Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Star Wars

  • ‘Star Wars Racers’: Podracing Deserves a Disney+ Series

    ‘Star Wars Racers’: Podracing Deserves a Disney+ Series

    The fifth episode of The Book of Boba Fett gave us a nostalgia-filled ride down memory lane to the prequel era. The Mandalorian got a new N-1 Starfighter that he took out for a quick test drive. What stood out was that we revisited the race track from The Phantom Menace, where a young Anakin took on podracers like Sebulba and Ben Quadinaros. While watching this sequence, I thought back to loving the sequence and how I ended up playing hours of Star Wars Racers on the Nintendo 64. It made me wonder how Lucasfilm still hasn’t announced a Disney+ series yet. So, here’s my pitch so that we can soon make our return to the world of podracing.

    While Episode 1 mainly focused on the Tatooine racetrack, the game took us on a cross-galaxy tour exploring some of the most dangerous race tracks a podracer has to face, may it be on Malastare, Theron, or even Cantonica. So, a Disney+ series could explore a different race track with each episode, as the danger continues to grow with each new track. not only do we get to explore parts of the galaxy we haven’t seen in live-action yet, but it can also build up tension as you never know which racer might make it out alive.

    Speaking of, while there’s a risk of losing your favorite character at any point in the race, it adds a similar element that The Suicide Squad toyed with as you never know just who might make it out alive. Imagine we get introduced to an interesting set of characters, each with their arcs only for a wrong turn to instantly end their story. It would not only cement the dangers to the drivers, but also the viewer. The prequel film did give us explosions but most of the racers got out pretty unscathed.

    Imagine the story of a young hotshot racer, who has always dreamed of his time as part of the pod racers. Suddenly, he lucked out as they suddenly needed a new driver and he took his opportunity. Surprised by the fact that no one else would jump at the opportunity, he slowly learns just how dangerous the races truly are. The only thing keeping him moving forward is a promise he made a long time ago that he refuses to give up on. Perhaps it’s exactly the thing he needs to keep going no matter what heads his way.

    He makes friends along the way, an unrelenting rival, and witnesses the galaxy like never before. Maybe throw in some Speed Racer-like conspiracy, as fixed games are dragging down his chances of making it to the top but he makes some unlikely allies that may be the key to his success. While the story may be disconnected from the other shows, it would offer some fun distracting that helps further establish the galaxy with locations that we may end up visiting in other stories. It’s just time to finally bring podracing back Lucasfilm.

  • RUMOR: High Republic-Set ‘Star Wars’ Series in Development at Disney Plus

    RUMOR: High Republic-Set ‘Star Wars’ Series in Development at Disney Plus

    As the most recent Star Wars streaming series, The Book of Boba Fett, nears the end of its run, a new rumor has emerged about another property being developed for Disney Plus by Lucasfilm. According to a report from Cinelinx’s Jordan Maison, work is underway on a live-action series set during the High Republic era.

    Set 200 years or so before the Battle of Yavin, the High Republic is an era in which the Jedi were at their peak and the galaxy existed, more or less, in peace. Stories of the High Republic have been told mostly through a series of novels and comic books, including an ongoing series published by Marvel Comics, but now it seems that Lucasfilm is ready to take the next step and introduce the era to consumers through a streaming series.

    According to Maison, the series has been described as “Stranger Things in space” and will focus on a younger group of core characters. Whether or not any of those younger characters will be lifted from the pages of the books and/or comics remains to be seen, but Maison did report that it is expected that one of the writers associated with the publishing side of things will assist with the development of the story.

    Lucasfilm is about to begin production on its next two streaming series, Ahsoka and The Acolyte, with the latter rumored to be set near the end of The High Republic Era. With, Ahsoka, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett set during the New Republic Era, Star Wars fans are in for a treat as the High Republic era stories will introduce them to a whole new cast of characters set in the galaxy far, far away.

    Source: Cinelinx

  • New Report Further Hints at ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Releasing in May on Disney+

    New Report Further Hints at ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Releasing in May on Disney+

    Earlier today, we discussed a rumor of a Disney+ exec’s deleted tweet that hinted at a May release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Of course, the tweet was swiftly deleted and hinted that it was in reference to the comic series that was recently announced. Now, a new report by THR’s Heat Vision blog has added even more fire to the rumor as they stated their sources are corroborating that it’s eyeing a May release.

    Naturally, they state that this shouldn’t be taken as an official confirmation, as discussion on its eventual release can always change. We don’t know how far the project is along, and it’s likely that they are still trying to ensure the effects are ready for its release. Still, the fact May 4th, the official Star Wars Day, landing on a Wednesday seems like the perfect opportunity for a fitting release date.

