The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: November 3, 2025
The post-Halloween hangover while hunting for Ben Solo
Hello there
Monday is almost never a good thing. So maybe a late Monday edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter can help? I mean, it’s not like it’s going to make it any worse. It’s a shorter Death Star HR today. There’s my yearly Halloween recap and little more on all the madness surrounding The Hunt for Ben Solo. I should be back on Friday with a fully armed and operational Death Star HR.
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’ll discuss Halloween and Star Wars costumes below, but at least one Youngling was ready to embrace the Dark Side while trick or treating. From long time real-life friend and Death Star HR friend, Obi-Wan Kenippy.
I’ll say it’s within canon, I mean Anakin did become a Force Ghost.
The 3rd Annual Death Star HR Halloween Roundup
In a yearly feature (see 2023 and 2024) I’ve mentioned that I use Halloween as a measuring stick for just how well Star Wars is faring with the youth of America. Or at least the youth in my little corner of Dallas, Texas. I live in a neighborhood that is well known for going all out at Halloween, so we get a lot of trick or treaters and I can see what the kids are into. We finally counted this year, 820 or so kids stopped by my front porch.
This year, there were 6 kids in Star Wars costumes. 3 Darth Vaders. 1 Luke as an X-Wing pilot, 1 Stormtrooper, and 1 Mandalorian. That’s one less than last year and the same number as 2023. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of K-Pop Demon Hunter costumes are I saw, that was easily number one. Spiderman was probably in second place. Unlike some years though, there wasn’t one TV show, movie, or videogame that really dominated (outside of what I’ve already mentioned). Last year there were a lot of Marios, this year I only saw a couple. Not nearly as many kids in in Marvel costumes. As always there were a fair number of Batman and Superman costumes. There were four kids as Master Chief from Halo. Then the older kids tend to go for the scary costumes. There were 4 or 5 Art the Clowns included a couple kids who were way too young to have seen Terrifier. I gave them a lot of candy just for my own safety.
But it was another poor showing for Star Wars. I’ve pondered the reasons why the last couple years. Out of the six, five of them were OT characters with Mando being the only new one. I haven’t seen a single Rey in 3 years but Disney is (maybe) counting on her to be the face of the post-Sequel Trilogy? I mentioned this a week or two ago but I wonder if Star Wars release schedule hurts them. TV shows have generally come out in the spring or at the end of the year. Nothing in the summer or even early fall to capture attention and make a kid say “Yeah, I’m going to be Neel for Halloween!”
Maybe with Star Wars coming back to the theater next year will help. Next October 31st my neighborhood will be overrun with kids in Mandalorian armor, screaming “this is the way!” at each other instead of screaming “6/7”
Also, this Halloween was the return of the Generic Jedi. No backstory, just the first one killed during Order 66. And while it has nothing to do with Star Wars, the Luka skeleton was a big hit.
The Hunt For The Hunt for Ben Solo Rages On
The Hunt for Ben Solo has been cancelled. The Hunt for Ben Solo is still out there. The Hunt for Ben Solo is the alpha and the omega of Star Wars movies. The Hunt for Ben Solo is the Synder Cut of Star Wars. The Hunt for Ben Solo will unite the various factions of the fanbase. Maybe all those things are true. Maybe none of them are.
There’s a saying that when you have a losing football team, that the most popular player is the backup quarterback. Everyone likes to think if the coach wasn’t such a dummy, the backup would just come off the bench and lead the team to glory. The backup QB is, well, a new hope. That’s what all the talk surrounding The Hunt for Ben Solo feels like to me.
Thankfully, Star Wars fans have been handling the reveal of The Hunt for Ben Solo with their trademark rationality.
Alright, the missing flyers are fun. Especially putting them outside of Disney Studios. Probably a better idea than drawing up a wanted poster accusing Bob Iger and Alan Bergman of murdering Ben Solo. But Star Wars fans are also nothing if not occasionally over the top. Like renting a billboard in Times Square over the top.
The billboard was the brainchild of a B.D. Neagle, who told Collider:
“I’m just a fan who thought Ben’s story wasn’t finished. I wanted to do what I could to support the fandom and everyone attached to The Hunt for Ben Solo.” She went on to explain, “The intent was to show Disney this is what fans actually want. ‘No one’s ever really gone’ I believe, says it all. If they could bring back Palpatine with one line, there are plenty of ways Ben could return that already fit into Star Wars lore.”
It is worth noting that she’s not wrong, the fandom does seem to be pretty interested in this movie. Maybe it’s backup quarterback syndrome. Maybe, as fellow Star Wars writer Matthew Freeman speculated, it’s more ammunition for those who don’t like Disney’s ownership. Maybe Kylo Ren has a bigger fanbase than I realized. I know there’s all the Reylo people out there. Are their numbers that big? Star Wars is a big tent, it’s probably a little bit of everything.
