[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Today on "The Star Wars Show," we check out the brand
new trailer for "Star Wars--
Jedi Temple Challenge."
Anthony sits down with Ahmed Best and Mary Holland.
We celebrate "Empire Strikes Back"
by looking at some of your favorite quotes,
and much, much more.
- Hello, and welcome to "The Star Wars Show," a Star Wars
show that's still celebrating the Star Wars online team's
five Webby wins this year.
- But it's not just the Webby wins we're celebrating.
We're celebrating the third Emmy nomination for "The Star
Wars Show"-- this time for our Star
Wars animals trench run sketch.
And we are celebrating the debut of a brand new working
from home technology developed in-house by those wizards
at Industrial Light & Magic.
- Wait, what?
- That's right.
- We're debuting new tech on the show?
- You know it.
- So what is it?
- OK, so get this.
We can turn ourselves into anyone
we want anywhere we want, as long as it's people we
know in or around their home.
- That sounds underwhelming.
- Underwhelming.
Yeah, right, watch this.
[WHOOSH]
Hi, I'm Janina Gavankar.
I know Batman and Green Arrow, and I've
been on three vampire shows.
- So the tech is just you making Janina lip
sync your words over a video?
- No, this is very complicated tech.
- Janina, if you're being forced to lip sync in a video,
blink twice.
No?
- I'm sorry.
I just thought it would be fun to beef up
a beginning of a show with, you know, a debut.
- Yeah, we-- we are, actually.
- Wait, what? - What?
How?
You're not "Good Morning America."
- We've got connections.
That's right.
We've got the worldwide debut of the brand new trailer for Star
Wars Kids game show "Jedi Temple Challenge,"
starring Ahmed Best and Mary Holland.
Check it out.
- OK, and then after this ends, if you
could just call me, because we really need to catch up.
- Yeah, it's been too long.
- You can do that here.
- Mm. - Oh, no.
No, we can't.
This is girl talk.
- Yeah, I'm intrigued both by the girl talk and the trailer.
Roll it.
- For generations, the Jedi Order
have been the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy.
Now, padawan teams must endure--
- Go, go, go!
- --three challenging rounds of Jedi
trials to become Jedi knights.
- Go, go, go, go, go!
- From the strength trials on a distant world--
- Keep going, keep going.
- --to the knowledge trials aboard a Jedi star cruiser--
- Your answer is correct.
- Yes.
- --only one team will have what it takes
to enter the Jedi temple--
- Use the force, use the force!
- --face the mysteries inside--
- [INAUDIBLE] a circle plug.
- --and prove their bravery to become Jedi knights.
- You got this.
I believe in you.
Go, go, go, hurry.
Pushing this red.
- Will the padawans be tempted by the dark side?
[EVIL LAUGHTER]
Or keep their minds focused on the light side of the force?
- May the force be with you always.
- Now, there's only one thing for you to do.
- This is my favorite part.
- Punch it!
Don't give up.
- Trust in the force.
- By the right of the council, by the will of the force--
- Yeah!
- --it's time to face your Jedi temple challenge!
- Oh my goodness, that is amazing.
That is amazing.
I cannot believe-- [RINGING]
--oh.
Hold on a sec.
[BEEP]
Ahmed Best, what's up, buddy?
- What's up? - How are you, man?
- What's happening, man? - I was just--
- I'm very good. How are you?
- Oh, I'm great.
I was just watching the trailer for "Star Wars--
Jedi Temple Challenge."
- Yeah.
- This thing is wild, man.
- Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
It was great.
It was great fun to do.
It's wonderful to be back in the Star Wars universe,
especially in Jedi robes.
It was so much fun, man.
It was really fun. - Yeah, that's wild.
I think about you at this point as you're
one of the elder statesmen now.
You've been part of Star Wars for 20 years now, man.
- Yeah, man, 20 years.
I could spin quite a yarn now about the Star Wars universe,
but, you know, I'm an OG.
- It's really interesting, because aside
from that few minutes there in episode two,
this is the first time I'm seeing your beautiful face,
really.
- You know, I had to get in there.
One of these days, I knew I was gonna get in there
and make sure everybody got to see me
for longer than a split second in a bar
in "Attack of the Clones."
So yeah, I slid back up in there.
- An interesting thing about being connected
to Star Wars the way you are and being connected
through a character that is an alien
is you get to be both of these characters at once,
and they don't kind of conflict with each other.
- Mhm.
- How did it feel to kind of come back as a totally
different character?