    There’s a lot of excitement that the upcoming adaptation once again sees the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, who will once again clash as Kenobi and Darth Vader. It’ll be interesting to see how exactly the series might balance their connection and also hint at his eventual fate in A New Hope. I guess we’ll have to wait just a bit longer until we find out what exactly the future has in store for us once we get an actual first trailer.

    Source: THR

  • RUMOR: Disney+ Exec May Have Hinted at ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Disney+ Release

    RUMOR: Disney+ Exec May Have Hinted at ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Disney+ Release

    We’ve all been wondering when we might expect the release of Lucasfilm’s next Disney+ series. Of course, there is still one more episode to go for The Book of Boba Fett, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t excited for what the future has in store, especially with how many series are currently being worked on. The obvious next release would be Ewan McGregor‘s return in Obi-Wan Kenobi, as it was the only project to get a teaser during Disney+ Day. In a now-deleted tweet by a Disney+ exec, we may have gotten a tease of when it may potentially release.

    Kenobi Tweet

    He did go on to delete the original tweet and pointed out that it was for a different announcement, which turned out to be a Marvel comic focused on Obi-Wan heading for a May release. The wording of “Disney+” in the tweet is the odd inclusion, but there’s a chance that there was a mix-up with what was announced at the time. Of course, the timing of a comic release also seems fitting to find its way online alongside the Disney+ release.

    We still have to wait just a tad longer until we find out when Kenobi may finally release. May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day to fans, falls on a Wednesday this year, which is the usual Disney+ release window for any series. So, it certainly seems like the perfect fit for that day. We may even get the first teaser at the end of The Book of Boba Fett similar to how The Mandalorian teased the release of its first spinoff after the TV show’s credits. So, we’ll see what the next week has in store for us.

    Source: Twitter via The Direct, Twitter

  • Footage of the Cancelled Boba Fett Game Has Surfaced Online

    Footage of the Cancelled Boba Fett Game Has Surfaced Online

    Once upon a time, before the age of Disney, Lucasfilm was working on a game titled Star Wars: 1313. The game was centered on mythical bounty hunter Boba Fett as he made his way through the underbelly of a crime-ridden part of Coruscant referred to as Level 1313.

    At the time, All eyes were on this game as it promised an immersive look into a world of Star Wars that we haven’t seen through the helmet of Boba Fett no less. Alas, the game wasn’t meant to be as it was canceled as soon as Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Star Wars: 1313 became known as one of those pre-Disney treasures that were lost in the ether forever, never to be seen again.

    Today, some footage of the canceled game has made its way online, giving us a look at what could have been. Check it out below!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XehW4OMiEr4

    The game never quite made its way into a finished state hence the wildly underdeveloped systems and graphics. It isn’t quite groundbreaking by modern standards but it gives us a nice look at this Sleeping Dogs/GTA-esque game set in the underworld. Even from this brief clip, we get a version of Boba Fett that is already sorely lacking from this new era of Star Wars.

    The leak almost feels serendipitous in the face of the criticism leveled at The Book of Boba Fett, a show that was supposed to give us the crime bounty hunter show we all wanted. Instead, the show ended up as a truncated, uneven story that saw Boba Fett getting punked weekly.

    It’s unlikely we ever see this game get revived despite Lucasfilm’s recently announced plans to expand their AAA gaming line. We can only hope that we get something as ambitious as this buried project.

  • Hey, Look, Everyone…It’s Bryce Dallas Howard

    Hey, Look, Everyone…It’s Bryce Dallas Howard

    Through its first four episodes, Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars streaming series, The Book of Boba Fett, hadn’t generated the same volume of discussion around the proverbial water cooler as had its predecessor on Disney Plus, The Mandalorian. While The Book of Boba Fett hasn’t really been divisive among fans and has been treated kindly by critics, it simply seemed to lack the same “pop” as Mando.

    Surely some of that is the result of the reality of the show not matching fan expectations: fans wanted Boba Fett kicking ass like he did when he first appeared in The Mandalorian but, instead, have seen a story unfold much more along the lines of The Godfather: Part II, in which flashbacks a bring us up to speed on how Fett rose to his current station. And so, through its first four episodes, much of the buzz had been generated by the live-action debut of Black Krrsantan, Danny Trejo’s Rancor keeper and the hope of something greater just around the corner. And today, in Chapter 5, “The Return of The Mandalorian”, the hope that fans had been clinging to arrived.

