Bright suns and welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Just a heads up, DSHR is going on a little bit of a summer break. I had been kicking around the idea of doing this anyway, but some stuff has come up in the real world that requires my attention and there’s not a whole lot happening in Star Wars right now, so it seems like a good time. So today we’ve got a roundup of Star Wars news from San Diego Comic Con. And then I’ll be back on August 23rd with a new Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter.

I feel a little bad doing this, there's been an influx of new subscribers on the last couple weeks. I promise I’ll be back soon. But in the mean time, make sure you check out the DSHR YouTube and Instagram pages, linked below. There is a new podcast coming with friend of DSHR next week and it’s going to be a fun one to close out his Force of July.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The “Fun” Begins

Chefs kiss.

Uncle George was a prophet.

San Diego Comic Con Roundup

As I mentioned above, I’m taking a few weeks off. Right now as I’m typing, San Diego Comic Con is wrapping. There wasn’t a ton of Star Wars news. With Disney D23 next month and Celebration in just over 8 months (!!!) away, you have to figure the really big announcements are going to be saved for those events. Mostly it seemed to be about the traveling Star Wars Experience that kicks off next year in Philadelphia and an update on new Star Wars books and comics.

As for books, over at Space Wizards Book Club has a great rundown of what was announced. If you’re a fan of Star Wars books, you absolutely should be subscribed to SWBC.

Chelsea Zukowski | Space Wizards Book Club

All the new Star Wars books revealed at SDCC 2026

It seems like just yesterday that I offered some perspective on the lull that Star Wars is experiencing in its catalog of new literature. It was two weeks ago, actually, but my point was to keep calm and carry on reading and looking forward to what we’ll get soon. That patience is already being rewarded with the first wave of new books announced for ear…

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9 days ago · 8 likes · Chelsea Zukowski

And specifically, Chelsea is contributing to Star Wars: A Celebration which is going to be a 50th anniversary reference book. Very cool!

Chelsea Zukowski | Space Wizards Book Club

I'm writing for a Star Wars book

I’m so excited to finally share that I’m writing for an official Star Wars book…

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9 days ago · 12 likes · 4 comments · Chelsea Zukowski

There’s going to be a lot of cool books and comics in the next year. I’m most excited about Reign of the Empire: Edge of the Abyss which comes out in about 6 weeks. The sequel to the excellent Reign of the Empire: Mask of Fear. If you liked Andor and Rogue One, go read Mask of Fear.

If you’re into Star Wars videogames, the panel for “Zero Company” revealed all the voice actors and just how many Republic credits you can drop on the game. The list of voice actors and actresses has a few familiar names to Star Wars fans. Dee Bradley Baker is best known for voicing the Clone Troopers, although many people are saying his best work is Nubs in Young Jedi Adventures. Matt Lanter voiced Anakin Skywalker in a ton of Clone Wars episodes.

And if you just happen to have a $299.99 burning a hole in your Jedi robes, you can pick up Zero Company: Collectors Edition.

Not gonna lie, the Black Series electronic thermal detonator is pretty cool. But not $299.99 cool.

The Star Wars experience, called Star Wars: The Experience opens up in Philadelphia next February, the first city on it’s 5 year tour. I was hoping part of the announcements at SDCC would be the tour schedule. I’ve got no beef with Philly but I’ve already got Celebration the calendar next year and my stash of Republic credits after that might be a little low. But we did get a little more information about what visitors are going to see along with some artistic renderings. How cool does this sound?

Told through an extraordinary collection of more than 70 artifacts — many of them on view for the first time from Lucasfilm — the exhibit invites you to take a closer look at legendary screen-used pieces including Darth Maul’s lightsaber hilt and Darth Vader’s menacing armor, as well as a selection of fan-favorite aliens, droids, and creatures, including the Mandalorian’s faithful companion Grogu (from Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, on digital now), and the droid duo that started it all, R2-D2 and C-3PO. A celebration of the depth and breadth of storytelling in the galaxy far, far away, the exhibition also includes vehicles like a full-sized speeder bike and original props from Andor, the critically-acclaimed and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Disney+ series.

I haven’t watched this yet, but someone was nice enough to record the panel hosted by Ashley Eckstein.

A long-lost Star Wars series is finally going to make it’s official debut later this fall at the Lucas Museum. No, not Star Wars: Underworld. Instead the what is maybe the only Star Wars comedy show, Star Wars: Detours is finally going to see completed episodes get an official release.

As part of a San Diego Comic-Con panel covering the opening of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art later this year, guest Seth Green discussed his collaboration with George Lucas over several years. Green revealed that their collaborative, non-canon animated comedy series Star Wars Detours, which has never been released, is going to have multiple completed episodes featured as part of the museum.

…

Green previously revealed that 39 episodes of the series had been fully-completed, with another 62 episodes scripted at the time the plug was pulled as a result of the Disney acquisition and shifting priorities at Lucasfilm. A full episode leaked on Reddit a few years ago before being taken down by Lucasfilm themselves. Voice talent attached to the series included Felicia Day, Donald Faison, Seth MacFarlane, Andy Richter, Jennifer Hale, Zachary Levi, and Seth Green himself.

In a very weird way, it does make sense for the Lucas Museum. Last year at SDCC, George talked about the museum and how he felt that narrative art doesn’t get the same respect as say, paintings or whatever we consider “traditional” art. Something like Detours would absolutely fit into the unappreciated art that George is trying to highlight. And while the museum is not a Star Wars museum, I think that George also knows if people go to a Lucas Museum and there isn’t any Star Wars stuff, there’s going to be a riot that makes the Ghorman Massacre look like a tea party.

And speaking of Star Wars and humor, Rick Moranis made an appearance for the Spaceballs 2 panel. For those who don’t know, Moranis basically retired from acting in 1997 to focus on raising his kids. He even passed on the Ghostbusters reboot in 2016. So getting him back under the (Dark) helmet was a pretty big deal. And sometimes, you just have to take a role so you’ll get left alone.

“The truth is, I had to say yes to this thing,” said Moranis, after taking his seat on stage following an intro where some goons had to literally comb the audience, in a nod to a memorable gag from the original movie, in order to find him. “It was the only way I could get Josh Gad to stop texting me.”

Just in case you want to watch Spaceballs: The Panel, as far as I can tell this is more or less the whole thing.

I am truly, truly excited for Spaceballs 2. Maybe even more than Starfighter? I don’t know. I can’t say for sure but what I can say for sure is I am absolutely at Spaceballs 2 on opening night.

Hopefully you’re caught up on most of the news from SDCC. I think Hasbro had some announcements in there as well. But the DSHR summer vacation is starting, so I’ll see you all in a few weeks.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back again to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Bit of a hodge podge this week. The Mandalorian and Grogu is heading to the small screen in various formats. Plus we got an update on Spaceballs 2, an (alleged) update on the Knights of the Old Republic remake, and Uncle George gets a pretty big honor. All this plus the return of Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars and all the usual Death Star HR nonsense.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Just a reminder, you can speak ill of the dead.

The Mandalorian & Grogu Are Coming to Your TeeVee

In case you haven’t gotten enough of the best dad in Star Wars and his little green son, The Mandalorian and Grogu is coming to the small screen this week. On July 21st, the movie will come home to video-on-demand (VOD) platforms to “buy” or rent. Strangely you’ll be able to find it at places like Apple TV and Amazon Prime but not Disney+. There’s no official release date for Disney+ yet. After all, why release it where anyone with a subscription can watch when you squeeze out a few more dollars from the digital rentals. When will the movie show up on Disney+? Who knows. One guess is Labor Day weekend.

Makes sense I suppose. The Mandalorian and Grogu was released for Memorial Day weekend. I think of the two holidays as related to each other, the beginning and end of summer. Except for in Texas, summer runs from March to November.

Also, if you are someone who buys digital movies, it’s always worth remembering that you don’t actually own it. Sony just made headlines last month when over 550 movies were suddenly removed from the PlayStation library. Will people who bought those movies get a refund? Does the Empire conduct fair trials? Of course they won’t. That’s just the price of living in a digital society. You own nothing and you will like it. I made the argument to Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan the other day that sure, my collections of books and records are taking over my office. But really by not participating in the digital media economy and buying books and reocrds, I’m striking a blow for artists and against our techbro overlords. It basically makes me Luke Skywalker, from a certain point of view.

If you do want your very own copy of The Mandalorian and Grogu that you can’t still watch even after turning off your Disney+ subscription, you are going to have five, count ‘em, five different options to choose from, all coming out on August 21st.

Physical:

Beskar Collector’s Edition including Special Packaging, SteelBook, Metal Posters (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code)

SteelBook Packaging (4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code)

4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital Code

Blu-ray + Digital Code

DVD

It was news to me that regular DVDs were still getting produced. I would have just assumed everything was Blu-ray at this point. I largely sold off most of my DVDs over the years and never got into Blu-rays, but I have been thinking for a while that I’ve wanted to get physical copies of my favorite movies/TV shows. Maybe The Mandalorian and Grogu is a good place to start. Check out the Beskar Collectors Edition.

And finally, if you’ve already rewatch all three seasons of The Mandalorian plus the Mando episodes of Book of Boba Fett plus The Mandalorian and Grogu and you still need more, don’t you worry. LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is dropping on Disney+ September 2nd.

No word yet on the “plot”. Quote are intentional since LEGO Star Wars of often pretty light on light. The marketing material says:

Filled with unexpected laughs and action-packed fun, this new animated galactic adventure celebrates your favorite stories and characters from all three seasons of The Mandalorian series, making it perfect for Star Wars and LEGO fans of all ages.

Not a bad little late summer of animated Star Wars. We’ve got Visions: The Ninth Jedi followed by the LEGO Mandalorian? I can dig it.

Spaceballs 2: Somehow Dark Helmet Has Returned

I am a little surprised just how much I’m looking forward to Spaceballs 2: The New One, hitting theaters April 23rd of next year. Possible it’s because the comedy as a movie format seems like it’s on life support. There hasn’t been a trailer or anything released, but there is a description and a teaser poster.

Solid teaser poster. Referencing a classic Spaceballs moment.

There is a Spaceballs panel and San Diego Comic Con this weekend. I haven’t seen any updates from it. Maybe a teaser trailer? Who knows. But we also did get a description for the movie:

Somehow, Dark Helmet has returned! Forty years after the events of the first Spaceballs, fifty years after the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, and one year after the events of The Devil Wears Prada 2, the galaxy is once again under threat. A threat so evil, so unstoppable, so completely lacking in any original ideas, that it has vowed to bring back the past… every last bit of it.

With Lone Starr in hiding, Queen Vespa on the throne, and the Schwartz stretched thinner than a franchise releasing TV episodes theatrically, the only hope for the galaxy is Vespa’s undisciplined son, Prince Starburst, and a mysterious Palace advisor named Destiny. Together, they must find Lone Starr, Yogurt, and any other iconic legacy characters fans are demanding before they discover the hard way that, while some threats you can fight, the reboot is not one of them.

The reboot is undefeated…

Don’t Pull the Plug on the KOTOR Remake Yet

I honestly didn’t realize that the Knights of the Old Republic remake has been floating out in the ether for nearly 5 years. September 2021, Aspyr posted a little teaser with no actual footage. But enough to get KOTOR die-hards such as myself to think about maybe I needed to buy a PS5.

If you’re a KOTOR fan, how can you not get excited watching that trailer? Heck, I just watched it yet again and am fired up after seeing the close up of Revan. Saber Interactive took over development in 2022, and it’s more or less been radio silence ever since. The last update was over a year ago in March 2025. Saber Interactive creative director, Tim Willits, said that the KOTOR remake was in fact still going to happen. But that’s it. Until last week.

According to Saber’s new chief business officer, Steve Allison, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake is planned for a 2028 launch. “We’re preparing to do more self publishing and I’m here to organize the group in preparation of the lineup forming for 2028 [...] that includes Space Marine, Wick, hopefully KOTOR remake, and a few unannounced titles,” he explained.

The catch here is that the source comes from Reddit, and has since been reshared. As such, it is worth taking this news with a pinch of salt as there is no official source. Nevertheless, with a 2028 release planned, it is likely the only update we are going to receive for a while, so take that as you will.

Well, even unofficial, third-hand news is better than no news.

George Lucas is a Knight. But is Not Granted the Rank of Master

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, last week George Lucas was honored by France, being awarded the medal of a Knight of the Legion of Honor by French President Emmanuel Macron. Lucas, along with Jodie Foster, Chris Meledandri, and Sigourney Weaver were made Knights while French filmmaker Claude Lelouch was awarded Commander of Legion of Merit, which is two higher than a Knight. For the sake of my mostly American readership, I was trying to find what our equivalent would be and I don’t think there’s a direct one-to-one translation, since the Legion of Honor awards can be presented to both military and civilians. Maybe it’s one of those things where as you’re on the back nine of your life and you’re a famous person, you start acquiring these sort of things. Either way, President Macron did have nice things to say.

The French president also celebrated Lucas’ influence beyond directing, calling him “an exceptional entrepreneur” who founded Lucasfilm, THX and Industrial Light & Magic. He highlighted Lucas’ ties to France, including his commitment to preserving the wine-growing traditions of Provence at Château Margüi, and recalled that Coppola presented him with an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.

…

“You have become a great Jedi Knight of cinema, and today you become a Knight of the Legion of Honor,” Macron said. “For your pioneering use of technology in the service of cinema, for your visionary imagination and for this force that, for decades, has continued to inspire wonder in young and old, and for your love of France, I am extremely proud to present you today with the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.”

I’m just impressed that Uncle George actually put a suit on and didn’t just roll up to meet the President in his usual jeans and flannel shirt.

Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars

So I’ve been doing a Rebels rewatch the last week or so. As I’m typing this, I’m in the middle of season 3 where Sabine Wren starts training with the Darksaber. It’s early in her training, so she’s still having a rough go of it.

Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan is sitting on the couch with me, reading and trying to pretend like she’s not paying attention. Sabine is of course frustrated with Kanan, thinking he’s not a good teacher. But as she’s throwing a bit of a temper tantrum, she looks up and says to the TV:

“You need to stop whining and keep training, your friend is going to get stuck on another world.”

She acts like she doesn’t pay attention…

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

I recently upgraded my landspeeder. It was a time for a new car. The saddest part of getting ride of our old one? Getting ride of the Darth Family sticker that was on the back.

We had the car for 14 years. Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan actually drove it longer than I did. And had to occasionally deal with seeing people in her rearview mirror pointing at the stickers. The shame she suffered of total strangers thinking she was a Star Wars fans. I’m not sure she’s ever recovered. But, as I’m currently rewatching Rebels, I decided to make the new ride part of Phoenix Squadron.

I even kicked around the idea of adding a license plate to go with it. All the obvious ones, VADER, SKYWLKR, YUBNUB, were already taken. There are about 32 million people in Texas, it’s not surprising I couldn’t get MFALCON. But all the ones below are still available.

Debating if I actually want to get a Star Wars plate. I’m leaning towards no. While it would be fun to drive around with EWOKS plate, I don’t want to see my car on the Dallas Reddit because someone thought it was funny.

This Day in Star Wars History

Three birthdays, a novel, and a rebirth all happening on July 19th in the Star Wars universe.

• Voice actress Courteany Taylor was born in 1969. Taylor has a pretty extensive career, mostly in videogames. She first got involved in Star Wars by voicing Juhani, the Cather Jedi who falls to the Dark Side, in Knights of the Old Republic. Taylor also provided voices for The Old Republic, Jedi: Fallen Order, and Jedi: Survivor.

• Another voice actress, and fellow Dallasite, Cherami Leigh was born in 1988. Leigh appeared as New Republic pilot Mia Gabon in the premiere of Star Wars: Resistance in 2018.

• English actress Beau Gadsdon was born in 2008. Gadsdon’s first acting job was playing the 8 year old Jyn Erso at the beginning of Rogue One. To keep things consistent, her younger sister Dolly played the 4 year old version of Jyn in the movie.

• Timothy Zahn’s second-to-last1 Expanded Universe novel Choices of One was published in 2011. The sequel to 2007’s Allegiance, the book takes place inbetween A New Hope and Empire Strikes back and has our heroes on a wacky of trying to find a new base while not getting killed by Mara Jade. Hi-jinks all around.

• The trailer for the seventh and final season of The Clone Wars, titled “The Return” and first shown at San Diego Comic Con, was released on YouTube in 2018. I’m not sure how anyone would be able to watch this and not get fired up.

• Per Wookieedia, actress Tudi Roche was born on this day but they don’t know what year.

  

  According to Wikipedia, she was born in 1970 in San Angelo, Texas and she’s married to Richard Karn, better known as Al Borland on Home Improvement.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

Regular DSHR readers know I love when the Wookieepedia randomizer gives me Star Wars food. Even better when I get food that has both a Canon and Legends entry. And that’s what we’ve got this week. The Mandalorian dish known as “Tiingilar.”

The dish first appeared in Expanded Universe novel Order 66 where it was a spicy casserole. As a native Midwesterner, I approve of the casserole element and as an adopted Texan, I approve of it being spicy.

Tiingilar was an intensely spicy casserole made by members of the Mandalorian culture, using a blend of meat, vegetables, and potent spices. Tiingilar's spices gave the dish a pungent scent, enough to burn an individual's nasal passages. This effect was known as hetikles,^[1] or "noseburn," when translated from the Mando'a language to Galactic Basic Standard.

Once Galaxy’s Edge opened, Tiingilar made the jump from words on paper to something you can put in your belly. It doesn’t look like it’s currently on the menu, but at least at some point you could swing by Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo to try Yobshrimp Tiingilar Stew, described as “a shrimp and sausage stew with orecchiette pasta.”

There’s also a recipe for it The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook another stew seasoned with garam masala and curry powder. I’m not quite sure why the cookbook recipe and what you could get in the parks were different. Guessing that Disney figured figured a probably-not spicy stew with pasta was a little more palatable to the majority of guests over a vaguely Indian-ish dish.

News From the HoloNet

Mark Hamill’s Star Wars lightsaber sells for record-breaking price at auction

That’s a lot of Republic credits.

George Lucas Has Upset Some Fans for Saying Rejecting AI Is Like Rejecting Cars in Favor of the Horse and Buggy, but Others Aren’t Surprised by His Take at All

You can’t be surprised that Uncle George wants to use the new and shiny toys to make movies.

New Star Wars Darth Revan Collectable Figure Revealed

Have you ever wanted a Revan figure that costs more than a mortgage payment? Because I certainly have.

Rancho-Obi Wan: North Bay man owns largest private Star Wars collection

I’m assembling a crew for an Ocean’s 11 style heist. Who’s in?

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to your regularly scheduled Sunday evening edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This week the DSHR Podcast returns, there’s actually a reason to visit Philadelphia, it’s almost awards season, and an extremely rare Star Wars artifact has surfaced. Oh, and your next Halloween costume dropped.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

I still find it fascinating that Peter Mayhew lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And that he was a Redditor.

The FORCE of July Continues

That’s right, and I are back again as the Feats N’ Faults Force of July rolls on. This we’re talking about Maul: Shadow Lord. Can anyone get a better FNF score than Maul? Will Two-Boots lose points for, you know, bringing the entire force of the Empire to Janix? Will Shane and I go an entire podcast episode without mentioning Young Jedi Adventures? Spoiler alert, we mention Young Jedi Adventures.

As always, make sure you check out the rankings over at Feats N’ Faults.

Feats N' Faults

FN'F, Star Wars: Maul

Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where our Tiered Point System ranks and records our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. Please check the About Page for a more in-depth look at how points are awarded. Our Tier System is below for quick reference…

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24 days ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Shane Elliott

The Gang Executes Order 66

You guys, 2027 is turning into a banner year for Star Wars fans. Consider:

• January or February (probably) - Ahsoka season 2

• February - 50th Anniversary A New Hope in IMAX

• April - Star Wars Celebration in Los Angeles

• May - Attack of the Clones 25th Anniversary. This is not confirmed or even rumored but I am calling it now.

• May - Star Wars: Starfighter.

That’s just what we know, or in the case of the 25th anniversary of Attack of the Clones, pure speculation and my part. Decent chance we’ll get season 2 of Maul: Shadow Lord and maybe another chapter in the Visions anthology. Who knows what else we could get?

And now, we just got one more fun Star Wars event. Friend of Death Star HR tipped me off to this one. If you’ve been looking for a Star Wars related reason to visit a city most people would describe as a wretched hive of scum and villainy AND in a state with probably the strangest liquor laws east of the Mississippi1, well your time has arrived. Star Wars: The Experience is coming to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, starting February 13, 2027 and going until September 6.

If Philly isn’t your jam, The Experience is going to be doing a five year tour of North America after it leaves the City of Brotherly Love. What do you get to see?

Told through an extraordinary collection of more than 70 artifacts — many of them on view for the first time from Lucasfilm — the exhibit invites you to take a closer look at legendary screen-used pieces including Darth Maul’s lightsaber hilt and Darth Vader’s menacing armor, as well as a selection of fan-favorite aliens, droids, and creatures, including the Mandalorian’s faithful companion Grogu (from Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, in theaters this summer), and the droid duo that started it all, R2-D2 and C-3PO. A celebration of the depth and breadth of storytelling in the galaxy far, far away, the exhibition also includes vehicles like a full-sized speeder bike and original props from Andor, the critically-acclaimed and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Disney+ series.

If you’ve never been to one of these type of exhibitions, they are pretty cool. Way back in the day I convinced Mom Mothma and Darth Dad that we needed a road trip to Toledo, Ohio to see the Magic of Myth exhibit at the Toledo Art Museum. The focus on that was connecting Star Wars and Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” and the hero’s journey. Campbell was a pretty well known influence on Lucas. I still have the book I bought there, and I’m certain I still have the poster as well and the pictures I took somewhere in a closet. I should see if I can find them.

Also, no shade to the city of Toledo, they are the home of the Mud Hens, the AAA team for my beloved Detroit Tigers. But how did they get this exhibit? The other cities on the exhibition tour were Washington DC, San Diego, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Brooklyn, and Sydney. Good on the residents of The Glass City for punching above their weight. Especially you have Detroit and the world-renowned Detroit Institute of Arts just an hour or so up the road.

Second side note, Wookieepedia says the tour was in Toledo from August 2001 to January 2002, when I was in college. But I could have sworn I went when I was in high school. Which then gets to why did I go with my parents? I had a car, the fastest slowest hunk of junk in the galaxy. Who can say?

Back to the exhibit, San Diego Comic Con is in a few weeks, and there will be a panel moderated by Ashley Eckstein discussing setting it up and the lucky people in attendance will get to see the first gallery renderings. I’m hoping we get the full five year schedule so I can quit my job and follow the exhibit around like it’s Phish.

Star Wars Cartoons Get Emmy Nods

The 2026 Emmy Awards nominations came out on July 8th, and while there wasn’t a prestige TV show like Andor to represent the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars still had a few nominations in the animated categories.

This is now two weeks in a row that I get to mention “Black” the final episode from Star Wars: Vision Volume 3. There’s really no good way to describe the episode, I think the phrase I used last week was “a psychedelic meditation on death” and that’s as good of a way to describe it as anything. If you haven’t watched it, you really should. “Black” was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program. It’s up against Bob’s Burgers, Rick & Morty, The Simpsons, Smiling Friends, and South Park.

I am truly both surprised and not surprised that Maul: Shadow Lord didn’t make the Outstanding Animated Program category. It’s one of the best Star Wars animated shows we’ve seen in quite a while. Not to mention it looks absolutely spectacular. But there’s probably still a view that Star Wars cartoons are for kids. The above mentioned “Black” being an exception. But even if Maul: Shadow Lord missed out on a big prize, it still received a nomination for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation. This isn’t limited to just animation so its competition is a little more mixed, going up against A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Murderbot, Predator: Killer Of Killers, and Widow’s Bay2. The specific episode for the nomination was the season finale, where a certain Sith Lord showed up.

There was a certain, “squishy” sound when Rook Kast dies. I mentioned this when I wrote about the finale of Shadow Lord. Vanessa Marshall who voices Rook Kast was given the option of choosing how her character dies. She choose. “getting her lungs ripped out via the Force.” So yeah, kinda squishy.

The Creative Arts Awards part of the Emmys takes place September 5th and 6th, we’ll see if Star Wars can pick up any awards.

Even Yoda is Huge in IMAX

I’m not sure why it took until The Mandalorian and Grogu for me to see a Star Wars movie in IMAX. All of the Disney Star Wars movies were shown in IMAX. Strangely, out of the the Prequels, only Attack of the Clones was shown in IMAX. Again, I’m not sure why it was only Episode II, and I’m not sure why I didn’t see it. It was spring of 2022, I had graduated from college and was figuring out what I was going to do. There was no reason not for me to have seen it. Who can say? But, the IMAX version of Attack of the Clones did have a pretty great poster.

I did see an article that said the IMAX version of the movie didn’t come out until November of 2002. Still, no reason for me not to have seen it. Other than maybe it wasn’t a nation wide release, but rather a select theaters release. Anyway, all that to say, filmmaker V. Trent came across a 70mm print of the Attack of the Clones IMAX trailer. Something that by all accounts shouldn’t even exist anymore.

Trent was further astonished to realize that the print he had acquired was an un-projected theatrical safety print. “Because this reel was an uncut, unprojected backup spare, it completely bypassed the wear, tear, and toil of commercial theater projectors,” Trent said. “The silver halide emulsion is in a completely virgin, factory-fresh state, meaning the digital data and color science captured on these frames are an exact, mathematically perfect match to the master file. Because Lucasfilm strictly mandated the total destruction of these exhibition reels, this virgin safety copy is an incredibly rare archival survivor that practically shouldn’t exist today.”

I understand, to a certain extent why Lucasfilm mandates the destruction of this kind of stuff. I guess. I get they don’t want their property out in the collectors’ market. But there are so many films that were lost to history because the studios just didn’t care or didn’t want to pay for storage space. And maybe there is an print hidden away in a Lucasfilm vault that looks suspiciously like the Emperor’s Throne Room, deep under the ground at Skywalker Ranch.

Trent, realizing what he had on his hands, decided he had to figure out how to preserve the trailer. And the solution was photographing the print, frame by frame.

“I used a completely darkened-out room with only a single bright backlight behind the print and a camera in front,” Trent said. “For about three days, I went frame by frame and captured individual frames of my gorgeous IMAX reel. Even with my naked eye, the resolution of the IMAX DMR printed image was absolutely breathtaking. Every single grain of sand, lightsaber glow, and the details in Yoda’s skin were impeccable.”

I did once meet someone who said they had a regular 35mm print of Star Wars. I even gave him a DSHR card and said email me, I’d love to talk about how you ended up with it. No luck though, never heard from him. Maybe he knows the Lucasfilm ISB is still after him.

Great Moments In Star Wars Merchandising

Long time readers of DSHR know that A) on Halloween I get a lot of trick or treaters at my house and B) I use Halloween as a measuring stick to see where Star Wars is in hearts and minds of the youths. As I wrote about last year, it hasn’t been great.

Last year, out of the roughly 820 kids that came demanding candy, there were 6 Star Wars costumes. Not great. But I have hope for this year. Move over, Mario! So long, Spider Man! All the cool kids this year are going to be rockin’ Spirit Halloween’s Rotta the Hutt costume.

I had seen this posted on various Star Wars Instagram accounts the last few days and honestly thought it was a joke. But no, it’s real. And it’s spectacular.

This Day in Star Wars History

As Death Star HR is in its third year and “This Day in Star Wars History” has been a pretty regular feature. It hasn’t happened very often, but I’ve already covered July 12th back in 2024. It does make things easier because I can just copy and paste. The first 3 were listed in the 2024 DSHR, the last one I added for today.

• Walter Murch was born in 1943. He was an OG Lucas guy who worked on pre-Star Wars films like THX 1138 and the movie that made George a star, American Graffiti. He also directed a single Clone Wars episode, “The General.”

• Second on the list a big name, Ben Burtt. Born in 1948, Burtt is a sound designer and is probably best known the humming sound of the lightsabers and the clashing sound when two lightsaber blades hit each other. He’s also credited with Vader’s breathing, Chewie’s “voice”, and many of the spoken alien languages.

• And on this day in 1979, Omid Abtahi was born. He voiced a Mandalorian cadet in two episodes of The Clone Wars. He also tried to experiment on Grogu, that jerk, as Dr. Pershing in The Mandalorian.

• In 1989, Disney and Lucasfilm exported our greatest American asset, Star Wars. The Star Tours ride at Tokyo Disneyland opened. I was reading through the entry for Star Tours, this might be my favorite part: “As part of the Star Tours experience, upon exiting the StarSpeeder 3000, passengers are led to a store which sells merchandise based on Star Wars and the ride itself. This includes action figures, clothing, etc.” Very on brand.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

This week we’re going back to the Star Wars comics. The movies and the TV shows have to maintain a modicum of decorum. The comics though? That’s where you can really get weird with it. Given how much I love when Star Wars does get weird with it, I should probably read more comics. Because you get very, very important characters like Unidentified Assassin’s Associate. He was, in part:

A red-skinned being worked as an associate of an elite assassin assigned to kill Darth Vader around 19 BBY.

Administrative assistant for an assassin, or the cover of an unreleased Mayhem CD? Appropriate to mention Mayhem since I’m watching the England/Norway match as I type this.

The most metal \m/ character in the Star Wars universe? I think so.

News From the HoloNet

Major piece of ‘Star Wars’ history up for auction for $1 million

Ever wanted to own Luke’s hand?

If Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars Character is a Skywalker, I swear to God…

I am 97% confident this won’t happen.

How to secure Lucas Museum of Narrative Art tickets ahead of the fall opening

Tickets, get your tickets!

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. If you’re one of my American readers, I hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July and that all your fingers are still attached to your hand. Just last week I was lamenting the lack of anything new and that we’re in the dog days of summer. How spoiled are we as Star Wars fans that getting a new show and movie earlier this year along with a new show and movie next year and I’m still saying “but why isn’t there anything new this month?” Well, the Mortis Gods have answered my prayers because we got the trailer for The Ninth Jedi, which comes in a month. Plus, Boba Fett and Anakin Skywalker are hanging out again, and a beach town celebrates its Stormtroopers.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Your occasional reminder that Carrie Fisher was a real one.

Still miss ya, Princess.

The FORCE of July Has Arrived

The boys are back! Friend of Death Star HR over at Feats N’ Faults is running the Force of July in…July. All month long, Shane will be looking at different Star Wars movies or TV shows and running them through the proprietary Feats N’ Faults algorithms (patents pending) to determine just who the highest scorer in the galaxy far, far away is. And DSHR is along for the ride. First up, we talk about The Mandalorian and Grogu.

If you’re not already, make sure you’re subscribed to Feats N’ Faults as it’s a fun read.

Feats N' Faults

FN'F, Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu

Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where our Tiered Point System ranks and records our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. Please check the About Page for a more in-depth look at how points are awarded. Our Tier System is below for quick reference…

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a month ago · 3 likes · Shane Elliott

Ignore Jedis 1-8. The Ninth Jedi is Here

Just as I’ve been saying we’re in a bit of a slow period, we finally got something new. On July 2nd, Star Wars dropped the trailer for The Ninth Jedi.

