Artwork by Joshua Stolte
Welcome to the inaugural edition of HoloNet Digest. In this weekly feature for Suvudu’s Star Wars blog, I’ll bring you a recap of the latest news from the world of Star Wars. Whether it’s an Episode VII rumor or a noteworthy author interview, you’ll find it here. Let’s check the HoloNet and see what happened in the past week.
After Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that standalone Star Wars movies were in the works, Entertainment Weekly claimed to have information about two such standalone films, one featuring a young Han Solo and the other focusing on Boba Fett. The combination of Iger’s comments and EW’s rumor touched off a firestorm of speculation about which other characters deserved their own movies. Of course, since this is the Internet, there were also jokes aplenty.
Author Timothy Zahn, whose latest Star Wars novel Scoundrels was released last month, did an interview with Hollywood.com in which he weighed in on how he wrote Han Solo, what he thought of the Star Wars spinoff film rumors, and which characters he wanted to see in standalone films. Zahn spoke for many Expanded Universe fans when he told Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt, “You could even do an X-Wing TV show focused on Rogue Squadron that, just like the books, would be peripheral to the main Skywalker-Solo saga. That means you could introduce a lot of new characters anchored by Wedge. You could make wonderful stuff out of the X-Wing books.”
The final story arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Five began this past Saturday with “Sabotage.” In the episode, Anakin and Ahsoka investigated a bombing of the Jedi Temple, while ominous anti-Jedi, anti-clone sentiment grew among the people of Coruscant. (If you’re interested in reading my review of the episode, it’s available here on TheForce.Net.) Ahsoka will be facing a serious test in these episodes. For a preview of what’s to come, check out this amazing trailer. If you’re not watching The Clone Wars, you’re missing out on a lot of great Star Wars television.
Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg gave brief interviews to IGN at a screenwriting awards ceremony, and while they studiously avoided spilling even one tiny bean about the Star Wars spinoff movies they’re working on, they did offer some thoughts about the franchise in general and the selection of J. J. Abrams to direct Episode VII. Kasdan also spoke to The Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex blog, saying, “I’m trying to start fresh. There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it’s all new.”
Finally, last week we said goodbye to legendary makeup artist and creature designer Stuart Freeborn, who was best known to Star Wars fans for designing Chewbacca, Yoda, and Jabba the Hutt. Freeborn, who based the look of Yoda on a combination of his own face and that of Albert Einstein, died at the age of 98. In a statement posted on StarWars.com, George Lucas commented that Freeborn “brought with him not only decades of experience, but boundless creative energy. His artistry and craftsmanship will live on forever in the characters he created.”
I’ll be back next week with another heaping portion of Star Wars news, rumors, and other happenings from the galaxy far, far away.
Eric Geller is a college student majoring in political science whose interests include technology, journalism, and of course Star Wars. He reviews The Clone Wars TV series and manages social media for Star Wars fan site TheForce.Net. He also co-hosts The ForceCast podcast. He is originally from the Washington, D.C. area.