The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: March 14, 2025
The power of the Dark Side says to stay home
Hello there
Once again welcome back to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s a bit of a short newsletter this week. Real life kept distracting me and just when I thought I’d have time to sit down and write, something else would pop up. So, it’s a quick one. Which likely means next week will be 5,000 words. You’ve been warned in advance.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
This week marked 5 years since the COVID 19 pandemic “officially” began. What wild time. By the time 2020 rolled around, I had already been working from home for 5 years, and myself and Emperor Palpatine’s #1 Fan were already indoor cats, so staying home wasn’t a big deal to us. It’s also wild to think the idea was stay home for a few weeks and then we’d go back to normal.
I had to re-activate my Facebook account and scroll through 2020 postings to find the picture. In a year of crazy stories, I think my favorite was the doctor who believed that alien DNA was being used in medical treatments, pretty sure she stole that from The X-Files. She also believed that demons having sex with people caused illness. Man, 2020 was bonkers.
Throwing a question out there. What was the last fun thing you did before the world shut down back in 2020? Mine was a buddy and I won a Simpsons trivia contest at a brewery. Our team name was Robotic Richard Simmons.
You Want Movies? You Got Movies
One the one hand, we haven’t had a new Star Wars movie since December of 2019 when Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hit the theaters. Fun fact, keeping with my theme from above, Rise of Skywalker was the last movie I saw in the theaters before COVID. I believe the first one I saw post-COVID was The Batman in 2022. Anyway. On the other hand, Star Wars is basically giving us 4 new Star Wars movies in 4 weeks with season 2 of Andor. Showrunner Tony Gilroy had a big interview with Collider earlier this week where we got some info into the release schedule.
The final season of Andor will unfold over 12 episodes broken down into four chapters of three episodes each. The first chapter will premiere April 22, with subsequent chapters debuting each week.
April 22 — E1, E2, E3
April 29 — E4, E5, E6
May 6 — E7, E8, E9
May 13 — E10, E11, E12
Selfishly, that release schedule is not great. I will likely be in the middle of a Jack White concert when episodes 7 - 9 are released. Hard to believe Disney didn’t check my calendar before deciding on the release dates.
There were some other interesting tidbits from the Collider interview.
The latest teaser for the series revealed that we’re going to see Ghorman, which some Star Wars fans know for the devastating Ghorman Massacre. When you’re looking at the references to these various events that we have only heard of, what went into the decision to choose which to show us?
GILROY: It's the five years. I get those five years. So, in those five years, there's a couple of really big… You map it out on a calendar, on a piece of paper, “Okay, here's where I'm going to go. Here are my four blocks. Here's where these things happen.” Mon Mothma leaving the Senate is canonical. There are a couple of other events in here. The development of Yavin is canonical. Obviously, the discovery of the Death Star and whatever intelligence there is, espionage, that leads to the beginning of Rogue One is canonical. I had to get to all those things.
One of the headlines in the article is “'Andor' Isn't Trying to "Rhyme With Anything" in the Present” but it certainly seems like it’s rhyming with Star Wars. People believe the scene at the beginning of the special look trailer where you hear a voice in distress saying “Imperial ships are already landing” certainly reminded me of hearing “Imperial troops have entered the base.” in Empire Strikes Back.
Also of note, the release schedule was a Disney decision.
GILROY: We heard about that as we finished. We finished the show in November. We finaled the show in November, so we really had to wait for Skeleton Crew. It's a Disney decision. There's an internal logic behind it. They have their reasons. It's kind of cool. I mean, it puts a burden on podcasters. What are they going to do? It's a movie a week, you know?
Gilroy doesn’t offer a reason for the movie-of-the-week format, but the article I linked above from Nerdist suggests what it always is, Disney chasing the Gen Z’ers and disregarding the viewing habits of us olds.
So what is Disney’s internal logic here, you may ask? Well, we have no proof. However, recent polling has shown that younger viewers greatly prefer the binge model versus weekly episode drops. It makes sense, as a whole generation grew up with the model Netflix created. Streamers always care more about what a younger demographic likes versus The Olds, who were reared on weekly episodes.
Are the Gen Z’ers and younger really into Star Wars? I’ve mentioned before I use Halloween as my measuring stick for Star Wars in the pop culture and compared to things like the MCU, Batman, and videogames, there’s just a lot fewer Star Wars costumes. Granted, if there was a series that was going to try to get the actual kids back into Star Wars, it’s certainly not going to be Andor. The show that’s more like a John le Carre novel and less Space Wizards with Laser Swords. Andor was an amazing show, but it was by far the least Star Warsy show out of anything. All the things that make Star Wars fun were missing. Sure, the point of Andor isn’t fun. As I always say discussing the show, it’s a grim portrait about how fascism infects and takes over a previously democratic society, a lesson that we here in America have decided to ignore.