If you haven’t watched all three seasons of Star Wars: Visions, you’ve been sleeping on one of the more interesting projects Disney has done. Each of the three seasons are a collection of animated shorts. Seasons 1 and 3 featured Japanese animation studios while season 2 opened it up worldwide, including Aardman Studios from the United Kingdom, best known for the Wallace and Gromit series.

The fun with Visions is they are not really constrained by the rules of Star Wars. I often joke that the reason Star Wars has all those potential movies out there is that any screenwriter or director who bumps into Dave Filoni at the grocery store and says they have an idea for a Star Wars movie gets a green light. Then that idea runs into the reality of time, money, and the fact that Star Wars has rules. If you want to do a live-action Star Wars show or movie, the Mouse is going to tell you what you can and can’t do. That isn’t to say writers and directors don’t have creative freedom, I mean we got a Darth Plaguis cameo in The Acolyte, but if you want a Star Wars movie or something, you can say, turn Han Solo to the Dark Side and turn him into a Sith Lord or something like that. But in Visions, you can let your freak flag fly. Remember “Black,” the psychedelic meditation on death from season 3?

That would never happen in an “official” for lack of a better word, Star Wars show. Or maybe there is a better word. That would never happen in a canon Star Wars show. As friend of Death Star HR, writes while discussing The Ninth Jedi trailer:

The other good news is that there’s so much mysterious about this series. Star Wars is rife with filling-in-the-blanks out-of-order storytelling that can strain to create a sense of mystery. We often know where any given character is on timeline, in which era they live, and how much of the galaxy they can really impact with their actions. Colonel Ward may not know what the Imperial Remnant is planning, but we do: The First Order will emerge and eventually decimate the New Republic. The clones in the Clone Wars may not know that they’re fighting for what will eventually be the Empire, but we do: we see the train coming down the tracks before Commando Cody. Anakin Skywalker might not suspect Palpatine is up to something, but we know for certain he’s a villain. That has its own dramatic tension - we get to see how things play out, and sometimes that surprises us (Anakin was a VIRGIN BIRTH?) but mostly we’re along for the ride that’s on rails, confirming theories or dispelling them.

Stories like The Ninth Jedi have the potential to solve that dramatic problem: the thrust us into the unknown. It’s why I’m more excited to watch this than I was the excellent Maul - Shadow Lord. I’ve spent a lot of time with Maul, I’ve seen his birth and I’ve seen his death. Not so much with Kara, whose story remains a Hidden Fortress.

Ahch-To Baby

Nine from Outer Space

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a month ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Matthew Freeman

If you’re a reasonably well-informed Star Wars fan, it’s not that difficult to make a guess about how a new Star Wars show will go just because you know the patterns of Star Wars. Especially when you’re dealing with established characters. Maul was never in any real danger in Shadow Lord because we know he needs to live so he can die in Rebels. I suppose they could have had Darth Vader kill Maul and find another way to bring him back so he’s around for Solo and Rebels. But that seems like a stretch, even by Star Wars standards.

The Ninth Jedi comes out of episodes in seasons 1 and 3. The “hook” as it is, is treating the kyber crystal as “mood rings” as Freeman describes them. I rewatched both episodes of The Ninth Jedi. The scene in the first one when you have a group of what you think are Jedi turn on their lightsabers and the blades are red? Great moment and unexpected. It looks like we’ll see more of this.

As the poster says, The Ninth Jedi premiers on August 5th, 2026. Right before Rebel Scum Con kicks off. All eight-episodes will drop, as opposed to Disney’s usual weekly releases.

The Anakin/Boba Bromance Continues

I wrote about this a little while ago about how Daniel Logan and Jake Lloyd are bros. Jake Lloyd of course was Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace while Daniel Logan played a young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones and voiced him in The Clone Wars and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Lloyd was 9 years old when he filmed The Phantom Menace but basically quit acting in 2001. Over the years he’s struggled with mental health issues and schizophrenia including some well publicized incidents and legal problems. Logan has also talked in the past about his attempts to befriend Lloyd and support him.

“To be able to stick up for my friend, he’s an amazing guy. People will be like, ‘Oh, I walked by him, and he didn’t look happy.’ I think it wasn’t that he wasn’t happy, he’s just afraid a lot of the time. It just put that wall up between him and the fanbase, because of what he went through at a young age. I wish I could’ve been there to say, ‘Hey, we’ll beat them up together! Come on!’ But I wasn’t in the franchise yet.”

“It is hard being a child actor. I’ve been grateful and thankful to Star Wars and Lucasfilm to continue to use me because you have this high at such a young age, and then you’re just dropped, and put back into the world to live your life. Where do you go from having this amazing high to then going to some of the deep dark lows? That’s why I sympathize with Jake a lot. I still love him and I miss him.”

Given how the Prequel kids have grown up and that there has been a re-evaluation of the Prequels in the last 10-15 years, I do hope that Lloyd, if he wants to, rejoins the Star Wars universe. I truly do believe he’d get a warm welcome. But even if he’s not up for it, at least he and Boba Fett are friends.

He also posted a video of himself and Lloyd hanging out. Times are rough out there. A lot of people are just doing whatever they can to get by. So if you have someone in your life that you know is struggling, might not be bad idea to occasionally check on them. Or even if they aren’t struggling, it doesn’t hurt to check in. This is the way.

“Come See Where Cassian Went to Jail!”

I would imagine having your small town or your house used as a filming location is probably a blessing and a curse. I’ve read the people who own the Goonies house in Astoria, Oregon didn’t really like the attention and disruption. Although it does appear there are newer owners who are more on board. While the people who recently bought the Home Alone house in Winnetka, Illinois are renovating it to bring back the 1990’s look. There are whole tours set up in Tunisia where you can visit the filming locations for A New Hope. Or just Star Wars as it was then known.

And now, the English seaside town of Cleveleys has embraced its roll as the planet Niamos in Andor. Per the BBC:

Since the film crews left, the location has become a magnet for fans thanks to Monger and her fellow Blackpool-based fan Neil Trickett.

Trickett, 41, said the pair teamed up on a social media after realising they live near each other and agreed to meet at the filming location in Cleveleys.

He added: “We very quickly put a plan together for some kind of free public event.”

By the time you read this, the event has probably already happened. But make sure you watch for it next year, because you too can recreate getting choked by a KX Security Droid.

There are a few other famous Star Wars locations that if you spend enough time on Star Wars social media, you’ll see people traveling too. Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy is a pretty common one you see. The location for Padme’s country house and where she and Anakin got married, you can visit if you’re in the area. Just make sure you perfect your sand monologue first.

This Day in Star Wars History

Couple births, a death, and a bunch of trailers to talk about for July 5th in the Star Wars universe.

• Actor William Hootkins was born 1948 in my city of Dallas, Texas. Hootkins played Jek Porkins, pilot of Red Six in A New Hope and had a pretty lenghty career as a character actor. He appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tim Burton’s Batman, and A River Runs Through It. Hootkins was also (I would assume) the only person in Star Wars with a connection to the JFK assassination. A 15 year old Hootkins was interviewed by the FBI due to his teacher, Ruth Paine, being the landlord for Marina Oswald and her kids. Hootkins also went to school with Tommy Lee Jones and was fluent at Mandarin Chinese.

• Digital effects artist Pablo Helman was born in 1959. Working for ILM, Helman was a digital effects artist on The Phantom Menace and a visual effects supervisor on Attack of the Clones. He also worked on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Wicked.

• Actor Claude Woolman died in 1989 in Los Angeles. Woolman only had one roll in the Star Wars universe, the Imperial Officer on the wallscreen in The Star Wars Holiday Special. I’m guessing he was cast because they could get him to look enough like Grand Moff Tarkin people might think it was Peter Cushing.

  

• For reasons I’m not entire sure of, Star Wars released the trailers for Episodes I, III, IV, V, and VI on YouTube today in 2012. Why didn’t they also reason the trailer for Attack of the Clones at the same time? No idea. I did at least check the ROTS trailer to confirm that it was released today in 2012.

• Since I posted a DSHR podcast with Shane Elliott, it’s only appropriate that the “Nubs Gardens” episode of Star Wars: Fun With Nubs was dropped on YouTube in 2024. Oh Nubs, you rascal.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

This week, the Wookieepedia randomizer turned up an entry from our galaxy, the New London Children’s Choir.

The New London Children's Choir is the children's choir that performed during the score for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. They were featured during the parade scene at the end of the movie.

I’m not actually sure where they are in the Episode I score. Increasingly unreliable search results say they were actually part of the choir for “Duel of the Fates.” I know the London Voices were on the track. I supposes it’s not unreasonable to think the Children’s Choir were as well.

News From the HoloNet

Lego reveals new massive set that ‘Star Wars’ fans will love

He’s no good to me…built?

Celebrity Guests Confirmed for Star Wars Celebration Los Angeles 2027 - Update

Look for me getting kicked out after demanding Ahmed Best come clean about Darth Jar Jar.

Anakin and Padmé’s awkward love story is the best part of the Star Wars prequels

I don’t know if it’s the best part…but it’s not as bad as you think it is.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Good evening or good morning or whenever you read this and welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. As I said last week, we’re in a bit of a lull here. Not just because summer on Tatooine in Texas has officially arrived and really, it’s too hot to do anything but stay inside and watch soccer. But, we will solider on. This week, the Death Star HR podcast returns, a little bit about Star Wars: Starfighter turns into extended commentary on the state of movie going and the economy, and a comedy legend has a birthday.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Carpenter. Actor. Dealer. Harrison Ford contains multitudes.

Makes you wonder what he was carrying for Jabba when the Imperials boarded him. Just a reminder folks, never consent to a search. Doesn’t matter what galaxy you’re in.

Community and Karaoke: DSHR Podcast Return

The Death Star Human Resources Department Podcast returns. This week I’m talking with Spencer Jawitz from the Virtual Cantina Network.

We talk about that Star Wars is meant be seen on the big screen, building a Star Wars community, what you can except if you visit a VCN Boonta Eve party, and Star Wars karaoke. Spencer is a good dude and I love that he’s on the same page as DSHR, he wants to put together a community of like-minded, positive Star Wars fans. So make sure you watch the interview and make sure you’re following the Virtual Cantina Network.

Starfighter Has (Allegedly) Taken Off

Even though we’re less than a year out for the next movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, we still don’t know a whole lot about it. I posted some (rumored) spoilers a couple weeks ago. And they really weren’t really that much in the way of spoilers. If you’ve watched any Star Wars in the last 10 years, you could probably make some educated guesses as to what the movie is going to be about. Younger kid. Older adult acting as a father figure. Some bad guys trying track down the kid. We’ve seen Rebels. We’ve seen The Mandalorian and Grogu. Star Wars in its current iteration does love a found family.

As of now, some footage has been screened. No leaks as far as I can tell. I even (gasp) visited Reddit to see if anything made its way onto the serious of tubes, but no such luck. As Deadline reported in an exclusive:

During Disney’s CineEurope presentation today, we hear they presented footage and first looks of upcoming titles, including from: Avengers: Doomsday, Gatto, Hexed, Ice Age: Boiling Point, Moana, Star Wars: Starfighter, The Dog Stars and Whalefall.

I checked a couple of Star Wars news sites as well, but haven’t even been able to find a description of what Disney screened. However, if Disney has at least enough finished footage for a teaser, it seems likely we the salivating fans will get to see it soon. The Disney D23 investor conference is in August, and is usually a time that Disney will announce upcoming projects. By comparison, the first teaser and poster for The Mandalorian and Grogu was released released September 22nd, 2025. This was slightly after the 2025 D23, but again, if there’s already a teaser cut, it makes a lot of sense to screen it at D23.

The big selling point of Disney’s CineEurope presentation was Infinity Vision. Not another Marvel movie, but instead a new certification. It seems that it’s going to be somewhere in between a regular movie screen and an IMAX.

In order for an exhibitor’s screen to receive the Infinity Vision branding, they have to meet the following standards: the screen needs to be a minimum of 45′ wide, have an Immersive sound system like Dolby Atmos or 7.1. Brightness levels need to reach either 14 footlamberts in 2D and/or 6 footlamberts in 3D.

“As interest in enhanced theater amenities continues to grow, there is a meaningful opportunity for our collective industry to simplify how we communicate and promote the range of premium large format (PLF) experiences that are available to consumers. We commend Disney for taking an important first step toward advancing this objective and look forward to collaborating with them and our broader industry partners to align on a unifying PLF brand and set of standards.,” said Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble.

So far movie theaters, at least in the USA, are experiencing their best year since 2019 and finally seem to be rebounding after the COVID years. Of that that is you have a couple of huge independent movies in Backrooms and Obsession. There was a little film called The Mandalorian and Grogu. Toy Story 5 has been a hit. And there’s Avengers: Doomsday coming out later this year. There’s also ticket prices that are outpacing inflation. The Wall Street Journal had an article a couple months ago simply titled “The $50 Movie Ticket Has Arrived.”

Eye-popping prices for the most in-demand movies on the best screens are becoming increasingly common as the cinema industry copies the audience-segmentation playbooks of airlines and hotels. Theaters are getting people who love movies and have discretionary income to pay substantially more.

Some 17% of film tickets sold last year were for premium format theaters with bigger screens and better sound, compared with 13% in 2021. They cost an average of $18 nationally, according to research firm EntTelligence, and as much as $30 in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.

Like everything else in the current state of America, it’s a limited pool of people willing to spend money propping things up while everyone else figures out how to pay the bills each money.

It was $48.02 for Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan and I to see The Mandalorian and Grogu in IMAX. And that was even getting a little bit of a discount for going to an afternoon matinee. If we had gone to an evening showing, it would have been over $50. And that doesn’t even take into account getting any concessions. For a family with a couple of kids, you’d easily be looking at $100 or so for an outing. At some people, actually not at some point - that point is here, people are going to ask “is it worth spending $100 or more when I can just wait a few months and stream it?”

In classic Death Star HR fashion, I’ve one from talking about Starfighter to opining on how inflation has outpaced wages. This is why you read, right? This is also what happens when like I’ve mentioned, we’re sort of in a Star Wars lull. So, hopefully we get that Starfighter trailer in August so I have something to write about.

The 2,000 Year Old Man Turns 100

Confession time. I’ve never actually seen Mel Brooks’ 2,000 Year Old Man bit. All I actually know of it is from The Simpsons.

Happy birthday to President Skroob himself. Mel Brooks turns 100 today. I don’t think it would be possible to quantify Brooks’ effect on movies and comedy. In the galaxy far, far away he’s best known as President Skroob and Yogurt. I can still remember seeing Spaceballs in the theater at 7 years old. I can tell you which movie theater I was at and who I was with. I actually saw Spaceballs on the big screen before I ever saw Star wars on the big screen.

When the trailer for Spaceballs 2: The New One came out, I commented that Brooks looks pretty good for his age, but I really had hoped they shot his parts first. Thankfully, shooting wrapped in December.

On Facebook, Gad confirmed that Spaceballs 2 has wrapped filming after going into production in September. He makes reference to the first film and to the quick turnaround, saying "It really was Ludicrous speed" as he reflects on the creative process and this important milestone.

Spaceballs 2 comes out April 23, 2027. I wonder if Brooks and Josh Gad who spearheaded getting this off the ground and getting Brooks on board planned it to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Star Wars or if was just a happy coincidence. Either way, it’s going to be a nice little comedy break in between the re-release of Star Wars in February and Starfighter which comes out in May.

This Day in Star Wars History

Quite a bit to cover on June 28th in the Star Wars galaxy. A bunch of birthdays, the debut of a beloved character, and there’s Ewoks!

• Radio dramatist and voice actor Erik Bauersfeld was born in 1922. Bauersfeld did the voices for Bib Fortuna and Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi. Bauersfeld, in a 2011 interview said that he hadn’t watched Return of the Jedi since 1983 and was "flattered but a bit perplexed" about all the continuing attention received for playing the Mon Calamari Admiral.

• Sound editor and composer Ken Wannberg was born in 1930. Wannberg was the supervising music editor on all six movies of the Original Trilogy and the Prequels. He also won an Emmy for sound editing on Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories series.

• Actor Rio Hackford was born in 1970. Hackford was probably best known for his role in the David Simon produced Treme, about post-Katrina New Orleans1. In the Star Wars galaxy, he played random bounty hunter Riot Mar in a season 1 episode of The Mandalorian and also did the motion-capture work for IG-11 in season 1 as well.

• In 1978, Star Wars got its first glimpse of Boba Fett. The all-white concept for the galaxy’d most famous bounty hunter was unveiled in a test screening for Lucasfilm. Wookieepedia says it was a 20 minute screening. Star Wars posted a clip on their official YouTube page a while back.

• The children’s book The Baby Ewoks’ Picnic Surprise was published in 1984. From reading the plot summary, I learned that baby Ewoks are called “woklings.” I have not read the book, but I’m hoping the picnic surprise is the book confirming the long-standing rumor that Ewoks are cannibals and roast Stormtrooper is on the menu.

  

• Actor and the best character in Skeleton Crew, Robert Timothy Smith was born in 2011. Smith played Neel, the blue elephant looking kid who just wanted to go home. As an indoor cat, I could relate to Neel.

• Canon novel Shadow of the Sith, by Adam Christopher was published as a regular book and audiobook in 2022. The book is one of the lead-ups to the Sequel Trilogy and has Luke having visions of the Dark Side on Exegol and Lando looking for his missing daughter. I understand this is Star Wars, there’s always world building and universe expanding going on. But I’ve made the comment in the past that a cynical take is there’s a good chunk of Disney’s post-Rise of Skywalker output that exists solely to justify the less popular choices from the Sequel Trilogy. Now, that is not to knock this book, it’s actually a good one.

• If you ever wondered how Jack Black and Lizzo ended up in The Mandalorian, you can just watch Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: The Making of Season 3 was released on this day in 2023.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

You guys know my favorite topic is Star Wars food. And this week, we’ve got Blue Bespin breakfast bars. And in case you were wondering, yes, they are canon.

Blue Bespin breakfast bars were a type of breakfast food. The light freighter Millennium Falcon held blue Bespin breakfast bars in its refrigerator unit on at least one occasion; the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka found them alongside blue bantha buttermilk biscuits and blue puff cubes, leading him to wonder if all the foods on the ship were blue.

The blue bars come from the junior novel Pirate’s Price which is told from Hondo Ohnaka’s point of view. Which, I love Hondo. He really is one of my favorite characters because he’s so much fun. But he’s probably not someone who should be telling stories for kids.

News From the HoloNet

DC reaches settlement with man who played ‘Star Wars’ music at troops

“The Imperial March” is in fact covered by the First Amendment.

Star Wars Eclipse “literally cannot be finished” without more staff, insist striking Quantic Dream developers

I keep forgetting that Star Wars: Eclipse is a thing. When was in announced? It seems like it was forever ago.

I Crashed, Burned, and Loved Every Second of Star Wars: Galactic Racer

This is (allegedly) gameplay footage of Galactic Racer. It looks fun.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back once again to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Things are running a bit slow here, as the World Cup has been occupying most of my time. I am by no means a big soccer fan but I love the World Cup and seeing the all the fans and especially the non-powerhouse countries that rise to the occasion. As I’m typing this Egypt just beat New Zealand and it’s Egypt’s first win at the World Cup, ever. The team and their fans are celebrating like they won it all. It’s fantastic. And you’re getting DSHR late Sunday because I went out to an Argentina fan rally in town. Did I understand any of their chants? Absolute not, but you couldn’t beat the energy.

Anyway, this week I get to combine one of my all time favorite Simpsons episodes with Star Wars, contemplate Star Wars dads, and check in on what George Lucas is up to these days.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

One of my all-time favorite episodes of The Simpsons is “Homer’s Enemy.’ Arguably one of the most meta and darkest episodes in the Classic Simpsons era; the TL;DR of the episode is that Frank Grimes1, a new employee at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who has struggled his whole life, is shocked and appalled with how easy Homer goes through life and how everyone in Springfield just accepts that he’s a buffoon but nobody does anything about it. The climax of the episode is when Grimey snaps and runs through the power plant doing his best Homer Simpson impression, only to have it end in tragedy.

Written by legendary Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder2, it’s actually a fairly controversial episode among Simpsons fans. There are some who think it’s too dark or too mean to Homer. It’s also worth noting it’s not as black3 and white4 as Grimes thinks it is. While yes, Homer is a dummy with a charmed life, he also makes a genuine effort to befriend Grimes. But Grimes is too caught up in his self-righteous indignation towards Homer to reciprocate. Anyway, all that to say A) I love “Homer’s Enemy5” and couldn’t resist when I saw this.

I actually think Yoda’s expression works pretty well with Smithers’ body language.

The Suggestion Box Is Open

It feels like we’re in a bit of a Star Wars lull right now. Maul: Shadow Lord wrapped up. The Mandalorian and Grogu has been in the theaters for a month now. We’re not getting Ahsoka season 2 or Starfighter until next year. The hype train for the 50th anniversary hasn’t really started yet. I threw this out in the Substack chat but will put it here. Is there anything you’ve been wishing I would write about it? If so, leave a comment. I can’t promise I’ll get to it, but I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve had a few suggestions and I have a few ideas of things I’ve wanted to write about. But I’m always open to ideas.

The Official Star Wars Dads Ranking

If you are one of my readers based in the United States, you know that today is Father’s Dad. Already called Darth Dad, so I’m good there. Star Wars is ultimately a show about your family. Both your blood relatives and your found family. And it does a good job often depicting family as it really is. Fraught, messy, and cutting your son’s hand off. But it also shows some of the best parts of family. So with that, let’s get to the ranking.

7 - Cassian Andor. Not enough data. But I bet Cassian would have been a good dad.

6 - Sheev Palpatine. Bad dad, no two ways about it. While he was a decent father figure to Anakin Skywalker, it was less out of Ol’ Palpy being a good guy and more about grooming an emotionally unstable Jedi to become the eventual Dark Lord of the Sith. He also referred to his own “son6” as a “useless creature.” He did show an interest in his granddaughter. But again, it wasn’t a healthy interest.

5 - Darth Vader. Less of a bad dad than his father figure, Palpatine. But right up until the end when Anakin Skywalker returns, he’s largely been an absent father. And that’s honestly his best trait. Given that he essentially killed Padme, stood by when Grand Moff Tarkin blew up this daughter’s adopted home planet, and cut his son’s hand off; he should have stayed as an absentee dad.

4 - Han Solo. His heart is in the right place, but his results seem questionable. Are there any canon books that cover Han’s adventures from Return of the Jedi up to The Force Awakens? Because when old Han shows up, he’s separated from his wife, his kid has fallen to the Dark Side and clearly doesn’t like him. Sure, Han still has Chewbacca. But it’s certainly implied Han wasn’t a very good father.

3 - Luthen Rael. He’s not Kleya Marki’s stepdad, but he is the dad who stepped up and trained his adopted daughter in all forms of guerrilla warfare.

2 - Uncle Owen. Not actually Luke’s dad, but we’re being a little loosey goosey with who gets to be a dad in the Star Wars universe. Perhaps a little gruffer than he needs to be. But Uncle Owen does have a heart of gold underneath. Sure, he’s crushing Luke’s dreams but keeping him around for the harvest and not letting him go to the Academy. But harvest is when he’s needed the most. It is funny to think that canon has established that Vader and his identity during the Empire is a big secret. Yet Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru know that Luke is too much like his father.

1 - Din Djarin. The best dad in Star Wars? Is that really even up for debate? He saved Grogu from the Imperials, adopted him into the Mandalorians, is teaching him a useful trade, and always makes sure that he wears his seatbelt and has enough to eat. It might be a bit of a low bar in the Star Wars galaxy, but Mando is the best.

So Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, in our galaxy and in the one far, far away.

Disney (Allegedly) Now Has a Plan

If there is a longstanding criticism of Disney’s ownership of Star Wars, it’s that the Mouse doesn’t have a plan. That Disney had no vision for the Sequel Trilogy, that they are too reactive and let that guide their decision making. That they announce projects that go nowhere. And that they can’t decide to they want Star Wars to be something you see in the movies or a streamer. All those are both fair and unfair. And because my day job is being a lawyer and I’m trained to argue any point while not actually believing in anything, I offer a point and counterpoint to my criticism.

• I wholeheartedly believe the Sequel Trilogy would have better been served by one director and letting that person implement their vision. The differences in tone between The Last Jedi versus The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker are striking. But, Disney seems to have learned from this since Simon Kinberg is writing the next trilogy, which may or may not be Episodes X, XI, and XII. And changes have always happened in Star Wars between the movies. Vader wasn’t Luke’s dad in the first movie, Jar Jar went from a lot of screen time in Episode I to essentially a minor character in Episodes II and III. Star Wars has always adjusted between movies.

• Disney does seem to be too reactive at time. By that I mean something negative happens and they over-correct. Just last week I reiterated the theory that after some of the more toxic elements of the “fan”base got very loud on the internet about The Last Jedi, Disney went running to J.J. and said “recapture that Force Awakens magic.” Same with standalone movies essentially stopping with Solo. Or the quick cancelation of The Acolyte. But on the other hand, a lot of these are money related. Sure the loud and shouty part of the fanbase likes to think they got The Acolyte cancelled, but was it some angry YouTube videos or was it The Acolyte was an expensive show?

• There is certainly a perception among Star Wars fans that Disney just announces projects and then just lets them die. I think there’s two things here. When it comes to streaming shows, Disney actually has a pretty good track record of getting things to the small screen. Better than you think. It’s probably a little different with movies. It kinda seemed like anyone in Hollywood who met Filoni at an industry event or the grocery store or in the bathroom could just say “I’ve got a Star Wars movie in mind” and the result was it would get announced. I can’t say that if I was Dave Filoni, I wouldn’t do the same thing.

• Also a fair criticism. We’ve gone from movies to streaming and now seemingly back to movies. I get why Disney pivoted to streaming. Everyone else was. Then we had COVID followed by both WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023. It’s probably impossible to quantify how those events affected production. It still is a bit of a strange choice by Disney to go 7 years without a movie, after getting 1 a year for 5 years. We were going through the great unbundling of streaming, from basically Netflix and Hulu to the streaming mess that we have today. If I had to make a semi-educated guess, Disney wanted to let a few years pass after the Sequel Trilogy until bringing Star Wars back to the theaters, but the strikes and whatnot screwed that plan up.

And even now, there isn’t much known on the horizon for live action. Ahsoka season 2 and Starfighter are next year. Everything else is up in the air. However, there is a leaked document that ALLEGEDLY has the Mouse House’s plans for just how much live action Star Wars we’re going to get.

Reputable Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider has published mandates from Disney for Lucasfilm have been published in his latest newsletter. The journalist was provided with a 19-page document that outlines the house of mouse’s intentions for Lucasfilm and Star Wars. We’ll be taking a look at all of the relevant parts of the newsletter in regards to a galaxy far, far away.

The actual newsletter linked above is behind a paywall, so I’m just reading and reacting to Bespin Bulletin’s reading and reacting to it.

The main takeaway is that (again this is allegedly), Disney wants 1 movie and 2 live-action shows a year.

I’ll be honest, that much Star Wars causes me to take this with a grain of salt.

First off, let’s say just for the sake of argument, this plan is to go into effect in 2028. To hit a Memorial Day release for a new Star Wars movie in 2028, said movie needs to basically be filming right now. Or at the very least, needs to be written and ready to go. It takes 18 - 24 months for a Star Wars movie to get from filming to the theater. There are no Star Wars movies filming and as far as I’ve read, there aren’t any even close. TV shows can be done a little quicker, but again there are no known live action Star Wars projects even close to ready.

There were 3 years7, 2022 - 2024 where we had two live action Star Wars shows a year. 2022 had Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi, 2023 had The Mandalorian season 3 and Ahoska, and 2024 had The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. 2025 just had Andor, and we aren’t going to have a live action show this year. And you’re asking me to believe that Disney is just going to turn the live action show spigot back on and we’re going to get two a year?

That’s not even getting into the cost. Picking the latest Disney projects, we’re talking some real, even a couple of them are comparably cheaper. The Mandalorian and Grogu had a budget of $165 million, The Acolyte was $230 million, and Skeleton Crew was $136 million. I am skipping season 2 of Andor as an outlier because A) it was very expensive and B) we’ll never see another show like it again. But with the 3 shows I mentioned, you’re looking at $630 million or so, every year. Just a few months ago Disney went through a round of layoffs due to cost cutting mandates. Are they really going to open the money valve for Star Wars? I am skeptical.

I also have thoughts about what’s the appropriate amount of Star Wars we should get, but that is going to be a separate piece.

One other bit from the article I did want to touch on:

With Lucasfilm now being co-run by Dave Filoni, any project is said to have to fit under his storytelling framework. The direction is for all of the Disney+ live action shows to continue to be set within the New Republic era. Even if the time period remains the same, there is some experimentation to be had in terms of genre, tone etc. Animation will still continue be made much like it has been alongside the live action media. The target is to have two series a year.

Emphasis added by me. Assuming this is true, I think this would be a mistake. It’s a big galaxy and there’s lot of time frames. If Disney is going to do two shows a year solely in the roughly 30 years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, I think people are going to get bored.

Overall, it’s interesting to think about just how much Star Wars we could get and what stories we might see in live action, but I am going to take this with a Hutt-sized grain of salt here.

The Dead Uncle George Speaks!

Being George Lucas must be a pretty good gig. You have more money than you could ever need, an extremely accomplished wife with an ownership stake in a NFL team, an army of nerds at your disposal who would fight and die for you, and a flannel shirt for every occasion. Not too shabby. But what do you get the man who has everything? Apparently a speaking role in the new Minions movie. Did you know George is a huge fan of the Minions? I did not.

“I had this privilege of meeting George about two years ago,” [Illumination founder Chris] Meledandri said, “and what led to my meeting him is how much he loves Illumination movies, and specifically Despicable Me, and even more specifically, the Minions. It was such a thrill to learn that and then to share it with the team, because obviously he’s among a very small group of people who the entire studio shares a level of respect for that is just off the charts.”

George being into Minions doesn’t really surprise me. This is the man of Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks. George has always said that like Wu-Tang, Star Wars is for the children. Yes, Lucasfilm and then Disney know that the money is made with middle-age fans who can drop the cash for a few days at a Disney Park and $599.99 LEGO sets. But ultimately George made a movie for kids. The Minions may have been taken over by Facebook Aunts making memes, but at their heart, the Minions franchise are also kids movies. It’s not surprising that George would enjoy them.

“An idea for a character came up out of the story,” Meledandri said, “and so I said to Pierre [Coffin], who co-wrote the movie with Brian Lynch, and Bill Ryan, who produces with me on the film, and I just said, ‘Well, what if we could get George?’ And they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I had no idea, but I got such a fast yes.”

In fact, there’s even an argument that Ewoks and Minions, while not existing in the same cinematic universes, are at least cousins. And not just because they’re cute little marketing opportunities characters.

Like the Minions, Ewoks in Star Wars are cute, feisty, and speak their own made-up language. But did you know that Minionese and Ewokese are sort of like cousins? Ewokese was based on the general sound of Central Asian Kalmyk language (plus a bit of African and South Pacific languages). According to the endangered languages site 7000.org, Kalmyk belongs to the western group of the central Mongolic languages spoken in Mongolia and the Xinjiang region of China. Remembering that some of the Minions' words are Chinese-inspired, there's a relationship here. So, you would be forgiven for hearing similar sounds or even vocabulary in the two languages as they do appear.

