The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: February 28, 2025
Steve Earle is now canon in the Star Wars universe
Hello there
Whoa buddy was this a big week in the galaxy far far away. So welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter where we’re not going to tackle all of it, but we’ll at least tackle some of it. We got the first full trailer for season 2 of Andor. Rumors swirled around Kathleen Kennedy’s job. And Revenge of the Sith will be back in the theaters. Maybe I gave too much away, that’s most of the newsletter, but you should still keep reading.
As always, thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who responded to my question last week of what’s your unpopular Star Wars opinion. One that didn’t make it into the comments was from long time real-life and Death Star HR friend, Darth Vo. Who said Palpatine’s grandchild should have been the broom kid at the end of The Last Jedi. Does the Broom Kid have his own comic book yet? I’m not going to give him an 8 episode streaming series, but he should absolutely get a limited run comic series. Anyway, as I always ask, if you have a Star Wars loving friend or family member in your life, tell them about Death Star HR.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
I am the occasional object of wonder among some friends, who don’t understand that while I love Star Wars and plenty of other nerdy stuff, I am indifferent at best to Lord of the Rings. So this is for them.
To quote Randall in Clerks II, “All right, look, there's only one ‘Return,’ okay, and it ain't ‘of the King,’ it's ‘of the Jedi.’
An Update to the Update
Over the last couple weeks I’ve “reported” on 2024 YR4, an asteroid that had a roughly 3% chance of hitting Earth. To make it work for Death Star HR, my bit was speculating if we’d get the Rey New Jedi Order movie before all life on Earth was wiped out. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a bunch of egghead scientists have downgraded the chances of 2024 YR4 hitting us to 0%.
When Paul Chodas, director of the NASA JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS), spoke to NPR earlier this month, he stressed that the probability that 2024 YR4 would hit the Earth would probably go up and then at some point rapidly fall to zero as new observations came in. That is precisely what happened.
I’m choosing to hold out hope that not only will 2024 YR4 change course and head straight for Earth, but it turns out it’s a much bigger rock than we had realized. Why am I holding out hope despite the evidence?
That’s why.
The Andor season 2 Hype Machine Starts Now
We’re just under 2 months from season 2 of Andor, so it’s no surprise that the Disney media machine is getting warmed up. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that there is A LOT riding on the success of Andor. I don’t think we’re at the make or break point for Star Wars on streaming, but another round of bad reviews and/or numbers and it’s possible Andor could be one of the last live-action TV shows we get. I still think we’re pretty much guaranteed season 2 of Ahsoka on TV as well. Anyway, there’s a trailer!
I’m not about to do a second-by-second breakdown, you can find those on YouTube and I’m not detail-oriented enough anyway to do one competently. But I do have some thoughts.
It looks like everyone who survived season 1 is back. Cassian, Bix, Luthen, Mon Mothma, Syril Karn, Saw Gerrera, and Fascist Barbie herself, Dedra Meero.
The two biggest additions I saw were Orsen Krennic, the father of the Death Star himself, and the sassiest former Imperial security droid out there, K-2SO. Neither of these guys/droids were a surprise, but it was still nice to see them back.
The precious…(see I can do LOTR references) I mentioned this a couple weeks ago after a couple seconds of Andor in the Disney+ Super Bowl commercial, I think we’re going to see Cassian on a mission on Coruscant. It would make sense to have him meet up with Luthen at some point. If it were anyone besides Tony Gilroy I feel like there’d be a cringe-worthy scene of Cassian and Mon Mothma, but I feel like Gilroy wants the Rebellion to use good operation security practices.
The celebration/dance party is giving me flashbacks to the dance party/implied orgy in The Matrix: Reloaded. If you’re Extremely Online there’s a lot of “the way to defeat fascists is JOY” out there. I am a little too jaded and cynical for that, but there could be something to it. Is anyone in the Empire having fun? Palpy gets a kick out of zapping people with Force lightning but that might it.
