any era you pick in "Star Wars"
has cool characters to work with, so.
- Right.
Comics have such a rich history in the "Star Wars" community.
- Yeah.
- What is it about comics that kind of keeps you coming back?
- Well, it's impactful.
Like you can show Darth Vader igniting his lightsaber
for the first time.
I could write the hell out of that scene in prose, sure,
but when you see an artist-- like the artist I work
with primarily on the series is Guiseppe Camuncoli, who's
brilliant, he's a genius, and so when he draws it, you feel it.
It hits you in the gut in this really visceral way.
And you can do everything from massive space battles
to very intimate character moments.
I think it's as close as you can get to the movie
without being the movie.
And the other thing that's great about it
is that they come out kind of thoroughly rapidly.
And so in the frame of like 25 issues,
you might get like five novels' worth of stuff or five
movies' worth of storytelling.
You can go to all these incredible places,
you can tell all these amazing stories,
and then you could just keep telling
all those amazing stories. It's great.
It's cool. - Awesome.
Well, thanks for coming by. - Of course.
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
- Just watching the "Star Wars" show.
- I like how in this week's Much To Learn video they
used both A-T-A-T and ATAT.
- Yeah, definitely, but I say it right.
- Yeah.
And I'm sure you will continue to debate
this very important question, and which
one do you think Andi says.
We want to know how you celebrate
May the 4th this week.
- Send us your pictures, videos, and comments,
using the easy-to-remember hashtag #SWSMT4,
and we'll feature our favorites here next week.
- I say SWSMT4.
- Oh, yeah, it rolls right off the tongue.
- Mm-hmm.
As always, remember like the video,
subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram.
- Thanks for watching, and May the 1st be with you.
[LIGHTSPEED SOUND]
[BEEP]
SWSMT4 sounds like some sort of weird new-age walker.
[BEEP]
Is it SWSMT4 or SWSMT4?
- SWSMT4. - Oh, OK.
- That's how I always say it. [BEEP]
- Real fans do it.
- Real fans say SWSMT4.
[BEEP]
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