My guess is that even if George is busy with getting his museum open, he still has the time to record some lines. Heck, he probably had the time to voice a main character if he they asked him. And you know what, I certainly don’t blame him. As someone who loved making movies for kids, I’m sure the chance to do a voice in a kids movie was something he couldn’t pass up.

This Day in Star Wars History

There’s a decent chance that June 21st is the slowest day in Star Wars history that I’ve covered. There are plenty of comics if you’re interested, but as I’ve said before, those usually don’t get mentioned unless it’s a first issue of a series or something like that.

• Comic book author Steve Niles was born in 1965. Niles wrote “Planet of the Dead” for Star Wars Tales 17. Niles best known work is probably 30 Days of Night, a miniseries about vampires in Barrow8, Alaska, which was made into a movie staring Josh Hartnett. He also formed a joint productions company with Rob Zombie.

• June 21, 2011 was supposed to be the publishing date of Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition. It wasn’t actually published until September 6, 2011. Rumor was Grand Admiral Thrawn held up the publishing because insisted on using a late-period painting from controversial Naboo artist Casemiro Danilo9 as the cover art while Lucasfilm just wanted the Imperial symbol.

• Readers of DSHR know that both myself, and friend of Death Star HR have a pro-Nubs agenda. I’m just going to say that maybe if Nubs had returned instead of Palpatine, Rise of Skywalker would be remembered differently. But at least in 2024 on this day, Disney dropped “Nubs Tries to Meditate.” Which as everyone knows is the fifth episode if the Fun With Nubs web series.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

You guys all know that Star Wars food is one of my favorite topics for FTDOW, but I might be changing my mind after coming across Cream of Womprat (Legends).

Cream of womprat was a popular soup flavor on Tatooine.

Thankfully there is not a description of what it tastes like. The soup was an easter egg from the Decipher CCG.

Someone at Disney even liked the idea of cream of womprat soup so much, that they’ve bought it into canon. Just let that sink in. Cream of womprat soup is canon. Mara Jade isn’t. There’s no justice.

News From the HoloNet

George Lucas planned a Star Wars television series starring Emperor Palpatine, but it never happened

The West Wing but make it Star Wars? Yes please. Although honestly it would probably be more like House of Cards instead of The West Wing.

An ultra-rare Star Wars Lego collection went missing - it’s sparked viral conspiracies

Going to write more about this next week. It’s a wild story. Crazy it’s made it across the pond and the BBC has picked it up.

Peter Serafinowicz Critiques George Lucas for Low Pay and Calls ‘Star Wars’ a Disappointment

I guess if I was prominently featured on the poster and then got cut in half, I’d be mad too.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to a very special edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s my birthday! No, not me as in Jeff the writer of this thing. But today is the third anniversary of DSHR. So I wrote something from the heart.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

I have no allegiance to either the San Antonio Spurs or the New York Knicks, but the Knicks comeback in Game 4 was one for the ages. Unfortunately I went to bed after the third quarter because I assumed the game was over. So did Grand Moff Tarkin.

How do you say “Knicks in 5” in Aurebesh?

This Is Where The Fun Begins, Pt 2

Sticking with sports, Uncle George and his wife, Mellody Hobson were at SoFi Stadium, or as it has been renamed for the World Cup, Los Angeles Stadium, for the USA vs Paraguay match

Fun fact for those of you like me, who know nothing about soccer - or “football” as the rest of the world calls it - but enjoy the passion and the spectacle of the World Cup. Team USA left-back Antonee Robinson is a huge Star Wars fan and his nickname is “Jedi”.

1,096 Days at the Death Star Human Resources Department

Yes, it’s 1,096 days. I didn’t forget to count the leap year.

You know me, any excuse to post a 30 Rock gif.

I didn’t plan this, but it just happened to work out. The Force works in mysterious ways. Today is the third year anniversary of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter.

[hold for applause]

I know I’ve said this before, but when I started DSHR, I honestly had no idea if anyone would read it other than the friends and family that I essentially forced at blaster point to sign up. I also had no idea that I’d still be at it 3 years later. I’m pretty good about sticking with hobbies where I have to make an investment with my money, see my record collection that’s slowly taking over my office or the pricey pickleball paddle I bought the other day. DSHR doesn’t take up too much of my money, just my time. Sure, I bought a new MacBook but that was more I really did need a new laptop and it was just a convenient excuse. But now, three years later there’s all of you who read and subscribe and banter with me in the comments. There’s there Instagram page which has been growing. There’s the podcast which I should put more time into and promise I will, pinky swear.

DSHR started because I needed something to do with my time. I was bored, nothing to do1. Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan suggested I work on my writing. And for a while, I worked on a novel and worked on an outline of a screenplay. Honestly I should finish at least one of them just to prove to myself that I can do it. I enjoyed working on them, but the problem is I have terminal Internet Brain and can’t function without an immediate dopamine hit, which trying to write a novel doesn’t provide. It’s instant gratification or why bother. So I channeled that boredom into starting the internet’s #1 Darth Jar Jar newsletter. I decided that once a week, I’d unleash a newsletter with grammatically-questionable Star Wars #HOTTAKES on the world. If you weren’t a Day 1 DSHR OG, you can read the first newsletter here. It still contains one of my favorite things that I’ve written, my idea for a Star Wars/What We Do In The Shadows crossover. Filoni and Waititi, call me. We can make this happen.

From the opening paragraph:

And welcome to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter aka Death Star HR. You may be asking yourself, “where does this guy get off thinking the world needs even more Star Wars content?” Not an unfair question. And my only answer can be to channel my inner Disney executive and say “more is better.” A 12 pack is better than a six-pack, right? So it might be one more voice yelling into the vast internet void about droids and kyber crystals, but it’s gonna be my voice. A voice of Gen-X detached irony and questionable grammar skills. So please, subscribe and enjoy. The goal is weekly newsletters and to hate on The Rise of Skywalker every chance I get.

I really do think I sent the tone early and have kept with it. Readers will note that I really don’t dunk on The Rise of Skywalker anymore. There’s a few reasons for that. I would not say my views on the movie have really changed that much, I still think it’s the product of corporate group think where Disney got scared after the 1 - 2 punch of angry internet fans yelling about how The Last Jedi ruined their childhood and the poor2 box office returns from Solo so they went running to J.J. Abrams with bags of cash saying “make people like us again!” But, time heals all wounds. Since 2019 we’ve had some amazing Star Wars projects come out like Andor, Maul: Shadow Lord, and The Mandalorian. We had a fun summer popcorn movie with The Mandalorian and Grogu. There’s so much Star Wars that’s come out in the last 6 years that I love, why dwell on something that isn’t my favorite.

And the last time I watched it, I came away thinking “well, it’s not as bad as I remember it.” There’s some pretty cool parts. Star Wars is like pizza. Even if it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. I’m even including The Holiday Special here. I’d highlight the duel between Rey and Kylo on the ruins of the Death Star as a favorite scene. I would expect that like the Prequels, in another 10 years we’ll see a critical re-evaluation of the Sequel Trilogy. It’s only natural to look at the past through rose colored glasses. Also, if Disney wanted to jump-start rehabilitating the Sequel Trilogy, they could green light The Hunt For Ben Solo. Just saying.

There’s no point in re-litigating the Sequel Trilogy. It is what it is. There’s quite frankly too much negativity in the Star Wars fanbase and that’s not something I want at DSHR. Sure, I think it’s a small number of disproportionately loud “fans” some of who actually mean what they say but more of them are just doing some form of performative outrage for clicks. If I can once again quote myself from when I was writing about The Acolyte:3

If I uploaded a video that said “The Acolyte is pretty good but I wish these things were a little different” it probably wouldn’t get much traction. If I uploaded a video that was titled “KATHLEEN KENNEDY AND THE WOKEALYTE CAUSED MY WIFE TO LEAVE ME FOR A COVEN OF LESBIAN WITCHES” with a thumbnail of me doing YouTube Face, I probably could have gone viral. And that’s always the end goal.

Whenever you see outrage merchants, and it doesn’t matter what they’re outraged about, you should always asking yourself WHY they’re outraged and how maybe they’re trying to capitalize on it. Media literacy is important.

The other related reason I stopped saying mean things about The Rise of Skywalker is quite simply, I don’t want the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter to be one of those overly negative Star Wars media outlets. There’s plenty of those out there, and if that’s your jam and you want to complain about Luke throwing away his lightsaber or Mae and Osha having a virgin birth, there are plenty of subreddits, YouTube channels, and Twitter accounts where you can type or rant about how horrible Kathleen Kennedy is until your heart is content.

Here at DSHR, I want it to be a positive experience. There’s saying around the internet, “nobody hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans.” That’s not what I’m going for. This is supposed to be a place that celebrates what’s fun and weird and silly and strange about Star Wars. I’m not saying that if there’s something I don’t like, I’m not going to say something. But why dwell on the negative? There’s plenty of that in the world right now, I don’t need to add to it. Things are bad out there. I want DSHR to be a place where people can have a discussion and even a debate about Star Wars, but we’re doing it from a place of love. And I think that’s what goes on here. At least I hope it is.

I have said this before whenever I’ve gotten a little meta and talked about DSHR, but I truly appreciate every single person who reads and subscribes and comments and banters with me on here. This newsletter wouldn’t work without all of you. It’s been a great three years, here’s to at least three more.

Star Wars: Starfighter Spoilers Have Leaked

The most unimaginatively named Star Wars movie since Solo is due to hit the theaters in under a year. That doesn’t seem right. I think between Maul: Shadow Lord being WAY better than anyone expected, all the buildup for The Mandalorian and Grogu, and looking to the horizon for the 50th Anniversary version of A New Hope next February, it’s easy to for Starfighter to stay a little under the radar. Really nothing has been know about the movie other than the cast and the barest of details, it will be another “older person who probably doesn’t want the job has to protect a younger person from some bad guys” plot. Oh yeah, and Tom Cruise directed a lightsaber duel. I’m not making that up.

Doom scrolling Instagram today, I came across a post claiming that spoilers had leaked. Since it’s always hit or miss if embedding an Instagram post on Substack will work, it’s just easier to take screenshots. Just a warning, if you’re avoiding spoilers, scroll down really quickly.

I have zero way of verifying this. The post doesn’t say a source or even if they’re the originator of the info or they’re just reposting something they read. A lot of it does check out with things that were already known or previously rumored. There was internet chatter for a while that Amy Adams would be playing Mara Jade or a Mara Jade-like character. Obviously the latter was not going to happen with Lucasfilm’s irrational vendetta against Ms. Jade. It was already known that Mia Goth4 and Matt Smith were both playing bad guys. There was obviously going to be some kind of Jedi and/or Force user involvement since, as I stated above, Jerry McGuire directed a lightsaber duel.

I am not 100% positive about this but I am pretty sure I read that Starfighter will not feature any legacy characters or little cameos. The last time Star Wars tried this was…well…never. Maybe Rogue One is the closest, but even then Grand Moff Tarkin had a pretty important role. Darth Vader and Princess Leia less so. Plus Mon Mothma was there. Poor Genevieve O'Reilly, because of some Lucasfilm choices back in the 80’s, she gets stuck with Mon’s pretty bad haircut.

It’s hyperbole to say Starfighter is the most important Star Wars project post-Rise of Skywalker, but there might be a little truth. Will the fanbase let Star Wars move on from the Skywalker and tell new stories? It’s a huge galaxy, we can focus on more than one family.

This Day in Star Wars History

This is the second time that June 14th has popped up on TDISWH. The last time was in 2024 and I mentioned that June 14th is the birthday for Burl Ives and Steven Sansweet. It must have been the last thing I wrote for the June 14, 2024 DSHR because there were a few other things I could have mentioned.

• British actor Jeremy Sinden was born in 1950. Son of actor Sir Donald Sinden ( (an OG nepobaby), Sinden played Y-Wing pilot Dex Tiree in A New Hope. He’s one of the pilots who gets shot down by Darth Vader turning the trench run.

• Another Brit, Terry Richards, passed away in 2014. Richards was an actor and stuntman who played the Wampa in Empire Strikes Back. The scenes were cut from the theatrical version but, like everything, you can find them on YouTube.

• If you’ve ever watched myself and friend of Death Star HR talk about Young Jedi Adventures, you’d know that we both have a pro-Nubs agenda. And in 2024, the first four episodes of Fun With Nubs were released on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. Also, you should watch Shane and I yak about Star Wars.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

There are a decent amount of feral or semi-feral cats in the neighborhood. I don’t hate it, they’re good for rodent control. We do not, however, have any Feral Droids. At least as far as I know.

Droids that became feral would attack any sentient being, and output random Binary. They appeared to destroy random machinery, including Xizor's lab. They would literally rip apart sentients; they did this in the lab, beheading a Drall scientist, and splattering Human and Aqualish blood all over the walls.

Far, far worse to have feral droids in your neighborhood than feral cats.

News From the HoloNet

DC Abruptly Pulls Supergirl Movie Merch Featuring a Star Wars Character

When you tell the intern to make a print and they just use A.I..

Brendan Wayne Has the Perfect Answer to Toxic Star Wars Fandom

Oh, it’s not sending them all to Narkina 5? OK, his take is fine as well. But I still like my idea.

‘The Mandalorian’ Season 4 Original Plans Revealed By Stars

Lord Janu with the main character energy.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to a Sunday evening edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Or maybe Monday morning. Whenever you get around to reading this. It’s a pretty long one this week. I went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu yet again. I ponder killing off main characters. The Death Star HR Book Club returns. And if you don’t like reading words, there’s not one but two new trailers for Star Wars video games.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

The calendar has switched to June which means that it is Pride Month. As the official Human Resources Department of the Death Star, it’s important to note that Stormtroopers of all sexual preferences and gender identities are welcome, just as long as they’re committed to serving the Empire.

Or maybe “Q” could have been “UnQuestioning loyalty to Palpatine.” I know that’s the same thing as the “L” but Palpatine does demand a lot of loyalty.

Final Theater Thoughts on The Mandalorian and Grogu

It was a slow Friday at work, my brain was already melted, so I knocked off early and went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu for the third time. Unfortunately, I broke my Alamo Drafthouse boycott, mostly because of timing and geography. I could go to the same AMC where I saw the movie in IMAX, but it was later in the day, would involve braving US-75 during rush hour1 (the second worst expressway in Dallas behind I-635), and there’s the little problem with AMC and their 30 minutes of trailers and ads. Alamo was 15 minutes of trailers, I checked. While not great, still better than 30 minutes. The other reason for Alamo was most of the day, there weren’t any tickets sold and I thought it would be a lot of fun to be the only one in the theater. I would both talk AND text during a move at Alamo Drafthouse and just dare them to stop me!

While I am resuming my boycott of Alamo Drafthouse, I will say that I did not really notice the mobile ordering system being too intrusive during the movie going experience. Perhaps it would have been different during a sold out show or something like that. It’s really more the principle of it. Alamo built their brand on providing an elevated movie theater going experience. The whole point was you had to put your phone away for a couple hours and actually watch the movie. And their cutesy little “yes we’re aware of the irony of telling you to order on your phone” PSA doesn’t cut it. Enshittification comes for everything.

Anyway, all that aside I am happy to report that nothing changed in-between my first viewing of The Mandalorian and Grogu and this, being my third one. Grogu is still cute. Mando is still the best dad. Rotta is still the most unexpected surprise. I really want to see a Stinky and Ahsoka reunion in season 2 of Ahsoka. Especially if he’s New Republic Commander Rotta the Hutt. I think there’s about a 3% chance it happens, but I’m not going to completely rule it out because A) it really seems like the type of thing Cowboy Dave Filoni would love to do, and B) they could have really easily filmed a couple minutes of footage with Jeremy Allen White to use at a later time.

Think about it. How great would it be when Ahsoka and Sabine finally manage to get back from Peridea and they’re greeted by Rotta the Hutt, resplendent in his XXXXXXXXL-sized New Republic uniform. Also, the New Republic uniforms are bad. The First Order are the bad guys, no two ways about it. But they at least have style. The New Republic can’t govern because they have no swag.

There wasn’t really anything new that I picked up on watching it a third time. I even tried to keep an eye on the sides of the screen or what’s happening in the background, just in case Favreau tried to sneak in, I don’t know, the Ghost at Adelphi Base or something like that. One thing I did think was sort of interesting is that it was clear, both from the movie and remarks from Favreau and Filoni, that they wanted to make a movie that someone who only knows Grogu through Baby Yoda memes could walk in and enjoy. Almost like they knew the criticism of season 3 and of Filoni in general is that it’s too much inside baseball. The movie almost went too far, there’s a way to throw in a few Easter eggs for the Sickos while not making them obvious or directly related to the plot. The one thing I really felt was missing was some kind of shoutout to Carl Weathers. It would have been really easy for there to be a statue of Greef Karga when the Razor Crest is flying over Nevarro. Maybe show IG-12 walking the streets as well.

Barring something strange, like having a completely free Friday again, I think that will probably be my last time seeing it in the theater. It also doesn’t seem like movies stick in the theaters like they used to. I remember The Phantom Menace was in theaters basically the whole summer of 1999. And then again in November of ‘99. If you haven’t seen The Mandalorian and Grogu in the theaters yet and you’ve been on the fence about it, you should probably do it in the next week or so. Summer blockbuster season is starting. And The Mandalorian and Grogu is, if nothing else, a fun summer popcorn movie.

What If Disney Did the Unthinkable?

I had a thought during the Grogu’s Big Adventure sequence. You know the part of the movie I’m talking about, when Mando is unconscious due to the Dragon Snake venom and Grogu has to survive, keep Mando alive, and do so while dodging the battle droids and Embo. On my first watch I thought it dragged a big but on rewatch, it really is the heart of the movie. Mando’s biggest fear is not being there to protect Grogu. But Grogu goes out and shows he can survive, if not thrive on his own. The old protect the young and the young protect the old.

And here's my thought experiment, what if in this case, the young couldn’t protect the old? What if Disney and Lucasfilm decided to give the movie a little oomph and kill off Din Djarin?

I know, I know. It wasn’t ever going to happen. Star Wars is pretty loath to kill off major characters, even Weird Al joked about this in 1985’s Yoda. And I am going to address the Sequel Trilogy in a second.

Well, I heard my friends really got in a mess
So I'm gonna have to leave Yoda, I guess
But I know that I'll be coming back someday
I'll be playing this part till I'm old and grey
The long-term contract I had to sign
Says I'll be making these movies till the end of time
With my Yoda

Obviously Obi-Wan dies in A New Hope, at the suggestion of Marcia Lucas, but that was before Star Wars was STAR WARS. Harrison Ford famously wanted Lucas to kill off Han Solo in Return of the Jedi but did not get his wish. Qui-Gon Jinn dies in The Phantom Menace, but as Star Wars rhymes, he was the Obi-Wan figure of the movie. More so than the actual Obi-Wan. Darth Maul was hyped as a major character because he was pretty cool looking. But as I’ve said before. The “importance on the poster to the importance in the movie” ratio is way off for Maul. He’s a main character and something of a tragic anti-hero now. But back in 1999 he was just a cool looking guy who got cut in half and died2.

Then in the Sequel Trilogy Luke, Han, and Leia all die. Working backwards, Leia had to die in some form because of Carrie Fisher’s passing in 2016. I don’t know this for a fact but I would expect that Harrison Ford told Lucasfilm he’d come back for one movie but not a whole trilogy. And he finally gets his wish of seeing Han Solo die. Luke dying in The Last Jedi seemed exactly on point with what Rian Johnson wanted to do in the movie and while I think it was a successful move, being upset about Luke was just the excuse for the angry and shouty parts of the fanbase to go online and be angry that Rian Johnson ruined their childhood while they were actually mad that Rose Tico has too much screen time. Because girls are gross or something like that. Mark Hamill has said that while he initially wasn’t happy with Johnson’s character arc for Luke, he eventually came around after Johnson explained what he was doing and now says he’s happy about it. Or at the very least has made peace with it, and does not have any plans to show back up as Luke Skywalker.

Of course we have to talk about two of my most-hated moments in The Rise of Skywalker, the fake-out deaths of both Chewbacca and C-3PO. As Rey attempts to use the Force to stop a First Order transport ship from flying away with Chewie inside, only to accidentally destroy it with Force lighting when the Dark Side inside of her bubbles up.

Chewie of course gets rescued later on in the movie and overall isn’t any worse for wear. While I will give Rise of Skywalker credit that they at least hinted there is a Dark Side in Rey, but they did very little with it. I’m not here to re-litigate the Sequel Trilogy, like all Star Wars movies they have parts I like and parts I don’t. Chewie’s death would have added a lot more impact to the movie. That there was the Palpatine blood in Rey. That she had to figure out how to control it. Instead, Chewie was alive, we got a shot of Dark Rey but no real reflection on it. Maybe she could have leaned into Dark Side teachings from Kylo Ren and when he saw what it was doing to her, could have turned back to the Light Side. I don’t know.

Star Wars had already killed off Chewbacca once. The very first book of the New Jedi Order series, Vector Prime, has Chewie meeting his untimely demise when the Yuuzhan Vong drop a moon on him. Yes, seriously. The reaction from Star Wars fans was swift. Author R.A. Salvatore even got death threats!

All this to say, what if they killed off Din Djarin in The Mandalorian and Grogu. Mando gets pointed by the Dragon Snake and Grogu does whatever he can, but it’s too late. He didn’t get there in time. Or the venom was just too powerful. Or whatever. Grogu goes to sleep in the crook of Mando’s arm, but when he wakes up, he finds that Mando isn’t breathing.

It would be a shock right up there with when we first saw Baby Yoda back in season 1.

I’m going to throw this out there as well and say that honestly, Disney should have ended The Mandalorian after season 2. The story starts with Din Djarin as a mercenary/religious zealot and ends with him as a father figure making the heart-wrenching decision to let Grogu go with Luke because he knows it’s what best.

But anyway, this is Disney. There’s money to be made.

The rest of the movie would be Grogu figuring out how he could get a hold of the Anzellans and how to contact the New Republic. Or maybe he goes on a Dark Side rampage.

Or even better, Mando heroically sacrifices himself to save Grogu. Maybe one of The Twins is about to eat Grogu as a snack. Mando rushes over and saves the little green guy, but he’s let his guard down and Embo knocks him into the pit where the dragon snake swallows him whole before he can react. I don’t know. As much as I liked the Grogu’s solo scene, Mando was never actually in any danger.

I get it, it’s a movie targeted to get the Baby Yoda generation, the younger Star Wars fans to keep the franchise going. I wrote about the girl with the Mando mask and lightsaber watching the movie with her dad. I’m not sure killing off one half of her favorite Star Wars duo would be really help keep her as a fan.

And then there’s the problem of how Pedro Pascal’s large and rabid fanbase, of which Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan is a part of, would react if Space Daddy got killed off.

Me: So, question for you. How would you react if they killed off Mando in the movie?

EP#1F: I would be…upset.

Me: Like burn the theater down upset?

EP#1F: Yeah, pretty much.

Probably safer for everyone involved that Mando lived.

The Death Star Human Resources Department Book Club

I’ve not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this or not, but most of my current Star Wars collection has come from Half-Price Books. There’s a somewhat decent chance you have a HPB new year, they’ve got 120 locations in 19 states, at least that’s what their Wikipedia entry says. But as luck would have it, the closest one to me is their flagship store. The good thing is, they probably get the most stuff in. The bad news is, anything good tends to go quickly. Nothing like walking in and seeing that someone has traded in a fresh collection of Star Wars books and you’ve got the first crack at it. Unfortunately, I’m at the point now were my Expand Universe collection is nearly complete so it’s a lot less likely I find stuff I don’t already have. It’s also interesting for as much as Star Wars is thought of as slapping their name on anything and everything, there are WAY more Star Trek books than Star Wars books.

All this to say, I almost passed up Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson when I saw it on the shelves. My reason was that this seemed like the sort of cash grab Disney would have churned out to coincide with the opening of Galaxy’s Edge, the theme park. Something along the lines of a character in book visits each of the shops at Galaxy’s Edge and just happens to comment on all the items that one could buy if they wanted to visit Galaxy’s Edge in the real world. And in a lesser author’s hands, that could have very easily happened. Instead, it’s a meditation on trauma and found family, set in a Disneyland background.

• Title: Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire

• Series: It’s considered a standalone book, although you could say it’s an unofficial sequel to Phasma. It’s also part of the Galaxy’s Edge media project.

• Author: Delilah S. Dawson.

• Date published: August 27th, 2019

• Pages: 527

• Status: Canon

• Summary in less than 20 words: Disney might be the happiest place on earth, but Batuu when the First Order arrives is much sadder.

Thankfully Dawson is a pretty great Star Wars author. She wrote 2017’s Phasma, which also introduced Black Spire characters Vi Moradi and Captain Cardinal, along with giving us a backstory for Captain Phasma3. I know I read Phasma a while ago but don’t really remember it. I feel like I read it shortly after it came out, and I can barely remember what I did a couple weeks ago. Dawson also wrote the excellent Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade which was published in 2023 and reviewed last year by yours truly.

The book itself is fairly simple. Starting in-between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Resistance spy Vi Moradi is tasked by General Organa to go to Batuu and see if she can set up an outpost and recruit the locals into helping out the Resistance. The books skips ahead and mostly takes place after the Battle of Crait, so in between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. This checks out as it’s the timeline that Galaxy’s Edge takes place in4.

Riding shotgun with Moradi is the recently deprogrammed Captain Cardinal, no longer with the First Order but not quite committed to the Resistance. You need to read Phasma for the whole story. Unfortunately things don’t go quite as planned and they end up getting shot down and crash landing. Because nothing can ever be easy for the Resistance, almost all their supplies have been stolen by associates of Oga, the local crime lord.

I’m kinda poking fun at the book being what I was worried about, a 500 page theme park advertisement. But you can’t really write a book about in-world events happening at Black Spire Outpost5 without referencing the places Disney created for Galaxy’s Edge.

Moradi manages to eke out survival becoming a gatherer helping out at Savi & Son Salvage and doing some errands for Dok-Ondar. There’s meals and Ronto Roasters and drinks at Oga’s. All scenes from Galaxy’s Edge. And while her recruiting for the Resistance isn’t going as well as she hoped, it’s not too bad of a life for Vi.

The good citizens of Black Spire Outpost though aren’t thrilled that there’s a Resistance spy in their midst stirring up trouble. Most of them, to borrow a phrase from Luke, think that “it’s all such a long way from here.” That they’re too much of a backwater Outer Rim planet that the First Order can’t be bothered with them. And they’re right. Until they’re not. Eventually some narc in Oga’s calls the First Order and lets them know a Resistance spy is running her mouth all over town. Quickly the First Order comes to town and starts doing what they do best, being jerks to everyone.

Eventually Moradi realizes the First Order isn’t going to go away without any encouragement, so she assembles her crew of misfits. Dolin, a farm boy from the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost who lost his parents and seems to be coded as Space Amish, or maybe Space Mennonite. Also, while Dolin wants to help, his grandmother isn’t so sure and doesn’t want to him to go with Vi.

Along with Dolin, she picks up Kriki, a Chadra-Fan and Zade Kalliday, a drunken smuggler. And rounding out the crew, remember Captain Cardinal? He’s had a rough go of things since escaping the First Order but he’s ready to help out.

Things eventually come to a head when Vi gets captured by the first order and her new family along with some townsfolk have to band together to rescue Vi, drive off the First Order, and then make the whole thing look like the First Order ship exploded on accident so General Hux doesn’t want to keep investigating. Unfortunately for Cardinal, he’s on board when the First Order transport goes boom. Everything seems to be OK for a while at the Black Spire Outpost, until Vi gets word that Kylo Ren is on his way…

The Good:

• As I said at the start, it would have been really easy for Disney to just treat this book as an advertisement for Galaxy’s Edge. Instead Dawson takes two characters she already created and helps finish their story. In addition, she gives all the characters some depth and a reason to fight. Vi was captured and tortured by the First Order, she’s still dealing with that while trying to lead. Cardinal is also dealing with injuries while trying to figure out a purpose. The only life he ever knew was the First Order. When that’s gone, what’s a solider to do? Dolin lost his parents and needs a purpose as well. Kriki lost her sister when Hosnian Prime got exploded. Zade’s partner was killed by the First Order when they got their ship boarded. All of them had to find a way to work through their pain and Dawson gives a lot of depth to what could have been minor characters.

The Bad:

• I really don’t have anything to put here. Maybe it felt a little long. There’s quite a bit in the middle of Vi just going around Black Spire Outpost doing her thing. Maybe tighten it up and trim 25-50 pages? Funny since I’m pretty sure my review of Dawson’s “Rise of the Red Blade” said I wanted it to be longer.

Wild Card:

• This is probably a pretty accurate description of General Hux

  

Next up, I’m going back to the Expanded Universe and getting into the Legacy of the Force series. First up, Betrayal by Aaron Allston.

Now This Is Podracing…On A PS5

Two new Star Wars video game trailers just dropped. First up, even though the whole point of the new podracing game, Star Wars: Galactic Racer is to drive a podracer really fast, there apparently is a story to it. Or so they’re claiming in the new trailer.

Story is fine, I guess. It’s not Knights of the Old Republic II.

Next up is Star Wars: Zero Company. A turn-based tactics game set during the Clone Wars. Fun little cameo at the end of the trailer.

A whole game blasting clankers6? Sign me up.

This Day in Star Wars History

We’ve got four births and a death that took place on June 7th in the Star Wars universe.

• English actor Michael Pennington was born in 1943. If you feel like you’ve heard his name lately, it’s because he passed away on May 7th of this year. Pennington played Moff Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi. The Imperial who greets Darth Vader when he lands on the 2nd Death Star. Pennington had a long career, primarily in the theater across the pond. In 1986 he co-founded the English Shakespeare Company and played many of the title roles in Shakespeare plays.

• Nerd series actor extraordinaire Karl Urban was born in 1972. Urban has appeared in The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys, and the MCU. His role in Star Wars was a lot smaller, playing a Stormtrooper in Rise of Skywalker. Not a bad gig.

• We’ve got a big one here. Cowboy hat aficionado and current co-president of Lucasfilm Dave Filoni AKA Mr. Ahsoka Tano was born in 1974. Filoni was born in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania which is an inner-ring suburb of Pittsburgh. Interestingly, he’s not the only Star Wars person from Mt. Lebanon. Ming-Na Wen, better known as Fennac Shand, grew up there and they both went to the same high school, although at different times. I’m not sure where Filoni picked up his love of cowboy hats, but I can’t imagine that the suburbs of Pittsburgh are cattle country.

• Actor and comedian Bill Hader was born in 1978. Not in Mt. Lebanon but in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hader is probably best known for working the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update desk. Hader did some voice work for BB-8 for The Force Awakens, although he later said he probably didn’t deserve a credit for it.

• Sir Christopher Lee passed away in 2015. Lee played County Dooku/Darth Tyranus in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith along with voicing the character in The Clone Wars movie. It is impossible to sum of Lee’s life and career in a paragraph here, other than to say it’s pretty amazing. He was an actor, singer, heavy metal fan and musician, and a spy with the British who saw some shit in World War II. From the Los Angeles Times after his passing:

  According to the video, Jackson was blocking a scene in which Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) stabs Saruman (Lee) in the back. Jackson goes into a long explanation about how he wants Lee to react and Lee says, "Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody’s stabbed in the back? Because I do.”

