The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: May 9, 2026
The lightsaber battle to end all lightsaber battles
Hello there
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 Travis Clark 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.
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, Jonathan Ytreberg had me on to yak about an old movie. This week we talked about the 1930 gangster film Doorway to Hell.
Check it out, and if you’re into movies of all sorts, make sure you’re following Jonathan and subscribe to The Oscar Project.
I mentioned this at the start of Maul: Shadow Lord and I guess I need to mention it again just to be safe. It is the official policy of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter to post spoilers. It’s too tough to discuss a show without doing so. It’s even doubly harder to talk about the end of Shadow Lord without talking about the big cameo. I wouldn’t even call it a cameo since the character was essential to the two episodes. But anyway, if you haven’t watched Shadow Lord and don’t want to know what happened. I’d close your eyes, scroll all the way to bottom, and stop when you see the “Only Reason to Leave the House on a Monday” header.
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 Eric Pierce 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
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.
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See, Disney. No one dies in Star Wars. #SAVEBENSOLO
I have a theory that every streaming series is 2 episodes too long.