stephen.news

hypertext, words and more

Star Wars

  • Carl Weathers has died

    •

    2 min read

    •

    I’m a little at a loss for words.

    Carl Weathers has played so many wonderful roles over his tenure as an actor. I always thought he had such a lovely voice and brought us so much delight on the screen. It wasn’t until recently I learned he was an Oakland Raider in the NFL briefly!

    Weathers has had some iconic roles in the past, and frankly it’s a tragedy he doesn’t have a Hollywood Star. Maybe that could change posthumously. The man had major roles in Toy Story, Rocky, and Predator. Those 3 titles alone, were some heavy-hitters.

    Take a few moments to take in Weather’s considerate thoughts about how he perceived the character Greef Karga. You can tell that he was very jazzed to be him. Weathers is a studied man of many talents — chief among them is theater and he’s a director himself too. I just love hearing him carefully choose his words here. You can really tell he’s excited to have such an amazing opportunity to essentially take part in a modern western, and carve out Karga as a benevolent complex character on-screen.

    Here’s a few other noteworthy (and hilarious) characters he’s portrayed.

    High Magistrate Greef Karga

    (a starving) Carl Weathers as himself in Arrested Development

    Who could forget Chubbs Peterson?

    Rest easy Carl ❤️

  • The Original Star Wars Logo

    •

    1 min read

    •

    The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.

    Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:

    And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:

    h/t 1000logos.net

  • Donald Glover and Billy Dee Williams will reprise role of Lando Calrissian in new Disney+ Star Wars Story

    •

    2 min read

    •

    That’s right! You heard right! You are not day-dreaming.

    This has been a life-long dream come true for me. Lando is one of my favorite characters, and was given such little screen time in the original trilogy, and the Solo film. Well, I’m so happy to announce that Disney+ is bringing Lando his own Star Wars Story! Given the incredible success of The Mandalorian, and the technological marvel of The Volume, I’m surprised Disney isn’t announcing more Star Wars stories, given just how quickly they can spin up productions now.

    But, following down the rabbit-hole To YouTube (as you do), the @KRTransmissions YouTube channel confirms the details here in an exclusive scoop! It’s a must watch.

    I’m fucking ecstatic, can hardly believe it! Complex mag thinks Disney might take a stab at making the Star Wars story a series of episodic flashbacks to past and preset, young and and old, etc (LOST, anyone?). Could be cool.

    I’m still just super excited we’ll get to see more of Donald Glover portraying a young Lando. Give it up for Billy Dee Williams coming back to reprise Lando is no small feat either. He’s been on quite the hiatus, and seeing him in The Rise of Skywalker was a real treat.

    Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

  • Lost at 15

    •

    2 min read

    •

    From SyFy Wire:

    What separated Lost from the pack is that it had compelling characters, a great cast, and an enticing mystery that invited fans to solve it. Lost was one of the first shows to embrace AR storytelling, which has now become ubiquitous. Other networks, and even ABC itself, tried to recreate Lost‘s magic formula … and have yet to find a way to recapture that lightning in a bottle.

    But all good things come to an end, and that’s the biggest problem some people have with Lost: the ending. It must have been impossible to craft a conclusion that would please everyone, but the Lost finale was unusually divisive. Some even claimed that it retroactively ruined the show for them. We wouldn’t go that far. If the Lost finale had truly been that bad, we wouldn’t still be talking about the show’s beautifully convoluted mythology a decade and a half later.

    LOST was monumentally epic (just read through some of the comments on this forum thread at MacRumous, classic). It had a mythology that captivated millions (and continues to do so to this day). It was ahead of its time, inspired countless sci-fi series, horror anthologies, films, and kicked Bad Robot Productions into override to produce sleeper hits such as, 10 Cloverfield Lane. It led Abrams to the directorial helm in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Lastly, until HBO’s Game of Thrones, LOST previously held the contrarian title of worse series finale ever.

    LOST was and continues to be so important to me. I think I might be overdue for a re-watch. We have to go back…

  • Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian Will Explore the Origins of the First Order

    •

    2 min read

    •

    SyFy.com reports:

    “What could happen in the 30 years between celebrating the defeat of the Empire and then the First Order?” said Favreau who also serves as writer and executive producer on the project. “You come in on Episode VII, [the First Order are] not just starting out. They’re pretty far along … “So somehow, things weren’t necessarily managed as well as they could have been if [the galaxy] ended up in hot water again like that.”

    “This doesn’t turn into a good guy universe because you blew up two Death Stars,” added Dave Filoni, a producer and director on The Mandalorian. “You get that the Rebels won and they’re trying to establish a Republic, but there’s no way that could have set in for everybody all at once. You have in a Western where you’re out on the frontier and there might be Washington and they might have some marshals, but sometimes good luck finding one.”

    Sign me the hell up. One of the missing pieces from the new Star Wars films was all the politics and progeny of strife in this new realm.

    We have the First Order, which acts a stand-in for The Empire. I get it. These films require an opposing armada of protagonists to move and grow the plot. It works, but how did the First Order happen in the first place? Obviously there’s dismay and some chaos that descends unto the galaxy in the wake of the fall of The Empire 30 years prior. But the specifics aren’t really known on the big screen. The Mandalorian occupying that timeframe is fertile storytelling ground in my opinion. Super exciting.

    I know where I will be on November 12. I’ll be glued to my couch counting down the hours for Disney+ to launch.