Movies. Books. TV shows. Web shows. Comics. Podcasts. Blogs. There has never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan. However, watching, reading, and listening to all the content is quite difficult to do, especially if one has other interests (like work, family, school, other hobbies – crazy, I know!). I admittedly cannot keep up with it all. Here’s a quick look at some of the amazing offerings that we fans have available to us. Hopefully you don’t pop your top like poor R5-D4!
Movies – In addition to the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, we are of course on to the sequel trilogy. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens broke a fantastic amount of box-office and other records worldwide since its release in December 2015. It brought back the familiar while also introducing new favorites: amazing characters, lovable droids, awe-inspiring ships, and of course breathtaking visual effects, sounds, and more music by the great John Williams. “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE,” as the infomercial pitchmen say. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is coming out in less than 100 days, Star Wars Episode VIII and the Han Solo movie are on the horizon, and we’re expecting news about the final installment of the sequel trilogy. Our circuits are overloading!
Books – Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt is insanely popular with the literary fans (for good reason – it’s fantastic), and devoted followers of Ahsoka Tano are amazingly excited for Emily Kate Johnston’s eponymous novel about the Force-using Togrutan. Ahsoka is nearly everything I could have wanted; I got emotional several times. As this is meant to be spoiler-free, I won’t add anything else, but you can read my review (with spoilers) here. I’ve read most of the other new canon, admittedly passing on titles that either didn’t interest me or were reviewed poorly by friends who share similar tastes. Whether you’re a fan of Jedi, other Force-users, space combat, military sci-fi, rebels, Rebels (there’s a difference!), or Imperials, there are books for all – including all ages. My young son loves the children’s versions. There are of course works intended for adults, as well as young adult, middle grade, and more.
Coming up soon? Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn, James Luceno’s Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Empire’s End to round out the Aftermath trilogy.
I also just picked up a copy of Star Wars: Complete Locations. This is a fantastic coffee table book. It was first published in 2005 to cover the first six feature films, but it’s now updated with a section on The Force Awakens; sadly, there is no information about Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Still, if you like cross-sections, maps, and a bird’s-eye view of the action, this is the book for you.
Echo Base foldout!
TV shows – Star Wars Rebels, anyone? As heartbroken as many were by the cancellation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rebels has taken hold of fans young and old. Incorporating beloved characters from the previous animated series (and movies!) surely helped add to the love so many viewers have for the crew of the Ghost and the various Rebels, Imperials, pirates, and creatures that they meet during their adventures. Season 2 just came out on Blu-Ray and DVD, and Season 3 is now upon us. I’ve finally started watching Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures – to quote Maul, “what fun, what fun!” I firmly believe that Roger has the best lines, and watching the crew use a no-kidding LEGO separator tool to salvage parts was pure genius. Highly recommended.
Comics – Marvel’s line of Star Wars comics were immensely popular from the start. The various titles covered the saga from the usual point of view in the original trilogy era – Han, Luke, Leia, etc. – and also from many individual characters. Darth Vader has his own continuing book, and other characters got their own limited series or one-shots: Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, Kanan, C-3PO, etc. Poe Dameron’s story is the latest to arrive. I looked forward to the comics each Wednesday, and I eventually started a pull list at my local shop for the first time in my life. I started falling behind in both reading what I had picked up and picking up my haul, so I recently canceled my pull. I felt bad about it at first, then I remembered some great advice from Old Ben – “let go.”
Podcasts and blogs– the odds of not finding a podcast you like are nearly 3720 to 1! Okay, there aren’t quite that many Star Wars podcasts, but there are certainly are many. I don’t have as much time for podcasts as I used to, so I am down to about four in my feed. I highly recommend Coffee With Kenobi, of course. Far Far Away Radio is a good one, too, though I am admittedly biased (as I am one of the co-hosts). Same with blogs. So many different writing styles, so many viewpoints, so many subjects – so many that there definitely isn’t time for all of them. Of course, fan-created content isn’t canon, like all of these other topics I’ve brought up, so it’s natural that there is some great material and… less-great material… none of which influences canon. That said, many of the podcasts and blogs can greatly enhance the overall enjoyment Star Wars It’s definitely worth the investment of fans’ time to see if they can find ones that they like.
Web series – I love Rebels Recon. Lucasfilm’s Andi Gutierrez does a great job of guiding the viewers of Star Wars Rebels through key parts of the previous SWR episodes and catches up with Pablo Hidalgo as he searches for coffee to fill his eternally-empty mug. Chopper always makes an appearance, too, demonstrating his full value as a Lucasfilm employee… kind of. I haven’t watched all of The Star Wars Show episodes yet – again, time. I will find some. Somewhere.
So much Star Wars, so little time – for ME, anyway. How about you? How do you enjoy the saga? If you had more time, money, or cable channels, what would you add to your schedule?
Until next time, thank you for reading, may the Force be with you, and remember –
This is the podcast you’re looking for!
Contact me at MediocreJedi@coffeewithkenobi.com or on Twitter @MediocreJedi.
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