Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Star Wars

  • ‘Andor’ Episode 7 Featured a Major Character from Two of Star Wars Animated Series

    ‘Andor’ Episode 7 Featured a Major Character from Two of Star Wars Animated Series

    Through the first six episodes of its twelve-episode first season, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars streaming series Andor has fought the urge to drop character cameos into its developing story. Other than a reference here or there, the series has largely ignored the other goings on in the galaxy tied to the growing rebellion, choosing to focus on its own characters rather than name-drop or show-off characters from other Star Wars media. Episode 7 changed that in a fairly major way with the inclusion of one of the most memorable characters from one of Star Wars most beloved IPs.

    As news of the heist on Aldhani spread throughout the galaxy, the Imperial Security Bureau convened on Coruscant to discuss their response. However, rather than Major Partagaz leading the meeting, a more senior officer was called in: Colonel Wulff Yularen. Fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will remember Yularen as the Republic Navy Admiral assigned to Anakin Skywalker. Though Yularen and Skywalker often disagreed, especially in their early endeavors together, the two grew to respect one another and became one of the Republic’s top teams.

    Though he’s most well-known from his nearly two dozen appearances in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen “first appeared” in Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope. While in actuality the character was unnamed, retcons over the years turned the character into Colonel Yularen of the ISB. Placing the Colonel in Andor during this time of galactic unrest, especially when the ISB will be facing major questions about its procedures, aligns with what’s known about the character. Canonically, after helping reform the ISB, Yularen took a post with the Naval Intelligence Agency during the events of Star Wars: Rebels. In his time there, Yularen helped Thrawn track down the traitor known as Fulcrum, who was revealed to be one of Yularen’s own students, Agent Kallus.

    Voiced by Tom Kane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Yularen is portrayed in Andor by actor Malcolm Sinclair. Given the character’s prominence in the time covered in Andor’s first season, Yularen’s appearance makes for a near-perfect cameo: one that isn’t too distracting fits the plot of the show and illustrates the connectivity of the series to the larger franchise. A+ for creator Tony Gilroy and team and Pablo Hidalgo, who works on keeping continuity between all the Star Wars projects.

  • REVIEW: ‘Tales of the Jedi’ Is The Best Star Wars Animated Show Since Rebels

    REVIEW: ‘Tales of the Jedi’ Is The Best Star Wars Animated Show Since Rebels

    That the Jedi are the good guys in a Galaxy Far, Far Away is Star Wars‘ biggest lie. George Lucas dispelled that in his prequel trilogy. Dave Filoni examined the cracks of the Order in Clone Wars through the eyes of Anakin Skywalker. Rian Johnson brought it full circle in The Last Jedi when a disillusioned Luke Skywalker denounced the Order’s teaching. The streak to paint the Jedi as the galaxy’s most fallible figures continues as Tales of the Jedi puts the spotlight on one of the most underserved characters in the franchise, Count Dooku.

    The series, a precisely crafted six-episode anthology from Filoni, is split into two arcs. One explores Dooku’s fall from Jedi Master to Sith apprentice while the other chronicles various points of Ahsoka Tano’s life. Tales of the Jedi, in essence, is a masterclass on storytelling as Filoni compacts much depth and weight in a compact fifteen-minute format. In such a short amount of time, the stories explored evoke a sense of scale that eclipses some of the most important Jedi moments in Star Wars cinema.

    Much of that can be credited to the sheer scope of the storytelling. Both Dooku and Ahsoka’s journey span decades, exploring incidents in the far reaches of the galaxy that general audiences have yet to see. Like Lucas before him, Filoni brilliantly draws inspiration from other genres, giving certain episodes a distinct tonal feel. One episode that has Dooku investigating a kidnapping is inspired by mystery thrillers. Another episode that explores Ahsoka’s life in hiding after Order 66 taps into iconic Western tropes.

    The centerpiece of Tales of the Jedi is Dooku’s arc. Dooku’s fall from grace has long been a point of interest among fans and the show does a tremendous job of examining his disillusionment with the order. His episodes serve as one of the most straightforward indictments for the Jedi Order, delineating a clear line to where it all went wrong and why it went wrong. Dooku’s arc is tragic, regretful, and most of all, complex as it paints a portrait of a broken man on the brink of defeat. What used to be a character that was stunt-cased for the prequels is now one of the most compelling characters in the franchise.