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

If I told you this week’s FTDOW was for “Demtri” your brain probably autocorrected to “Dimitri” and you assumed I was going to be talking about a henchman from an 80’s action movie when the Soviets are the bad guys or maybe someone who was a third line defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers in the early 2000’s. But no, we’re talking about Demtri. Member of a Dark Jedi cult.

Demtri, brother of Gerlun, was a member of the Malevolence, a Dark Jedi cult that lived in Andeddu's Keep on Prakith. When Darth Wyyrlok III appeared at the Keep to learn Darth Andeddu's secrets, Demtri and the other Dark Jedi confronted the Sith Lord. They were, however, no match for Wyyrlok's mastery of the Force and, under the influence of a Force illusion of multiple Wyyrloks, Gerlun struck down Demtri.

Rough way to go.

News From the HoloNet

What We Learned from Jon Favreau’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” Audio Commentary

Lots of cool little tidbits.

Disney+ Announces Its 3rd Star Wars Release For 2026

No, it’s not that Ahsoka season 2 is getting bumped up. Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi is dropping this summer.

What a Star Wars helmet had to do with Ole Miss baseball making College World Series

A team called the “Rebels” wearing a Stormtrooper helmet is quite a choice. Ole Miss, call me and put me on your payroll as a “Star Wars Celebrations Consultant.”

10 Wild Star Wars Fan Theories Audiences Had When The Original Trilogy Came Out

Some of these I’ve heard before. Others are new to me. #5 has always been a favorite of mine.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Good evening and welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. We’ll call this one a Sunday evening nightcap, the perfect way to end your weekend before the hellscape of Monday morning and the work week comes calling. This week I’ve got plenty of rambling thoughts about The Mandalorian and Grogu. And trust me, they are all over the place.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

It’s probably worth noting that The Mandalorian wouldn’t have been a hit without Baby Yoda and his cuteness. If Mando opened the pram and revealed, I don’t know, a baby Yuzzem or baby Jawa, there’s no way the series would have kept going.

I think talking to someone who had never seen Yoda until after they’ve seen Grogu would be an interesting conversation.

And speaking of Yoda…

Who can say that Yoda and Grogu AREN’T space beavers?

From the Desk of the “Editor”

So as you have probably noticed lately, Death Star HR hasn’t been hitting your inbox around on Friday around 6:00 am Central Time like it used to. The first couple years of Death Star HR, it was a regular event. Now, it’s a lot more hit or miss. There’s a variety of reasons for this, none of them are that interesting. But the long and short of it is some things have changed and there are more demands on my time during the week than there were when I first started in 2023. So, in an effort to get back on some kind of regular schedule, I’m changing the publishing date to Sunday. I’m hoping with the weekend, it will allow me to get back on target.

The Mandalorian and Grogu - One Week Later

[Bare Naked Ladies voice] It’s been one week since Space Dad and his little green son hit the big screen and changed our lives for the better. If you haven’t done so yet, you can read my spoiler-free adventures from seeing it on May 22nd.

OK, I think that’s been enough of a warning that I’m going to talk more in detail about The Mandalorian and Grogu. Not even anything in particular, just kind of my meandering thoughts. Which for anyone who’s ever had a conversation with me, that’s how my brain works. Believe it or not, Death Star HR with it’s frequent references to The Simpsons or the Dallas Mavericks is actually me being organized and putting things in a (mostly) logical and coherent manner.

So first off, if you have the chance to see the movie in IMAX, you absolutely should do it. I had to use a Jedi Mind Trick on Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan, but I convinced her that not only should she go see a Star Wars movie with me, that we should go to the busy mall on a holiday weekend, just because it’s the closest IMAX theater.

If Star Wars is best seen on the big screen, than logically seeing it on an even bigger screen should make it even better. It’s just science. An old friend, known only as the proprietor of Ord Mantell’s only Irish pub got to watch our little green friend in something called Samsung Onyx. There are some of these screens in Texas, but unfortunately there aren’t any in the Dallas area. And adding insult to injury, the Onyx theaters are in Houston. The horror.

The movie, as friend of Death Star HR notes in his excellent write up on the movie, it’s a meditation on aging and death. Cheery! But he’s not wrong. Mando’s greatest fear is abandoning Grogu, just like he was abandoned by his parents1. We saw it in season 2.5 of The Mandalorian, AKA the last three episodes of Book of Boba Fett2. Mando had to let Grogu go join the Jedi Order, even if it metaphorically killed him. And then Grogu came back, reborn so to speak as Din Grogu. The Mandalorians were Din Darin’s family, they took him in and raised him in the ways of being a Mandalorian. And maybe the whole “kinda cultish Children of the Watch” might not have been the best environment to grow up in, you couldn’t argue that Mando didn’t receive love and support. As long as he kept his helmet on.

Here, we see Din’s greatest fear confronted. Grogu will live for hundreds of years, and The Mandalorian will not always be there to protect him. Even if they are faithful to each other through every adventure, and they overcome every foe, eventually, Din Djarin will transform into the Force before his adopted son does. A new generation is always on the horizon, needing to be nurtured, and learning to nurture in return. Something comforting is in those scenes for the fan who wonders if Star Wars will be Star Wars without the Skywalkers and John Williams and Lawrence Kasdan. Take care of what you love, even if you know it will not always need you. It will take care of you in return.

Ahch-To Baby

Star Wars: Generations

Spoilers. This Is The Way…

Read more

2 months ago · 19 likes · 13 comments · Matthew Freeman

You should read the whole piece, it’s excellent as always.

Anyway, Mando keeping Grogu safe in the first two seasons and returning him to the Jedi was paying it forward. But now Grogu is family and he’s got to keep Grogu safe and teach him out to be a bounty hunter. It’s not so much a “I need to keep him alive to get him to the Jedi,” it’s “I need to keep him alive because he’s my family.” Isn’t every parent’s goal to prepare their child for going out in the world without them? Isn’t their fear that someone happens to their kid on their watch? At least I assume that’s the case. I don’t know, we just have the cat. Mando knows that Grogu will outlive him. He figures out early on that whatever species Grogu is ages differently, the Twins just confirm this for him.

It’s weird watching a Star Wars movie that’s not for you. I say that and I’ll immediately kind of take it back. All Star Wars movies are for me since I’m an overgrown child with disposable income and the Walt Disney Corporation knows I’m an easy mark. But from a certain point of view, there’s never actually been a Star Wars movie for me. I was too young for Mom Mothma and Darth Dad to take me to see the Original Trilogy. By the time the Prequels came out my Star Wars thoughts were already shaped by seeing the OT, both original and Special Edition versions and the Expanded Universe. The Prequels for the younger kids, the kids that Lucas needed to hook to keep Star Wars going. That line in Fight Club when Tyler Durden says ““We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s The Clone Wars…”, that’s people my age with Star Wars. I’m pretty sure that’s how the quote goes.

And while Disney would prefer people like me continue to spend our Republic credits, the movie is really for the next generation. Call it the Baby Yoda Generation. And it seems to be alive and well. There were plenty of kids at both showings, both younger kids and groups of teenagers. Sitting next to us at Sunday’s viewing was a dad and his daughter who was probably 8 or so. She had both a Mando helmet and a blue lightsaber. While I wanted ask Dad what the hell was he thinking, there aren’t any Mandalorians who used a blue lightsaber, I thought better. Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan was already at the movies under protest. If I got kicked out of the mall for yelling “you sir, are no Paz Vizla” at some random guy on a Sunday afternoon, well, she wouldn’t be very happy about that.

When I say Star Wars is in good hands with the next generation, I mean that I could see that 8 year old out of the corner of my eye, when the action on the screen heated up she’d lean forward, hand on her lightsaber like she was ready to hop up and help Mando and Grogu take on the Battle Droids. I’m 99% certain that Dad told her that she couldn’t turn the lightsaber on during the movie, because she was locked and loaded to make sure that nobody was going to hurt Grogu. All the kids and teenagers I saw walking out looked like they had a good time. Smiles on their faces and all that.

There is, of course, a brand of Star Wars “fan” that already hated the movie before it ever came out, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that. If you didn’t like The Mandalorian and Grogu, that’s fine. You don’t have to love everything But there’s so much bad faith dialog out there. Do the people who claim to be Star Wars fans actually want Star Wars to succeed? There are certainly some that seem like they don’t, like their thought process is that if enough Disney Star Wars projects fail, that somehow Star Wars will become “good” again. As the saying goes, nobody hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans.

A lot of the #DISCOURSE of course has centered around the box office returns. The Mandalorian and Grogu opened with roughly the same numbers as Solo, a movie that Disney considers a failure. However, there’s always a however, it’s worth thinking about two things. First is that Solo cost a lot more money. It had a budget around $265 million vs around $165 million for The Mandalorian and Grogu. It’s also worth remembering that 2018, when Solo came out, had a much different media environment. Streaming obviously existed, but you still hadn’t yet seen the breakup and all the different companies insisting on having their own platform. 2018 would have been Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime as the major players. Not like what we see today.

At this point it feels somewhat pointless to compare movie-going today with the before times, but I don’t think it can be underestimated how much COVID changed the movies. We all got used to being indoor cats. Not to mention all the reports of people who don’t remember how to act at the movies3, it’s not a surprise people have slowed down with the movie going. The box office numbers are only now getting back to where they were pre-COVID. Add in the fact that things are just more expensive now. Back in high school and college, we used to go to a lot of movies. In 1998, the average movie ticket price was $4.69. If it tracked with inflation it would be somewhere between $7.11 and $9.59. I’m leaning towards the latter simply because the number comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I am not sure how many under $10.00 movie tickets there are in Dallas. Not many. The total cost to see The Mandalorian and Grogu in IMAX, with tickets, “convenience” fee, and tax was $48.02. And that was with a 15% discount for ordering matinee tickets.

Which leads to the last point. Money is tight for a lot of people these days. Just to pick a random day from earlier this year, say February 27th, gas in the OK city of Dallas was $2.64. Since then, prices have been as high as $4.30ish. Wonder if anything incredibly stupid happened on February 28th that caused gas prices to shoot up? Who can say. At the grocery store today, tomatoes that are usually between $0.99 and $1.49 a pound were $2.49. Everything is going up, except wages. This isn’t an airing of the grievances about the failing state of America, but rather to point out there is a not insignificant portion of this country that would look at that $50 I spent on seeing the movie, and think to themselves “I can go to the movies for a couple hours, or I can buy gas and groceries.” I’m not sure we are exactly in a good space to compare box office returns in 2018 to box office returns in 2026.

I warned you this was a rambling post about The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Now that I’m comfortable talking about spoilers, a few other things I wanted to touch on.

• There was way more Rotta the Hutt than I was expecting and I certainly was not expecting him to end up being buddies with Mando and Grogu and especially not expecting Rotta to (maybe) join the New Republic. Also, we absolutely need a reunion between Ahsoka and Stinky in season 2 of Ahsoka.

  

  I would some credit for not just turning Death Star HR into a Star Wars/Simpsons memes newsletter. I’ve been showing remarkable restraint. In case you’re wondering about the reference.

• It was weird seeing a Hutt that not only didn’t speak Huttese, but he spoke Basic without the accent. I feel like that kind of a strange choice. Although as I’m thinking about it, there was Ziro the Hutt in The Clone Wars who spoke basic and at the request of George Lucas, sounded like Truman Capote. Per Wookieepedia, the precedent for Basic-speaking Hutts was established because producers felt that their original idea of Ziro speaking Huttese into a translator machine wouldn’t make sense to the Younglings watching. This was when The Clone Wars was still for kids and not about committing war crimes.

  

  I also learned while reading about Ziro that in the Expanded Universe, Hutts did not have a sex, like slugs in our galaxy. However in canon, there are male and female Hutts. The more you know.

• So I can’t be the only one who basically thought the movie was basically one of those food/travel shows. It was like Grogu was Anthony Bourdain and it was Parts Unknown: Outer Rim. I think the only place Grogu wasn’t able to get a snack was at Adelphi Base, and that’s only because Colonel Ward took the bowl of snacks back, quite rudely I might add. You probably have to credit Grogu’s snack habit to Jon Favreau. He did write, direct, and star in the movie Chef. Which is about a Chef. He also had a cooking show on Netflix with himself and chef Roy Choi. But it’s a fun little touch for Grogu’s character that is probably going to be appeal to younger fans.

• During the middle when Grogu and the Anzellans are teaming up and trying to improve the Razor Crest 2.0, Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan leaned over and whispered “so those guys are just Star Wars Minions, right?” And now I can’t unsee it.

• I was surprised by the lack of Imperial entanglement in the movie. Basically the Imperials were out of the film after about 1/3 of the way through. Just for the record, my predicted plot was that Mando and Grogu are working for New Republic hunting down members of the Imperial Remanent. The Twins have a deal with the Imperials that they’ll get rid of Mando, who’s causing too much trouble, in exchange for the Imps leaving their criminal dealings alone. I was not expecting that A) the New Republic would be making deals with the Hutts, B) that The Twins would be the Big Bads for the movie, and C) for Rotta to play such a big part and to not be a bad guy.

• One of the common knocks I see is “it’s just 3 - 5 episodes of The Mandalorian as a movie.” OK that is kinda fair, and as the show made the jump to the screen, that complaint was bound to happen. But my response would be “that’s just telling a story.” Mando and Grogu went to the first place, did a thing, then went to a second place, something happened, and then there was a third act. That’s how stories go. If you break it down, you can make the exact same argument about Empire Strikes Back, it’s just 3 episodes of The Adventures of Luke Skywalker or whatever we wanted to call a Star Wars show in 1980, but made into a full length movie. How is Mando and Grogu having their adventure any different than Luke being in the Battle of Hoth, then going to Dagobah to meet Yoda and lift some rocks, and then going to Cloud City to try to rescue Han, Leia, and Chewie? It’s Act I, II, and III.

• Final thought. When did the popcorn buckets become a thing? I get why movie theaters would do it. I’m sure they are pure profit. The AT-AT popcorn bucket was cool, but I showed restraint and didn’t come home with it.

I warned you these were random thoughts.

Marcia Lucas is One With The Force

Marcia Lucas, the first wife of George Lucas and Oscar-winning editor for Star Wars (back before it was called A New Hope) passed away on Wednesday, May 27th. She was 80 years old. Marcia and George were married from 1969 - 1983. In addition to Star Wars, she also worked on two of Geroge’s earlier movies, THX 1138 and American Graffiti. It wasn’t just George she worked with as well, she was the editor for Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and supervised the editing for Taxi Driver and New York, New York. The final movie she worked on, prior to their divorce, was Return of the Jedi.

Lucas (Marcia, not George) is generally credited with the Battle of Yavin turning out the way it did.

George credited the editor for the film’s final battle sequence, telling Rolling Stone in 1977, “My wife, Marcia, can normally cut a whole reel — all ten minutes of the film — in one week. I think it took her eight weeks to cut that battle. It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all the fighting as well. Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight.”

Spend enough time in the depths of Star Wars Reddit and you’ll find people who believe that all of Star Wars’ success is because of Marcia and that George had very little to do with it. I am not extremely familiar with this theory, I don’t know the ins and outs of it as I generally stay off of Reddit. I’m sure there are some people saying it just to be trolls and some people who honestly believe it and would fight you to the death. Best to stay off of Reddit.

Mando & Grogu Think-pieces Have Taken Substack by Storm

It’s not just me writing about The Mandalorian the Grogu. The Star Wars Substack crew has been as well. So make sure you check them out. Because there’s a lot of good Star Wars people on here. First off write about how M&G is a new spin on Star Wars traditions.

Friend of Death Star HR and podcast guest asks what do fans want out of a Star Wars movie? It appears “Grogu snacking” is the top choice.

The Traverse

What's a Star Wars movie now?

The Gist…

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2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Travis Clark

The Star Wars Legacy Reader has a positive review and notes that the Younglings coming out of the theater loved it. Star Wars is for the kids.

Star Wars Legacy Reader's Reviews

'The Mandalorian and Grogu' Review

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a Mandalorian walked alone across a dusty plain carrying a small green child. That image, burned into the cultural consciousness from the very first episode of the Disney+ series, carries with it a weight of expectation that no cinema screen could fully contain. Yet here we are. Mando and Grogu have made the j…

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2 months ago · 1 like · SW Legacy Reader

If you’ve got some time to kill, over at The Long Take, they live up to their name and have a two hour discussion about the movie. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but I am sure it’s great.

The Long Take

The Mandalorian and Grogu Review

The Internet can’t seem to decide if The Mandalorian and Grogu is actually doing well at the box office so far. Many news article frame the opening weekend as a failure, saying it is a “disappointment” that hits a “series low.” Meanwhile, other articles have crowned the action adventure film as the…

Listen now

2 months ago · 3 likes · 6 comments · Jen Sopchockchai Bankard, Greg, P.T. McNiff, and Dan Zehr

And going back to the top, Hoth Off The Press ranks the various formats to see the movie in.

This Day in Star Wars History

Not a lot of entries to mention from May 31st, but two very important ones. So let’s get to it.

• The corporate entity currently known as 20th Century Studios started its life on this day in 1935. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation started as a merger of the Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures. After it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch, he changed the name to 21st Century Fox until Disney bought its assets and changed the name again to avoid confusion with the Fox Corporation. 20th Century Fox of course was the studio behind the Original Trilogy and the distribution of the Prequels.

• Fast-foward 84 years to 2019, and we get the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. That was everyone’s first look at Black Spire Outpost. And it lasted up until a few weeks ago when it became the more generic Star Wars Land.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

A couple years ago I went out what can only be described as the Tatooine of Texas, the Trans-Pecos. And one of things you can do while you’re out there is go to the McDonald Observatory, just outside of Fort Davis. Being up on a mountain, in a dark skies environment, and being able to look up and see the arms of the Milky Way really puts in perspective just how huge the universe is, and just how small we are and how all the things we think are important are completely irrelevant on a cosmic scale. And if that’s what you can see at an observatory powered by the University of Texas, just imagine what you could see if Palpatine was funding it. That’s right, this week we’ve got the Emperor’s Observatory.

The Emperor's Observatory was a bunker on the planet Pillio. It was one of many observatories that Emperor Palpatine, also the Dark Lord of the Sith, established across the galaxy. Each observatory looked beyond the galactic rim with the intent of finding what laid beyond the known galaxy, and each had a specific purpose. The Pillio observatory contained a number of items the Emperor had collected before his death, such as a compass. The bunker had no locking or unlocking mechanism, and it could only be opened with the Force.

So it was either a spot of great power where Palpatine could look beyond the known galaxy, or it was basically a storage unit for Dark Side junk.

News From the HoloNet

The Mandalorian And Grogu Proves Star Wars Fans Are Missing The Point — My Son Showed Me The Way

seeds

Despite almost 18 months of silence, Skeleton Crew star has “heard maybe possibly” that the Star Wars show could return for season 2

I liked Skeleton Crew, it was a fun romp. But I’m not sure season 2 is needed.

Disney Reveals Star Wars Spinoff ‘Ahsoka’ Is 30% Cheaper Than ‘The Acolyte’

Likely going to see a lot of this going forward. Likely that the days of big budget TV shows are done.

The new Star Wars movie was partially filmed on Caddo Lake. See how it happened.

#TEXASFOREVER

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

It is the official release day for The Mandalorian and Grogu! Finally! I know there were people who got to see either a sneak preview on Monday in IMAX or saw it yesterday, but all May 22nd is the official release date and that’s when I saw it. So, I’ve got my spoiler-free thoughts about the movie, the Death Star HR Book Club returns, and a long time Star Wars voice actor has become one with the Force.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Of course we had to go with a Mando and Grogu entry for this. Everyone’s been making the rounds to promote the movie. I have to give credit to Pedro, he might just be the hardest working man in showbiz right now. As both he and Grogu have to sit down and talk about all the Baby Yoda memes.

I appreciate any video that somehow combines Grogu, Mean Girls, and cats.

I Have Seen the Baby - Spoiler Free Mando & Grogu Thoughts.

I know, I know. I often say the official policy of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter is to post spoilers. However, given that the official release date is today, there are plenty of people reading this who haven’t seen it yet.

Therefore, I’m going to talk about the movie but I am not going give anything away that wasn’t already revealed in a trailer. And then whenever I post about it with spoilers, it will be clearly labeled so you can avoid them. If you’ve refused to watch any trailers or promotional material and want to go into the movie completely blind, I’d skip this. But if you watched the trailers, I’m not going to give any anything you hadn’t already seen.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Star Wars is meant to be seen on the big screen, While this the first new Star Wars movie since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, I have been fortunate to see Star Wars at the movie since between 2019 and now. I’ve seen the Original Trilogy a couple times, along with The Phantom Menace, Revenge of the Sith, and just a couple ago weeks ago I got to see Rogue One. So we’re going to start with that. This morning I fired up the landspeeder and made the treacherous drive across DFW to meet up with a crazy old hermit known only as the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Tarrant County. He bought two of his neighbors who were also awesome people. Movies are a communal experience, even if you’re supposed to be quiet. And sitting in the theater with your friends and a Mando and Grogu souvenir cup filled with Cherry Coke1 is how you should see Star Wars. Look, I’m an indoor cat. I love Disney+ and having pretty much all of Star Wars at my disposal any time of the day from the comfort of my couch, where I can usually watch them with my cat, is awesome. But it doesn’t match the experience of seeing it in the theater. The big screen and sound that you can feel really adds to the experience.

The best part about The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it gives you exactly what the title promises. It’s Mando and Grogu having an adventure. Yes, Zeb is there (and they did a fantastic job on him), so is Sigourney Weaver and it’s fun to see her. I won't say anything else but the return of Stinky the Hutt was great and I really liked what they did with his character. Unlike some other Disney Star Wars that feel too reliant on known characters showing up, we actually didn’t get any. If you were hoping Moff Gideon might still be alive, sorry you’re out of luck. There are callbacks to other Star Wars moments, both subtle and on-the-nose, but Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni made a conscious decision not to just use nostalgia. Or at least not anymore than having a Baby Yoda as your main character is using nostalgia.

Another area where the movie succeeds is that anybody can see it. The thing that season 1 of The Mandalorian did so well was it was so accessible. Anybody with a surface level understanding of Star Wars could watch the show and enjoy it. I know that both Mom Mothma and Darth Dad watched season 1. But then you get into seasons 2 and 3 when you get Ahsoka and Bo-Katan and Luke and you need to know what the Darksaber is, It can get tougher if you’re just someone who wants to watch because you like Baby Yoda. Hell, they reference Operation Cinder in season 2. You gotta be a real Sicko to know that one. The movie went back to that. Since the movie operates as a self-contained story, you could watch it with again, a fairly minimal background in Star Wars and still enjoy it.

One other thing I specifically loved was just how great the Grogu puppet was. The practical effects people really upped the game. He has way more in terms of range of motion and expressions. It’s not just tossing the puppet in the air anymore. That really allowed Grogu as a character to shine.

I have seen this complaint from some reviews, that it doesn’t really tie into the bigger story. It doesn’t set anything up for another movie or the possible season 4 of The Mandalorian. It’s Space Dad and his weird green son flying around the galaxy on a mission and getting snacks. It reminded me a lot of the standalone episodes from season 1 of The Mandalorian, before they brought in Ahsoka and Bo-Katan and the rest of the Mandalorians and expanded the story. You know what, that’s OK. There will (hopefully) be plenty of Star Wars in the future where we can get into the wider universe. There’s Ahsoka season 2 which has two galaxy’s and a long-rumored space battle between Admiral Akbar and Grand Admiral Thrawn. We have Simon Kinberg’s trilogy which may or may not be Episodes 10 - 12. Or X - XII. There’s nothing wrong with a self-contained story of Mando and Grogu doing their thing.

In the end, the best thing that The Mandalorian and Grogu is that it’s a fun movie. It doesn’t promise anything more than that. I had a smile on my face for pretty much time. That’s all you need. The world is on fire and kinda depressing right now. So why not spend a couple hours watching some adventures. It will make your day. This is the way.

The Death Star Human Resources Department Book Club

I hadn’t realized this, but it’s been quite a while since there’s been a Darth Vader-centric book. The last one was Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp back in 2015, which was Palaptine and Vader on a road trip to Ryloth. It’s a road trip buddy comedy, but with lightsabers and Dark Side powers. I have a piece2 about the use of Vader in live-action and animation coming soon. Disney’s version of Vader is more like an unstoppable Force-powered monster. No personality, but he looks awesome on the screen. The books are really where you can get Vader’s personality. I featured the Expanded Universe book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno way back in the 10th issue of Death Star HR. It’s kinda fun to go back and look at early Death Star HR and see what’s changed. Unlike Master of Evil, Luceno takes the time to explain in Dark Lord how Vader uses the bathroom while wearing the suit. In a lot of ways, I think of this book as a spiritual successor to Dark Lord. It’s not a rip off of it, by any means. But it’s another book that explores

• Title: Master of Evil

• Series: Standalone.

• Author: Adam Christopher.

• Date published: November 11, 2025

• Pages: 384

• Status: Canon

• Summary in less than 20 words: Everyone wants to learn the secrets of Darth Plagueis the Wise. But nobody wants to share.

Despite Vader being on the cover and one of the most iconic figures in movie history, there are stretches of the book where it feels like Vader is a secondary character in his own book. That’s not neccessarily a bad thing, although it’s slightly a case of false advertising. But I get it. What’s going to sell more books? Vader on the cover or a couple new characters you’ve never heard of? It’s a no brainer, and it’s certainly not the author’s fault.

The plot of the book involves an object of immense Force power, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It’s a temple that can create a vergence in the Force. Palpatine wants it. Vader wants it, maybe it’s enough to bring back Padme. The people who’s planet the temple is on obviously do not want to see it go. Palpatine instructions Vader to go find it and go find the Force Shaman. Palpatine also doesn’t trust Vader, you know, that whole Rule of Two thing, so he has the ISB send along terminally ill Imperial Royal Guard Colonel Halland Goth3 to “assist” Vader on his mission. And in Sith-speak, that “assist” really means “spy on and narc to Palpatine.” Goth is understandable a little concerned here. Fail Palpatine you get zapped with Force lighting. Fail Vader you get Force choked. Goth obviously does not know the extend of the Sith’s Force powers, but he knows that failure isn’t an option and both Vader and Palpatine wouldn’t hesitate to off him without a second thought.

Complicating matters is the fact that A) Goth is terminally ill and is only staying alive thanks to his droid, TC-99, shooting him up with medicine at regular intervals. Goth eventually realizes Vader is searching for the key to keeping someone alive through the Force and realizes that he could use this knowledge as well to, you know, not die.

The best part of the book was the relationship between Goth and TC-99, aka Nines. Droids in Star Wars are interesting. Star Wars obviously didn’t invent the thinking robot, for lack of a better way to put it. Given the current obsession with A.I. by some, I can’t help but think that Droids are what the A.I. evangelicals think the end result is going to be. Everyone has a C-3PO to help around the house or an R2-D2 to, I don’t know, drive your car. I personally think if A.I. ever advances past the LLM model and truly Agentic A.I., it will look less like a protocol droid and more like Skynet. But that’s just like, my opinion, man. ‘

Nines is different than a lot of droids we meet in that he seems to be completely free. It almost feels like he chooses to stay with Goth and help him, rather than he does it because he’s programmed to. Christopher comes up with a neat little trick to mostly explain this. Nines is basically a phone that’s been jailbreaked. He has the ability to essentially add a new SIM card of another droid and use its abilities. Think of the scene in The Matrix when they basically upload floppy disks of martial arts skills directly into Neo’s brain.

That’s essentially what Nines can do. If he needs to be a medical droid or a combat droid or an Astromech, he can just dip into his handy bag of SIM cards and turn himself into whatever type of droid he needs to. This of course comes with risks. Unlike Neo, whenever Nines pops a in a new SIM card, he becomes that droid. So normally Nines is pretty mild mannered, but if he say used the card of a droid like HK-47, he’d stop being himself and start being a murder-bot. It can present problems. Goth even notes that he’s not sure how it works that Nines is his own man…errr…droid. But just accepts it.

We even get a scene at the end where Nines chooses a path that potentially would allow another droid’s personality to take his over. He doesn’t do this because Goth orders him to or because it’s in his programming. But he makes the choice because Goth is his friend. We should all be so lucky have a friend like that.

The Good:

• It’s a Vader book! Come on, that’s going to be good. The book opens with Vader on Mustafar bleeding his kyber crystal. It’s a great start.

• Goth and Nines were great characters and I loved the relationship between them.

The Bad:

• Getting a little nitpicky here since I genuinely enjoyed the book. As I said, for a Vader book there were times he felt like a side character. There’s certainly a “less is more” theory about using Darth Vader that I’m going to write about soon.

• I would have liked the ISB officer, Korali Desler, to get a little more attention. I get it, there are a limited number of pages and you can’t flesh out every character. But still, a mysterious ISB officer in the early days of the Empire has a lot of potential, character wise.

Wild Card:

• Count Dooku returns! At least in the prologue. Always good to see him make an appearance.

• There’s a transformer in Star Wars. The ship that Dooku uses at the start of the book basically can morph into whatever shape is needed to carry cargo. Just read the book, they explain it a lot better than I do.

Next book up will stay in canon. Going to read the Galaxy’s Edge tie-in, Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson.

The Mouse Drops Batuu Into the World Between Worlds

This has been on my list of things to write about for a few weeks. I’ve mentioned it in the past, but it went live at the end of April. Disneyland retconned Galaxy’s Edge and made the timeline pretty fuzzy. You see, Galaxy’s Edge is supposed to take place at a very specific time and place in the Star Wars universe, specifically between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. You had Kylo Ren, Rey, timeline specific Chewbacca. And while Mando and Grogu being there was a bit of a stretch - The Mandalorian takes place around 9 ABY while The Last Jedi takes place in 34 ABY - it still at least made more sense than having say, Qui-Gon Jinn and Padme show up.

Now, the timeline is a lot more muddy. Disney has turned Galaxy’s Edge from a specific time and place to a more generic “Star Wars world” type of place. Rey is still there, but she’s banished to her corner by Rise of the Resistance. Now you’ve got Han, Leia, and Darth Vader walking around. I believe Smuggler’s Run is now Mandalorian and Grogu themed. I guess to tie in with the movie. While yes, there is a period in the Star Wars timeline where Darth Vader, Din Djarin, and Din Grogu are all alive at the same time, there is no period were Vader is alive and Mando and Grogu have teamed up.

Perhaps it was inevitable that change would come for Galaxy’s Edge. Creating an in-world Star Wars experience, not judge the Black Spire Outpost but the Galactic Starcruiser hotel. There are limited number of people who would pay a lot of money for a Star Wars LARP. Don’t let me wrong, there are a lot of people who would truly enjoy it. But it’s really a pretty small number compared to the number of people at DIsney who just want to get a picture with Darth Vader then go get a Dole Whip and not think about next month’s credit card bill.

It’s disappointing, to say the least. Large companies are inherently risk averse, and Disney is taking the coward’s way out. So I had a lot of thoughts on this. And then I found the piece linked below. does a great job laying out the history of Galaxy’s Edge, the ambitious plans Disney had for it, and how it all came…crashing down isn’t the right term…maybe how it never lived up to it’s potential4.

