- This week, "Ahsoka" gets a premiere date, and more.
[exciting music]
Start your countdown clocks for the premiere of "Star Wars: Ahsoka."
The new live-action series starring Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano
will debut on Disney+ on August 23rd,
and she's bringing friends Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren,
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla,
Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth,
the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, and many more.
And of course, Ahsoka is on the cover of "Empire" magazine this week,
featuring interviews with Dave Filoni and members of the cast
talking more about Ahsoka Tano's next chapter.
Earlier this week, we learned that Diego Luna and Hayden Christensen
joined forces for Variety's "Actors on Actors."
Talking everything from returning to the Star Wars galaxy,
making the leap from the big screen to live-action series,
to fan interactions over the years,
the Cassian Andor and Anakin Skywalker actors
had plenty of fun insights and stories to share.
Plus, our friend the Mandalorian actor Pedro Pascal
is featured in a separate discussion in the series next week.
"Star Wars: The High Republic" fans,
if you're still not over the fall of Starlight Beacon,
today we're excited to reveal a new Marvel mini-series:
"Shadows of Starlight"
with the cover of issue number one by Phil Noto.
In the four issues written by Charles Soule,
we'll find out what happened in the year between Phase I and Phase III
of "Star Wars: The High Republic" books and comics.
Starting this October, catch up with the Jedi Council,
Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann, Bell Zettifar, and of course, Marchion Ro.
But where is Burryaga?
Is he safe?
Is he okay?
I need to know.
Every day should be Ming-Na Wen Day, but last week in particular,
the Fennec Shand actor was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Big congratulations to the verified Disney Legend
and the woman behind Boba Fett's partner in--well, if not crime,
some decidedly aggressive negotiations on Tatooine.
In "Visions" volume two, "The Pit" is a tale of oppression and hope,
thought-provoking in its message and tone,
and today, we're joined by co-directors LeAndre Thomas and Justin Ridge.
Thank you both for being here.
- Oh, thank you. - Thank you.
- I'd really like to talk about what other stories from Star Wars
or in the real world may have influenced it,
because as I was watching "The Pit,"
it struck me that it's very similar in tone to "Andor,"
and both stories really capture that banality of evil.
The awful things that are happening at the lower levels of the ranks.
So can you talk a little bit about what inspired that?
- Yeah, yeah.
I love the comparison to "Andor,"
because we feel like matching the tone of that show
was something that lends itself well to the story.
The idea kind of spawned from this feeling I had, which--
it felt like, you know, some of us were in this kind of deep pit
yelling for help, while others were on the surface, not able to hear.
I wrote this script. I pitched it around Lucasfilm.
Everyone genuinely really, really loved the idea and the story,
and it was about doing whatever we could to make it happen.
- Now, Justin, you've had a long history
of experience working with Lucasfilm Animation.
You came in on "The Clone Wars" almost 17 years ago.
- That's--yeah, already. Yeah.
- You worked on "Star Wars: Rebels."
You worked on "Star Wars: Resistance."
How did your experience working on all of those other animated shows
inform your approach to codirecting "The Pit"?
- Well, you know, being able to work with Dave Filoni for all those years,
you know, basically shadowing him, seeing his sensibilities,
I think it really helped to, you know, have that second hand of,
"Okay, this is what the canon's like. These are the characters."
You know, I think an accumulation of all that knowledge
really helped LeAndre with his vision for this short.
- I'd love to talk a little bit about the voice casting, too,
in this short, and the characterization.
So you have Daveed Diggs as the voice of Crux.
What made him the perfect casting choice?
- Yeah, so, like, Daveed--
obviously, multitalented person and a great actor.
Great filmmaker as well.
He kind of understood right away what we were going for,
and we actually have a very similar background.
We're both from Oakland, California,
and I think a lot of the kind of themes and messages
that we were trying to depict in this film,
he just kind of understood right away,
and Crux is someone who we wanted to feel mature,
but we wanted him to still be very youthful,
and I think Daveed was-- you know, he captured it perfectly.
- Is there a story behind the name Crux?
- There is.
One of the things I like to do is research a lot
when I'm trying to come up with character names,
and the character Crux, his name is actually based on
the definition when you're rock climbing,
a crux is the hardest part of the route in your rock climb.
Being that he was the one who climbed out,
you know, I thought it was a great name,
and it felt really Star Wars, you know, Crux.
So that's kind of where the inspiration came from.
- The short is also one of those rarities where we get an end credit scene.
Can you talk about the significance of that piece of graffiti?
We see it being created earlier, before they escape from the pit,
and you know, then it's revealed.
- That was pretty important,
because we wanted to kind of depict a mural, you know,
and show graffiti culture, and showing it in Star Wars,
not in a negative way, in a very positive way.
And you know, murals, in large part, are reminders of what happened.
We didn't want people to forget what happened.
There was a horrible event here, and now it's over,
but we can't let it happen again, and murals are great reminders of that.
- Yeah. I think it's a nice honoring of the events
that happened without it feeling like an action poster of something, you know?
Like, we didn't want it to feel like, "Oh, how cool is this?"
It's like, you know, Crux died,
and basically Livy helped start, you know, the chanting
to get everyone to speak up for the city.
So it was kind of a complicated, you know, emotion to get behind this one piece.
- Thank you both so much for coming, for stopping by,
and for giving the world "The Pit."
I think it's a really important story.
- Thank you. - Well, thank you. Thank you so much.
- It's been amazing. - Yeah.
That's it for this week.
For more on these stories and other news from around the galaxy,
check out StarWars.com,
and be sure to join us right here for "This Week! in Star Wars"
every Thursday.
In fact, next Thursday, you never know who might show up.
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.