The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: June 23, 2025
The year is 2058. Disney's Cyborg CEO has delayed the Rey movie again
Hello there
OK, it’s a few days late and a few Republic Credits short, I know I know. And I had been doing so good about getting things out on Friday. But, every so often the real world interferes and in this case I had to travel to the Dagobah of the U.S.A. for work. A place that’s hot, swampy, and tainted by the Dark Side That’s right, I was in Florida for a few days. But, I’m back and so is the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. This week we’ve got another update on the Rey New Jedi Order movie. The 1977 Star Wars was screened across the pond. And I finally get proof that Revan is canon.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
There’s no government like local government. Thankfully the city of Kyle, Texas has a better sense of humor than the Empire.
Hat tip to Mom Mothma for sending me this one. I’m pretty sure thanks to Death Star HR, her Insta algo has been taken over by Star Wars clips.
730ish Days of this Nonsense
If I may be a little self indulgent for a moment, we’ve hit a big milestone here at Death Star HR. Last Saturday, June 14th 2025 was the 2nd anniversary of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. Hard to believe it’s been two years since the first one, which you can read here.
That does have what is still one of my favorite ideas, a What We Do In The Shadows/Star Wars crossover where the vampires from WWDITS meet up with the denizens of Jabba’s Palace. Wacky hi-jinks ensue!
Then last year for the 1st anniversary of Death Star HR, I got to riff on 30 Rock, quote Varsity Blues and speculate on Wookiee Jedi haircuts (fur cuts?)
I also got into the legend of Death Star HR and how it came about, and if I may quote myself:
Then perhaps I was guided by the Force, I decided a Star Wars email newsletter was the solution to my ennui. I was already familiar with Substack since I subscribed to a baseball writer on the platform. So after a couple weeks of kicking around names and what I wanted to focus on3, the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter was born. Possibly it was even conceived through the Midi-chorians4. Who can say?
What does year 3 hold? Like I said above, who can say? It’s kind of a strange time in Star Wars right now. After Andor ended, we don’t have anything new live-action shows to watch until The Mandalorian and Grogu hits the big screen next year. I have a few ideas of things I’d like to do. Namely get a companion podcast going. The Death Star HR Newsletter in its written form will always be my focus, but I’ve done a few podcasts with other people and always had fun. And as a lawyer I’m in love the sound of my own voice, so why not.
It’s been a lot of fun the last couple years. I am truly thankful and appreciative of everyone who reads and shares and banters about Star Wars with me. When I started Death Star HR, I honestly had no idea if anyone would read it besides my friends that I more or less forced to sign up. There’s a great Star Wars community here on Substack and among all my subscribers so thanks again for reading.
Another Day, Another Rey, Another Delay
A while back I wrote about Asteroid 2024 YR4, the one that astronomers give a slim chance to hit the Earth. Unfortunately, we’re not going to get that lucky. But I wondered which would happen first, an asteroid hitting the earth and wiping out all life as we know it bringing about a new ice age, or the Rey New Jedi Order movie hitting the theaters.
Well, odds are increasing for all us never knowing how Rey would be as a Jedi teacher, as it’s being reported that the Rey New Jedi Order movie has been put on hold.
We had heard that "New Jedi Order" was a priority at one point, but it seems Lucasfilm may have made the decision to put the project on the back-burner again.
According to scooper Daniel Richtman, "The Rey movie is on hold once again, as both the Shawn Levy and James Mangold Star Wars films are moving forward first. The project is not canceled — just temporarily on hold."
I’m not sure this is a huge surprise. Disney has 3 Star Wars movie dates blocked off through 2027. Two of them are already claimed. It is interesting that the James Mangold film, Dawn of the Jedi, is mentioned as the other film that is moving forward and not the Filoniverse movie. There has been some internet chatter in lately that Dave Filoni’s movie wrapping up The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, etc wasn’t as solid as we might have thought. And as always, the future is hard to see and all these internet rumors should be taken with a Hutt-sized grain of salt.
To prove what I was saying, as I was checking Google News for any articles to link in News from the HoloNet, I found something else saying that no, the Rey movie is still in active development.
According to industry insider Jeff Sneider of The InSneider, however, the project still remains in active development.
Sneider said on The Hot Mic, “LucasFilm doesn’t have a script yet. So, it’s not on hold. It’s actively being written…LucasFilm is waiting on the Rey movie to be delivered…That script has not been finalized. If it was on hold, they’d say, ‘You know what, stop writing. We’re not even gonna do it.’ But they’re waiting for it. So it’s not on hold.”