That was going to be the end of my Andor section, but then Disney had to drop this on Thursday.
I was hoping to watch and have a reaction, but it’s going to have to wait until next week. So talk amongst yourselves.
Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising
It’s a well established part of Death Star HR lore that I am also a fan of What We Do In The Shadows, both the movie and the TV show. Mark Hamill himself made a guest appearance as Jim the Vampire in the season 2 episode “On the Run,” an episode that pretty much any ranking of WWDITS episodes is going to have in the top five. I mean, it gave us regular human bartender Daytona…Jackie. Daytona.
And while there is another world where I simply use my newsletter to email out random WWDITS clips, it’s not this world. Instead, the above is what you call a set up. Earlier this week, I picked up the Andor soundtrack on vinyl and made a quick post about it on Notes. Paul Riddell, fellow Dallasite, Substack writer, and author of the The Annals of St. Remedius Medical College, the weirdest Substack west of the Mississippi (I mean that as a high compliment seriously you should subscribe) replied with this beauty:
Have I ordered it yet? No. Is it in my Etsy cart? Hmmm…I better not say.
This Day in Star Wars History
Two births , a release, and a death we’re going to mention on March 14th in the galaxy far, far away.
Actor Gary Anthony Williams was born in 1966. He voiced Riff Tamson in The Clone Wars and Kragan Gorr in Resistance, among other characters. Williams has had a pretty varied career. His first movie roll was in Uncle George’s Radioland Murders, a box office bomb which Roger Ebert said was “all action and no character, all situation and no comedy.” He also voiced Uncle Ruckus (no relation) in The Boondocks and the snowman and one of the California Raisins in the animated segment of “A Very Sunny Christmas.”
Actress Meredith Salenger was born in 1970. Her main role in Star Wars was voicing Barriss Offee in The Clone Wars and Tales of the Empire. She also voiced some one-off characters in The Clone Wars and Rebels, along with playing a Resistance technician in The Force Awakens. And although Wookieepedia doesn’t see fit to mention it, she voiced Jyn Erso in Robot Chicken.
Return of the Jedi: Special Edition was released in 1997. Yes, I was there opening night. Back in September 2023 I wrote about seeing the OT back to back to back at a historic theater here in Dallas. It was, of course, the Special Editions. When it came time for ROTJ, the MC of the night commented it was “the most special of the Special Editions” with the added request/comment that for many people it was their first time seeing a Star Wars movie on the big screen, so please don’t boo the changes. #YUBNUBFOREVER
Egbert Sen passed away in 2019. You might be wondering who Egbert Sen was, but trust me, you know him. He played Willrow Hood in Empire Strikes Back. Still nothing? OK, when they’re evacuating Cloud City and there’s the guy running down the hall holding an ice cream maker? That’s Egbert Sen in action. Sen’s roll was uncredited and it doesn’t appear it was really known until 2023 when a fan trying to track down who played Sen approached his daughters. Hood has become a cult favorite, because Star Wars fans are like that, and there’s the Running of the Hoods at Star Wars celebration.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
I’m about 99% sure I’ve mentioned the TV show Battle Bots at some point in FTDOW, I think it was in reference a Gonk droid and the movie Solo? That sounds about right. These week we’ve got a slightly difference version of it, Microdroid wrestling. What is microdroid wrestling and how does it compare to say, Battle Bots?
Following the end of the Swarm War, microdroid wrestling became a popular sport in many casinos. Hobbyists built microdroids to act as miniature gladiators. In each round, two droid combatants fought and the winner moved onto the next round. The actual combat took place in a secure chamber so that spectators were not accidentally injured by the droids.
It goes on to say that microdroids were only about 10 centimeters and look like spiders. I’m not sure how they could hurt spectators, but better safe than sorry. Safety first is definitely the motto in Star Wars, where the Empire doesn’t believe in guardrails or any kind of safety precautions.
News From the HoloNet
Andor Showrunner Confirms He's Done With Star Wars After Season 2, & "I'm Not Feeling Guilty"
Go with the Force, Tony. You’ve given all us Star Wars fans a gift with Andor and Rogue One.
Giancarlo Esposito Thinks ‘There’s More Road’ For Moff Gideon In Star Wars
It is a core belief here at Death Star HR that the dead should stay dead.
Disney Reveals Three Of Its ‘Star Wars’ Movies Were Over Budget
Rise of Skywalker was the only one under budget. Take that for whatever its worth.
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, for the record, am also often over budget.
I'd put that Nandor poster on my wall without a second hesitation. My fiancé and I love WWDITS. We have a Naja magnet on our fridge so the poster would fit in just fine haha.