Hey Siri, play Zion Dance Party Max It’s tough to really pick out any kind of plot points just because of the way the season is going to be structured. Season 2 is 12 episodes and covers 4 years in the life of Cassian, leading up to the events of Rogue One. We’re going to get 4 separate story arcs, each one taking 3 episodes.
Not a huge fan of the music in the trailer. They did this in Skeleton Crew as well. Let the MCU have the real-world songs. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love that they went with a Steve Earle song. He’s a great Texan and his whole vibe actually works well with Andor. But give me John Williams (or in the case of Andor, Nicholas Britell).
One last little bit of season 2 info, instead of releasing 2-3 episodes for the premiere and then one episode per week, we’re getting Andor overload. Four weeks with 3 episodes per week.
Kathleen Kennedy Has Not Become One With the Force
The Star Wars corner of the internet was abuzz on Tuesday, with reports that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy would be stepping down from her roll at the end of the year. Puck, a website that I would have assumed was about hockey but is not, was the first to report it on Monday night (link is paywalled).
Much like Leia pretending to be Boushh to sneak into Jabba’s palace or Mae and Osha doing a Parent Trap, things aren’t always as they seem as CNN reports that Kennedy is in fact not stepping down.
Puck reported Tuesday that Kennedy, who is 71, is expected to step down as president of the storied production company behind the “Star Wars” franchise before the end of 2025. Several news publishers have followed with their own reports. But a source familiar with the matter tells CNN that’s not the case, emphasizing that “there’s nothing there right now.” Any announcement of Kennedy’s retirement, if indeed there’s anything to announce, will be made “public” when “actual decisions are made,” the source told CNN.
Lucasfilm did not respond to a request for comment and a spokesperson for Disney did not comment for this story.
Really, you can sum it up as “we don’t know what we don’t know.”
The idea that Kennedy was stepping down was met with what can only be described as “unrestrained jubilation.” A celebration that makes the ending of Return of the Jedi look like a sparsely attended kids birthday party at a run down Chuck E Cheese. If you listen to some of these people, not only is Kennedy responsible for every single thing they hate about Disney Star Wars, she’s actively trying to make Star Wars worse. For…reasons.
That being said, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see her step down or at least announce that she will be stepping down in the next year or so. Kennedy is 71 years old. Both she and her husband, Frank Marshall, have had very successful careers in Hollywood and (presumably) aren’t hurting for money. Why spend your golden years dealing with internet trolls screaming about the WOKE MIND VIRUS with every casting choice. I say that like she’s on Reddit for hours every day mixing it up with people about The Last Jedi.
I think it’s more likely that Kennedy stays on through either the Mandoverse movie or the Rey New Jedi Order movie. You could look at it, from a certain point of a view, that the Mandoverse movie will end one era and the New Jedi Order movie will (hopefully for Disney) start another. Especially if New Jedi Order is a success, call it a career then in a few years and go out on top.
Adding this at the end since I didn’t see it until 11:00 last night when I was doomscrolling Substack instead of getting a good night sleep. Kennedy sat down with Deadline for some good old fashioned access journalism to deny she’s retiring and in the same sentence say she’s talking about succession plans with the Head Mice at Disney:
The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring. What’s happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like.
“I’m not retiring from movies but I am (eventually) stepping down from Lucasfilm” can be a factually accurate statement. H/T to fellow Substack writer Travis Clark for posting the link, who is far more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff than I am so you should check out this newsletter. I’ll have a full reaction and thoughts to her interview next week.
Revenge of the Sith Returns to the Big Screen
Last year was the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, released to give Star Wars fans something fun for May the 4th. It may not be the best Star Wars movie, but it’s still awesome on on big screen.
This year, Revenge of the Sith turns 20. One more year and the movie can legally order a Takodana Quencher at Olga’s Cantina. And like Episode I, we’re heading back to the theaters.
The fan favorite entry in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy is coming back to the big screen on April 25. The theatrical re-release will mark the film’s 20th anniversary.