- It was cool, especially since, you know, in "Clones,"
when I did that little cameo, which was
Anthony Daniels' idea completely-- that
was supposed to be my day off.
- Yeah.
- And Anthony Daniels grabbed me,
and he was just like, no, we're gonna be in it.
Let's go.
And you can see Anthony in that scene, as well,
but I kind of loved what happened after that,
which is like people kind of created this lore
behind that character.
I really love that, and that's one of the things about Star
Wars fans that I dig.
Like, as soon as a character shows up,
all of a sudden people want to know history.
People want to know backstory.
People want to know where and when in the timeline
that person comes in.
So doing Kelleran Beq, this new Jedi, what excited me the most
was where the history was going to go.
Who was he?
How is he going to be a part of the Star Wars universe
in a way that created these long lasting stories?
- In your mind, are these two characters-- are connected?
- Yeah, I mean there was a couple of things--
you know, me being a fan--
- Yeah.
- --and the guys who created "Jedi Temple Challenge"--
Scott, and Mickey, and all of those guys--
- Never heard of them. - --they-- they-- Steve.
No idea who they are? - No.
- They're great guys.
One day I'll introduce you, but when those guys came up--
came to me, and then asked me to do this,
I was really excited that they allowed
me to kind of flex my creativity with the character, as well.
And they let me name the character
and come up with a bunch of history and mannerisms,
and, you know, choosing colors of lightsabers.
And what I tried to do is I tried to tie in Kelleran Beq
to a bunch of different histories
in the Star Wars omniverse.
And one of them was tying him to the character
that I played in "Attack of the Clones,"
which was named Achk Med-Beq.
And so Kelleran and Achk Med are related.
I'll leave it at that.
- OK.
So you're coming back as a Jedi, which has got to be exciting.
- Mhm.
- I heard you got to build and design your own light
saber there, too. - I did.
- That's pretty rad.
- I designed my own lightsaber.
That was great.
- You know, after going to Disneyland Galaxy's Edge,
my son built the lightsaber at Galaxy's Edge,
and I really enjoyed that process.
Like, it was-- it's like a thing.
It's very dramatic.
And we were there, and my son got really into it.
And, you know, when you're a kid and Star Wars comes out,
it's larger than life.
- Yeah.
- And he got to have that larger than life experience,
and it really kind of got me into, like, the whole building
a lightsaber thing.
So when they were all just like, you
can build their own lightsaber, I didn't take it lightly.
I-- I kind of got into it, and I took it kind of seriously.
- That's amazing.
- But yeah, I loved it.
- You know, another thing that obviously everybody
in the Star Wars universe gets is a droid
to come along with them.
- I got a droid.
- A droid or two to help, and you have one as well.
- Yeah.
- Can we talk a little bit about your droid coterie,
sort of, that follows you here?
- Yeah, I-- you know, I don't know
if AD follows me as much as if we
are just really good friends.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, a lot of times-- - Hold on, hold on.
- --like in the droid world-- - Mary?
Mary? You were right.
We set him up.
I set him up to trap him, and you were right.
He's too nice.
He said you were partners.
- I'm telling you--
[LAUGHTER]
--he's too nice.
- So first of all, Mary Holland, welcome to being
part of the Star Wars galaxy.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm so, so excited.
What an honor.
I mean, it's-- it's really a dream come true.
- You are a droid here.
You and Kelleran run the Jedi temple challenge together.
- That's right.
- Can you tell us a little bit about your character?
- Yeah, AD-3 is Kelleran Beq's droid companion,
and she's got a great sense of humor,
is envious of Jedi powers, because, as a droid,
she has none.
And so she's always very aware of Kelleran Beq
showing off what he can do with the force.
And she tries to downplay it because she can
do a lot of cool things, too.
- Yeah, what do you think it is about Jedi?
Why do they like to have these droids around that
are a little snarky towards them and kind
of like to take the wind out of their sails a little bit?
Why do they like that relationship, do you think?
- In my opinion, it grounds them.
They have somebody who isn't so in awe of what they do
that they lose all sense of reality
and aren't able to consider other perspectives.
That's my view-- is my role is I'm here to, like, ground,
and keep things moving, and keep things flowing,
and also understand the force a little bit more myself.
- I'm gonna agree with that.
I think-- I think the grounding aspect of the droid Jedi
relationship is a big deal.
You know, Jedi are-- are revered so much by, you know,
so many people in the galaxy.
It's good to have a friend that can tell you like it is
and be honest with you without having any kind
of reverential fear or shyness.
- And what I love about that relationship and the way
you two get to play it is, you know, obviously there
are things that are scripted.