    Ahsoka’s episodes, on the other hand, lack the intrigue of Dooku’s but make up for its familiarity. As one of the best characters in all of Star Wars, it’s always welcome to see Ahsoka’s story expanded, even through narrative minutiae. The opening of the season is her birth and how her tribe discovers her powers while the second is a vignette of her training under Anakin Skywalker. Both offer slice-of-life looks at the Jedi’s formative years. The kicker is her final episode which chronicles her life after Order 66. Without spoiling much, she ends up fighting the most badass Inquisitor ever created.

    Tales of the Jedi stands out as the best Star Wars animated series since Rebels. Even as its pacing and episode sequencing feel contrived, it showcases some of the best storytelling this side of the galaxy.

  • REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Episode 6

    REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Episode 6

    The idea that the collective nose of the Empire is so upturned that they can’t see what’s going on right beneath it has been a central theme through the first five episodes of Andor. Key members of the fledgling Rebellion, including Cassian, understand this perception and it’s become a crack in the Imperial armor that they’ve learned to exploit. Episode 6, “The Eye”, opens with a reminder of just how much disdain the Empire has for those they see as beneath them and ends with the Empire feeling for the first time just how dangerous these people they’ve regarded as inferiors can be. However, as the season progresses into its second half, the galaxy just became a much more dangerous place for those who wish to take down the Empire.

    “The Eye” was many things and chief among them was that it was the first time that Andor really leaned into being a Star Wars series while also continuing its expansion of what a Star Wars series can be. Seeing and hearing the Tie Fighters roar into action rang the Star Wars bell, but setting the familiar chase scene amidst the beauty and rarity of the natural phenomenon occurring on Aldhani continues the hot streak for this creative team. They continue to world-build in a world that’s been accused of being too small in a galaxy so large. Why does everything happen on Tattooine? Why is everyone a Skywalker or know one? Why does Luke have to be in everything? It would have been low-hanging fruit to have Palpatine cameo in the brief Senate scene. They chose to keep the focus on Mon Mothma, who will become central to the series and the growing rebellion. Andor continues to trend away from these issues and cameos, content to exist and be judged on its own merits rather than connect itself to familiar faces and places.

    Episode 6 works incredibly well as a conclusion not only to the first half of Season 1 but also to the four-episode arc that introduced Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael and to the three-episode arc that saw Rael’s scheme unfold and, ultimately be successfully completed. It works so well as a conclusion that if Episode 6 had been the end of Season 1 of Andor, it would be hard to argue that it had been anything other than a triumph. The mission is complete; Cassian did Cassian things; the Empire is now aware that there’s a stick in their eye. The closing shot of Rael, who feared he may have overreached in his efforts to attack the Empire, finally releasing the tension he expressed in the closing shot of Episode 5. So many of the storylines put into play were tied up neatly by the events of Episode 6 and that’s no easy thing to ensure. The team of director Susanna White, writer Dan Gilroy and creator Tony Gilroy could be commended for putting the finishing touches on what’s arguably the best streaming series Star Wars has released on Disney Plus. But the brilliance of the series lies in the fact that Episode 6 serves both as the end of one arc and the beginning of another.

    For all its brilliance so far, Andor is just getting off the ground. By tying up the intersecting storylines with the completion of the mission on Aldhani, the series activated other storylines that had been weaved into the first six episodes. Denise Gough’s Dedra Meero, who had warned her superior that a threat was growing, is now on the precipice of becoming a central part of the second half of the season. With Cassian now back on his own, it’s time for Kyle Soller’s Syril Karn to get off the bench and get into the action. The investment in introducing and developing so many characters made by Tony Gilroy is about to pay dividends. Cassian, Mon Mothma and Luten Rael have had their moment. It certainly feels like the Empire is about to strike back.

  • Disney Updates its Cinematic Release Slate for the Coming Years

    Disney Updates its Cinematic Release Slate for the Coming Years

    The cinematic experience is partly enjoying a film in theaters while also going through the continuous reshuffling of release schedules. Not every release manages to stay consistent due to production conflicts and various challenges that come together. Blade has recently faced some troubles as it lost its director and naturally was postponed, but surprisingly many more films from Marvel followed with a whole new slate. That isn’t all, as Disney used the opportunity to update its entire slate.