The whole article is fantastic, I pulled a few choice quotes but I’d strongly suggest reading the whole thing.

What was once a place deliberately situated within a specific moment in the Star Wars timeline is now sliced and diced between the Original Trilogy, the Sequel Trilogy, and the time of The Mandalorian, depending on where you happen to be standing at any given point. A section of the park whose creators prided themselves on its unique diegetic soundtrack saw their work replaced by the familiar movie score pumping through the speakers. Distinctive merchandise that made clever sense in-universe was replaced with garden variety Star Wars-branded t-shirts and Funko Pops of the usual suspects.

There’s nothing wrong with any of that, exactly. Even before the formal changeover, the effort to engross visitors within a coherent, consistent little ecosystem, one filled with life and character, had slowly but steadily fallen away. And yet, the official transition represents the end of something: not just a vision for a different kind of theme park land, but an aspiration to do more, to innovate, to offer guests something bold and new rather than safe and familiar.

The Imagineers didn’t build a land; they built a sandbox. Because in a broader sense, that’s what Star Wars’ setting is. It’s not a place to imagine yourself being whisked away to, like the Wizarding World. It is, instead, a place to play, a place to share in the experience, a place to be a part of the adventure.

And what’s disappointing is that, even at the height of Galaxy’s Edge, we only got about half of that vision.

But so it goes. Not every idea makes it from ideation to rollout. What’s more frustrating is that the concept art and the splashy announcements from an array of Disney executives as high up as the CEO himself presented Galaxy’s Edge as a land full of life and character. I mean that literally. Concept art and descriptions showed droids rolling around, alien brutes clomping through the market, and humble residents lingering in stalls and alleyways. It seemed to be an essential part of how the Imagineers conceived the environment.

That vision never came to pass, and it’s one of the biggest strikes against Galaxy’s Edge. Once fully realized, the actual Star Wars Land can feel surprisingly empty, even when plenty of tourists are milling about. It often has the sense of unwittingly visiting a city overseas only to realize that you planned your trip during the one month where the whole country is on vacation.

Trust me, read the whole thing. I should point out that I didn’t read it as an attack on Disney’s stewardship of Star Wars. But rather a lament of what was and what could have been for Star Wars fans.

Tom Kane is One With the Force

Long time voice-actor Tom Kane passed away on May 18th at 64 years old. He had suffered a stroke back in 2020 and retired from voice work in 2021. Most Star Wars fans probably know him for voicing Yoda in The Clone Wars, but he did so much more than that. Kane had been involved with Star Wars voice work starting back in 1996 when he voiced Leebo, Dash Rendar’s droid in Shadows of the Empire and an Imperial Officer and a Rebel Pilot in X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. And then starting in 1998, he appeared in at least one Star Wars project every year until his retirement. For a lot of younger people who grew up with The Clone Wars, it seems like Kane is their Yoda. Just like Sam Witwer is their Darth Maul.

Outside of Star Wars, Kane was Professor Utonium in The Powerpuff Girls and also appeared in Robot Chicken, Archer, and The Boondocks. Kane is survived by his wife and nine children.

This Day in Star Wars History

While there is a pretty big event happening today, May 22nd is otherwise a kinda slow day in Star Wars history.

• Casting director Fred Roos was born in 1934. Roos won an Oscar for his work on The Godfather: Part II. It was Roos who suggested Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and James Earl Jones to George Lucas. Roos is credited with discovering young Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich.

• Art director Harry Lange passed away in 2008. Lange worked on all three movies in the Original Trilogy. He also worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Muppet Caper, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.

• Author and astronomer Dr. Dinah L. Moché passed away in 2018. She wrote The Star Wars Question and Answer Book About Space which was one of the few books published by Black Falcon, a Lucasfilm subsidiary created to handle merchandising. As far as I can tell, the book is more facts about space in our galaxy, but maybe 3PO and R2 are the narrators. Going to have to keep an eye out for it at Half-Price Books.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

I’ve mentioned before something I always enjoy is when Star Wars takes something from our galaxy, but they have to make it “spacey”. So this week is the Gallian cobra. It’s like a regular cobra snake we’d have on Earth, but it’s in Star Wars.

Gallian cobras were a type of reptile native to the moon Gall. They were noted for darting their tongues in an inquisitive fashion while hatchlings.

The gallian cobras were introduced back in the early 90’s in a “choose-your-own-adventure” type of book, Surely I can’t be the only person who remembers those books. I don’t think I ever “beat” one of them, I’d always make the wrong choice and die.

News From the HoloNet

Interview with ‘Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord’ Writer Matt Michnovetz

Worth the read if you’re interested in how Shadow Lord came about.

Damon Lindelof Reveals Why He Was Fired From Star Wars Movie: Story Was the ‘Protestant Reformation Inside Star Wars’

I hope Lindelof nailed his script to Kathleen Kennedy’s door.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

We are less than a week away from The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first new Star Wars movie since 2019. This is not a drill, people. I hope everyone has their tickets and their favorite Star Wars t-shirt or cosplay or beskar helmet picked out for the movie. Me? I’ll be rocking what I call Star Wars Texas couture. A t-shirt of Mando pushing Grogu in a paleta cart.

It doesn’t look like they’re making new ones, but if you want an extra-small or small version of the shirt, you can find it here. It also looks like there’s an updated design if you want to rep El Paso, Texas (an extremely underrated city) and Mando at the same time.

I’ve somehow turned the opening paragraph into Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising. Not my intention, but they are cool shirts.

Also, next week there will not be a Death Star HR on Friday morning, although you should be used to that by now. Reason being is I am seeing The Mandalorian and Grogu Friday morning. I’ll probably do an instant reaction video, so keep an eye on the YouTube and the Instagram (links below) then probably get the newsletter out Friday evening or Saturday.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Disney really is starting to pull out all the stops for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Even getting the San Diego Padres involved.

Would I prefer to see Grogu helping out my beloved Detroit Tigers? Obviously. Especially considering the pitching staff has been decimated with injuries. The Motor City Kitties could use Grogu doing the magic hand thing to get the ball over the plate. Mason Miller is throwing gas this year, he doesn’t need any help. But the Tigers could really use Grogu coming out of the bullpen to pitch the 9th.

This Is Where The “Fun” Begins

I ordered my tickets for myself and Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan to see The Mandalorian and Grogu in IMAX. It came with this warning.

At the risk of sounding like Grandpa Simpson, I am old enough to remember when before the movie it was 3-4 previews and maybe an ad to go buy something at the concession stand. But no. Now we have to pay more money to sit there and watch ads before the movie starts. This is my Joker origin story.

So Close You Can Taste the Nevarro Nummies

By the time you read this, we’re less than a week away from the premiere of The Mandalorian and Grogu. I have tickets Friday and then again on Sunday. Like I said, my plan is do an instant reaction Friday morning, and then full write-up later in the weekend. I’m not sure there’s anything more that can be said at this point.

But even if there’s nothing more than can be said, that’s not going to stop me. First up, May 14th was the World Premiere of The Mandalorian and Grogu at the Gauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Everyone from the show and in the greater Mando-verse was in attendance. But of course, Grogu stole the show.

While Kylo Ren isn’t part of The Mandalorian and Grogu, although I guess there’s nothing stopping a toddler Ben Solo from having a cameo in the movie, the Kylo Ren fans were out at the premiere as well. The Save Ben Solo movement was out at the premiere as well.

Disney really has been pulling out all the stops for the promotions. Not quite to the level of The Phantom Menace, because we won’t ever see anything like that again. But in the last week or so I feel like they’ve really turned the promo dial up to 11. A fun little video that longtime real-life and Death Star HR friend B-W1L sent me, Jon Favreau who played a chef in the aptly named Chef teams up with actual chef Roy Choi to make the sandwich Martin Scorsese makes in the movie. That was quite the sentence to type.

Favreau and Choi had a show on Netflix called The Chef Show. Never seen it, but I might look it up. Favreau and Choi have good chemistry together and I really do enjoy a cooking show that actually teaches you how to make something. Once Food Network switched from cooking shows to competition/reality shows, I lost interest. But that’s a whole other topic.

Also, early reviews are starting to trickle out. I am avoiding them since my goal is to go into the movie on Friday without knowing anything more than I already do. So pretty sure I’ll have to do an internet embargo starting maybe Wednesday night. If you are so inclined to read the early reviews, Variety has a roundup. But the only review you’ll need, the one from the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter, will be next week.

The Maker Makes Another Rotation

Normally birthdays go in the On This Day In Star Wars History section, but considering that Uncle George had a birthday last week, I think that deserves its own entry. Lucas turned 82 on May 14th. As Lucas is a pretty low key guy, I couldn’t find any news if he actually did anything for his birthday. So happy belated birthday, George!

Not to get too morbid, we’re celebrating The Maker here, but there is going to be a time in the not to distant future, 10 - 15 years maybe, where all the main players from the Original Trilogy are no longer with us. Lucas is 82. Harrison Ford is 82, Anthony Daniels is 80, and Billy Dee Williams is 89 Frank Oz is 81, as is Ian McDiarmid. Mark Hamill is the spring chicken at 74. And of course Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Alec Guinness, and Peter Cushing have already passed away.

I don’t say this to try to bring you down on what is otherwise going to be a fun week of Star Wars. But rather a reminder to enjoy what we have, nothing last forever and we’ll all become one with the Force one day. This applies to in the galaxy far, far away and in our own galaxy. Text a friend. Hug a loved one. And then ask them if they’ve heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.

Ahsoka Is Trapped On Peridea A Little Longer

49 ABY, or as it’s known in our galaxy 2026, will not have a live-action Star Wars TV show or movie. The last time that happened was 2014, the year before Disney released The Force Awakens. To think about how bonkers that is for a second. Imagine telling a Star Wars fan in 1993 that you’re going to get five movies in five years followed by seven different live-action TV shows including one that launches the current face of Star Wars1 and another show that gets nearly unanimous critical acclaim and completely changes the idea of what a Star Wars show can be. And that doesn’t even get into the animation. It would absolutely blow the mind of a 1993 era fan.

I had assumed that we were going to get season 2 of Ahsoka at the end of the year, in that it was and still is the only confirmed live-action Star Wars show. And considering that Disney has quite a bit planned for the first half of next year, the 50th remastered Star Wars and Starfighter and there doesn’t appear to be anything scheduled the back half of this year, I thought for sure the Mouse House would want something on our screens around the holidays. If for no other reason than merchandising tie ins.

But alas, it's been confirmed that season 2 will arrive “early 2027.” No Thanksgiving dinner followed by watching Ahsoka and Sabine escape Peridea or watching Ezra and Chopper bicker among themselves and maybe plot warcrimes. Lady Tano herself, Rosario Dawson was on stage with Chopper and a Loth-cat at Disney Upfront and gave this little update about what fans can expect:

“It’s truly special seeing all the love from fans out there for Ahsoka and her crew,” Dawson remarked. “I can tell you this season, the battles are bigger and the stakes are higher. We cannot wait for you to see.”

Those in attendance saw an early look at the action packed second season, with a glimpse at epic space battles and thrilling lightsaber combat featuring Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. Ivanna Sakhno will reprise her role as Shin Hati while Rory McCann joins the cast to continue the journey of Baylan Skoll.

I wasn’t able to find any video from Dawson’s remarks. It’s also been reported a while ago that we’re going to see an epic space battle between Admiral Akbar and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Once again, Star Wars belongs on the big screen because that is the type of scene you need to see in IMAX.

Ultimately, while I was hoping for Ahsoka season 2 this year, moving it back to Q1 of next year really isn’t that big of a deal. It could bring on a whole spring of Star Wars, depending on when they want to release it. We know the remastered A New Hope releases on February 19th and that Starfighter premieres on May 28th. In between the two you have Celebration at the start of April and then May the 4th. You could very easily have Ahsoka between A New Hope and Celebration. And then freeing up May the 4th weekend for the 25th anniversary of Attack of the Clones. Come on, how fun of a winter/spring of 2027 would that be?

• A New Hope 50th anniversary

• Ahsoka season 2

• Celebration 2027

• Attack of the Clones

• Starfighter

The answer is: lots of fun.

The bigger issue is not the few months between the end of 2026 when we thought we’d get Ahsoka season 2 and whenever we actually see it next year. It’s the almost 4 years in between season 1 and season 2. And I say this with the full understanding that there are tons of moving parts involved with making a TV show. Everyone, from the actors to the directors to the crew has to be available. We’re not in the network or even the cable universe of shows where you could count on another season of your favorite show every fall, with the same actors. Streaming shows just kinda happen when they happen. It took what, 9 years to do 5 seasons of Stranger Things? The kids are supposed to be in high school when really they look like they’re old enough to hurt their back because they slept wrong.

If you’re waiting almost 4 years between seasons, it almost feels like you have to rebuild your audience. Of course, the Sickos like me, and many of you, are going to watch Ahsoka no matter what. It doesn’t matter if it was 1 year or 5 years between seasons. I’m tuning in to season 2 no matter what because I need to know who’s been feeding Sabine’s Loth-cat. But you’re trying to get new fans, because the name of the game is expand or die, how do you expect people to get invested in characters if we’re only going to see them every four years?

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

Do you love Grogu, adorable little scamp that he is, and have too much money? Well then Hasbro has got the Star Wars collectable for you. For a mere 600 Republic Credits, you can own an animatronic Grogu that quite frankly, looks almost as good as the puppet they use in the movie and shows.

Do I want one? Obviously. Am I worried that it can actually use the Force and would Force choke me if I don’t give it treats? Not really but just a little bit.

This Day in Star Wars History

May 17th was a pretty slow day in the Star Wars universe. Two things to mention.

• The Children’s World Premiere of The Empire Strikes Back took place in 1980 at the Kennedy Center (not calling it by its new name). This was 4 days before the wide release of the movie. It was a special charity screening to benefit the Special Olympics. Before he was an ESPN talking head, Tony Kornhieser was a DC sports reporter with The Washington Post and I guess got the assignment since the premiere was related to the Special Olympics? The whole article is worth the read, but if nothing else it’s a good reminder that Carrie Fisher was a real one.

  The highlight came in a question posed to Hamill -- Do you feel responsibility as a role model for kids?

  Hamill (giggling): “Ask Carrie about rolls. She wears so many rolls in her hair.”

  So Fisher approached the microphone, wearing a baseball cap, and strutting around like a Ricki Lee Jones wind-up doll. The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- think about that childhood, movie fans -- appeared as loose as a Slinky toy.

  Fisher: “You mean like I can’t smoke or read Playgirl in public? (pause) Well, I don’t got my cigarettes or my Playgirl up here, do I?” Real People.

• There used to be Star Wars comic strips in newspapers. Remember those? Does anyone in the Death Star HR galaxy still get an actual newspaper made out of a dead tree? Anyway, in 1982, the LA Times Syndicate published The Return of Ben Kenobi storyline, which ran until July 25, 1982. That’s only a few word off from The Hunt for Ben Solo. Make it happen, Disney!

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

Anyone hungry? Because this week we’ve got Tatooine Sun-scorched Tip-Yip with Golden Lichen Grains and Yavin IV Papaya Salad. That’s quite the meal. And unlike most of the Star Wars food that’s been featured here, you can actually try this one. Just make a trip to Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo at Galaxy’s Edge and you can try this for, well not a low price, but a higher price than you’d pay in the real world but is probably reasonable for Disney. I don’t know, we didn’t eat at Docking Bay 7 when I was there.

The meal itself is "Roasted Quarter Chicken, Turmeric Garlic Rice, Roasted Lemon, Green Papaya Salad." I usually remove links when I post quotes, but this time I’m leaving them in. Chicken, garlic, and rice all have their own Wookieepedia entries while numeric, lemon, and papaya link you to Wikipedia. I would have at least thought lemons existed in the Star Wars galaxy, especially if garlic does.

News From the HoloNet

How do you expand a canon Star Wars love story without infuriating fans?

Very carefully.

Daisy Ridley Drops Out of Film Amid Uncertainty on ‘Star Wars’ Future

I don’t like how this headline is worded. Ridley dropped out of a different movie, not a Star Wars one. Maybe the Rey movie is gearing up, but who knows.

Can you make money from Star Wars toys?

You can. From a certain point of view, I traded my collection of POFT2, POTJ, Episode I, and Episode II figures in exchange for Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan.

More Than Anything, I Want “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” to Surprise Me

This is a pretty fair take. I’m not expecting a Baby Yoda level of a twist, but something unexpected would be nice.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. We’re just going to pretend this week’s edition was always meant to come out Saturday afternoon and just go with it. It’s a jam packed Death Star HR this week with not just one, but two podcasts, the end of Maul: Shadow Lord, a May the 4th recap, and there were some hiccups with Star Wars Celebration tickets.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

With all the talk about Star Wars Celebration (more on that down below) I have seen people online starting to ask about traveling with their cosplay props. I would assume that airports near a Disney property such as Orlando, Anaheim, and LAX are used to seeing assorted Star Wars props in luggage. However if you’re flying to Celebration from an airport where a traveling with a fake laser sword isn’t very common, you may want to keep the TSA website on your phone in case there are questions.

Look, I have a lot of issues with TSA and really the vast expansion of the security and surveillance state that took place after 9/11, but I will give credit that someone somewhere in the vast faceless bureaucracy of DHS had a sense of humor.

DSHR Podcast: It’s All About the Republic Credits, Baby

The Death Star Human Resources Podcast returns. This week I’m joined by to talk about the business side of Disney and Star Wars. We talk about Kathleen Kennedy’s legacy, what Star Wars could look like with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan in charge, and once again I make someone else talk about The Hunt for Ben Solo.

Check it out, make sure you’re subscribed to Death Star HR on YouTube, and make sure you’re following Travis as well.

The Traverse

Traversing the business of franchises and fandom.

By Travis Clark

Double the Podcast Fun

I’ve said before that if I can’t be a professional podcaster, the next best thing is being a professional podcast guest. Once again, had me on to yak about an old movie. This week we talked about the 1930 gangster film Doorway to Hell.

The Oscar Project

4.41-The Doorway to Hell with Jeff Kramer

Today’s episode is my conversation about the 1930 film The Doorway to Hell I’m joined by Jeff K who writes The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter, and we talk about comparisons between being a mobster and being in war, the decision to show a child being seriously injured in a film of this era, and what happens when the police detective knows something about the gangster’s love interest that the g…

Listen now

3 months ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Jonathan Ytreberg and Jeff K

Check it out, and if you’re into movies of all sorts, make sure you’re following Jonathan and subscribe to The Oscar Project.

Maul: Shadow Lord: Lots of Heavy Breathing

Well, that was something. Wasn’t it?

When Shadow Lord debuted, there was a lot of wondering if we’d see any legacy characters other than Maul himself. OK, fine. We’ll count Rook Cast as well. But people wondered if someone like Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine could make an appearance. I’m sure there were some who thought maybe Maul’s nemesis Obi-Wan Kenobi would make an appearance but that one never seemed likely to me. Well, in episodes 9 and 10, the penultimate and finale episode the man in black himself, Darth Vader was central to the plot.

Remember that episode of The Acolyte where it was just one big lightsaber duel for basically the whole episode? Yeah, Shadow Lord decided to up the ante and say “what if we just had a huge kickass lightsaber duel, but it was TWO episodes?” Not the worst idea. I swear the animators threw in this little pause just so there would be a good photo to screenshot.

Let’s start with our dearly departeds. Voice actress Vanessa Marshall said she was allowed to pick how she wanted Rook Kast to die, and she went with Rook getting her LUNGS RIPPED OUT WITH THE FORCE. That’s a choice.

When Vanessa Marshall recorded Rook Kast’s unseen final battle, she told the assembled crew she was aiming for "he pulled my lungs out of my throat," Supervising Director Brad Rau recalls. To add to the effect, sound designers added the classic throat crush effect from Star Wars: A New Hope.

The initial idea was showing a more graphic death, but I think Rook getting Force pulled into the fog is far scarier than a graphic death. And this should put to bed any of those “Rook Kast is The Armorer” theories.

I love YouTube videos when someone is clearly just filming their TV. Reminds me of the early days of YouTube.

Then there was the best droid of the show. Sorry, Two-Boots. I know you had a redemption arc but you’re still a narc. Spybot, we’ll miss you.

I just wish there was a world where Spybot, Chopper, and HK-47 could all team up.

And finally, RIP Master Daki. From the moment the first episode aired, you knew that Eeko-Dio Daki was living on borrowed time. Dennis Haysbert brought a lot of gravitas to the character, a Jedi Master who survived Order 66, hanging on to the ways of the Jedi Order while trying to survive under the Empire. But you didn’t have to have an advanced copy of the script to know he wasn’t going to make it out alive. As the show went along, I honestly kept thinking his character was inspired by Yoda. He’d come off as, well not feeble, but old and not the Jedi he once was. Daki walked with a cane, the animators gave him some gray whiskers for a beard. But when it came time to throw down, Master Daki showed he was no pushover, holding his own against Maul, the Inquisitors, and Vader himself. It’s worth noting that Daki, with his slow and steady way of fighting and his commitment to not giving into his emotions, was the only combatant that’s able to injure Vader. Even Maul, an extremely skilled lightsaber duelist doesn’t touch Vader. It’s a nice touch by the writers.

If Daki had one flaw, it’s he was too committed to the Jedi Way. He was beholden to tradition and unwilling to change with the times. But even then, I think that’s an oversimplification of him. Daki didn’t like Maul or even trust him but he recognized that he and Devon couldn’t fight the Empire on their own, and as the Imperials closed in he also knew they couldn’t escape without Maul’s help. Daki’s goal isn’t to fight the Empire on his own, he knows that’s a losing battle. He just wants to survive another day.

And then there’s the big bad this episode. Marrok and the Eleventh Brother weren’t getting the job done, so the Empire had to send in the big gun. What I loved is they show Darth Vader has basically the unstoppable force (Force?) that he is. A Frankenstein’s monster just rampaging through everything in his path. Which makes sense. He’s basically Palpatine’s Monster. I’m trying to think of a good Young Frankenstein joke here but nothing is working. Maul immediately recognizes that he’s up against something different, exclaiming “you are no Inquisitor!” All the other lightsaber users in the show are acrobatic, jumping around and moving quickly. Vader doesn’t need to do that. He just powers his way through everyone. No talking. Just heavy breathing and ass kicking. This is Vader at the height of his powers. The Chosen One powered by the Dark Side and being half machine. Maul doesn’t even try to tempt Vader to join him and fight Palpatine, there’s no point. The best Maul can hope for here is survival.

Daki might be a little too stuck in his ways, following a Jedi order that no longer exists. But he and Maul are the yin and the yang. Maul is so committed to the Dark Side that he can’t see any other way forward either. While we saw in Episode 8 that Maul is a little deeper than your usual Sith who just seeks power for the sake of power, Maul wants to stop Palpatine to break the cycle of abuse. But he can’t see any other way of doing so besides destroying whatever is in his path. They say hurt people hurt people. That sums up Maul to a tee. He might have the same goals as the Rebellion, but he’d never join them. Heck, he probably wouldn’t even join Saw Gerrera. Because Maul only has allies for as long as they’re useful. During the duel, he sees the chance to abandon Daki which leads to Daki getting a red lightsaber blade through the heart. With the old man out of the way, it’s a lot easier for him to make Devon his apprentice.

And then last but not least we get to Devon. I really enjoyed her journey and I think the writers have done a great job with her. Fun fact, can’t remember if I mentioned this. Devon is voiced by Gideon Aldon, who is the daughter of Pamela Aldon, who voiced Bobby on King of the Hill. Second fun fact, King of the Hill is not a comedy but it actually an animated documentary about the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs. Anyway, the entire series Devon has been torn between two worlds. She’s trained as a Jedi, but she seems to have a better idea than Daki that the old ways are over and running and hiding isn’t going to solve anything. She’s more like a young Luke Skywalker, craving adventure and excitement, even if a Jedi isn’t supposed to. Honestly, how can a young Jedi not crave some adventure? You have Force powers and a laser sword. Who wants to just sit around the Jedi temple meditating?

Devon recognizes that Maul, while maybe not the bad guy she was told he was, isn’t exactly a good guy. How would she react if she learned Maul abandoned Daki to Vader’s blade? Probably not well. But Devon also recognizes better than Daki that’s there’s no running and hiding. Eventually you’re going to have to stand up to the Empire. There’s anger in Devon which Maul can exploit. Of course there is. She was raised in the Jedi Temple only to see her whole life collapse and have to go on the run when the Empire comes to power. But there’s also her Jedi training. Devon was a good student, clearly. She’s not going to be seduced by the Dark Side just become Maul tells her what she wants to hear.

People have been speculating since Devon’s character was introduced that she will end up as Darth Talon. Especially given that the sequel trilogy envisioned under Uncle George and Cowboy Dave had Darth Talon and a resurrected Darth Maul1 as the big bad. To me, that seems likely. Darth Talon is the type of character Dave Filoni would love to bring back. A popular character from Legends who isn’t Mara Jade? Dave is here for it. And while I think it’s likely, I’m not so sure that Devon’s fate is decided. Hard to see, the future is.

When Maul: Shadow Lord was announced last year, I really wondered if this show was needed. I suppose in a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs sense, none of this is needed. But there are a lot of stories out there to tell in the Star Wars universe and there’s only so much streaming time and budget to get them on the screen. Did we really need more Maul when he’s already appeared in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo after supposedly dying way back in The Phantom Menace? Turns out, we did. I am going to pay this show the highest compliment I can give a streaming show: it didn’t feel like there were any filler episodes2. And not only that, the story had plenty of room to breathe. We started with Maul wanting to establish himself as a crime lord, then it pulled back and zoomed out when the Empire came to Janix. Finally there was a refocus with the Maul/Devin/Daki Force triangle. There were no wasted episodes, nothing that felt like it was included to hit the 10 limits. The animation was gorgeous, this was without a doubt the best looking Star Wars animated show we’ve seen. The look and feel of Janix was perfect. The voice acting was top notch. The new characters were interesting and well done. I’m just sad we don’t get more Spybot. He can be rebuilt! I’m not sure when season 2 is coming out, but I’m ready for it.

The Only Reason to Leave the House on Monday

Sometime around dinner on May the 3rd at Death Star HR HQ.

Me: Your happy hour tomorrow got cancelled. Right?

EP#1F: Yup, we had to reschedule it.

Me: So you can come see Rogue One then.

EP#1F: [Sigh] I will go see it if you want me to.

Me: I want you to want to see Rogue One.

EP#1F: We all want things we can’t have…

The end result was I went to go see Rogue One by myself. I’ve talked about the Texas Theatre a few times. Located in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, it’s the best movie theatre in Dallas and the most historic. If you’re a history buff and trying to think about why you know the name of the Texas Theatre, it’s infamous for being the location of Lee Harvey Oswald’s arrest on November 22, 1963. It was also the first movie theater in Dallas that had air conditioning. Werner Herzog is a fan.

Werner and I are in agreement. Do come see films at the Texas Theatre.

It was an interesting collection of Star Wars movies for the weekend. A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back on May 2nd and 3rd followed by Rogue One on the 4th. I wonder if Disney limits theaters to three movies. I don’t know. Texas Theatre is limited on space as well. They only have two screens so maybe that plays a part? I wasn’t able to see A New Hope or Empire, there was just too much going on. But I wasn’t going to miss Rogue One.

It is the 10th anniversary of Rogue One. The 10th anniversary doesn’t seem to be a big one in the Star Wars universe. None of the films ever received a 10th anniversary theater release. I had kind of thought The Force Awakens might have last December, but nope. Disney barely even acknowledged it. They came up with a logo, a little bit of merch, and an article in Star Wars Insider; but that was about it. This wasn’t any kind of official anniversary screening for Rogue One. I really am surprised Disney isn’t doing some kind of Rogue One/Andor type of thing, like the last 3 episodes of Andor leading into Rogue One? That would be a fun little afternoon.

What can I say about Rogue One that hasn’t already been said? Probably not much. It’s a rollercoaster of a movie, it really doesn’t have a lot of downtown. You go from prison break to Jedha to Eadu to Scarif. There’s a few detours, like Yavin 4, but for the most part the movie goes full throttle. It also reinforces one of the canon rules of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter, which is Star Wars is meant to be seen on the big screen. I’ve been rewatching The Mandalorian (more on that below) and it’s obviously a lot of fun but those are small screen adventures and we’re waiting to see how they translate to the big screen.

The best (and worst) thing about Star Wars is the community. This was 200 people on a Monday night watching a 10 year old movie. I would say the crowd was more lively than when I saw The Phantom Menace two years ago but less so than Revenge of the Sith. People clapped when the movie started and when the credits rolled. Also there was some scatted applause when Jyn urges the Rebel Council to go fight and when Princess Leia shows up. Of course Darth Vader at the end gets a reaction. Sitting on the couch watching Star Wars is fine, it’s better than fine. It’s something I really like doing. But sitting with a bunch of your fellow fans watching Star Wars as it was meant to be seen on May the 4th. Well, it’s tough to beat that.

Just Another Star Wars Filled Weekend

I hope everyone was able to have a Force-filled May the 4th Weekend. Kinda feel like May the 4th should be treated like the 4th of July. If it falls on a Monday, you get a 3 day weekend. But, no such luck. I didn’t get to pre-game Rogue One but I did get a pretty good Star Wars weekend otherwise.

Saturday the 2nd, we got a new Star Wars store opening up in Plano. Order 66 Toys has having their grand opening and Diane Lee Inosanto, Morgan Elsbeth herself, was there to sign autographs and chat with the fans. She was much nicer in person than the character she plays.

When I was there, the line wasn’t too bad so she was taking time to talk to everyone. I asked her what it was like being on set with Grogu and do people actually treat Grogu like a person? She said when they bring the puppet out, everyone would like to see the baby and surrounds him. So my takeaway is basically Grogu has gone Hollywood and is just big-timing the human actors. I also gave her a Death Star HR card and when she saw the name, she burst out laughing. So that was cool.

One of the big projects over the last couple years here at Death Star HR HQ has been redoing the backyard and turning into a place we want to spend time. Or at least spend time during the 6 weeks out of the year where it’s actually nice enough where you want to be outside. I’ve got rewatching The Mandalorian on the agenda before the movie comes out, so Saturday and Sunday evenings it was sit outside and watch the galaxy’s best dad and his weird adopted green son.

I know the TV is too small for the outside. Upgrading is on the list. It’s been a while since I’ve watched season 1 of Mando, I had forgotten just how good it is. The brilliant thing about it is you can watch the show with minimal Star Wars knowledge and enjoy it. Even Darth Dad and Mom Mothma followed Mando and Baby Yoda’s adventures. And if I have one issue with Dave Filoni, besides the fact I want his job, it’s that because he’s one of us, because he’s so deep in the weeds, it can seem like you need to know everything before watching a show. What was easier to follow along with if you had limited Star Wars knowledge, season 1 or season 2 of The Mandalorian? It’s not even close. That doesn’t mean you can’t watch season 2 and have that be your first introduction to Bo-Katan and still enjoy the show. But sometimes it can be tough to keep track of who all the characters are and how they related to everyone else.

And all weekend if I wasn’t doing anything and just staying in, I had the Star Wars records spinning. Just a small selection here.

So yeah, maybe I didn’t get to hit every Star Wars related event last weekend. But I’ll call it a pretty wizard May the 4th weekend.