According to the announcement: “The film will run in U.S. theaters and select international territories for one week only and will be available in several formats, including, for the first time, 4DX. 4DX features high-tech motion chairs that sync with over 21 effects, all designed to complement the narrative of the film.”
No word on what kind of effects the chairs will use to make it feel like your legs have been cut off and the rest of you is on fire. Also no word where it’s playing yet. I checked websites for AMC and Alamo Drafthouse. Really hoping it’s coming to Alamo like Phantom Menace did.
I’ll probably write more about this in April, but there’s a good argument that Revenge of the Sith is the most political Star Wars movie. And given the state of the world right now, I would expect that upon re-release, the Thinkpiece Industrial Complex will launch dozens of articles all centered around Padme’s famous line.
I think right now liberty dies with a rousing rendition of Y.M.C.A. sung by the one renaming original Village Person, but that’s neither here nor there.
Oh, and there’s a really cool new poster from Matt Ferguson who has done other posters for Star Wars re-releases.
In fact, the poster was even approved by Mace Windu himself!
That is a purple-bladed ringing endorsement right there! Can’t wait for April 25th.
This Day in Star Wars History
Quite a bit that’s worth mentioning from February 28th in the Star Wars universe. I sometimes think I should limit these to three entries, just in case Death Star HR goes on long enough that I start repeating days. Hard to see, the future is.
Voice actor Lloyd Sherr was born in 1956. He’s had a pretty extensive career, but for our purposes he voiced The Father, the head Mortis God in Clone Wars and Rebels. It seems pretty obvious the Mortis Gods will play a roll in season 2 of Ahsoka. Wonder if he’ll be back. He also voiced Calo Nord in Knights of the Old Republic. A badass bounty hunter who was dumb enough to go after Revan. It didn’t end well.
Irish actress Denise Gough was born in 1980. You’re going see a lot of her soon, since she’ll be back in her role as GIRLBOSS Dedra Meero in Andor.
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance was released on PC this day in 1999. I don’t even remember playing this one, but both the X-Wing and TIE Fighter games that were released before this one were awesome.
Actor Harrison Davis was born in 2003. Son of Warrick Davis, best known for playing a spectator at the Boonta Eve Classic in The Phantom Menace, Harrison played an Ewok in The Rise of Skywalker.
Going back to videogames, Star Wars: Republic Commando was released in 2005. This is another one that I don’t believe I ever played.
Along the same lines, the novel Republic Commando: Triple Zero by Karen Traviss was released in 2006. This is the 2nd book out of 5 in the series. It looks like Star Wars was kind of trying to what they did with “Shadows of the Empire,” call it a multimedia project. Video game, books, etc..
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
I thought this was going to be a cool entry, but I’m a little underwhelmed. Oh well, we’re going with it. This week we’ve got the Jedi Research Facility.
[A] research installation that was operated by the Jedi Order in Timira City on the planet Kamino during the last years of the Galactic Republic.
No real idea what the Jedi were researching. It serves as a spot where a couple teams of bounty hunters, including Boba Fett, Dengar, and Bossk can have a good old fashioned bounty hunter fight while trying to steal some relics.
The idea of a Jedi research facility isn’t exactly new. In the novel Red Harvest, there’s the Jedi Agricultural Corps for Jedi that aren’t very good with lightsabers. It’s been a while since I’ve read the book but I’m pretty sure the Jedi there were doing research on plants and whatnot. I like the idea of Jedi scientists.
News From the HoloNet
What Can Celebration Do to Make Star Wars Exciting Again?
Four words: Darth Jar Jar movie.
Star Wars fans seriously unhappy with Snoke’s true origin
I feel like 64% of Star Wars related headlines could just say “Star Wars fans seriously unhappy” and it would be accurate.
The Odds We're About To See Live-Action Star Wars Rebels Just Got A Whole Lot Better
We already have a live action Rebels and it was called Ahsoka.
Here’s my hot take. Books are good.
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.
I'm gonna call it now that they're not dancing because "resistance is JOY!", but "Welcome to the masquerade".
Thanks for the shout out!!