There are things that have to go off.
This is a competition show.
There are things that have to happen at certain times,
but you have so much time to just goof around, and play
around, and comment on things that
are going on with each other.
And it really seemed like y'all fell into goofing around
with each other real easy. - Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It was really fun.
- Most of the time as an actor, my whole thing
is just to be available and to listen.
And I really like it when I can just chill and let
somebody kind of take over.
And Mary is just so funny and such an incredibly quick wit
and mind that I just had to just yes and everything
that she did. It was just--
- Aw.
- It was very easy and very fun.
- The feeling was very mutual on that.
It was very easy to play off each other,
and there's a very fun dynamic between AD-3 and Kelleran Beq.
There's a lot of fondness there, but still,
like, light jabs at each other.
It was so fun to fall into that together.
- I mean, you had this entire world.
I mean, it was an entire soundstage, this set.
It really seems to call back to sort
of that hey day of, like, '80s and '90s big production
kids game shows.
You know, that sort of golden age of that.
- Yeah.
- But it feels entirely Star Wars.
It looks so different.
It feels so different.
What did it feel like to kind of walk
in and see the temple and everything for the first time?
- It was exciting.
- Yeah.
- I spent a lot of time on Star Wars sets.
So walking on to the set, it really
felt as if the same amount of attention that
was put on this game show is the same amount of attention
that's put into the movies.
And I think what really made it come alive is
when the kids walked out there.
Immediately they were in Star Wars, and when you see that,
and you see them light up, it makes us light up, right?
And it made us get into the gameplay even more.
The kids believed it.
They were all 100% in.
A couple of them walked in and was just like,
this is a dream come true.
I can't believe I'm here.
And you are immediately put into that Star Wars universe.
- Yeah.
- And I think kids are gonna love it.
- The production design was so brilliant.
You felt like you were stepping on to a different planet.
You were just fully immersed in that world.
As a kid, it's really exciting to see
yourself represented in a game that is
put together so thoughtfully.
I think that's such a magical thing,
and it's going to be so cool for kids
to watch other kids do that.
- Yeah.
- It's gonna be really exciting.
- You are the Jedi master.
You are the droid.
You're the guardians of this temple.
It's your job to make sure that they're trained.
And, you know, when the cameras were rolling
and these things were happening, watching you be these, like,
we're cheering you on, but we're being impartial because this
is your training.
And then the moment anybody called cut,
I could just see Ahmed the dad's face be like,
I just want these kids to win.
- It's so true.
[LAUGHTER]
- Very much that.
I was just like, come on.
I know I have to be very--
I was very stoic, but I was like, [INAUDIBLE]
just get it in.
Get it in.
Jump a little higher.
It was very difficult to watch the ones that
didn't get to the next stage.
The thing that's also wonderful about it
is, when they don't move on, the message
is go back to the beginning and train more.
It's not you lost, get out of here.
So there's a lot more lesson in not moving on
than there is moving on, right?
And it's just like, no, we can-- you can do this.
You just have to jump back in and train a little more.
So I really like that message.
- Well, this is very exciting, and we
are just about a week away from seeing this thing, right?
June 3, yeah?
- Yeah.
- June 3.
We'll get that first episode on Star Wars Kids on YouTube.
- Excellent.
So yeah, Star Wars Kids on YouTube, StarWarsKids.com.
Ahmed, Mary, thank you so much for coming by.
I can't wait to see more of "Jedi Temple Challenge."
- Set your harpoon. [BLASTERS]
Follow me on the next pass.
- Copy, Rogue leader.
Activate harpoon.
- Just hang on.
[EXPLOSIONS]
- That got him.
- I see you, Wedge.
Good work.
- I'm back.
What did I miss?
- Oh my god, so much.
Ahmed Best was here.
Mary Holland was here.
We talked about all kinds of things.
We're very good friends.
- Yeah, right.
- OK, yeah, right.
How was your girl talk?
- Oh, it was great.
We just played the old board game.
- What?
I love that.
I'm so jealous.
- Yeah, you should be.
- Working from home is wild, y'all.
- It is.
And "The Star Wars Show," much like the rest of the world,
has been working from home for the past few months,
but it wasn't always like that.
In fact, our beautiful copy room studio
is still standing in Lucasfilm, just waiting to be used again.
- Luckily, we got to sit down with the man who not only
created that set, but almost every other set you've seen me
or Andy host from, as well as one
of the sets from the upcoming "Jedi Temple Challenge."
Check it out.
[SHRIEKING]
- I'm not gonna say your bar is low,
but you guys are pretty easy to please.