A Worse Plan Than the ROTJ Rescue Mission

For starters, it needs to be acknowledged that this is an Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan appreciate post. As she is the one who actually secured the tickets.

If you’re into Star Wars and follow Star Wars social media, you probably saw that tickets for Star Wars Celebration went on sale this week. Star Wars Celebration, for those who are not aware is exactly what it sounds like. You’re going to get a bunch of Star Wars fans all together and Disney does their best to extract as much money as possible from all us. This is the first Celebration in the USA since 2022 and it’s the 50th anniversary of Star Wars. Demand was high, to say the least.

Now, occasionally the Rebellion’s plan to rescue Han from Jabba has been noted as being a bit of a cluster. Friend of Death Star HR and others have suggested that maybe the culture of the 80’s and everyone being on cocaine may have had something to do with the less than well thought out nature of the rescue.

It appears that Reedpop, the company hired by Disney/Lucasfilm to put on the event decided to follow the ROTJ rescue plan and have everything be a disaster. As Gizmodo put it, Buying ‘Star Wars’ Celebration Tickets Was a Nightmare.

No, the issue was the ticket sale itself. Fans on the website when the sale began were randomly put into a place in a queue where their fate was decided by a little stick person walking a long green line (this system, Queue It, is well known to those of us who go after San Diego Comic-Con hotels). The idea is to be fair to everyone with full randomization and to slow down the process so servers don’t crash. However, unlike Ticketmaster or other sites, there’s no number assigned, so you don’t know exactly how long it will take. The site only confirmed that some wait times would be over an hour, which was an understatement. Many experienced wait times closer to five hours, which meant by the time they reached the front of the line, all tickets were already sold out.

I can confirm that there was absolutely zero idea about how long you’d be stuck in the virtual line. I had three devices running. Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan had two. All five of our little green guys’ in line moved at different speeds. Tickets were secured after about 50 minutes. Other people were waiting 4 hours and only secured Thursday and/or Sunday tickets. Others around the 5 hour mark were out of luck.

Naturally, bots and scalpers were to blame. Probably some truth. Despite this being an event that would sell out, Reedpop allowed a 20 ticket limit.

There was also the wrinkle that fans were allowed to buy a maximum of 20 tickets each. This, in particular, has been a major sticking point, especially when passes instantly started appearing on ticket resale websites at massively inflated costs. Of course, the fine print on ticket purchases is very clear that “Tickets and/or badges for the event are non-refundable and non-transferable and cannot be reproduced, resold, or upgraded. The unauthorized resale or attempted resale of the Ticket is prohibited and will constitute a forfeiture of the Ticket without compensation.” People always get around that, though. You would have to transfer them because who needs 20 tickets for themselves? And who is to stop you once you have the tickets in hand? At least some fans noticed that unauthorized sales popping up on sites like eBay were being deleted. But that doesn’t make the sting less painful.

There is a reason there’s a 20 ticket limit and, from a certain point of view, it is defensible.

To explain, say you’re going with three friends. Four-day tickets are sold out, so you need four tickets for four days of the convention. That’s 16 tickets. A lower ticket limit is not very helpful in that case. In that scenario, you’d be very grateful for the higher ticket limit. But, of course, people take advantage and game the system, and you have to imagine someone could’ve set the limits differently on single-day passes versus four-day passes. (Which wasn’t the case with D23. D23 had a six-ticket limit, and I was in a group of five. So by the time I was able to purchase tickets with a similar system, full passes were sold out, and I was only able to get one-day passes for everyone for one day. By the time a second friend made it through the line, everything else was sold out.)

io9 reached out to Lucasfilm, and a spokesperson confirmed the above reasoning was the main idea behind the ticket limit. It also confirmed that the company in question, Reed Pop, is and will continue to keep an eye on resellers, with reclaimed tickets potentially going to fans who contact them through their customer service teams. This was, indeed, the highest-demand Star Wars Celebration to date.

I have seen reports in Facebook groups that resale tickets on eBay and other platforms are being removed. I actually just checked eBay and StubHub and there are no listings for Celebration tickets. eBay does have a bunch of Celebration t-shirts and posters which are very clearly people selling bootlegs. The Mouse is going to send some lawyers to break some knees.

Obviously, people on the internet are not reacting well. I’ve seen people claiming it’s a conspiracy and Reedpop is reselling the tickets. I’ve seen people suggesting that the LA Convention Center will be empty because it’s just scalpers who bought the tickets. Or that scalpers bought up 55% of tickets. Or that there should be a class action filed. Or that everyone should complaint to the Connecticut Attorney Generals office. There is of course the “boycott the scalpers” movement that you see every time there’s a big event. And of course as people pushback on some of these as overreactions, your typical online fights break out.

I am sympathetic to the people who didn’t get tickets, I truly am. I know if I missed out I would be salty. But I also know there is no perfect system. There are always going to be ticket scalpers and bots trying to beat the system. There are always going to be events where there are more people who want to attend than tickets available, even if there wasn’t a single scalper in existence.

In the end, calling it a disaster or nightmare is a bit of hyperbole. I get emotions are high for a lot of people. As I’m typing this on Friday night, there’s currently a 105 comment argument going on in one of the Celebration Facebook groups. Hopefully in the next few weeks emotions will come down, prices will come down, and people who still want to go will be able to figure it out.

Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars: May 4th Edition

A friend of mine in San Diego sent me this ahead of May the 4th, wondering of myself and Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan had any interest in heading to SoCal to renew our vows. I thought it was a great idea. My wife…not so sure about it.

I took it as a “maybe” but no such luck.

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

Every once in a while I think about buying some kind of gaming system. A PS5 or an Xbox or a Steam Deck. Usually whenever there’s a new Star Wars game. I’m not saying that Galactic Racer is going to make me get a PS5, it won’t. But I’ll at least think about it.

Galactic Racer comes out October 6th. Anyone in the Death Star HR family with a PS5 can get it, and then invite me to come over and play.

This Day in Star Wars History

You know the Mortis Gods are smiling upon you when you’re behind schedule, but there’s only one entry to mention for This Day in Star Wars History. On May 9th:

• Lady Tano herself (live action version) Rosario Dawson was born in 1979 in New York City. Dawson played the live-action version of Ahsoka in season 2 of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and of course, Ahsoka. While Dawson is generally associated with New York, she also lived briefly in the DFW area and attended Garland High School. Go figure.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

When hitting the Wookieepedia randomizer and Jango popped up, I thought it was going to be about how Jango Fett got his name. Nope, even better. Jango is a kind of music, one of my favorite Wookeepedia entries.

There’s no information about what kind of music jango is, and the entry for The Kessel Runners doesn’t give you any clue. So I’m going with jango is the Star Wars version of bluegrass. That just sounds right.

News From the HoloNet

The Pitt’s Fandom Problem

I am once again begging people to A) understand the difference between actors and the fictional characters they portray and B) don’t yell at performers during live theater events.

Court Revives Copyright Lawsuit Over Annie Leibovitz’s ‘Star Wars’ Photos

If you are into both copyright law and Star Wars.

Star Wars Fans Streamed 33 Billion Minutes in 2025

Leaving the house is overrated.

‘Maul: Shadow Lord’ Just Set A Star Wars IMDB Record

The show currently has a 8.7 IMDB rating, actually beating out Andor’s 8.6.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Hey everyone, unfortunately there is not going to be an extra-special May the 4th edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter; especially since I’m trying to stay mostly offline until I have the chance to watch the last two epsides of Shadow Lord. But, the day does have to be acknowledged. What kind of Star Wars newsletter would this before if I didn’t at least mention May the 4th? Not a very good one, that’s for sure.

So instead of news or reviews or even memes, I’m just here with a sincere thank you to everyone subscribes and reads and comments. I’ve said this before but when I started Death Star HR almost 3 years ago, I honestly had no idea if anyone would sign up other than my friends and family that I basically forced at blaster point to subscribe. So every time I hit send and Death Star HR goes out to over 400 people, it’s honestly a pretty awesome feeling. And I’m especially grateful it’s a community of Star Wars fans that want to celebrate what’s great about Star Wars, who are disposed to looking at what’s good about Star Wars instead of just bickering like the Republic Senate.

So I hope everyone is having or has a great May the 4th. May your viewing of Shadow Lord remain spoiler free. May you get whatever Mando and Grogu toy or prize you wanted from Burger King. May your blue milk always be cold. And may the Force be with you.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

You guys1! It’s almost May the 4th! I almost didn’t do a Death Star HR today and thought I’d save it for the 4th. But I had time this week, so it’s a good one. I went on a podcast, Maul: Shadow Lord is just about done, and there’s a lot of stuff happening this weekend.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

I honestly didn’t realize that ClickHole was still around. If you’re not familiar with with, ClickHole was started by The Onion, the same Onion that’s been featured here a couple times recently, as a parody of sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy. I also hadn’t realized it’s now owned by Cards Against Humanity.

This is also a good excuse to post what I think is their most viral quiz, Which One Of My Garbage Sons Are You?

I’ve got some shit boys. My huge beautiful wife gave me children who think and speak like the toilet. I have four garbage sons: The first son is named Royce, the second son is named Preston, the third son is named Lance And Blake (two names for just one son), and the fourth son is the dreaded Laramie. Which one of my toxic sons are you? Take this quiz to find out!

You don’t want to be the dreaded Laramie. I promise you that.

Career Goals: Professional Podcast Guest

Since my dream job of playing for the Detroit Tigers died decades ago, I’ve decided that the next best thing is being a professional podcast guest. So this week, for the 3rd May the 4th in a row, I chatted with and on the aptly named The Brian Lennon Show.

TheBrianLennonShow

Episode 189: The One About The Mandalorian & Grogu with Death Star Human Resources' Jeff Kramer

Cold Open Question of the Week: Ewoks or jawas…

Listen now

3 months ago · Brian Lennon, Gary McDaniel, and Jeff K

It was a lot of fun talking about the latest Star Wars news and what’s coming up. Along with talking about cats, music, and my love of Far West Texas. Check it out and make sure you’re subscribing to Brian and Gary.

Maul Shadow Lord: Generational Truma & Laser Swords

It’s hard to believe we’re down to just two episodes of Maul: Shadow Lord. Like Rebels, which has several episodes with Maul, Shadow Lord is a way better show than it has any business being. I’ve said this a few times, but just start with this is easily the best looking Star Wars animated show we’ve seen. The use of the handprinted backgrounds really gives Janix its seedy, almost space-noir vibe. The look is (obviously) animated and it’s not trying to pass itself off as photorealistic. But at the same time, I think it’s the most like humans (or humanoid aliens) that Star Wars has ever looked. Like it’s not trying to pass as real like Lucasfilm just used AI. I don’t know, I feel like I’m not being very clear. Just know that the animation is stellar and they do a great job with the little details. Like when Maul, Marrok, and The Eleventh Brother jump through the waterfall, you see stream rising off their lightsaber blades. Just little stuff like that.

Something I’ve also thought is that it’s likely Shadow Lord is going to avoid the issue of The Acolyte. In that it was pretty clearly written with season 2 in mind. There was no reason to tease both Yoda and Darth Plagueis unless you were planning on incorporating them into it. Shadow Lord has already confirmed season 2, and as such it’s allowed the show to let the story breath. They don’t have to cram everything into one season. And they know any cliffhangers can get resolved. I firmly believe that streaming shows should either be written with the expectation they only get one season. Or the show should commit to multiple seasons right off the bat so again, the story tellers can actually tell the story. Look at me spending Disney’s money like it’s my own.

It’s a testament to just how good Dave Filoni and the rest of the creative team at Lucasfilm is to have turned Darth Maul from essential a blank slate killing machine in The Phantom Menace to a character that might only be behind Anakin Skywalker in terms of being a tragic hero. This week we really got a peak behind the curtain, so to speak. Episode 7 was your standard Star Wars animated show. There’s some action and adventure. The plot moves along as the Empire looks to tighten its grip on Janix and capture and/or kill Maul, Devon, and Eko-Dio Daki. We’re treated to a pretty cool blaster shootout between Rook Cast and her crew of Mandalorian mercenaries versus the Empire’s never-ending supply of disposable Stormtroopers. The highlight of course is Maul taking on both Marrok and the Eleventh Brother in a lightsaber duel.

It’s only after the duel and we get to episode 8 that the real emotional weight of the series bears down on you. Yes, I am actually typing this words about an animated series about space wizards with laser swords. The title of Episode 8 is “The Creeping Fear.” As friend of Death Star HR Matthew Freeman noted, that was a rumored title for Revenge of the Sith.

Ahch-To Baby

The Creeping Fear

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5 months ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Matthew Freeman

It’s very on brand for the current iteration of Star Wars to either recycle a (maybe rejected) title or just go with an internet joke. Anyway, we do get to find out what the creeping fear is. It’s not the Empire taking over a planet then the galaxy. It’s not the Inquisitors hunting people down. It’s not even the ever present fear of the Dark Side. It’s the fear of history repeating itself and you’re powerless to stop it.

After Maul escapes from Marrok and the Eleventh Brother, he’s in bad shape. He’s gotten away from the Inquisitors but they’ve damaged his robot leg, he’s cut off from Rook Kast and the rest of his crew, and he still hasn’t convinced Devon to leave Daki and follow him. Not great. Even if you’re a very powerful Force user, not being able to run, let alone walk when you’re being hunted by two other powerful Force users is in fact bad. So the episode slows down and we get Maul having Force visions.

And here we get to the crux of Maul’s actions across The Clone Wars, Rebels, and now Shadow Lord. In each of the shows, he’s tried to convince one of the young Jedi to join him and destroy the Empire. First Ahoska Tano, then Ezra Bridger, and now Devon Izara. We the viewer are lead to believe Maul is simply trying to do a Rule of Two here. If you’re going to take on the most powerful Sith Lord in the galaxy, it would certainly help to have a buddy. Turns out Maul, at least from a certain point of view, trying to save the kids. Hear me out.

After watching the extended flashback, it all makes sense. We see a young Maul with his brother, Savage Opress2. Maul goes with Darth Sidious. We get to see that Sidious isn’t exactly a believer in gentle parenting. Rather than train Maul by putting him in timeout, Sidious resorts to Force lighting. And what does young Maul get in return for his loyalty? He gets cut in half by some jerk with a bad haircut and falls down a reactor shaft. Does his master go looking for him? Nope. Sidious just moves on and gets some geriatric disgruntled former Jedi to be his new apprentice. That's no way to say “thank you” for off’ing Qui-Gon.

Can’t expect gratitude from a Sith Lord.

Ever since he was brought back to life3, Maul has always been motivated by his burning desire to get revenge on Sidious. Only it turns out he’s not motivated by the pure hatred you’d expect from a Sith. But rather a chance to right his wrongs. Maul truly believes that killing Sidious is the right thing to do (it is) but not because he wants to seize the throne as King of the Sith or something like that. It’s to kill Sidious so he can’t hurt anyone else. Not just on a galaxy-wide scale, but to save all the little Force-sensitive Zabraks out there so they can’t be twisted to the Dark Side just for kicks.

Last two episodes this Monday. And they drop at 12:01 am in whatever time zone you’re in. I like the staggered release. Wonder if Disney will keep it up.

Also, the chase sequence when Devon, Daki, Lawson, Rylee, and Two-Boots are trying to escape was 100% an homage to F-Zero for the Super Nintendo.

Leaving the House for May the 4th

It is very close the holiest day in the Star Wars calendar. What’s the best day of the week for May the 4th to fall on? I kinda feel like Sunday might actually be the best day so you can celebrate all weekend. Monday, like it is this year, isn’t the worst. But until May the 4th gets recognized on the same level as the 4th of July and is a federal holiday, it’s probably better that it falls on a weekend. Hopefully you can find something fun to celebrate with.

Dallas area. Starting with the obvious since I live here.

• The Texas Theatre (aka the best movie theater in Dallas) is showing A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back on the 2nd and the 3rd and then showing Rogue One on Monday.

• Order 66 Toys in Plano is holding their grand opening this weekend. Morgan Eslbeth herself, or Diana Lee Inosanto as she’s known in this galaxy, will be signing autographs on the 2nd.

• Martin House Brewing in Fort Worth is holding their “May The 3rd Be With You” day on, wait for it, Sunday May 3rd. Lots of vendors with Star Wars themed merch and all sorts of fun stuff.

• The City of Carrollton is hosting a May the 4th Celebration in downtown Carrollton.

Elsewhere around the country. The city of Huntsville, Alabama’s animal services is holding a “May the 4-Pawed Be With You” adoption day where all adoption fees are waived.

If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, the Tatoonie of America; the Arizona Science will be showing the Original Trilogy over the weekend at the Dorrance DOME. Which I’m guessing is like the Las Vegas Sphere but I’m not sure.

The San Francisco International Film Festival closes on the 4th with a screening of Empire Strikes Back. Anthony Daniels will be there along with Lucasfilm veteran Howard Roffman, who served as the head of licensing for a number of years.

If you’re in Eastern Tennessee, on the 4th there’s the May The Fourth Be With You 4K in Elizabethton. There’s the 4K for everyone and the much shorter Darth Dash for kids under 10. Fun fact, Elizabethton was home to the Watauga Association. Formed in 1772, it’s considered the first independent frontier government.

Speaking of East Tennessee, if you’re in or around Chattanooga, the Collegedale Parks & Rec Department is hosting a May the 4th Be With You Star Wars celebration on the 4th. Fun fact about Collegedale, it’s the home of Little Debbie snacks. Jabba the Hutt would approve.

The movies just keep happening. If you’re near New Bedford, Mass, the Zeiterion theater is doing a back to back to back screening of the Original Trilogy. I’ve done this before, it’s going to depend on how supportive the seats at the theater are. When I saw it, by the time we were halfway through Jedi I was just like “blow up the Death Star so we can leave.”

Dayton, Ohio residents can hit up Dayton Brick Shop’s Star Wars Block Party on Saturday the 2nd. There’s a costume contest, the 501st will be there. And later that night, you can go head up to Springfield and see an Alice In Chains cover band.

For any Imperials in the Mitten State, the Great Lakes Garrison of the 501st is going to be busy this weekend with charity events and library appearances.

For a week, the Motor City transforms from Detroit to Detroitoonie with Space Dive 313. Think if you dropped the Mos Eisley Cantina on the east side of Motown. One of my cousins tipped me off to this. I have several cousins that are loyal readers and always appreciated. And then I have several more that don’t subscribe and are dead to me. This is very much a Star Wars adjacent type of thing. Come in your best costume that gives off Star Wars vibes. Space Dive 313 has been going since 2015, may have to head back to Detroit for this next year.

Also in Detroit, the best4 team in baseball is hosting a Star Wars night on the correct date. As I noted a a couple months ago, the Detroit Tigers are one of the few teams to hold Star Wars night on May the 4th. The Motor City Kitties are taking on the Boston Red Sox and if you were fast enough, you could have gotten yourself a spiffy and spacey Tigers jersey.

Five teams are holding a Star Wars night this weekend. On May 2nd, the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals have their event. And then along with the Tigers, the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, are also holding Star Wars night on the 4th.

Just as an aside about the greed of MLB team owners, it seems like more promotions like Star Wars day require an extra ticket to get whatever the promotion item is, instead of just having one handed to you when you walk through the gates. I love baseball but Rob “Palpatine” Manfred and the current crop of failson nepobaby owners makes it tough to enjoy. I have some beefs with the Texas Rangers as an organization, but at least for Grogu Bobblehead day at the end of May, it’s for the first 10,000 fans. No extra ticket required. Too bad the new Rangers ballpark has all the charm of the ISB offices.

Switching to footy, the Philadelphia Union are holding their Star Wars night May 2nd. There’s a costume contest, the Union mascot will be dressed as a Jedi, and all sorts of fun Star Wars related events.

And finally, if you’ve ever wanted to watch Empire Strikes Back where they filmed part of Return of the Jedi, you can head over to Yuma Historic Theater on May the 4th. You can also get a special Star Wars themed dinner from Prison Hill Brewery to nosh on while you watch the movie.

There are obviously tons of May the 4th activities out there, this is just what a quick Google News search turned. Decent chance no matter where you live, there’s something Star Wars related going on this weekend.

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

I feel like the fact that there is a video game simply called PowerWash Simulator and it is exactly as advertised was something I knew and had buried deep in my brain. The game was simple, you are a person with a power washer, and you wash things. I’ve never actually played the game but I watched some YouTube videos. The gameplay isn’t Call of Duty or Madden or Fortnite. But I can see how there would be a certain zen to it. As far as house work goes, power washing the back patio is high on the list of enjoyable jobs.

Friend of Death Star HR and real life friend known only as V-DUBS tipped me off to this. Now there’s good news for people who want to play a Star Wars video game, but think to themselves “I wish I didn’t have to be a Jedi or X-Wing pilot or Rebel spy and I could just be a guy who cleans Y-Wings.” There’s now PowerWash Simulator: Star Wars Edition.

How many hours of gameplay to power wash all the trash compactors on the Death Star?

This Day in Star Wars History

It’s not quite May the 4th, but May 1st is pretty close. Lots of good stuff today.

• Way back when in 1977, the first public preview screening of A New Hope, or just Star Wars as it was known then, took place in San Francisco. Willing to bet it’s one of those things where 200 people were there and 2,000 people claim they were.

• The book that kicked off the Expanded Universe, Heir to the Empire was published in 1991. Written by fellow MSU Spartan Timothy Zahn, the book introduced the World to Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade. I’m not a Sequel Trilogy hater, but the Thawn Trilogy is my sequel trilogy.

• Do the words “Katana Fleet” mean anything to you? If they do, you probably remember the 2nd book of the Thrawn Trilogy: Dark Force Rising. Published on this day 1992, the book continues the adventures our favorite blue skinned Imperial and his love of art.

• I know lots of people mock Palpatine returning and the method in which Disney informed us of it, but it’s not the first time Sheev survived getting tossed down a reactor core. The trade paperback version of the Dark Empire comic books was published in 1993.

• Actor Jake Cannavale was born in 1995. Cannavale played wannabe bounty hunter Toro Calican in The Mandalorian. When you try to double cross Mando, you only get one episode.

• The biggest sin of the Jedi was they ruined the career of the best podracer in the Outer Rim. But you can relive the glory days as Star Wars: Episode I Racer was released for the Nintendo 64 on this day in 1999.

• The series finale of The Bad Batch entitled “The Cavalry Has Arrived” aired on Disney+ in 2024. It might be time for a rewatch of The Bad Batch.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

I’m not sure how many articles there are in Wookiepedia, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time the randomizer has hit me with a page I’ve already talked about. Orcon. Who looks like Mer-Man from He-Man. I was going to skip him and move on, but then I realize that Orcon has done something that not even Mara Jada has managed to pull off, and that’s get himself back into canon.

I wrote about Orcon for FTDOW on August 23, 2024.

Orcon returned in comic book form in December 2024 in Ewoks #3. Not sure what the instructions from Lucasfilm were to the comic book writers, but I’m sure “make him look more like a badass” was part of it. As he had quite the glowup.

Orcon is still the king of whatever his species is and still lives in the lakes of the forest moon of Endor. But even with his new look, he’s still kind of a jerk.

Orcon was an alien male with green skin and black eyes. He considered the terrestrial beings that crossed the Endless Lake as intruders, calling them insufferable land-walking trash and attempting to feed them to young devil snakes. Orcon spoke in a language other than Galactic Basic.

Also worth noting, the Underwater Kingdom did not believe in pants.

When fighting the Imperials, Orcon wore no clothing but carried a red-staffed trident.

I like Orcon’s style. Or lack of it.

News From the HoloNet

Gina Carano Teases Potential Star Wars Return After ‘Really Nice’ Conversation With Lucasfilm Following Disney Lawsuit

Somehow…Cara Dune has returned.

The Mandalorian and Grogu has a runtime

132 minutes. Plan your spotchka breaks accordingly.

Lucasfilm Exec Says Fortnite is the Future of Star Wars Storytelling

The old person in my does not approve. But I understand meeting your fans where they are.

“Star Wars fans double down on call to bring back canceled show after it briefly returns to Disney Plus’ top 10”

I would like season 2 of The Acolyte as well but I’m not going to hold my breath.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back once again to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s a good one this week, worth the wait. The Death Star HR Podcast returns to talk about The Hunt for Ben Solo, we’re 3/5th of the way through Maul: Shadow Lord and being a teenager is tough in every galaxy. Mara Jade is back in one form but so far not the one people are hoping for. And Mando is going to clog your arteries.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Someone at The Onion has been on a Star Wars kick lately.

“Fans of the rich world George Lucas created can expect a consistent output of wildly varying guesses at what might appeal to them,” said Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who noted that the studio’s upcoming slate featured a half dozen or so untitled Star Wars films that would continue the stories of characters that executives sure hoped were beloved, or at the very least well-known.

I mean, the best satire is rooted in truth…

DSHR Podcast - Talking The Hunt for Ben Solo

Not going to lie, I am pretty proud of myself for getting the DSHR Podcast rolling on at least a semi-regular basis. Also not to brag, but it’s definitely the best Star Wars podcast in the history of the internet so you should check it out and subscribe.

This week I’m talking with and Kimberly about The Hunt for Ben Solo. The proposed movie that is currently trapped in the World Between Worlds. As you can see from the YouTube thumbnail, we clearly had a lot of fun talking about the latest news on the movie, their experiences at Toronto Comic Con, and what they’d want a Ben Solo movie to look like.

If you’re interested in the movement, check out Save Ben Solo for all the info. There’s two fun events coming up. This Sunday, April 26th, there’s a screening of The Last Jedi at the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana and it’s presented by the Save Ben Solo fan campaign. If you’re in Southern California, go check it out. It should be a good time.

And then over May the 4th weekend, Save Ben Solo is hosting a Sequel Trilogy online watch party. Jen is hosting The Force Awakens, Kimberly is hosting The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker is hosted by The Sacred Texts Podcast, one half of which is friend of Death Star HR Reychel of Jakku.

You obviously have to provide your own copy of the movie. Despite what AI would have you believe, copyright law is real and Disney does not mess around. I am going to at least pop in for this, it’s May the 4th weekend and there are some events going on in DFW (more on that in next week’s Death Star HR). It will be a great chance to come together and talk with other Star Wars fans.

Shadow Lord: Talking to Girls is Awkward

Something I’ve really enjoyed so far about Maul: Shadow Lord is normal the non-Maul/Jedi characters are. Sure, Maul is Maul. We’ve got awesome lightsaber skills and Sam Witwer chewing the scenery with his voice acting. Same with Marrok, Devon, and Eeko-Dio Daki. But it’s the regular people on Janix and in the galaxy that are just trying to get by. Lawson has his caf addiction.

The chief just wants to avoid any fallout. Friend of Death Star HR wrote about Drea Lawson and how ordinary people find themselves and rationalize working for evil organizations.

Ahch-To Baby

Calling Mom At Work

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord’s latest dual release represents the center of ten-episode season and the action accelerates accordingly. The Empire has finally arrived on Janix, pouring fascism into the city like it’s Frosted Flakes being poured into a cereal bowl. Marrok the Inquistor (who dies in the future…

Read more

3 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Matthew Freeman

Jedi and Sith are what they are. People that would be considered gods in any other circumstances. There’s a great scene in one of the New Jedi Order books where Luke Skywalker and Anakin Solo stage a lightsaber duel to basically distract and calm down a hostile crowd. But Lawson, he’s just a man with a crippling caf addiction trying to get through the day. I mean, look at this. He’s driving and not even using a travel mug.

He manages to survive an Imperial interrogation with an Inquisitor, only to come home and find that his son, Rylee is harboring not one, but two Jedi fugitives. I compared Lawson to Al Pacino in Heat. Which I guess makes Rylee Natalie Portman, it always comes back to Star Wars. Anyway, this is not what Lawson needs. So he and Daki send the kids out of the room so the adults can talk.

Poor Rylee. He’s got a rough homelife with a workaholic dad who might have a thing for a blue/purple-skinned crime boss but can’t be bothered to stay for a whole botekin match and a mom who’s on Coruscant working for the fascists. Not great. But maybe things are looking up. There’s a girl at your house, and she’s a Jedi! Even better, your dad and the weird old dude she’s hanging around with tell you and her to go to your room so they can talk. Only you don’t really know what to say to her.

Here I’m going to go on a classic Death Star HR digression. George Lucas takes a lot of heat for some of the wooden dialog in the movies. And one of the lines people often point to is Anakin’s “speech” to Padme in Attack of the Clones about how he hates sand. You know the one.

Yes it’s extremely awkward but as I’ve decided over the years, that’s the point. This of this from Anakin’s perspective. He’s had 10 years of building up the image of Padme in his mind. He’s also spent the last 10 years cloistered with a bunch of warrior monks who aren’t exactly encouraging when it comes to relationships. Being in a romantic relationship is not forbidden under the Jedi Code, but it’s definitely more of something you see in the books or cartoons. George’s vision of the Jedi seems to be Catholic priests with laser swords while some of the other media lets them be more like Episcopalians. Anyway, Anakin has had 10 years to think about Padme, he finally gets the chance to hang out with her, and realizes that being at the Jedi Temple might teach you a lot of things, but how to talk to girls isn’t one of them.

Back to Rylee, the kid just can’t catch a break. He gets a girl in his bedroom, only to have the moment interrupted when yet another person with a lightsaber comes barging in. Teen years are not fun.

Mara Jade Is Not the Chosen One

A month or so ago there was an announcement that a Mara Jade Funko Pop! was going to released. I thought I wrote about it for Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising but it doesn’t look like I did.

For those who don’t know, Mara Jade is probably the second most popular character from Timothy Zahn’s OG Thrawn trilogy from the early 90’s. I know, I know, the Talon Karrde and Joruus C’baoth stans are screaming at me right now, but it’s undeniable. Obviously Grand Admiral Thrawn is the most popular character and has made the jump from Expanded Universe to canon. But Mara Jade has been stuck in Expanded Universe purgatory. She had plenty of appearances in the Expanded Universe, starting out as the former Emperor’s Hand who just wanted to kill Luke Skywalker, to later on the books marrying him and having a kid. Your classic enemies to friends to lovers story. Not only was she in the books, but there was a Mara Jade action figure from the Power of the Force 2 line plus the Star Wars collectable card game and plenty of other appearances.

Despite all of this, Mara hasn’t made her way into canon yet. The reasons aren’t exactly known. Allegedly Uncle George did not like the character. There’s no real confirmation, just suggestions. Per her Wookieepedia page:

In 1988 to the question of why Luke Skywalker didn't get a love interest in the story, Star Wars creator George Lucas responded "You haven't seen the last three yet". After the introduction of the character, according to author Jonathan W. Rinzler and Lucasfilm executive Pablo Hidalgo, Lucas did not hold positive opinion of Mara Jade especially of her marriage to Luke, since it contradicted the monastic lifestyle of a Jedi Knight. The notion about Lucas disliking Jade's character was previously supported by the DVD bonus features for Robot Chicken: Star Wars. In 2008, Lucas stated the story of the Expanded Universe regarding the events after Episode VI "isn't at all what I would have done with it", specifically saying, "Luke doesn't get married."