    Disney’s upcoming 2024 release will now include:

    • 3/1/24 – Elio
    • 3/22/24 – Disney’s Snow White
    • 5/3/24 – Captain America: New World Order
    • 5/24/24 – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    • 6/14/24 – Inside Out 2
    • 7/5/24 – Mufasa: The Lion King
    • 7/26/24 – Thunderbolts
    • 9/6/24 – Blade
    • 11/8/24 – Untitled Deadpool Movie
    • 12/20/24 – Avatar 3

    Fantastic Four is scheduled for 14th February 2025 with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty set for May. They have also added two untitled Marvel films for July and November. They wrap up the year with an untitled Star Wars film in December, the first cinematic entry since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. Avengers Secret Wars is now scheduled for May 2026 with three more Marvel films already given a release date. Avatar 4 joins that same year in December with its fifth entry already planned for 2028. They also already mapped out another untitled Star Wars film in 2027.

    It definitely looks like Disney has some big plans for the coming years and it’s crazy to think just how mapped out they are until 2028. Of course, the last two years only have one entry each, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see more Marvel films get scheduled once we near the Avengers release. It looks like their next

  • RUMOR: ‘Ahsoka’ May Have Cast a Familiar Face as Admiral Thrawn.

    RUMOR: ‘Ahsoka’ May Have Cast a Familiar Face as Admiral Thrawn.

    If there is any role that’s been highly debated in Star Wars rumor mill, it’s that of Admiral Thrawn. After a long bout of silence, it seems that a new rumor has been starting to make the rounds hinting at who could’ve potentially nabbed the role. Surprisingly, it might be someone quite familiar to long-time fans of the character. If online rumblings are to be believed, Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced the character in Rebels, might once again take on the role of the Star Wars villain.

    The notion of Mikkelsen reprising this role is perfect in many ways. Having voiced the character in the animated side of the universe will help maintain a level of continuity going into the live-action projects. Plus, having a returning actor move to Disney+ will appease the hardcore fans that are seeing a vast majority of other characters from Rebels get recast. Some of these castings include Natasha Liu Bordizzo playing Sabine Wren and Eman Esfandi being cast to play Ezra Bridger. We also can’t forget that Lars Mikkelsen is quit the respected and established actor, who’ll definitely ease the transition into a live-action take on the character.

    Ahsoka began its production in Los Angeles back in May of this year and might wrap filming by the end of next month. With that, the highly anticipated series is eyeing a 2023 release on Disney+ and is the second The Mandalorian spinoff to hit the streaming service.

    Source: Twitter via Bespin Bulletin

  • REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Episode 5

    REVIEW: ‘Andor’ Episode 5

    “Everyone has their own rebellion.”

    In an episode that feels very small in terms of scope, scale and what’s accomplished as far as advancing the plot, those words, spoken quietly to Cassian by Faye Marsay’s Vel Sartha may capture the larger essence of the Age of the Rebellion better than any spoken on screen in any Star Wars project to date. Episode 5 of Andor, brilliantly titled “The Axe Forgets” showcases some beautiful scenery and wonderful cinematography as the backdrop to Cassian’s struggle to forge bonds and build trust with his new team. In what feels like the calm before the storm, the episode’s team-building moments that make up the bulk of the runtime seem to echo classics like John McTiernan’s Predator and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.

    When they start their march, they are a team only in the loosest sense, united only because everyone, as it turns out, does have their own rebellion. And while they don’t initially trust nor much like one another, they are able to find common ground by understanding how each of them has been the tree on the receiving end of the Empire’s axe…and none of them have forgotten. And so while it may not feel like the larger plot of the 12-episode first season of Andor has moved along much by the end of Episode 5, for this group of people about to strike out against the Empire, nothing could have moved at all if not for the time spent together in it.

    The creative duo of director Susanna White and writer Dan Gilroy teamed up to illustrate the growing tensions not only amongst the team on Aldhani but also far away on Coruscant. Kyle Soller’s Syril Karn is hen-pecked by his insufferable mother, Eedy, while holding on to his hatred for Cassian; Denise Gough’s Dedra Meero continues to sense a growing threat, too random for anyone else to see; Mon Mothma’s work for the Rebellion is coming at the cost of her family; and Luthen Rael expresses anxiety that he may have overreached in his effort to strike back at the Empire. Though each of them only get a little time to shine in the episode, White and Gilroy make the most of it, carving each of their unique concerns out of the same material: the Rebellion, which now includes Cassian. And it’s Rael’s words in the episodes final moments that truly serve to frame just how tense of a moment the entire galaxy is on the edge of, even if only a few of them know it. As he says, what comes next may just be the start of it.