    The episode waited roughly 20 seconds before introducing Din Djarin to the story and, from there, the character never relinquished the spotlight. As fans have rightly pointed out, this episode was in every way, shape and form, an episode of The Mandalorian that happened to be part of The Book of Boba Fett. It’s not until the end that Fett is even named and the events of this episode have nothing to do with the events of the first four episodes of the series. Outside of the setting and a brief reference to the Pyke Syndicate, Chapter 5 doesn’t even share the same narrative tapestry as the rest of the series.

    What it is, however, is a great reminder that The Book of Boba Fett is part of much larger narrative that’s been developing for nearly 15 years, since Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau started to plant the seeds of it over the course of several season of The Clone Wars. Filoni and Favreau seem to have a deep and true understanding of the Galaxy Far, Far Away that George Lucas dreamt up and created. They have a passion and knowledge for the stories and characters that have built Star Wars into the entertainment empire it has become and have rightfully been lauded for their work with the direction they’ve begun to steer the live-action Star Wars series. Following today’s episode, it’s clear that fans need to start sending some of that praise in the direction of director Bryce Dallas Howard.

    Chapter 5 stands apart from the rest of the chapters of The Book of Boba Fett. Sure it’s not telling a story about Fett, though it’s obvious Djarin is going to play a big role in the remainder of the series (the creators were kind enough to throw some metahumor at us “Hey, look, everyone. It’s Mando”, as if we had forgotten about him), but it’s also the best episode of the series so far despite a decent chunk of time in it being spent watching Djarin and Peli Motto rattle off a bunch of crazy names for parts of the Naboo starfighter they are rebuilding. Howard shares that same deep understanding of Star Wars that fans love to use to adulate Filoni and Favreau and she shares it because, just like them, she’s a lifelong fan of the franchise.

    Howard’s father, Ron Howard, worked on the 1988 film Willow, written by Lucas, and Bryce has talked in the past about how Lucas both mentored her father through his directing career and gave her advice ahead of her directorial debut on The Mandalorian in the first season’s fourth episode. Howard was even present at a dinner in which her father and Lucas met with Akria Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese director whose 1958 film, The Hidden Fortress, served as inspiration for Lucas to create Star Wars and whose influence is still felt even as creators other than Lucas are now taking the reigns of the franchise. Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, “The Jedi”, directed by Filoni, was the most overt homage to Kurosawa, but it is very clear that Howard values Kurosawa’s influence on the franchise, too. Her first episode of The Mandalorian, “Sanctuary”, was very much in the Kurosawa mold.

    What “The Return of the Mandalorian” made very clear was that while Filoni and Favreau may be creating the live-action world unfolding on Disney Plus and are the ones driving the shared narrative that certainly seems like it’s headed for a big battle to reclaim Mandalore, they are incredibly comfortable letting Howard take the wheel and be in charge as they lay the groundwork. Chapter 11 of The Mandalorian, “The Heiress”, also directed by Howard, introduced key characters, storylines and artifacts into live-action that will play major roles in the resolution of this shared narrative. In “The Return of the Mandalorian”, Howard’s voice was again the one Filoni and Favreau chose to tell not only the past of Mandalore (with a little Terminator influence thrown in for good measure), but also set up some key points for the future, such as how Djarin can redeem himself in his religion. For an episode that spent a lot of time repairing a beat up ship, it sure seems like it was a can’t miss to understand things moving forward.

    And so with Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett, “The Return of The Mandalorian”, the hope fans were waiting for did arrive…and her name is Bryce Dallas Howard.

  • EA and Respawn Announce Three New Star Wars Games Are In Development

    EA and Respawn Announce Three New Star Wars Games Are In Development

    After the success of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, an action-adventure game following a Jedi after the events of Order 66, it looks like EA and LucasFilm are ready to expand their offerings at Respawn studios.

    Today, EA has announced that Respawn Entertainment have three new Star Wars games that are in development. Jedi Fallen Order’s sequel was previously known to be one of these titles. We still have no title or firm release details, but it is rumored that the game may be coming later this year.

    We also now know of a first person shooter. This game is being led by Peter Hirshman, who previously worked on titles like Titanfall 2, Lego Star Wars, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

    Lastly, it seems as though the third title will be a strategy game co-developed by Respawn and Bit Reactor, a studio founded by ex-Firaxis employees (Civilization, X-COM).

    Star Wars gaming fans rejoice! It looks like after Battlefront II stopped receiving updates, we finally have a new Star Wars FPS to be excited about! More Star Wars games are always a treat, let’s hope we get some solid games out of the amazing team at Respawn.