Here’s the thing though. You will never convince me that Luke and Mara getting married in the EU happened without approval from Lucas. There are hundreds of Expanded Universe novels. Probably thousands of books if you get into the kids, young adult, and comic books. That’s not even getting into other things with plots, like video games that introduced characters that continued on into the books. Obviously Uncle George was not approving every single plot point for a novel. He didn’t have to sign on off say, the Yuuzhan Vong destroying Ithor with a bio-weapon, but he signed off on the Vong killing Chewbacca.

Now, Luke and Mara getting married isn’t on the same level as Chewie getting whacked, but it’s a pretty big deal. Lucas may not have loved the idea of a Jedi getting married. But he was well within his power to stop it and he didn’t1.

I had thought Mara getting a Funko Pop was all the Mara Jade news we’d get, sort of a fun little curiosity from a company might be staring down bankruptcy, turns out there was more Mara Jade news. Headlines popped up a couple weeks ago that Disney/Lucasfilm has been telling writers they can’t bring back everyone’s favorite Star Wars ginger.

It set all the Nerd News sites into a tizzy. Or at least sent them all a flutter. As Gizmodo notes:

“A couple of times I was like, ‘Really? Really, no Mara Jade?’ And they were like, ‘[Stern voice] Nope,’” Claudia Gray, who’s written several canon Star Wars novels, including the Leia-focused Bloodlines as well as several entries in the High Republic publishing initiative, revealed during the “Writing the Star Wars Universe” panel at MegaCon 2026 recently (via PopVerse).

“I asked them too,” Zahn added in reply, although that’s not the first time Mara’s creator has been on the record as saying he’s attempted. A few years ago at Dragoncon 2024, Zahn described his pitches to bring Mara Jade back into continuity being met with answers from Lucasfilm ranging “some place between ‘no’ and ‘heck no.’”

There are two possible and logical reasons for this.

1. Uncle George really does hate Mara Jade and included something in the contract with Disney that Mara never comes back. I have long speculated that Lucas included some clauses in the contract restricting Disney’s ability to do certain things. Such as showing the original, non-Special Edition versions of the movies. Maybe he really hated the Mara Jade character so much he told Disney a condition of the sale would be that Mara Jade would never appear in canon again. Possible. It would be a weird hill to die on. But you never know.

2. Mara Jade is coming back. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But eventually. Lucasfilm has a plan for her. Or to borrow the vernacular of our current (very stupid) timeline, there is a concept of a plan for her.

If I were to bet my hard earned Republic Credits, I’d go with option two. Mara Jade will return at some point. There’s an obvious spot for her right now, there were rumors last year when it was announced Amy Adams was going to be in Starfighter that she’d be playing Mara Jade. I didn’t believe that at all for two reasons. First off, the timeline wouldn’t match. Starfighter is going to take place in 40 ABY. Mara was born in 17 ABY, which would make her 57 in Starfighter. That’s not that much older than Amy Adams who is 51. And Hollywood regularly has people who are in their mid 20’s playing high schoolers, so a 51 year old playing a 57 year old makes sense.

But what I mean by the timeline is by 40 ABY, Luke Skywalker is dead, having died at the end of The Last Jedi. I know, I know; I say all the time that nobody really dies in Star Wars. You can watch a podcast of me talking about Ben Solo who isn’t getting another movie because Bob Iger says “isn’t he dead?” Mark Hamill has pretty much ruled out ever returning as Luke. So bringing back Mara Jade in a timeline where she’s a widow is not at all what people want to see. They want to see the Luke/Mara relationship.

Mara Jade is the type of character that’s Dave Filoni catnip though. A popular Expanded Universe character that can be brought back? It wouldn’t surprise me if Cowboy Dave already has a script in his desk. The only question is how could they bring her back? Especially since there haven’t been any hints of Mara Jade in the last 11 years of Lucasfilm. Based on the current, meager, list of known Star Wars projects there’s not an obvious place for her. Maybe you could sneak a hint of her into season 2 of Ahsoka and then give Mara a grand debut in the Filoniverse movie.

And this goes back to why the current crop of Star Wars authors can’t use Mara Jade. It’s one thing to have Mara’s whole story spelled out in the Expanded Universe and Disney being able to hand wave it away. It’s another to allow Claudia Gray and Timothy Zahn to come up with a new story for Mara Jade and not have it jive with whatever Filoni and company are planning on doing with Mara Jade. Death Star HR is staking its claim that we’ll get Mara Jade sometime soonish. Unless we don’t.

Garazeb Orrelios Is Ready For His Closeup

We are less than a month from the first Star Wars movie on the big screen since 2019! Do you have your tickets? I certainly do. The slow yet steady drip of clips/teasers/interviews from The Mandalorian and Grogu continues. First off, everyone’s favorite Lasat is back and we finally get to see him kicking ass. I know Zeb officially made his live-action debut in season 3 of The Mandalorian, but let’s be honest. It might have been live, but there wasn’t any action. It was just Zeb sitting in the New Republic cantina. Well, now we get all the action.

Oh Grogu, you’re so silly. And speaking of Grogu being silly, I can’t help but love the bit when people treat Grogu like he’s real. It’s like Michael Caine in A Muppet Christmas Carol2 where he absolutely plays it straight.

@starwarsPedro Pascal and Grogu reflect on the fun times. Experience Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu only in theaters May 22. Get tickets now at the link in our bio.

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Also putting these here since it’s tied in. Jon Favreau, director of The Mandalorian and Grogu, has been hitting the talk show/con/podcast circuit.

Fully expecting Disney to bring out the big guns closer to the release date and send Pedro out there on the late night circuit.

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

If you were alive for The Phantom Menace, then you remember the fast food ties. Lucasfilm struck a deal with YUM! Brands and had plenty of little toys at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I know I still have a few tucked away in a box somewhere. If you’re in your 40’s on up, this will probably unlock some core memories.

Well, Star Wars is at it again to help raise your cholesterol. This time Burger King is teaming up with Disney for The Mandalorian and Grogu. Just look at this feast.

Fire up your Razor Crest and head to your nearest BK and you can try the BBQ Bounty Whopper, Grogu’s Blue Cookie Shake, Grogu's Garlic Chicken Fries, and the Imperial Cheddar Ranch Tots. There are also 4 different cups along with some toys that aren’t pictured but available in a kids meal. Am I going to go to Burger King and order something so I can get a cup? Yes. Will it be worth the 3 years that Burger King takes off my life? Also yes.

This Day in Star Wars History

Kind of a mixed bag for April 24th in the galaxy far, far away.

• Screenwriter Damon Lindelof was born in 1973. Lindelof is probably best known as a showrunner on Lost. In the Star Wars universe, he’s been one of the 53 writers3 who’ve worked on the Rey New Jedi Order movie.

• The final day of Star Wars Celebration III took place in Indianapolis in 2005. Celebration is noted for Uncle George making an appearance and promising A) a live action TV show that Wookieepedia says was supposed to be Underworld. It didn’t happen. And B) Star Tours II.

• The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film by J.W. Rinzler was published today in 2007. I have it somewhere in my stacks of Star Wars books. It’s a good read and has a lot of history.

• The Expand Universe novel Scourge, by Jeff Grubb was published in paperback on this day in 2012. I have a pretty close to complete collection of Expanded Universe novels, I’m actually not sure I have this one. It would have been one of the last ones published before the sale to Disney. I also always get it confused with the Revan novel because there’s a character in that one named Scourge. But not the same Scourge in this book.

• I usually don’t list comic books here simply because there’s so many, but since Galaxy’s Edge 1 was published today in 2019, we’re going for it. Written by Ethan Sacks, who’s written quite a few Star Wars comics, it was written as a tie-in for the recently opened Galaxy’s Edge/Black Spire Outpost.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

If you’re a long time reader of Death Star HR, you know my holy trinity of articles for FTDOW is A) Food, B) Music, and C) Sports. And as luck would have it, the first time I hit the randomizer, I ended up with Food market A.

Food market A was a location on the Death Star battle station. Food market A was listed on the Death Star Directory in sector 612, and was destroyed alongside the Death Star by the Rebel Alliance at the Battle of Yavin.

What’s fun here is I had assumed this was going to be something from the Expanded Universe novel Death Star, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Instead, it’s from the Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars crossover. Go figure.

News From the HoloNet

Why Star Wars’ 8-Part Sith Show Is Trending On Streaming

It does make sense that anyone wanting more Sithy content would watch The Acolyte.

Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi Rumored To Return With Luke Skywalker As Its Lead Character

I get the “Tales” shows are kind of a bonus for the fans, but please use those as a chance to showcase new, or at least lesser characters.

Andor’ Wins a Peabody Award

Just give Andor all the awards.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

It’s Monday morning. You’re dreading logging on and work and seeing what fresh hell is waiting for you in your Teams notifications. Your weekend was meaningless since there wasn’t a Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter last Friday. But what’s this in your inbox? A Monday morning Death Star HR? Suddenly the week is looking up. There’s a new Mando trailer. There’s a new Spaceballs 2 teaser. And the Death Star HR Book Club is back.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

Disney pulling out all the stops from The Mandalorian and Grogu.

@starwarsYou never know who you'll run into at WrestleMania. Tap the link in our bio to get tickets to experience Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu only in theaters and IMAX May 22.

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I’m not sure what it says about the state of our culture where we have a Mando and Grogu/Wrestlemania crossover. That’s not a shot at professional wrestling at all. I don’t watch it now, but back in college all my buddies and I would watch Monday Night RAW. It’s just not something I would expect.

DSHR Podcast: The Top Star Wars Scenes

The Death Star Human Resources Department Podcast returns. This week I’m talking with who writes Our Star Wars Scenes here on Substack.

We talk about Attack of the Clones, what it took for him to watch, rank, and write this top 100 Star Wars scenes, and a whole lot more. So give us a watch and make sure you’re subscribed to Our Star Wars Scenes.

Our Favorite Star Wars Scenes

A friendly place to discuss Star Wars

By Christopher Wilbur

Shadow Lord: It’s Only After We’ve Lost Everything That We’re Free To Do Anything

Editor’s Note: I know episodes 5 and 6 of Shadow Lord are out. Those will be covered this Friday.

It never ceases to amuse me that Fight Club and Star Wars will be forever tied together. One is a movie that is a scathing critique of capitalism and consumer culture and the worst person you know completely misses the point of the movie1. The other is the franchise that helped create the modern blockbuster as we know it and set the template for merchandising. How many tons of plastic Star Wars paraphernalia are in landfills. After humanity has wiped itself out, extra-terrestrial archeologists will unearth a bunch of Star Wars figures and conclude we worshiped Chewbacca as a god.

There is a point, episode 3 of Maul: Shadow Lord gave us the first meeting between Maul and Devon Izara. Maul’s stated goal is to get an apprentice. He might not be a Sith Lord but he’s still down with the Rule of Two. And rather than killing her with a lightsaber, he decides to kill her with kindness.

Maul offers Devon what she wants, which is a chance to fight. Devon and her Master, Eeko-Dio Daki have been surviving but not thriving. Devon stealing the fruit against Eeko-Dio Daki’s advice is an act of frustration. Daki preaches the typical Jedi advice. Be patient. Trust the Force. Stay out of sight, yada yada yada. The last one is good advice. At this point we don’t know if Daki and Devon are aware of the Inquisitors. But we do know for the trailers at the very least we’re going to see Marrok and the Eleventh Brother. Possibly Barris Offee as an Inquisitor as well. Her helmet is in the opening credits.

We can all agree that eventually Devon is going to turn to the dark side, right? Even if she’s not actually Darth Talon, it will be one of those Yuuzhan Vong/Grysk type of situations, where’s she’s Darth Talon even if she gets a different name. Anyway, all the teaching from the Jedi Temple still has a hold on Devon. She’s tempted by Maul’s offer that they join forces and have a grand adventure fighting Darth Sidious. After all, he’s responsible for their current predicaments. She of course refuses and runs off after a lightsaber duel. But she’ll be back.

One really can’t blame Devon when she eventually goes dark side though. All she’s known in life is either at the Jedi Temple or hiding from the Empire. It’s no way to live. She’s lost everything, so why not give the dark side a try.

Side note, Two-Boots has gone from beloved side character to Two-Boots Licker. Calling in the Empire like that? What a narc.

It’s the Final Countdown…Errr…Trailer

By the time you read this, we’ll be just over a month away from The Mandalorian and Grogu. And that means we got the Final Trailer!

Tickets are on sale. I’ll see you at the movies. Well, I actually won’t. But you know what I mean.

Spaceballs: The Teaser Trailer

The Spaceballs sequel has been teased since, well, Spaceballs. Which was 39 years ago. Wild. It’s funny to think Spaceballs was only 4 years after Return of the Jedi and only 10 years after Star Wars debuted.

While Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money was a very, very good joke, it worked then and it still works now, but I didn’t think it would actually be the name. Mel would switch it up to keep us on our toes. I believe it was Rick Moranis who once suggested Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2. There’s no new footage, just the name: Spaceballs: The New One.

Honestly, I like it because The Force Awakens could have been called Star Wars: The New One. As Mel Says, “It’s just like the old one, but it’s newer.”

I’m sure I’m not the first person to say it, but it seems obvious there’s going to be Baby Yogurt a la Baby Yoda, right? Grogurt maybe?

A Bigger Party Than A Chandrilan Wedding

As we all know, or at least you should know if you’re a regular reader here, next year is the 50th anniversary of Star Wars. I don’t really like thinking about it because while I am not older than Star Wars, I’m also not that much younger. It’s kinda scary to think about, that the grim reaper is stalking me like Sand People stalking Luke Skywalker in the Dune Sea. But, I’m not going out yet. At least not before I make it to Star Wars Celebration 2027.

It’s far too easy to make a joke about Los Angeles being the wretched hive of scum and villainy and honestly, I like California. Every time I’ve visited, I’ve always had a good time. I know there’s all the ‘DON’T CALIFORNIA MY TEXAS’ nonsense down here, but that’s largely so state leaders can have a scapegoat to blame so people will ignore the fact the Texas power grid is basically held together with duct tape and prayer. I don’t think California cares about us, they’re too busy enjoying mountains and oceans and good weather.

Anyway, all that to say that Tickets for Star Wars Celebration go on sale May 6th. Nobody, as far as I know, knows who or what exactly we’re going to see at Star Wars Celebration. I think it’s safe to say Uncle George will be there in some capacity. There were people online in groups hoping he’d sign autographs but that seems unlikely2. Same with Harrison Ford who thinks we’re all a bunch of weirdos. Also seems very likely there will be an extended sneak peak at Starfighter. But given the current lack of announced projects, who knows what kind of treats there will be for us.

The entire team at Death Star HR, ie me, are planning on being there. I’ve suggested a few times to Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan she come to a con and do a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog type of routine, but so far she has declined.

Mark your calendars and I’ll see you in all in the city of (are you an) angels.

The Death Star Human Resources Department Book Club

It’s been a while since I’ve had an entry for the Death Star HR Book Club. My goal this year was actually to get more books read, not less. And here I am halfway through April and I’m behind. It’s not all bad I suppose, this is the fifth Death Star HR Book Club of the year, even if one entry was for a comic book. I’m taking a little break from Legends Expanded Universe books to read a couple canon ones. And then it will be back to the EU. I haven’t picked up an almost complete collection of EU paperbacks to not read them.

• Title: The Living Force

• Series: Standalone.

• Author: John Jackson Miller

• Date published: April 9, 2024

• Pages: 432

• Status: Canon

• Summary in less than 20 words: The Jedi Council takes a road trip but they can’t outrun generational trauma.

Something Star Wars sort of hand waves away, like a Jedi Mind Trick, is the process in which a child somewhere in the Star Wars galaxy gets to be a Jedi. We know some of the process, even if we don’t see it we’re told enough. You go to the Jedi Temple, and you train. Then eventually if you do a good enough job you’re a Padawan and you train one on one with an older Jedi. Do good there and you get to cut your little braid off and become a full-fledged Jedi Knight. Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy. And who knows, maybe your first assignment as a Jedi Knight will be kidnapping Force sensitive children.

I’m just saying, if you remove the word “Jedi” it sure looks like a religious order engaging in child trafficking with the approval of the government.

There’s no doubt there are plenty of parents on planets like Coruscant or Corellia or Kaut who would seek out the Jedi if they thought their kids had any Force powers. Because why not? Living in the Jedi Temple, especially during a time of relative peace, would be a pretty sweet deal. But what about in places off the beaten path? The Jedi couldn’t even find the Chosen One out on Tatooine before he was too old to be trained. It was only thought a very complex scheme that Anakin even made it to the Temple. Out on Brendok, Masters Sol and Indara basically threaten Mother Aniseya and the coven with the full backing of the Republic; give us your children, or else. And the Sol even leaves with Osha after the Jedi Council tells him not to. How many parents lost their kids to the Jedi Order against their will?

Not only that, what do you think it did to the children? To be ripped away from their parents by a bunch of warrior monks with laser swords and mostly bad haircuts. You tell someone that you want to go home, only for some little green weirdo to say “your home, this temple is now.” It’s probably a good thing the Sith had the Rule of Two because you have to think there’s a lot of kids with a lot of abandonment issues. It would make for pretty good recruiting grounds for the Sith.

Which brings us to Zilastra, the main villain in the book. Zil, as she was known to her friends, had a grand scheme to become a pirate queen. Her crew, the Riftwalkers, might be the new pirate crew on the block out in The Slice, but Zil’s got big plans that she’s going to unite the various pirate crews with her in charge. Good goals, especially for an orphan (more on that in a bit).

Meanwhile, the Jedi Council is in a bit of a rut. They’re bogged down in the paperwork and minutia of leading an organization of warrior monks who can move things with their mind. It’s exciting to be a Jedi Master when you’re out having adventures, battling pirates or the Sith. It’s a lot less exciting when you’re sorting documents from a decommissioned Jedi outpost on some distant planet that includes, but are not limited to, a catering bill involving a Hutt. I know Yoda said a Jedi does not crave adventure and excitement, but surely there’s a happy medium between fighting the Sith and mountains of paperwork.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have a run in with some dim-witted pirates on a passenger ship, and rather than being in awe of the Jedi, the unwashed masses express anger that the Jedi closed an outpost on their planet and it allowed the pirate gangs and criminal syndicates to take over. The nerve of the rabble!

Qui-Gon gets the bright idea that the Jedi have become a little too comfortable in their literal ivory tower and pitches the Council on a Jedi road trip. He proposes that since the Jedi are going to close an outpost on Kwenn, a planet in The Slice, they all go to Kween, get in touch with the real people, and maybe not close the outpost after all. Of course, the Council doesn’t really want to do this. I think there’s a reason that when we first meet the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace, Mace Windu looks extremely annoyed at Qui-Gon. Mace has dealt with years of Qui-Gon’s nonsense, bad enough they had to do this Jedi retreat, but then he thinks some desert rat is the Chosen One?

And finally, at least one member of the Jedi Council gets to have an adventure. Master Depa Billaba is working undercover in The Slice, trying to take down some pirates. This kinda seems like overkill to have a member of the Jedi Council doing this. Surely there’s some local law enforcement that should be handling this, or at most this should be a the job for a Jedi Knight. While undercover she befriends Kylah, an orphan who wants to be a pirate and is hooked up with Zilastra (file this under obvious foreshadowing).

Everything comes to a head on Kween. The Jedi Council have to get out and get their hands messy, literally and figuratively, and remember that there’s more to being a Jedi than paperwork and moving things with your mind. The Force runs through all living things in the galaxy so it’s a good idea to get out and actually talk and interact with people. They also have to work together with the citizens of Kween to A) restore their faith in the Jedi and B) fight off the pirates.

So, I promised to address this. Why was Zilastra so mad at the Jedi? I mentioned she was an orphan. While she was being raised in orphanage with her two friends, Jedi Master Syfo-Dyas, the Clone army creator, paid a visit to the orphanage and decided that while her friends would be good candidates for Jedi training, Zilastra herself was not and she was too be left behind to fend for herself. To be fair to the Jedi, Syfo-Dyas wasn’t supposed to do this. But he seems to care about Jedi regulations about as much as Qui-Gon did. So yeah, Zilastra was abandoned and left in an orphanage and then the Jedi took her only friends. You really can’t blame her for having a grudge against the Order.

I’ve read some of other Star Wars books by John Jackson Miller, the Expanded Universe novel Kenobi is a good one, and never picked up on any overtly political leanings from him. Likewise Miller’s social media is generally just updates on convention appearances and regular updates about what he’s up to. I also can’t help but wonder if this is supposed to be some sort of meta-commentary on America and maybe the world these days. The gap between the haves and the have nots is increasing. We’re in what’s called a K-shaped economy. It’s not a perfect one to one extrapolation to the galaxy far, far away, but the Jedi are certainly part of the elite of the galaxy. Even if they’re not rich (has Star Wars ever said if the Jedi get a salary?) they are high-status just by having telekinesis and being able to carry a laser sword. Anakin gets to meet with the Chancellor in his private opera box in Revenge of the Sith. The Jedi are in regular communication with high ranking Republic officials. And even getting off of Corsucant, the Jedi are routinely called on to handle disputes between various important people throughout the galaxy. Is this Jackson trying to say (or state the obvious) that the elites in society are out of touch? Or am I just reading too much into it.

The Good:

• This is a genuinely good Star Wars book. Miller gives all the members of the Jedi Council time to shine and their own personality. It would have been really easy to ignore the “lesser” members and just focus on say Yoda, Mace Windu, and Ki-Adi-Mundi. But instead Yaddle, Yarael Ploof, and Even Piell all get things to do.

• Likewise, Jackson manages to keep the story moving even with all the characters that need some time. I’ve thought with other Star Wars books that try to have too many characters can get confusing. Not this one.

• Zalistra is a good villain. It would have been easy to make her one dimensional, but she’s not. I know there is some consternation among some people I see on Substack that we can’t just have villains that are evil for the sake of being evil. And I’d argue Star Wars has those. The Sith are generally just bad dudes and dudettes. But there’s also room for the sympathetic villains like Zalistra.

The Bad:

• Not much and I’m kinda reaching to think of something. While I complimented Miller that he gave all the members of the Jedi Council their own story and time to shine, the middle of the book also felt like we were just sending the Council members on side quests so each one could get their pages.

• And even then, all the Jedi Council Members doing side quests had a point because each of them got to reconnect to people in their own way. But it still felt bogged down at times.

Wild Card:

• Mr. Miller, this is libel against my profession and you will be hearing from my lawyer (me) shortly.

Next up is the canon novel Master of Evil by Adam Christopher. I’m pretty excited, it’s a Vader novel and had really good reviews.

Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars

It’s Friday night. Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan and I are talking about what we’re going to do and if there’s anything we want to watch.

Me: It’s OK, I already picked out what we’re going to watch.

Her: Is it Darth Stupidhead?

Me: Uh, no.

Her: Is it the Tigers?

Me: Yup.

Me: Darth Stupidhead, really?

Her: Not my best work, but I didn’t have anything locked and loaded.

Maybe I won’t take her to Celebration to do her Triumph routine of Darth Stupidhead is the best she’s coming up with.

This Day in Star Wars History

Two births and a death to cover on April 20th in the Star Wars universe.

• A man who needs no introduction, George Takei was born in 1937. Takei of course is best known for playing Sulu in Star Trek. But he voiced Lok Durk in the The Clone Wars along with voicing two different characters in Visions. He was also the first Star Trek regular to have a part in Star Wars.

• Someone else who doesn’t need any introduction, Andy Serkis was born in 1964. Serkis established I guess what is a niche for himself doing motion capture work. He’s best known as the one ring-loving Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. Who hasn’t uttered “my precious” in a creepy voice at some point? In the galaxy far, far away he played Snoke in the Sequel Trilogy along with Kino Loy in the first season of Andor. An unforgettable character in a show filled with unforgettable characters.

• Scottish actor Alex McCrindle passed away in 1990. McCrindle played General Dodanna in A New Hope, and is believe it or not, the first person on film to say “may the Force be with you.” He also had a pretty lengthy career in the UK, both in movies and television.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

As you all know, KOTOR and KOTOR II are some of my favorite video games. And when the randomizer turned up a random item from KOTOR II, you know that’s what I was going with. This week is the Strength D-package.

The Strength D-package augmented the user's strength and stamina without the need for increased muscle mass through a combination of regulating brain stem functions and small doses of adrenal stimulants. The technology of D-package implants had the consequence of rendering them larger and more intrusive than other types. Thus, they tended to have more impressive effects, but could only be used by very healthy individuals.

Basically proteinmaxxing but in the Old Republic.

News From the HoloNet

Super rare Boba Fett action figure fetches $1.3 million at auction

If I win the lottery, there will be signs.

Lego’s May the 4th Star Wars drop is here, and half the sets are under $50

OK, the Naboo N-1 ship is really cool. It’s not $250 worth of cool though.

New ‘Star Wars’ Series on Disney Plus Shatters Streaming Records

The people demanded more Maul.

Disney Refuses To Bring Back The One Character Who Could Save Star Wars

I am going to write about the whole Mara Jade thing on Friday. But saying she’s the character who could save Star Wars is classic clickbait. So don’t click. He’s talking about Mara Jade.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Happy Friday and welcome once again to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Maul mania is officially upon us, with the first two episodes of Shadow Lord being released on Monday to universal rave reviews. There’s been a not very good update in The Hunt For Ben Solo. And one of the best Star Wars video game characters is finally getting their own action figure.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

I’ve had this guy pop up in my Instagram algorithm a few times, probably because I live in Texas.

If you’ve never watched a hatter do his or her thing, it’s pretty cool. I actually have a nice hat, I just never have an excuse to wear it. Because even though I live in Texas, I’m in Dallas. Which is different from “Texas”. Trust me, they are two different things.

Darth Maul: Shadow Lord is a Dudes Rock Movie

Something I hadn’t really thought about until I sat down to watch the first two episodes of Darth Maul: Shadow Lord on Monday night. This is the first new Star Wars series we’ve had, animated or live action, since season 2 of Andor. Yes, I know there was Visions Volume 3 and Tales of the Underworld, but those were either a series of one-off stories or a very short series. Any show following Andor is going to have a lot of live up to. Even if Shadow Lord is animated, it’s not like Star Wars doesn’t have a pretty great track record of animated shows. The story telling in some of The Clone Wars and in Rebels is top notch, challenging any live action show for its depth and emotion. It’s also unfair that most Star Wars media for the foreseeable future is going to get compared, fairly or unfairly, to Andor.

Andor is a slow burn, that’s deliberate. It makes the action sequences that much more impactful. Shadow Lord is giving the people want they want, pedal to the metal Star Wars action! The opening scene is straight out of Heat or maybe The Dark Knight. And we get all the beats those two movies have to offer. The criminal masterminds who are way too smart and always give steps ahead of the cops. The honest cop with the train wreck of a homelife, Lawson is basically Al Pacino in Heat or Commissioner Gordon in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. His side-kick who I am positive isn’t going to make it, RIP in advance, Two-Boots. Since it’s Star Wars there’s the ever present threat of the Empire. This is not a show that’s going to deal in many shades of gray.

Or at least there aren’t going to be shades of gray for the A Plot. The B Plot, Maul taking Devon Izara as his apprentice who OF COURSE is going to become Darth Talon or another Sith apprentice who is Darth Talon but with a different name. As yet another Jedi who survived Order 661 along with Eeko-Dio Daki, voiced by Dennis Hasbert. Is this the first time 24 and the Star Wars galaxy has collided? It seems pretty obvious she’s going to struggle between staying with Eeko-Dio Daki and her Jedi training, and thinking that Maul offers her the best opportunity to get her revenge on the Empire that upended and ruined her life.

When Devon is busted for swiping a few pieces of fruit from a street vendor, Eeko-Dio Daki advises her just explain her situation to the police and hope they’ll be understanding. Maybe that would have worked during the Republic, when a Jedi might have been given a little slack by the local authorities. But we’re in a new world now. Even if the Empire is not on Janix (yet) it’s still a place where keeping your head down and your mouth shut is the way to go. And that’s an important life lesson for anyone watching the show. If you are being investigated by the police, do not talk to them. Zip your lips and lawyer up.

The Good:

• Quite simply, Shadow Lord is the best looking Star Wars animated series we’ve seen yet. The detail on the characters is great, and the entire city/planet of Janix looks amazing. I think it’s a combination of matte paintings for the backgrounds and CGI for the characters? Not sure but whatever they are doing is fantastic.

• This is going to be fun. I hate that I keep coming back to Andor, it’s really not fair considering they are two completely different shows. But Andor is the grim warning about fascism that we in America did not take seriously. Shadow Lord is going to be kick-ass battles and Darth Maul going HAM with his lightsaber.

• The evolution of Maul. Darth Maul has always suffered from Boba Fett Disease, he’s been considered way more important than you’d think given his minimal screen time. Even when he was first introduced for The Phantom Menace as basically just Sidious’ enforcer, albeit a really cool looking one. Over the years we’ve been able to explore his character. Will this be the Darth Maul magnum opus?

The Bad:

• Short episodes? I guess? I don’t know. I have no complaints.

• OK, if I have to think of something. Did this show need to exist? I am 99% certain I am going to enjoy the hell out of this show, but there are a lot of other Star Wars stories out there I’d like to see.

Wild Cards:

• The scene where Lawson goes to the club or the lounge to meet Rheena Sul, we all see that’s just a ripoff of Aria and the Afterlife club from Mass Effect 2, right?

• Speaking of Rheena Sul, the character is voiced by Pamela Aldon, better known for voicing Bobby Hill on King of the Hill. It all goes back to Texas. Always does.

• Chicken parm exists in the Star Wars universe. Also, that sounds like a good idea for lunch today.

  

Two new episodes this coming Monday. Can’t wait to see what’s in store next.

We Are No Longer(???) Hunting For Ben Solo

Funny that this article popped up on Thursday when I have a podcast session scheduled for tomorrow to talk about The Hunt for Ben Solo. As a quick refresher, last fall it was learned that there was a script written for a Ben Solo movie. Adam Driver was on board along with Steven Soderbergh. The script was shown to Lucasfilm head honchos Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, and Carrie Beck who were all reportedly big fans of it. However, Emperor Igertine AKA Disney CEO Bob Iger along with Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Entertainment, put the stop on the movie because Ben Solo was already dead.

There has been a significant fan movement that has popped up to try to save the movie. Last November I chatted with Reychel of Jakku who went viral for standing outside Disney headquarters in California while dressed as Rey.

Once Dave Filoni was named President of Lucasfilm and Bob Iger was replaced as CEO, there was a new hope surrounding the film. Filoni was already on board with The Hunt For Ben Solo and maybe he’d be able to convince incoming CEO Josh D’Amaro to green light it. After all, there was at least already a script written, the star was on board, and there was a director. The Rey New Jedi Order movie is on its third for fourth writer, has Daisy Ridley and a vague idea and that’s about it. And Rey is allegedly the face of the franchise. But let’s be honest, it’s really Grogu.

So when The Playlist asked Soderbergh if he though there was a chance to revisit The Hunt For Ben Solo with the Disney regime change, he didn’t mince words:

However, in a wider The Playlist interview about his upcoming film “The Christophers,” Steven Soderbergh made clear he is not interested in reopening the door on his abandoned “Star Wars: The Hunt For Ben Solo” project with Adam Driver, no matter who is now running Lucasfilm or Disney.

His answer was brutally short: “Nope.”