    In that sense, “The Axe Forgets” feels like the last bit of requisite exposition before the show switches gears. The characters have been developed, the costs to them made clear and their roles in it seemingly solidified. Episode 6 would seem to be the time for Andor to transform into the fast-paced action-adventure that fans certainly associate with the Star Wars franchise. But as the pace quickens, keep in mind that while each of the Rebels are trees who have been hit by the axe of the Empire, they’ve all been axes to the tree of the Empire and they are about to collectively take their biggest hack yet. And as the roots of the Empire extend to new parts of the galaxy, they’ll prove a tough tree to fell.

  • Adria Arjona Seemingly Confirms Season Two Return for ‘Andor’

    Adria Arjona Seemingly Confirms Season Two Return for ‘Andor’

    Andor is currently in the midst of its first season on Disney+, however, fans of the franchise are already eagerly looking ahead to the show’s second season. While production on Season 2 isn’t slated to begin until November, thanks to a recent interview with the folks over at Collider, we might have a better idea of what’s to come when Season 2 hits in 2024.

    Adria Arjona, who plays Bix Caleen in Andor, talked about her future involvement in the series, as well as the collaborative process with showrunner Tony Gilroy. As she explains, he is open to conversations about the show and the characters and has already updated her on Bix’s storyline going forward.

    He [Tony Gilroy] was very open to conversations and is constantly telling me what is, what her journey is going to be like and, ‘Oh, I changed this a little bit’. He really kept me in the loop even before the scripts were done and the second he had a script out, we’d [the cast] would all get it first. Even now with the second part [of the series] he’s already told me what’s going to happen and that’s not the usual. He just really wants you to get into that mindset and start preparing your gears to sort of embark on this new journey and he wants you to think on your own as Bix so I can sort of have my own ideas and opinions.

    Adria Arjona

    Going off of her quote here, it can be gleaned that Caleen is fairly guaranteed to be surviving the events of the first season. This comes as Gilory has teased that the body count for Andor will be high with a tangible risk of any notable characters (besides of course the titular one) being killed off. As it currently stands, Bix is dealing with the death of her romantic partner Timm after a showdown between Cassian Andor and the Preox-Morlana Authority. With a total of 12 episodes for both Season 1 and Season 2, it remains to be seen where Caleen’s story goes from here.

    Andor is currently airing on Disney+ with the fifth episode set to release on Wednesday, October 5.

    Source: Collider

  • James Earl Jones No Longer Voicing Darth Vader Himself

    James Earl Jones No Longer Voicing Darth Vader Himself

    James Earl Jones was the one to give Darth Vader his iconic voice ever since the first Star Wars film was released in 1977. Yet, we could still hear his iconic take on their character in the recently released Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. Yet, that wasn’t actually Jones’ voice anymore as after 45 years it has changed with age.

    So, Disney and Lucasfilm took a different approach and relied on a synthetic speech recreated from archival footage to create a new dialogue. They worked with the Ukrainian synthetic speech artist Bogdan Belyaev that brought the latest return of Darth Vader to life even during the war that is still ongoing in his home country. Even while there were concerns about his and his team’s well-being, they wanted to power through the situation to highlight they can push through such harsh times.

    Jones has signed off that his voice can be used even if he’s no longer directly involved, and Lucasfilm still continues to credit him for it even if he didn’t sit in a recording booth to bring the voice to life. It does also set a rather curious question regarding the future of actor’s being used in projects even if they’ve passed away.

    Marvel did recently acquire the rights tod o the same with Stan Lee even if we’ve not seen what exactly that’ll entail quite yet. The co-creator of Marvel has been an avid fan of appearing in the media for years, and it does seem like something he’d love to see continue even after his passing but there’s a bitter question to be asked about using someone’s existence long after they’ve passed. We’ll have to see how these kinds of topics will be handled in the future.

    Source: Vanity Fair

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘ANDOR’ Stars on Tony Gilroy’s Writing

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘ANDOR’ Stars on Tony Gilroy’s Writing

    This week’s release of Andor sees the Star Wars universe change in an unexpected way. The series strongly echoes the visuals and themes of Rogue One while presenting it in a darker tone. Murphy’s Multiverse sat down with a few of Andor’s stars and asked about the show’s script and Tony Gilroy‘s vision for a grittier Star Wars.

    Kyle Soller, who plays Syril Karn, said that the show’s unique tone was immediately present from the writing alone:

    I definitely felt it through the writing. When the script first came to me and I was talking to Tony Gilroy, I had the same exact reaction. It was not what I expected in the best possible way. It’s grittier. It’s more human. It’s very domestic. It’s a socio-political drama while also being a Star Wars epic. It built off the promise of what Rogue One was. This writing plus Tony Gilroy plus Diego Luna, it was just, “Wow!”