[LAUGHS] My name is Ryan Brett Puckett,
and I am a production designer.
Production design encompasses figuring out the aesthetics
of the film, or commercial, or series, whatever you're working
on, and deciding all of the pieces and things you need
to get together to make it look the way it needs to look,
either based on the script or the themes, and how you feel
is the best way to visualize that so it
makes sense for the viewers.
Production design has given me the opportunity
to work on feature films, commercials,
and various series.
And through that, I have happened
to get the fun opportunity of doing
the design for just about everything
you see here at StarWars.com.
I started working with "The Star Wars Show" and StarWars.com
after creating a recreation of the original cantina
for a small series of videos.
And they ended up seeing it, liking it,
which then became a centerpiece of Star Wars Celebration
at Anaheim.
And through that, we started working together more often.
One of the first sets we started with was this "Star Wars Show"
set that's around us right now.
After that, we created another interview set down
in Los Angeles, and there we had the science in Star Wars, just
about every interview with the cast
and crew from all of the films.
We try to do an interesting take on a piece of each
of those films so that the actors have
a cool, beautiful place to hang out and chat about the films
that they've done.
We've also created the sets for the Star Wars Kids channel,
and then one of the most fun ones
very recently was we did the final trench run scene
from "New Hope," but with baby animals, which is the only way
to make that scene better.
I think one of my favorite projects
that we got a chance to work on-- we
designed the spaceship Thilia for "Jedi Temple Challenge."
I think me and the crew had the most fun doing that one,
because it was a chance to do something that
hadn't quite been seen before.
It wasn't directly pulling from any specific references,
and we just got a chance to build the inside
of a Star Wars spacecraft.
None of this stuff that we've created over the years
would've been possible without this amazing crew
that we always work with, and a lot of just the aesthetics
of what is Star Wars.
They bring a ton to the table that
makes that work every time.
Without them, it would've been impossible,
so it's amazing having such a great team of talented artists.
Getting a chance to work on these jobs with StarWars.com
and "The Star Wars Show" is always like a fun
challenging experience.
I think anytime you get the opportunity to play in the Star
Wars sandbox, it's just this huge field of possibilities
that just has a very distinct feel to it,
unlike anything else.
And getting a chance to dabble in that,
and run with different themes, and put our own little twist
on them, it's kind of one of those adventures
that you'd never think you'd get a chance to do, and, as a kid,
seems impossible.
And now that we have this opportunity
to play with those things it's just really gratifying.
- Move along.
- Hello, I'm EK Johnston, author of the brand new "Queen's
Peril," which comes out June 2.
It is another story about Padmé Amidala and her handmaidens.
This time, she's queen.
This time, bad things are coming.
And this time, she has two great new looks.
"Queen's Peril" also deals with the lead up to
and the actual invasion of Naboo from the handmaiden's point
of view, which was hinted at in "Queen's Shadow,"
but not really discussed.
And I get to go through it in this book,
which was terrifying, but also really exciting.
Cool things that happen in this book
include, but are not limited to a boy band concert, some very
awkward hallway meetups, climbing down
steep objects in the dark, and, you know,
taking back your planet.
Typical stuff.
You know, girl stuff.
Typical girl stuff.
- Luke.
- Father.
- Son, come with me.
You must.
It is your destiny.
- R2, you can't go into hyperdrive.
[R2 SCREECHING]
- Can you believe it's been 40 years since "The Empire Strikes
Back" was released in theaters?
- I know, right?
Time flies.
- So what is it like seeing it in the theater?
- Oh, man, well it was 1997.
Crazy times, I tell you.
I had my Orbitz soda and my Tamagotchi,
and I was walking down to the theater.
- No, no, no, man.
I meant the first time in 1980, grandpa.
- Wow.
- I'm sorry.
I love you.
- I know.
- I tease because I love you.
- And speaking of other quotes from "Empire,"
Let's take a look at some other favorite lines
from "The Empire Strikes Back."
First of all, how dare you?
- You again?
Yes, hm.
- I love.
- I know.
- The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi.
- Do or do not, but there is no try.
- What is thy bidding, my master.
- [CHEWBACCA VOCALIZATION]
- Why, you stuck up, half-witted,
scruffy looking nerf herder.
- Who's scruffy looking?
- Celebrating 40 years of "The Empire Strikes Back,"
my favorite quote, I love you.
I know.
- Well, there you have it.
Another month, another super sized
"Star Wars Show" in the books.
- As always, remember to like the video,
subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram.
And as always, may the force be with you.