Now, there is probably a little context or explanation needed. The full interview hasn’t been released yet so there’s no context as to the question or the answer. If Dave Filoni and Adam Driver called up Soderbergh, would he change his mind? The interview is pretty clear that Driver was the one driving the idea, that Adam came to Soderbergh with the idea that there was more to the Ben Solo story left to tell. Hopefully the full interview will give a few more clues. I’m not giving up hope, but it’s also not looking good.

Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising

The usual goal for Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising is to highlight either A) weird and obscure Star Wars items that catch my fancy or B) something that’s in my personal collection, and hopefully it’s weird and obscure. Today is neither, but it’s still really cool.

I’ve mentioned plenty of times about my love for the Knights of the Old Republic video games. KOTOR II suffers some gameplay issues because it was done way too quickly so the game could be released for the holiday rush, but it has a great story. And one of the more interesting characters we’ve seen in Star Wars, Darth Traya. Traya isn’t just your average Darth, she wants to kill the Force altogether. It really is a great story. And now, we’re finally getting Darth Traya in plastic.

So on the one hand, this is awesome because it’s an awesome figure plus she comes with a re-sculpted Darth Nihilus. I have the original Black Series Nihilus sitting my bookcase, in between Darth Revan and Dedra Meero. Real murderers row of evil, quite literally. I love it. On the other hand, it’s $60 bucks and I’m not sure I love it that much. And it’s an Amazon exclusive. I’m going to have to think about this one.

Things My Wife Has Said About Star Wars

This one’s from a few week’s ago but just haven’t had a chance to write it up. So I was texting back and forth with the Crazy Old Hermit From Tarrant County about John Boyega making an appearance at this year’s Rebel Scum Con. At the same time, Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan was on the phone with a friend, so she’s trying to ask me questions and explain to her friend what’s going on.

On Boyega:

EP#1F: He’s in the new movies, right? He’s the pilot? No…he’s the one who used to be a Stormtrooper!

Me: Good job!

EP#1F: I hate that I know that.

On Denise Gough’s appearance at RSC.

Blondie from Andor is going to be there. And if I cared about Andor, I know she’d be my favorite character.

Dedra Meero deserves more respect but I’m glad she’s been paying attention.

On Manny Jacinto:

Did you watch The Good Place? OK, he was on that. It was the Star Wars show with the twins, the witches, and the guy with the creepy helmet. I guess Jeff wants his autograph.”

All this just goes to show that despite her claims otherwise, she actually does pay attention. I offered to bring to to Rebel Scum Con this year. So far, no luck.

This Day in Star Wars History

I really thought I had already covered April 10th previously because of the first person listed below. But I went through the archives and it’s not popping up. So who knows.

• Legendary actor Max von Sydow was born in 1929. Von Sydow had a career spanning nine decades, from 1949 to a posthumous appearance in 2021. His only appearance in Star Wars was the old guy at the start of The Force Awakens. He was probably best known for playing Father Merrin in The Exorcist, but appeared in everything from Conan the Barbarian to Dune to Three Days of the Condor.

• Actor Peter MacNicol was born in 1951 in Dallas, Texas. Like Max von Sydow, MacNicol appeared in Ghostbusters II. In the Star Wars universe, he voiced the Rodian Tseebo in two episodes of Rebels.

• An actress who needs no introduction, Daisy Ridley aka Rey Palpatine Skywalker was born in 1992. Since I am in my mid-40’s, I generally divide the world into two time frames, before and after grunge music. Ridley was born after grunge came out, which officially makes me old.

• English actress Margaret Towner passed away in 2017. Towner played Jira, the woman who tells Anakin he needs to run home because the storm’s a brewin’ in The Phantom Menace.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

Music in the Star Wars universe is one of the top three things I look for every week in FTDOW. Star Wars food and articles that shouldn’t exist are my other two favorites. This week we’ve got the Arconan flute.

An Arconan flute was a special type of flute played by the Arconans.

Yup. That’s it. There you go. The Wookieepedia equivalent of “this meeting could have been an email.”

News From the HoloNet

‘Maul: Shadow Lord’ Sets A Star Wars Rotten Tomatoes Record

I have a tough time believing Shadow Lord will keep a 100% score, but so far so good.

Disney Eats: Star Wars Popcorn Buckets, Sippers, and More New Novelties Deploying Soon Across Disneyland

If you’ve ever wanted to eat popcorn out of the disembodied head of a protocol droid, now’s your change. Thanks to friend of Death Star HR for tipping me off on this one.

Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse Is Reportedly Still ‘Years Off’

Eclipse will get released right after the KOTOR remake does. Scheduled release date, the 10th of Never.

Disney plans layoffs of as many as 1,000 employees

I hope the woman playing Rey who laughed at my joke isn’t one of them.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to the Friday afternoon edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s a pretty quick one this week, just as last week’s prophecy had foretold. Darth Maul: Shadow Lord kicks off in just a few days. The Mandalorian and Grogu kicks off in just over six weeks. Surely we’re going to get something in a month for May the 4th. Oh, and the Death Star Human Resources Department Podcast returns. It’s not a bad time to be a Star Wars fan.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

As an area man who is a long time reader and enjoyer of The Onion, it warmed my heart to see this.

From the “story:”

“By naming the film The Mandalorian And Grogu, Disney is leaving money on the table from consumers who have no idea who Grogu is but would immediately take out their phones and buy a ticket for any movie of any genre with ‘Baby Yoda’ in its title,” said report author Heather Flynn, who cited a poll in which 81% of potential moviegoers responded “Who the hell are they? Is this a Lord Of The Rings thing?” when presented with marketing materials for the upcoming film.

The Onion actually raises an interesting question. It feels like among Star Wars, people generally use his given name of “Grogu.” But has that caught on among the general public, or in their minds, is he still “Baby Yoda?” I don’t know.

Talkin’ About Taborr

The dynamic duo of Feats N’ Faults and Death Star HR return with yet another episode of the Death Star Human Resources Department Podcast. The people demanded it, so once again and I are talking about Young Jedi Adventures. But this time, we’re discussing the villains. Spoiler alert, one of the villains actually has the best character arc in the show.

Watch the podcast and then be sure to subscribe to Feats N’ Faults.

Feats N' Faults

Feats N' Faults, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Villains

Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where our Tiered Point System ranks and records our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. Please check the About Page for a more in-depth look at how points are awarded. Our Tier System is below for quick reference…

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4 months ago · 4 likes · Shane Elliott

All the Maul You Can Handle

We are very, very close to the premiere of Darth Maul: Shadow Lord, dropping on April 6th. Disney has been pulling out all the stops. Behind the scenes interviews, little teasers in the way of a single scene, and a big announcement. For your consideration:

And finally…the big news. Season 1 of Shadow Lord hasn’t even aired yet, and Disney has already confirmed we’re getting season 2. And this isn’t some internet rumor, this comes straight from Cowboy Dave.

Ahead of the series premiere, creator and executive producer Dave Filoni has announced the continuation of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord with confirmation of Season 2 in the works from Lucasfilm Animation. Season 1 debuts on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on Monday.

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord presents fans with a pulpy adventure that finds Maul plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire. There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who may just be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge.

Right now Temuera Morrison, Ewan McGregor, and everyone involved in The Acolyte are sending extremely angry and bewildered text to Dave Filoni wondering how their shows can’t get a second season.

Grogu Might Get an Executive Producer Credit

Something I’ve always enjoyed about The Mandalorian is in all the behind the scenes stuff that’s been released, people treat Grogu like he’s an actor instead of a puppet. I know a lot of this is just for the cameras, but it still is a lot of fun. Now that Grogu has been an A-Lister for over five years now, it makes sense that he’s old enough to participate in some of the promotional material for his movie.

Disney is pulling out all the stops for The Mandalorian and Grogu, having the little green guy join Sigourney Weaver, Jon Favreau, and Pedro Pascal for a roundtable chat. It also seems like Disney is getting Pascal in front of the cameras for the movie as well, especially after it was confirmed that at least for season 3, he was primarily just doing Mando’s voice while Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder did the vast, vast majority of being in costume and doing stunts.

Seems like at the way things are going, if there’s a season 4 of The Mandalorian, we’ll see a “Directed By: Din Grogu” in the credits.

This Day in Star Wars History

Quite a few birthdays on April 3rd in the Star Wars universe.

• Concept artist Colin Cantwell was born in 1932. His whole Wookieepedia entry is worth the read. I think most Star Wars fans know what an impact Ralph McQuarrie had on the look of Star Wars, and Cantwell should probably be mentioned right along side him. And I say this with absolutely zero shade towards McQuarrie. Cantwell is credited with the design and name for the X-Wing and the Y-Wing, among a bunch of other ships. Also, I didn’t know this but it really feels like something Uncle George would try”

The X-Wing, like other Rebel spacecraft, originally had wheels on its landing gear. This was because George Lucas had envisioned hiring the Spanish Air Force, redressing their F-104 fighter jets as Rebel fighters, and filming them taxiing and taking off a runway. This idea was scrapped because it was deemed too expensive, and Cantwell replaced the wheels with landing pads.

• Comedy writer Pat Proft was born in 1947. His only entry in the Star Wars universe is being a writer on the Holiday Special. Sure, he was a writer for movies such as Police Academy, The Naked Gun, and Scary Movie 3, 4, and 5. But The Star Wars Holiday Special might actually be the funniest one of all, even if most of the humor is unintentional.

• Aussie actor Ben Mendelsohn was born in 1969. We first saw Mendelsohn in Star Wars as Orson Krennic, who was basically a project manager who was set up to fail. The scene with Krennic and Mon Mothma at the art exhibition with Kleya and Lonni is one of the best ones in Andor.

• Author Paul S. Kemp was born in 1972. Kemp wrote three Expanded Universe novels, Crosscurrent, The Old Republic: Deceived, and Riptide; along with one canon novel, Lords of the Sith. Lords of the Sith is fun as it’s basically Vader and Palpatine on a road trip.

• The famous cantina scene (or at least the outside of it) for A New Hope was filmed today (and yesterday) in 1976. Lucas and company turned Ajim, a port city in Tunisia, into Mos Eisley. I can only imagine what the locals thought when the movie came to town.

• New Jedi Order novel Edge of Victory I: Conquest, by Greg Keyes was published in 2001. This was the book that starts Tahiri Veila’s journey. It also has what I referred to as “Boy Band Anakin” on the cover.

  

• Voice Actor Erik Bauersfeld passed away in 2016. He voiced both Admiral Akbar and Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi and returned to voice Akbar again in The Force Awakens. He also voiced the good admiral in Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Battlefront: Elite Squadron. Just getting those Akbar dollars!

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

Whenever I see this warning on a Wookieepedia entry, you can almost always guarantee it’s an entry that shouldn’t actually exist.

And I’ll argue that the entry for Lux Bonteri’s wife is probably not needed. But I do think it’s accurate.

The wife of Lux Bonteri was an Imperial female. At some point she had a daughter, before she eventually married Lux Bonteri.

I don’t think anything there is conjecture. But when are we going to get the 8 episode streaming series about Mrs. Bonteri?

News From the HoloNet

Hasbro Unveils Playful Star Wars Black Series Figures for May the 4th

Hasbro goes with the meta jokes for May the 4th.

Jon Favreau to Sit for CinemaCon Chat Ahead of ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu’ Launch

There’s a lifetime Death Star HR subscription for any media member who asks where the Darth Jar Jar series is.

2026’s Most Divisive Star Wars Character Could Address A Horrible Trope

Petition to refer to ripped Rotta the Hutt as “Stinky Bonds.”

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s a fun one today. I say that every week, but they’re all fun ones. The Death Star HR Podcast returns. We’re oh so close to Darth Maul: Shadow Lord. We’re not close, but we’re not exactly far away from The Mandalorian and Grogu. But we are far away from Finn returning, even if all the headlines suggest otherwise.

Just a heads up for next week. There may or may not be a Death Star HR. My goal is always to do one every week, but I have some family obligations so we’ll see. Most likely if there is one next week it will be a short one.

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

If you’re a baseball fan, yesterday was a high holy day. Better known as Opening Day. Yes, the capitalization is intentional. My beloved Detroit Tigers opened the season out in San Diego with a resounding 8 - 2 win over the Padres. Clearly this means the Motor City Kitties are going 162 - 0 and winning the World Series. I should probably just go ahead and book an October flight to Detroit for the championship parade. I’m not aware of anyone on my Tigers who’s a well known Star Wars fan. Last thing I could find was a 2019 article for Star Wars Day at Comerica Park talking to Blaine Hardy (that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time) about his love of Star Wars.

It’s not the Tigers, but Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Cody Ponce is a huge Star Wars fan.

Also, 29 of the 30 Major League Baseball teams are doing a Star Wars night. For whatever reason, the only team not doing a Star Wars night is our neighbor to the north, the Toronto Blue Jays. I can’t believe Cody Ponce wasn’t able to get the club to do one.

I checked a few promotions to see what each team is doing. My Tigers are one of the four teams doing their Star Wars night on May the 4th. As of right now they don’t have the promotion listed on their website. My (current) hometown Texas Rangers are doing their Star Wars Day on May 31st and are giving away a Grogu bobblehead. That might be worth firing up the old landspeeder and heading over to Arlington. As much as I love Grogu, I truly dislike the Rangers ballpark. So we’ll see.

Just down I-45, the Houston Astros are doing a Carlos Correa Mandalorian & Grogu Bobblehead. But it will cost you an extra $49.50 in addition to your ticket. That sounds like a fun bobblehead but certainly not worth driving to Houston for. If I have some time, I’m going to a review of all the MLB Star Wars night promo items I can find.

Yakkin’ About Andor

The Death Star Human Resources Department Podcast is back once again. This time, friend of Death Star HR and I talk about the heroes and villains of Andor. If you’re not familiar with Feats ‘N Faults, you should be. Shane has his ranking system where all your favorite characters get points, or negative points depending on if they, well, commit a feat or a fault.

Also as an added bonus, we’re doing a giveaway! That’s right. Make sure you’re subscribed to both Death Star HR and Feats ‘N Faults, and leave a comment. One lucky person will win a Star Wars Black Series ISB Tactical Agent! The real star of Andor if you ask me.

So make sure you like and subscribe to the Death Star HR Pod and make sure you check out the F’NF rankings for Andor.

Feats N' Faults

Feats N' Faults, Star Wars: Andor

Welcome back to Feats N’ Faults, where our Tiered Point System ranks and records our favorite characters based on their achievements and deeds. Please check the About Page for a more in-depth look at how points are awarded. Our Tier System is below for quick reference…

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4 months ago · 2 likes · Shane Elliott

The First Step Into a Larger World

Normally I’d save something like this for a This Day In Star Wars History, but it’s such a monumental occasional it seems like it warrants its own entry. On March 22, 1976, Star Wars began filming. History was made on Tatooine, or as it’s known in our galaxy, the Sahara Desert of Tunisia.

The first scene shot was Luke (then named) Starkiller and Uncle Owen buying the droids from the Jawas. As we close in on the 50th anniversary of Star Wars being released next year, it’s funny how the first scene filmed features C-3PO and R2-D2, the only characters to appear in Episodes I - IX. The whole article is worth the read, especially for the behind the scenes photos. I think, and hope, we’ll get a lot more articles like this throughout the year.

The (Unlikely) Return of FN-2187

Over the last week or so, the Star Wars internet has been abuzz with the possible return of John Boyega to the Star Wars universe.

The TL;DR version of it is Boyega was appearing on a panel at MEGACON in Orlando, FL when he was asked a question about if he’d return to the Star Wars universe. Per Screen Rant:

While speaking during a panel that was moderated by ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley, Boyega, who is best known for portraying Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (The Rise of Skywalker, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi), was asked about the possibility of reprising his role in future projects. One enthusiastic fan reportedly shouted, “Get Dave [Filoni] on the phone.” And the actor’s response immediately grabbed the audience’s attention.

The star stated, “I actually have, actually,” implying that discussions with the President and Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm, Filoni, may have already taken place. The brief but significant comment likely has Star Wars fans in a frenzy as they eagerly await the potential return of Finn in future projects.

Sounds exciting!

And a little surprising given that Boyega has been pretty vocal about what feels are issues with how his character was handled in the Sequel Trilogy and what he felt were negative experiences as a Black actor in the Star Wars universe. Similar experiences that were echoed by Kelly Marie Tran in her experience playing Rose Tico.

Boyega has been very open about his experience with Star Wars, citing both positive and negative things surrounding his time with the franchise. While he has expressed gratitude for the opportunities Star Wars provided, he has also openly discussed frustrations with how his character was handled across the sequel trilogy. In past interviews, the actor noted that Finn’s arc did not evolve as much as it should have and how he got shoved to the side in The Force Awakens.

I think that might be a bit of a typo on the part of Screen Rant, as Finn had a good arc in The Force Awakens but really it was The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker that really felt like they couldn’t decide what to do with Finn.

"[W]hat I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side," Boyega told GQ back in 2020. "It's not good. I'll say it straight up."

Subsequent years have seen Boyega distance himself from Star Wars further, most notably in a 2022 interview with SiriusXM where he said that "at this point I'm cool off it, I'm good off it." He continued: "Versatility is my path and Finn is at a good confirmation point where you can just enjoy him in other things: the games, the animation. I feel like [Episodes] 7 to 9 was good for me."

Even if those interview are several years old at this point, that doesn’t exactly sound like a man who’s really looking to get back to the galaxy far, far away.

And it turns out, maybe those comments about talking to Dave Filoni needed a little extra context. Turns out, he was just joking.

Our own Tyler Bradshaw was in attendance at the John Boyega panel during the convention. The topic of Star Wars was raised repeatedly throughout the panel, he said, with the actor saying multiple times how he hasn’t been in contact with anyone at Lucasfilm since the leadership changed in January. Someone even asked about the Daisy Ridley-led New Jedi Order-era movie, to which he replied, “Is that still happening? I hope we hear something soon.”

Tyler was also next to someone who said into the mic “Get Dave [Filoni] on the phone”, to which Boyega replied, “I actually already have,” and immediately laughed it off. ScreenRant reported on that last quip (and even Variety picked it up), but the context throughout the panel seems to have been a much different one than what the single quote paints. Boyega, after all, likes to have fun with these things, and it sounds like he was being quite jokey — a change of pace for him, given his comments over the past few years.

Funny enough, as I’m typing this on Tuesday evening, Rebel Scum Con just announced that Boyega will be there signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. Doesn’t sound like someone who’s that upset with Star Wars. Unless he just needs the money.

It would not surprise me that if/when the Rey New Jedi Order movie happens, we get an appearance from Finn. Will we ever actually get the Rey New Jedi Order movie? Who can say. But if we do, I’ll put down a couple Republic credits that we get some kind of appearance from Finn.

March Mando Madness

When you read this, half of the Sweet Sixteen have finished. It’s been a fairly meh NCAA tournament this year. The usual suspects of NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment have conspired to ruin what used to be one of the most fun three weeks of sports. But, that is a conversation for another day. Today’s conversation is a TV spot for The Mandalorian and Grogu that’s been airing during the games.

It’s a little bit of new footage. The clip of Pedro saying “monsters” is new. There’s a new clip of Mando and Grogu in the AT-AT. Like the rest of the trailers and what seems to be the Disney strategy, it’s mostly old footage with just enough new shots they can justify calling this a new trailer. But I want to focus on here is the creature that appears at the 9 second mark. Is that a Loth-wolf???

I’ve thought for a while now we might see Loth-wolves in some form in Ahsoka season 2. We’ve already had Loth-cats. Wasn’t thinking we’d get them in The Mandalorian and Grogu but I’m here for it.

One Minute of Maul

We are less than two weeks away from the first two episodes of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. And Disney just keeps throwing little teasers to us to keep everyone excited. This week, IGN got a little one minute exclusive clip.

How can you not be excited? I said this last week. The Duel of the Fates theme hits and then you see Maul ignite his lightsaber? Come on!

April 6th can’t get here fast enough.

This Day in Star Wars History

Pretty good number of births on March 27th in the Star Wars universe.

• English actor Julian Glover was born in 1935. Glover played General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. Veers was the smart Imperial at the Battle of Hoth. As opposed to Admiral Ozzel, who was the dumb one. Glover also appeared in For Your Eyes Only, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and 31 episodes of Game of Thrones.

• Another English actor, Michael York, was born in 1942. York appeared in two episodes of The Clone Wars, voicing insane scientist Dr. Nuvo Vindi. York is also the stepfather of Rick McCallum, producer for the Prequels. I think people my age would probably best know York as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers movies.

• Special effects guy Grant McCune was born in 1943. McCune got his start being one of the co-designers of the shark in Jaws, although he was uncredited for it. This lead to work at ILM where he was the chief modelmaker on A New Hope and appeared in an uncredited role as a Death Star gunner.

• Author Kevin J. Anderson was born in 1962. Anderson wrote four Expanded Universe novels, the Jedi Academy Trilogy along with Darksaber. The Jedi Academy Trilogy introduced Kyp Durron and Admiral Daala and I’m pretty sure it was the next Expanded Universe trilogy after the Thrawn books. Anderson also wrote the stories for quite a few comic books and wrote the Young Jedi Knights books with his wife, Rebecca Moesta.

• Peter Diamond passed away in 2004. Diamond was the stunt coordinator for the Original Trilogy. Diamond also played various characters as needed, including the Tusken Raider that attacks Luke, a Death Star gunner, a Snowtrooper, and switching sides as a Rebel Commando.

• In 2009, C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels visited Star Wars: The Exhibition in Madrid, Spain. The exhibition was a traveling show across Europe featuring costumes, props, concept art, and the like.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

Pop quiz. Is the Void of Aogros a minor Norwegian Black Metal band that had one decent song but broke-up after the drummer set himself on fire trying to burn down a church, or is it and object in Wild Space? The former would be more interesting, but it’s actually the latter.

The Void of Aogros was an astronomical object located in Wild Space. It was located in grid square H-18 on the Standard Galactic Grid.

The Void of Aogros actually originated in the Expanded Universe as a section of Wild Space that was empty, as the name would suggest, but for five stars that may or may not have been created by Celestials. If you don’t know the name the Celestials, you at least know them from Rebels as The Father, The Daughter, and The Son. You should get to know them because there’s about a 99% chance they’re back in some form for Ahsoka season 2.

News From the HoloNet

C-3PO Head From ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’ Nets Whopping $1M at Propstore Auction

Sure a 3PO head would be cool. But you could have had a Shorty Klown head from Killer Klowns From Outer Space for a mere $82K.

Everything you need to know about Star Wars Zero Company

I don’t know if it’s actually EVERYTHING you need to know. But there’s quite a bit of info.

AHSOKA Season 2 Rumor Casts Doubt on Abeloth’s Star Wars Debut

If you don’t know what any of this means, congratulations you are probably a relatively normal person.

‘And That Day Tatooine Was Killed.’ The Big Names Behind Why Disney World’s Original Star Wars Plans Were Changed

I understand why Disney is changing Galaxy’s Edge into a more generic Star Wars land. But I really do think you’re going to lose some of the experience of feeling like you’re on an Outer Rim planet outpost.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!

Is there a better way to start your weekend than the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter? I mean, probably. But let’s pretend this is in fact the perfect way to kick off your Friday evening. So welcome back to Death Star HR. This week we’ve got Grogu on the red carpet. Or at least on a red booster seat. And speaking of red, there’s a certain Sith Lord with a red face and a double-bladed red lightsaber who’s getting his very own show in a couple weeks!

As always, thanks for reading Death Star HR. If you’re reading this and you’re not a subscriber, I’d love it if you entered your email below and smashed that subscribe button. There’s also an official Death Star HR Instagram and an official Death Star HR YouTube page as well and I’d love it if you subscribed there as well.

This Is Where The Fun Begins

This is the 100% absolute truth.

Only problem for Vader is Palpatine is pretty clearly a “let’s just hop on a call, cameras on” type of guy.

Din Grogu is Now an A-Lister

The Oscars were last Sunday. Given that most of my media consumption either involves lightsabers or just rewatching The Simpsons/Always Sunny/Bob’s Burgers ad nauseam, I realized I hadn’t seen any of the movies nominated for Best Picture. Culture has passed me be. But at the ceremony there were several Star Wars people in attendance that night, including Sigourney Weaver and Pedro Pascal - co-stars in the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu - who were there as presenters for the award for Best Production Design.

Oh, and there was America’s little green sweetheart, Grogu.

I do wonder how exactly Kate Hudson, a person with absolutely zero (as far as I know) connections to Star Wars, got involved in the bit. Conan O’Brien, sure. That makes sense. He’s a well known Star Wars fan. And Conan trying to get Grogu to clap and the puppeteer going along with it was fun. Definitely looking forward to seeing Grogu at next year’s Oscars accepting this Best Actor award.

Darth Maul Excitement Increases

I didn’t realize just how badly I do in fact want to see this Darth Maul show. When it was first announced, I was of course excited because I get excited for every new Star Wars show or movie or anything Disney licenses the name to. I’m an easy mark and the Walt Disney Corporation knows it. And while I was pretty sure it would be a fun series, I wasn’t convinced it was a series we needed. How many more Darth Maul stories do we need to tell? Obi-Wan Kenobi cut him in half at the end of The Phantom Menace. He miraculously returned in The Clone Wars with a new set of spider legs. Maul popped back up in Rebels, only to be killed (again) by Obi-Wan. And finally there was his cameo at the end of Solo. Which came as to surprise to everyone (myself included) who hadn’t seen The Clone Wars or Rebels at that point. So yeah, that’s a lot of screen time for a character who was supposedly killed off in what should have been his first and only appearance.

And yet…and yet after watching the latest trailer, I really can’t help but get excited for Darth Maul: Shadow Lord. Which drops its first two episodes in just over two weeks. I mean, just watch!

Are you not entertained?!

Does this trailer not contain everything you could want in a Star Wars trailer. Lightsabers! Jedi! Sith! Inquisitors! Shadowy underworld type of cities. You’ve got slicing an AT-ST in half with a lightsaber, come on! Get hyped!

Did your heart rate not increase when you heard “Duel of the Fates” at the end?!

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, please go back and watch the trailer on repeat until you can say yes. I mean, just look at that!

The plot of course is still fairly bare bones. Darth Maul is mad at the Empire. Jedi are on the run. Is the enemy of my enemy going to be my friend? Will Devon the Twi’lek Jedi turn out to Darth Talon? We’ve already seen the Eleventh Brother and Marrok, will there be cameos from anyone else? I guess we’ll find out.

We also got the release schedule and the episodes titles. All of which are very Sithy sounding.

Friend of Death Star HR noted that the title for Chapter 8, “The Creeping Fear” is a bit of inside baseball.

Ahch-To Baby

The Creeping Fear

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4 months ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Matthew Freeman

This title is a pushing-up-your-glasses-on-your-nose Gen X early internet joke. It was the incorrect title scooped by to (now zombie) Aint It Cool News of Revenge of the Sith. (Can anyone confirm that it was also the fake-leaked original title of Episode I somewhere? I seem to remember it was, but that was a long time ago.) Someone on the writing staff is having a good guffaw.

First off, I hadn’t thought about Ain’t It Cool News in years. I’m pretty sure it’s founder, Harry Knowles got #METOO’d in 2017 for some (allegedly) pretty disgusting behavior. I do have a very vague recollection of a rumor that “The Creeping Fear” was going to be the Episode III title. I have no idea if whoever gave Knowles the info thought it was legit or they were just trolling. I’m sure there’s someone out in Death Star HR land who knows if it was ever a serious contender. The post is dated roughly 14 months before Revenge of the Sith came out, plenty of time for Lucas to decide on and then change his mind about a title. After all, Episode VI was called "Revenge of the Jedi” for a while.

We’re not that far off from April 6th. Get pumped!

This Day in Star Wars History

March 20th is a big birthday for voice actors in the Star Wars universe.

• Canadian voice actor Andrew Kishino was born in 1970. Kishino voiced Saw Gerrera in The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch but not Rebels. Forest Whitaker, who plays the live-action Saw, voiced him for Rebels. Kishino is also married to Vanessa Marshall, who provides the voice for Hera Syndulla.

• Another voice actor, Jonathan Lipow, was born in 1972. Lipow has done quite a lot in Star Wars, although he doesn’t really have a stand-out role. He’s provided a variety of voice work in: Resistance, The Bad Batch, Visions, and Young Jedi Adventures. Maybe you can say RJ-83 from Young Jedi Adventures would be his signature role? I guess.

• The cartoons continue, voice actress Myrna Velasco was born in 1988. Velasco appeared in three episodes of Resistance, voicing pilot Torra Doza.

• Hostage Crisis, the season finale for season 1 of The Clone Wars first aired today in 2009. Cad Bane takes the Imperial Senate hostage, only Anakin is in the building! There’s danger, intrigue, and Ziro the Hutt.

• On this day in 2019, the merger between Walt Disney Corporation and 20th Century Fox was completed. Between this merge and the blending of Disney+ and Hulu is why Disney+ will suggest that you want to watch Toy Story, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Alien, and Bluey. An unholy combination.

• Actor/stuntman Paul Grant passed away in 2023. Grant played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi. He also appeared in Labyrinth, Willow, and and the first Harry Potter movie.

• Author Michael Reaves also passed away in 2023. Reaves was an old school Star Wars guy, having one episode of Droids and two episodes of Ewoks. He later on got into writing books for the Expanded Universe including Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter (different than Darth Maul: Shadow Lord), the MedStar duology and the Coruscant Nights trilogy.

• Casting director Dianne Crittenden passed away in 2024. She was the casting director for A New Hope way back when. I almost skipped including her since there really isn’t much to her Wookieepedia page. But when I checked her IMDB page, she had a pretty extensive career. She worked as casting director on, including but not limited to, Witness, Howard the Duck, Pretty Woman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and last on the list here but certainly not least, Hackers.

From the Depths of Wookieepedia

One thing Star Wars is pretty bad as is giving you a sense of time. How long did Luke train on Dagobah, and at the same time, how long did it take the Falcon to get to Cloud City without its hyperdrive? Was Ahsoka stuck in the mouth of a purrgil for days, weeks, months? I just don’t know.

All that to say, it (probably) takes a while to fly from one end of the galaxy to the other even if you’re traveling via hyperspace. Just imagine how long it would take if you’re using the dimensional drive.

This type of propulsion system worked by rippling space-time such that faster than light travel could be achieved. Interstellar ships that made use of a dimensional drive were rather slow when compared to those that would later use hyperdrives. Due to this fact, crews were placed in suspended animationthrough the process of carbonite freezing to accommodate for trips that could last decades or even centuries. This technology was used by sleeper ships from Coruscant to colonize planets like Kuat, Alderaan, and those in the Tion Cluster.

I think my favorite part here though is one of the sources is something called "Fly Casual.”

News From the HoloNet

Disney Plus Perks Offers a Chance to Attend ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ Premiere

If I win, I will take a Death Star HR reader. Because for the sake of my marriage, I can’t let Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan get anywhere near Pedro Pascal.

Epic and Disney now let Fortnite creators make Star Wars games

This will either be the best or worst idea ever.

Star Wars Got The Design For The X-Wing While Its Creator Was At A British Pub

Whom among us haven’t come up with their best ideas over a pint?

Tom Cruise Interrupted ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ Filming with Surprise Helicopter Landing

Such a classic Tom move.

That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.

Thank you for reading The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it. It is your destiny!