    The first three episodes of the series follow an intricate web of stories and complex characters. One of those characters is Cassian Andor’s close confidant Bix Caleen, a mechanic who may have ties to the Rebellion that Cassian has no clue about. Adria Arjona dished on Gilroy’s script and how it felt reading the story on the page:

    I think Tony is a brilliant writer. Tonally, when you read the script you realize how grounded it is and complex each and every character is and how interesting every storyline is and how they intertwine. It’s complicated and the characters are really going through something bigger than themselves. I think Tony did something beautiful where no one in this show lives in black or white. Everyone is in a grey area. There’s no such thing as good or bad and you get to explore ‘why’ in the intimacy of the character’s homes.

  • ‘Andor’ Still Manages to Follow a Traditional Star Wars Template

    ‘Andor’ Still Manages to Follow a Traditional Star Wars Template

    If you’re familiar with Star Wars, or with many other literary and cinematic works such as The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard Of Oz, Iron Man, The Matrix, Lost or The Lion King, you’ve come to be pretty familiar with the a common template of stories, hero myth pattern studies popularized by Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth. While divided into several steps, all of which are incredibly flexible, it has three main parts that can be easily summed up as 1) The Separation 2) The Initiation 3) The Return. These are the fundamental components of each Hero’s Journey, and they can be applied in a number of ways to strengthen, examine, and develop vastly different narratives on vastly different subjects.

    With the first three episodes of Andor having been released, it becomes clear how Cassian’s journey has, for now, managed to fit the steps of the journey included in The Separation. It’s interesting to notice how a show with such a tonal departure from the most recent set of Star Wars properties, still manages to capture the essential spirit of the franchise. With little to no bells and whistles, it demonstrated that there are a number of valid approaches that can be taken when developing a project within this universe, as long as the true foundations that led to the franchises’ success are still addressed and given room to serve the story being told.

    • Ordinary World

    The first step isn’t as much a step as it is a starting point. Although it may be hard to qualify Cassian’s life when we find him as ordinary, it is still the life that he has become accustomed to. Living in Ferrix, scouring the galaxy for his long-lost sister. His attempts to lay low when traveling to other planets like Morlana One are obvious, all things that help to clearly define the world he lives in.

    • Call to Adventure

    The moment when he must decide whether or not to take a step outside his comfort zone, in order to answer the appeal of his inner quest, comes when Cassian, still on Morlana One, is faced by the two Pre-Mor Authority employees. By deciding to engage them, and later to kill them off in order to leave no witnesses, Cassian clearly goes beyond his initial mission statement and, even if inadvertently, sets in motion events that will lead to him leaving his ordinary life behind.

    • Refusal

    While making preparations to leave Ferrix for good, Cassian decides to meet with Bix Caleen’s contact, Luthen Rael. Someone who initially was to only serve the purpose of handing Cassian the necessary credits to follow through with his intentions of leaving his life behind, ends up offering Cassian something more: the opportunity to fight the Empire not as an individual, but as part of something greater. Cassian, being true to himself, initially refuses to do so, questioning Rael’s true reasons and how futile such an endeavor would be.

    • Meeting with the Mentor

    This is also the moment where Cassian, albeit unbeknownst to him, meets what is sure to become an essential figure in his forming years as a Rebel intelligence officer. Luthen Rael demonstrates to have a special interest in Cassian, admiring his capabilities and basically offering himself to provide him with all the tools that will allow him to become the fighter he was always meant to be.

    • Crossing the Threshold

    When leaving Ferrix, Cassian is overwhelmed by memories of him leaving his home planet of Kenari, knowing that his life is about to change, maybe even more than it did then. At this point, Andor genuinely enters the domain of adventure, stepping outside of his world’s known bounds and into a perilous new world with unknown laws and boundaries.

    The next step.

    Following these initial steps in the Andor storyline, and if the Hero’s Journey is to continue, Cassian will undergo an Initiation of sorts, where a Road of Trials will come before him, as he proves himself worthy of continuing on the path that The Separation has led him down. It will be interesting to understand how the way his story develops in Rogue One will affect the way Andor’s structure over its two seasons is approached. Will Rogue One serve as a metaphorical Ressurection and Return, or will those final steps be addressed in the series with the movie serving as a worthy epilogue to the story of Cassian Andor?