This week I’m sitting down with Star Wars Resistance’s Neeku, Josh Brener.
How fun for you.
I love Neeku.
I do too.
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 that despite
all of the negative and misleading ads, proudly cast its vote for a Senator they can be proud of.
That’s right, Jar Jar Binks.
Exactly.
He’s a war hero, he has powerful connections to the monarchy of Naboo and the Jedi Council,
and he’s personable!
Yeah, plus we can trust him to make smart, informed decisions and not doing anything
weird involving extreme powers.
Yeah.
Or the Chancellor.
Or anything like that.
Totally.
[Awkward silence]
Let’s go to the news.
Not gonna lie to you.
Not really a whole bunch going on in the Star Wars galaxy this week.
Yeah.
Hmmm.
What.
Oh, we can remind people to vote in the Star Wars fan awards on StarWars.com.
True, we can do that.
All you have to do is go to StarWars.com and click on the “vote here” button, which
takes you to a new page filled with all sorts of submissions.
Submissions in categories like long video, short video, visual art, and photos.
Click on the one you want to view, and like some sort of space age computer magic the
entry appears on your screen in glorious color and motion!
Technology, baby!
It’s like we’re living in the future!
Then once you’re all logged in and ready to vote, you click the vote button underneath
the submission you enjoyed the most.
See!
It’s easy!
Voting is cool.
So go ahead and cast your ballot from now until 11:59 pm pacific time on November 13th.
Star Wars Celebration in Chicago will be welcoming Rob Bedrow to the event this year for panels and signings.
The Executive Creative director and Head of Industrial Light and Magic will be on hand
to share stories and insight into the creation of the effects for Solo: A Star Wars Story,
talk about his upcoming book, “Making Solo: A Star Wars Story” and oh so much more.
For more on Rob Bedrow’s appearance as well as Star Wars Celebration news check out StarWars.com/sws
Anything else?
Hmm.
Ummmmm…Lucasfilm updated their display cabinets.
[Spit]
WHAAAAAAAAT?!!?!?!?!
Let’s go check it out!
Oh gosh, okay.
Check it out!
Nice!
So one of the best things about working here is it is basically a gigantic living museum
of movie history and things are constantly changing.
This entire case was filled with different stuff just last week.
Yeah, it’s one of the most amazing surprises to come in, in the morning and see a porg
or a new stormtrooper helmet on display here.
This is Han Solo’s ID card.
This is when he gets his name.
His card is in there and that is the ID scanner.
Good luck, Han Solo.
We’ll have you flying in no time.
When they’re making the props of these different weapons for the films there are different
levels of prop.
This one here is an example of a hero prop and it has all of the articulation so you
can actually pull the trigger, there’s lights on the inside to make it feel real when the
actors are using it.
And that is super cool that that’s just here in our hallway.
Yeah, that’s just sitting right down there.
This guard helmet is actually mine.
I don’t know if you caught that that was me.
Were you the one that got shredded?
Uh, they all got pretty shredded if you know what I’m sayin’.
Over here is one of my favorite things.
These are Jyn’s toys from Rogue One.
These are also one of my favorite things in the whole world.
They’re made out of wood and they’re just these real homey looking little pieces that
would fit in like right in any home in the galaxy.
So obviously a ton of porgs in The Last Jedi.
This is a mid ground porg.
A mid ground porg is basically like a practical porg.
That porg is a puppet and it can move if you stick rods in it’s back which is completely humane.
It is just really great to see it up close though because the feather work on it is so intricate.
He looks so soft and fluffy.
He’s got tiny, little sad eyelids.
I don’t know if you can see those but they’re very good.
It’s really unfortunate that they have a broken lightsaber one display here.
Yeah.
You think we could afford to get good working stuff here.
I mean we’re Lucasfilm.
And it’s actually really beautifully made.
There’s so much detail that’s built into these props that you maybe don’t see on screen.
But you can actually see the broken kyber crystal at the center of this hilt.
That’s really, really cool.
Yeah, it’s amazing to me for something that like breaks apart and then is gone so quickly.
The amount of detail that goes into it.
Down here we have Poe Dameron’s quadnoculers from The Force Awakens.
He’s using those to look out from Lor San Tekka’s hut at the very beginning of the film.
Super cool.
You know, for all your varying distance viewing needs.
This is all the stuff from the sabacc table.
So these are the cards, this is all of the currency.
Not all of them!
We’re missing the dog treat ones.