He added, “As I’ve said in the past, that movie is not the only one with Rey in it as a lead character. There are multiple projects being developed with Rey as the lead character.”
One thing that makes me think the Rey movie will happen that as noted above and below, Disney supposedly views her as the future of Star Wars:
A recent report from THR claimed that Rey "Skywalker" is key to the franchise's future. Not only is she expected to appear in the new trilogy that's in the works from writer and producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), but several other projects (though which ones are not clear).
“She is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” one source told the site.
Is Rey really a more valuable “asset” to Star Wars than say Mando or Ahsoka? I guess we’ll see in a little less than a year if Mando and Grogu can carry a movie. It’s been 5.5 years since The Rise of Skywalker. From a quick look at her Wookieepedia page, it looks like Rey has popped up in kids books, comics, and the LEGO Star Wars movies. But nothing in any of the Disney+ TV shows1. I don’t believe there’s any canon novels focusing on her. If Rey really is the future of Star Wars, you would think they’d want her to be more front and center.
Also, while scientists are no longer concerned 2024 YR4 hitting the Earth, there’s now a 4.3 chance it hits the moon in 2032.
Our Most Toxic Impulse, Nostalgia is
I’ve mentioned this a few times but I am a fan of writer/comedian John Hodgman. Those of you who are of a certain age and remember the “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials from 19 years ago (that can’t be right), Hodgman played the nerdy PC to Justin Long’s cool guy Mac.
One thing he’s said that has always stuck with me is: “Nostalgia is, at best, unproductive, and at worst, poisonous.” Nostalgia sells us a mnall our problems would go away. There’s a pretty good argument to be made that last 10 years of American politics are fueled by nostalgia, probably even more than American politics was already driven by it. The crux of the MAGA movement is based on the return to an America that never really existed and during the time America was allegedly great, it really was only “great” for a small subset of people.
The business of Star Wars is selling nostalgia. Sure, it’s selling movie tickets and Disneyland trips and action figures. But it’s all nostalgia. Disney wants to you to remember that dopamine hit you got in 1977 and had your mind blow when the Star Destroyer passed overhead for the first time. Or if you were a Prequel Kiddie, the hit you got watching Darth Maul duel with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. I’m not sure what moment Disney is hoping imprinted on the kids who had the Sequel Trilogy as their first big screen Star Wars experience. Rey, Finn, and Kylo fighting on Starkiller Base? The end of Rise of Skywalker with Rey, Kylo, and Palpatine? Anyway, Disney wants you to think about being 7 years old watching the Death Star trench run and then sign up for Disney+, or book a trip to Disney Land, or hop online and buy some merch.
If there’s one bit of nostalgia almost all Star Wars fans will agree on, it’s that the originals are better than the Special Editions. I’m not even immune to this, I have a “Han Shot First” button on my backpack, which is a phrase that will raise the blood pressure of any older Star Wars fan. Something that is dangerous since we’re all entering an age where our blood pressure is something we need to keep an eye on, along with our cholesterol. The idea is that the original versions are pure and all that are good in the galaxy while the Special Editions are a soulless cash grab, crammed with unnecessary CGI that doesn’t look great these days and they were just an excuse for Uncle George to play with some new toys and create effects that he didn’t have the technology to do back when he was filming the OT. And there’s some truth to that, at least from a certain point of view. Lucas used the money he made from the Special Editions to fund the Prequels. I’d believe there’s some truth to Lucas saying that what he imagined in his head for the OT couldn’t be done with the effects technology of the late 70’s/early 80’s. And ultimately the movie’s are George’s babies. If he wanted to tinker with them, that was his prerogative.
How many Star Wars fans have even seen the non-Special Edition version of the OT lately? I have the 1995 VHS tapes sitting in a drawer, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve watched them. It’s entirely possible I haven’t seen that version of the OT in 30ish years. I wrote about it back in December 2023 about being Special Edition Pilled. If you’ve watched the non-Special Edition version lately or even in the last 10 years, drop a comment below.
I mentioned a couple months ago that the Film on Film Festival, put on by the British Film Institute was doing two screenings of the OG 1977 Star Wars. So old that it’s not even “Episode IV: A New Hope.” It’s just plain old Star Wars.
It’s actually kind of amazing this even happened, the story almost sounds like an Indiana Jones adventure.