Does Star Wars conduct any kind of market research? Maybe they thought nobody wanted the Ben Solo movie because Nelson and Milhouse were messing with the responses.
I wouldn’t be very useful for any Star Wars focus group, because I’m going to want to see everything they’d suggest.
The Collider article goes onto suggest that maybe, just maybe this is Driver trying to leverage fan support to get his movie made.
Fans are convinced that Driver intentionally revealed the plans for The Hunt for Ben Solo to galvanize the passionate fan base, and to put pressure on Disney to move forward with the project. It wouldn’t be the first time that a big-name celebrity has leveraged fans to revive a studio-doomed project. Famously, Ryan Reynolds allegedly assisted in leaking the Deadpool test footage that stirred up fan fervor and convinced 20th Century Fox to move forward with the merc with a mouth.
Maybe? I don’t know, I suppose it’s possible. Like I said last week, I really think the Ben Solo movie could work alongside the Rey New Jedi Order movie. Make it a duology, not everything has to be a trilogy. Ben has to come to terms with how he ruined Uncle Luke’s Jedi Order, fell to the Dark Side, and killed his Dad. Rey has to wrestle with how can she be a Palpatine but still rebuild the Jedi Order. Maybe both of them have to come to terms with how can they be in a relationship and still keep to the Jedi Code.
Is anything going to come from all the Ben Solo madness besides giving fans a new shiny object to obsess over? It doesn’t seem extremely likely to me it’s going to ever see the light of day. But maybe it’s there in a “break glass in case of emergency” type of situation.
Going on a Visons (season 3) Quest
No write up for Visions Season 3 this week. Between everything going on and the World Series, there just hasn’t been time. Full thoughts in the upcoming newsletter. But if you really need your Visions fix, go ahead and read friend of Death Star HR Matthew Freeman’s review.
I say this a lot, and it’s because I 100% mean it; if you are a Star Wars fan reading this and you’re not also reading Ahch-To Baby, you are missing out. Go sign up. Do I need to do a Jedi Mind Trick to get you to?
This Day in Star Wars History
A birth, a videogame, and two books to talk about on November 3rd in the galaxy far, far away.
Veteran voice actor Jim Cummings was born in 1952. It would take too long to go through everything he’s done. When your filmography has it’s own Wikipedia page, you know you’ve had a good career. One entry of note, Cummings appeared on an episode of The Simpsons that also featured Randy Bachman and Fred Turner from Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Cummings is best known in the Star Wars universe for voicing loveable pirate Hondo Ohnaka in The Clone Wars and Rebels. Really feel that Star Wars missed a chance to do a live action Hondo in Skeleton Crew.
The videogame Shadows of the Empire was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996. I’ve wanted to do a deep dive on Shadows for a while, since it was really a big push from Star Wars. You had the videogame, a novel, action figures, a soundtrack, and I think there was a limited comic book series as well. Most people probably remember the videogame for the first level which has you fighting in the Battle of Hoth.
Expanded Universe novel Specter of the Past was published in 1997. This was Timothy Zahn’s first novel after the Thrawn Trilogy. It’s part of the Hand of Thrawn duology. I know I’ve read it, but it was a long time ago. The reviews of it seem to be good.
Keeping with the Expanded Universe, anthology book Tales from the Empire was also published on this day in 1997. Even though Boba Fett is on the book’s cover, he’s not actually a character in any of the stories. Bait and switch!
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
When the Wookieepedia randomizer popped up The Scorekeeper, I thought I was going to get my Star Wars sports fix. But no such luck. Instead, we get a look at Star Wars religion.
The Scorekeeper was the goddess of the Trandoshans who would assign them to their deserved place in the Afterlife. According to Trandoshan belief, she existed beyond time and space. She watched Trandoshan hunters, and awarded them “Jagannath points“ for each kill. The more prestigious or rare the target killed, the higher its value in “points” would be and the greater their place in the Afterlife would grow into.
I mean, it wouldn’t be my first choice for a Star Wars religion. I’m more of an Ancient Order of Pessimists follower myself.
News From the HoloNet
The Hunt For Ben Solo Reaction Is The Start Of The Star Wars Sequel Revival
“No-one’s ever really gone.”
Star Wars Finally Addresses The Weirdest Thing About Darth Vader
Um, the Legends Dark Lord book already addressed how Vader goes to the bathroom in his suit. Not sure what more a new book could add.
Manny Jacinto Says Star Wars Is “Missing The Romance” — And He’s Absolutely Right
Now is the time to revisit the Jar Jar Binks/Queen Julia romance.
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.
You're a mensch. And I can't wait for you to write up Visions. You're going to love it.
I'm shocked at how many kids came as Master Chief!