Not all of them.
Which are my favorite.
All of this stuff is wonderful.
I love the different things.
Just what would currency look like from different planets.
Right.
We have all these different aliens, all these different civilizations, what would their
different credits look like?
Rocks in cages is my favorite.
Why not, you know.
Gemstones wrapped in gold.
Why not?
This looks like just some fennel.
Just like some delicious fennel wrapped in leather.
How much is that worth?
I don’t know, Anthony.
How many fennel to one rock in a cage?
[Porg sounds]
Our guest this week has been in such wonderful series’.
Silicon Valley and The Big Bang Theory and now you know him as Neeku in Star Wars Resistance.
Josh Brener, thank you for being here.
Thank you.
And that is the only credit that matters.
Neeku is it.
That’s it.
All the rest of the stuff has just been leading up to Neeku.
I love Neeku because this is a type that we think we’ve seen before, right?
Where the alien that can only interpret things on a literal level.
But what I love about Neeku is he also has like this intense joy that you normally don’t
associate with those characters.
Yeah.
He’s not quite Spock, it’s not like that logical analytical thing.
It’s like a little bit of wide eyed confusion.
Like he’s sort of like a little ditzy in his very literal-ness.
So it’s fun.
I just love the idea of this playground where all the ships I knew and grew up with are
all just flying around together.
Yeah, totally.
Dave Filoni who sort of came up with the initial idea was like researching World War II fighter
pilots and was sort of like, but what really goes on when they’re like done and they
don’t have work, what’s going on?
And it’s basically like we’re all sort of hanging out on a platform, like on an aircraft
carrier or something like that.
And yeah, you put that on top of Star Wars and it just is perfect.
Yeah, it’s very rare that you get to see these character in their downtime and just
kind of being themselves.
It’s a Star War so we very often see the war part of it.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, you wonder what they’re doing on break.
Star Peace.
What’s going on with that Star Peace?
[Laughing]
Yeah, I mean that was the alternate title.
It was going to be Star Wars, Star Peace.
[Laughing]
It was the homophone that was the issue.
Because they were like is it a Star Piece or is it Star Peace?
You know.
The hunt for the Star Peace.
Yeah, there’s a lot going on.
Yeah, we just couldn't unpack it all.
Your character interacts a lot with characters from the new movie trilogy which is also very exciting.
Like your talking a lot to BB-8 especially.
And if you’re wondering if I wrote JJ Abrams a fan letter to say, hey there sure were a
lot of Rebels easter eggs in Rogue One, if you need me to be in the background,
I’m there for you.
I haven't heard back.
Mhmm.
But I’m sure it’s just people getting in touch and middlemen.
That’s the thing.
He knows who you are now.
That’s it.
I’m on his radar.
You’re on the radar.
[Laughing]
And that’s more important than anything.
There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
I wish this was a joke and I hadn't actually sent the letter but I did.
The truth is I did.
I feel like if you have the opportunity to send that letter, like hey, just so you know.
I told this to a friend who’s like actually like knows JJ well and he was like, oh big swing.
[Laughing]
He’s got like a carefully mapped out hundred-million dollar movie and you’re like hey, what about this?
Hey, if you need me to walk around in the background.
I got a pitch for you, daddy.
[Laughing]
That’s very good, Josh.
I feel really good about it.
I’m glad, you know, I’m glad I’m talking about it on camera too.
I look forward to seeing you in Episode 9.
That’s how, that’s how sure I am of it.
So there it is, another jam packed season 3 episode in the books.
Just keeping the long running tradition of “let’s just see how weird and random we
can get on slow news weeks” that The Star Wars Show is known for.
I’m not gonna lie to you, I very much enjoy it, especially knowing that Celebration is
only 154 days away.
True.
This is the calm before the storm.
And we want to hear your favorite Celebration stories from Celebrations past.
Send them to us using the hashtag #CelebrationCountdown and we’ll feature our favorites here next week.
Also, since it’s the end of the episode, remember to like the video, subscribe to the
channel, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and we’ll see you next week.
Not me though.
I’m out next week.
What?!
You were out two weeks ago!
So!
Oh that’s it.
I’m replacing you.
How?
You’ll see, may the Force be with you.
Great…
I got plans.
I’m a very good planner.
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.
[Spit]
[Off camera laughing]
[Gurgle sound]
[Spit]
[Gurgle sound]
What’s wrong with you?
[Laughing]