BFI’s Chief Executive Ben Roberts explained that he had contacted Kennedy when the BFI came across the print in their archives, but admitted he “wasn’t really sure we were able to show it” due to Lucas’s tinkering over the years. He said it was a “miracle” the print was in a condition to be screened.
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Until now, the studio has only permitted the screening of various Special Editions. BFI negotiated with Disney and Lucasfilm for the rights for a back-to-back screening on the festival’s opening night. This particular BFI print was stored for four decades at a temperature of 23 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve its quality.
This was a pretty rare screening, to say the least. As the BFI said in their release:
An unmissable treat for Star Wars fans. A long time ago, George Lucas’s original space fantasy set in a galaxy far, far away was released in 1977, captivating countless imaginations for generations to come and forever shifting popular culture. Film on Film presents Star Wars exactly as experienced by audiences on its original release, screening from one of the precious handful of dye transfer IB Technicolor prints produced for the first British release, preserved in the BFINational Archive.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy herself was even in attendance, in London to check in on Starfighter, which she said starts filming in the fall. She was also surprised the print had survived after all these years.
Kennedy expressed surprise at the print’s existence, stating there is “incredible folklore” surrounding it.
“Even when I came into the company [in 2012], there was endless conversation about where everything was and what was, in fact, the first print – and it’s quite remarkable: what you’re gonna see is in fact the first print. I’m not even sure there’s another one quite like it. It’s that rare.”
She continued: “It’s quite remarkable to be able to experience this exactly the way it was in 1977. This is really special.”
What was the verdict? Everyone got to see Han shoot first and that got quite a pop. But otherwise? Well, sometimes it’s better to just let the past die. As a Hollywood Reporter headline read: ‘Star Wars’ “Looks Terrible” in Screening of Long Lost Original 1977 Version.
Ouch.
Film critic Robbie Collins of the Telegraph wrote:
Every scene had the visceral sense of watching actual people photographed doing actual things with sets and props that had been physically sawn and glued into place. The slapstick between C-3PO and R2-D2 looked clunkier, and therefore funnier; the Death Star panels were less like supercomputers than wooden boards with lights stuck on, and so better attuned to the frequency of make-believe. It felt less like watching a blockbuster in the modern sense than the greatest game of dressing up in the desert anyone ever played.
“The greatest game of dressing up in the desert anyone ever played” is going to live rent free in my head for a while. But it seems apt.
George Aldridge, who says he’s seen A New Hope at least 100 times said the screening was “incredibly special,” but likewise made him realize “there are so many great changes to the Star Wars films; it’s the ones we dislike that have always overshadowed them.” He, too, noted the print was so radically different that “it felt like watching the film for the first time.”
Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to attend this. I’ve mentioned before but I was too young to see Star Wars when it was first released, given that was approximately negative 3 years old in 1977. The Special Editions were my first experience seeing Star Wars on the big screen, and as awesome as those were, and seeing the Prequels a couple years later, I knew that I had missed out on seeing the “true” originals and nothing short of using the World Between Worlds would travel back in time would allow me to see them. It’s not surprising George didn’t want the “bad” looking originals out there. Think about watching a movie from 20 years ago nowadays. Plenty of times the CGI that looked amazing in 2001 now looks cringe in 2025. As THR notes,
So, ironically, a version of Star Wars that Lucas for so long didn’t want to shown seems to give viewers more respect for Lucas — due to gaining some appreciation for his extensive and controversial tinkering.
Nostalgia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The Canonization of Revan
A few weeks ago I was (once again) talking about Knights of the Old Republic and why on earth isn’t Disney taking advantage of a game/characters that fans love. While Darth Revan isn’t a known commodity amount the Normies, if you’re a Sicko of a certain age or someone who came to the KOTOR games later, you probably would love to see a live action Darth Revan or full blown Knights of the Old Republic series/movie.
I’ve known for a while that Revan has TECHNICALLY been re-canonized thanks to The Rise of Skywalker. Although I never knew how exactly. I had just assumed that when Rey hears the voices of all the other Jedi who have come before her, that Revan was mixed in somewhere in the background encouraging Rey.
Turns out, that’s not the case. I had read on his Wookieepedia page, that Revan was re-canonized in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Visual Dictionary. If you’ve never seen these before, they’re large books which contain all sorts of information and trivia about characters, planets, ships, etc. that they can’t fit in the movie.
The book isn’t in my collection, I tend to focus on the paperback if for no other reason than storage issues. but the Dallas Public Library had it in the catalog and I was able to pick it up at the closest branch. Support your local library, folks. They need it now more than ever.