    Source: EA

  • ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Season 2 Eyeing a Spring Premiere

    ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Season 2 Eyeing a Spring Premiere

    With the increasing amount of exclusive Disney+ content coming from Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios in 2022, it has become somewhat of a puzzle to figure out how to fit everything they have to offer a single calendar year with the least amount of overlap. With this in mind, the latest issue of Star Wars Insider managed to add another piece to the said puzzle, as it announces that Star Wars: The Bad Batch season two will start streaming this spring, as shared by @WookieNews on Twitter

    The first season of the Lucasfilm animated show made its debut on May 4, 2021, a.k.a. Star Wars Day, something that could happen again in 2022. That same date for this year has long been rumored to be connected to the Obi-Wan Kenobi series debut, but it was never officially confirmed. Considering other Disney+ exclusives, May 4th is the expected day for Marvel Studios‘ Moon Knight to stream its finale after a six-episode season that starts on March 30th. This would depend if, unlike WandaVision and Hawkeye, Moon Knight sticks to a one-episode premiere, something that hasn’t been confirmed.

    There’s precedent for Disney+ to be streaming content from their two biggest franchises at the same time, as long as one property is animated. This happened last year when the aforementioned The Bad Batch season one streamed alongside the entirety of Loki‘s first season. This means that a May 4 premiere for the animated show might still be on the table, even with the Marvel Studios series led by Oscar Isaac streaming that same day. With Disney+ usually releasing trailers for its upcoming shows two months ahead of its release, the release of The Bad Batch season 2 trailer might give us a better idea of when its premiere might actually be.

    Source: Star Wars Insider 208 via Twitter

  • RUMOR: ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ to Feature Din Djarin’s New Ship

    RUMOR: ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ to Feature Din Djarin’s New Ship

    Chapter Four of The Book of Boba Fett hinted in a big way at the return of a familiar Mandalorian, Din Djarin, in one of the final episodes of the season. Boba is in need of some help facing up against the Pykes and his former ally, who he met during the events of The Mandalorian‘s second season. Let’s be honest, featuring the Ludwig Göransson score makes it pretty crystal clear Djarin will indeed be showing up.

    It has long been rumored this cameo would occur, and the fact that Djarin is constantly wearing his helmet makes it easier for him to be featured since Pedro Pascal‘s presence on set would not be necessary. All he has to do is voice the role at a later date. This does not mean that it won’t be Pascal portraying the character, just that it wouldn’t be something a schedule conflict between production and the actor would be able to prevent. What remains to be seen is just how Djarin will travel through the galaxy after we witnessed the destruction of his ST-70 Assault Ship, the Razor Crest, at the hands of Moff Gideon’s artillery.

    A rumor being shared by The Bespin Bulletin, following on-set reports going back over a year, states that Djarin will be seen piloting a Naboo N-1 Starfighter, first seen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace back in 1999. This could mean that Djarin would have left his bounty hunting days behind him as this ship isn’t exactly well known for its storage capacities. It would make it difficult to transport prisoners and carbonite slabs. Another possibility is that he might still be on the market for a ship similar to the Razor Crest, and the Naboo Starfighter is just a temporary means of getting around. It would certainly be interesting to see the ship ditching the usual yellow keeping its chrome look throughout, mirroring Djarin’s beskar armor.

    If this rumor pans out it would be an extremely cool addition to the series and to this particular place in the timeline, as the ship has always been a fan-favorite ever since its debut on the big screen. It could even help to tease more prequel references, characters, even or locations in the upcoming The Mandalorian‘s third season, which is set to debut in the not so near future.

    Source: The Bespin Bulletin

  • Danny Trejo Shares a BTS Image From ‘The Book of Boba Fett’

    Danny Trejo Shares a BTS Image From ‘The Book of Boba Fett’

    The latest The Book of Boba Fett episode continued to explore its titular character’s hold over Tatooine. Temuera Morrison gets a lot of chances to humanize a character that previously didn’t get much character development. The highlight of the episode is when he is given a young Rancor as a gift, which includes a cameo by Danny Trejo as its trainer. It’s a heartfelt moment and the addition of the Machete actor’s performance made it a standout in the episode. To celebrate his appearance in the series, he shared a new image from behind-the-scenes.

    It’s great to see how they continue to use practical effects to bring elements from this universe to life. The fact we even get to learn more about the beast’s nature, which also plays in nicely into the parallels with the same happening to Fett. Also, the fact Trejo makes a reference to Machete Kills Again… In Space! is such a great callback. We don’t know how big of a role he has in the season, but hopefully, we’ll get a lot more as we further explore what it takes to raise and eventually ride a Rancor.

    Source: Twitter