There’s nothing for Revan in the table of contents or the index. Checking the Wookieepedia page again, there’s a Legion of Sith Troopers named after Revan.
So yeah, that’s all it takes to get Revan back into canon. An entry in a book that something is named after him. Well hey, I’ll take it. Hopefully it’s the first step to getting Revan in something else. Or, dare I dream, a KOTOR movie or show.
Also, because there’s so many little nuggets of trivia, wonder if there’s a way I can slip some Republic Credits to the editor and get a random background character named after me. Anyone got a hookup at Lucasfilm?
This Day in Star Wars History
June 23rd is a pretty big day in the Star Wars universe. You can also tell that I wrote this section last because if I had written it earlier, I would have just stuck with June 20.
No big deal, but on this day Walt Disney Studios was founded in 1953 as Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, Inc.. Whatever you want to think of Disney’s stewardship of Star Wars, it’s a big deal.
LEGO guru Bill Motz was born in 1964. Motz is the co-creator and executive producer for LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures and LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars.
Desert dweller (at least on screen) Joel Edgerton was born in 1974. Edgerton played Owen Lars in the Prequels and in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I thought he really captured Owen’s exasperated “I don’t have time for Jedi nonsense” in Obi-Wan.
Not specifically Star Wars related, but as I have a lot of fond memories of playing Shadows of the Empire and made most of my friends in college thanks to a certain gray box, it’s worth mentioning that on this day the Nintendo 64 was launched in Japan.
The novel Shadow Fall by Alexander Freed was published in 2020. Shadow Fall second book of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy, a series that covers a ragtag New Republic Navy squad in the aftermath of the fall of the Empire. It’s been a while since I’ve read them, but I’ve always thought the Alphabet Squadron books are up there with Rogue One and Andor of making the reader/viewer feel like they are in a galaxy wide war.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
I almost want to save this for a Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising, but that celebrates the weird and off-beat. This is pretty normal. Spaceballs: The Board Game. Star Wars: The Ultimate Space Adventure Game. What caught my eye is the game was published in 1982, so we’re between Empire and Jedi. From the publisher:
You and your opponents are commanders in the Rebel Alliance. The remote ice planet Hoth has been your base since you escaped from the superior Empire forces. But wait! The Empire has sent probes into the far reaches of the galaxy, and your position has been revealed. Even now, an Imperial TIE fighter commanded by the evil Darth Vader is invading Planet Hoth's atmosphere. To escape, you must pilot your X-Wing Fighter on a perilous journey through the unknown to Planet Dantooine (pronounced Dan-two-een). One - and only one - Rebel fighter can complete the journey. Will it be yours?
I couldn’t find a video about the game on YouTube but the game is pretty easy to find on eBay. They’re currently selling anywhere from $15 for a used version missing the red X-Wing piece all the way up to $90 for a sealed version of it. As far as I can tell from the instructions, it’s your basic move from point A to point B game, or in this case move from Hoth to Dantooine, while avoiding obstacles. Anyone have this in the back of their closet? I’d try it out.
News From the HoloNet
An old mall storage unit is now a Star Wars paradise where you can build your own lightsaber
It’s well established Death Star HR canon that I love Portland, Oregon. Time for a road trip.
‘Cinema for morons’ and ‘pompous garbage’: The first ‘Star Wars’ script that absolutely no one liked
Paywalled but worth the read if you like Star Wars history.
Kyrie Irving sends unexpected message that Star Wars fans will love to hear
Let’s get Battlefront 3 done! It’s not like Kyrie and the Mavs are making the playoffs any time soon.
West End Games’ Classic ‘Star Wars’ RPG Is Still Setting the Blueprint for Its Universe
No mention of the bounty hunter character I created back in 1996.
Meet the NYC dad who won a Pedro Pascal look-alike contest and a year of burritos
“Gountas…said he's enjoying the attention and hopes Pascal himself might visit "The Daily Show" someday so his wife can meet the actor.” My wife too, hopes one day she might meet the actor.
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.
Although that’s not her fault since none of the Disney stuff takes place in the Sequel Trilogy era.
Congrats on entering Year 3, and you should definitely do the podcast!
You keep referring to Revan as ‘him’. Why won’t anybody respect her pronouns? 😛
Idk I always played her as a woman; and I suspect that might part of why KOTOR has never really been adapted to film/tv. Revan is just a self-insert character.
I know the Reddit fanboys drool over Keanu as Revan. Bah. He’s getting too old anyway.