Star Wars Bits: Visions, Disney Gallery, The Bad Batch, Heir To The Empire, The Mandalorian, Crimson Reign, And More!
In this edition of Star Wars Bits:
A New Star Wars: Visions Trailer Debuts
This week, Disney+ debuted the trailer and announced the voice casts for Star Wars: Visions, Lucasfilm's upcoming anime-inspired anthology series.
The new trailer — available in both the original Japanese and English — provides a glimpse of the stunning visuals from each of the nine animated shorts, which can all be viewed both with the original Japanese or the English dub when the series launches on Disney+ on September 22.
Check out StarWars.com for a full list of the Japanese and English dub voice casts, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bobby Moynihan, Temuera Morrison, Neil Patrick Harris, Alison Brie, David Harbour, Henry Golding, Jamie Chung, Simu Liu, and more!
The studios creating the nine shorts include Kamikaze Douga – "The Duel"; Geno Studio (Twin Engine) – "Lop and Och?"; Studio Colorido (Twin Engine) – "Tatooine Rhapsody"; TRIGGER – "The Twins" and "The Elder"; Kinema Citrus – "The Village Bride"; Science Saru – "Akakiri" and "T0-B1"; and Production I.G. – "The Ninth Jedi."
Mark Hamill in New Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian Clip
In a new clip from the upcoming special episode of Disney Gallery: Star Wars: The Mandalorian, executive producer Dave Filoni discusses the goal of Star Wars storytelling. "Fundamentally, Star Wars should deliver a good feeling. An uplifting feeling."
The full episode, which arrives on Disney+ August 25, will explore the cutting-edge technology used to bring Luke Skywalker back to the Star Wars universe. Watch the clip, featuring Mark Hamill as Luke, above!
The Biggest Moments of The Bad Batch and What’s Next
StarWars.com's Dan Brooks has a fantastic, in-depth interview with Star Wars: The Bad Batch executive producer/supervising director Brad Rau and executive producer/head writer Jennifer Corbett who speak at length about some of Season 1's biggest moments and what we can expect from Season 2. Here's a taste:
Dan Brooks: Nala Se, at the end of the finale, arrives at an Imperial lab that I think seems to tie into the Emperor's contingency plan of creating clones for himself to cheat death. Can you tell me if I'm right?
Jennifer Corbett: Well, Dan, that's a fascinating theory! [Laughs] What we'll say is, where Nala Se is, what Nala Se is doing, should be a mystery to the audience, and we hope to explore that in the upcoming season.
Brad Rau: I cannot add to that. [All laugh.]
Check out the rest of the interview at StarWars.com. As for that mysterious Imperial facility seen in the finale, the "Kamino Lost" episode guide reveals that it's Mount Tantiss, a cloning facility created by Timothy Zahn for 1991's Heir to the Empire. Our friend Jordan Maison at Cinelinx has some interesting thoughts on how Mount Tantiss will factor into the events of The Bad Batch, so be sure to check that out as well!
Marvel's War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign, and More!
Marvel's War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event continues! In StarWars.com's exclusive preview of Star Wars: Darth Vader #15, Vader and his servant Ochi of Bestoon set a plan in motion to guarantee victory for the Empire. Meanwhile, in Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #13, Aphra journeys to Jekara and encounters someone unexpected...
Darth Vader #15, from writer Greg Pak and artist Raffaele Ienco, with a cover by Aaron Kuder and Richard Isanove, arrives August 25 and is available for pre-order now; Doctor Aphra #13, from writer Alyssa Wong and artist Minkyu Jung, with a cover by Sara Pichelli and Nolan Woodard, also arrives August 25 and is available for pre-order now.
IGN has revealed that Marvel will release a new Star Wars comic series this November focused on Qi'ra, the character played by Emilia Clarke in Solo: A Star Wars Story, titled Star Wars: Crimson Reign. Charles Soule will write all five issues and told IGN:
"While Qi'ra plays a huge part in War of the Bounty Hunters, that event is really a Boba Fett story. I have a bigger story I'm going to tell with Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn, and it's all connected to the reasons she kicked things off in War of the Bounty Hunters in the first place. You'll learn more about that in the closing pages of War of the Bounty Hunters #5, out in October, and I think fans have no idea how exciting and new this story will feel."
Star Wars: Crimson Reign's art is done by Steve Cummings, who will also be doing a Variant cover for the first issue (see above). The main cover is from Leinil Francis Yu, and a Connecting Variant Cover comes from Ario Anindito.
In other comics news, Marvel recently announced a new one-shot, Star Wars: Life Day #1, featuring four festive tales by Cavan Scott, Justina Ireland, Jody Houser, and Steve Orlando.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Starts Filming Next Month
Carl Weathers, who played Greef Karga in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and directed "Chapter 12: The Siege," recently had a panel at Steel City Con (see below) where he confirmed that the next season of the hit Disney+ series will start shooting in September and that he'll be behind the camera again!
"[...] And so now we are gonna start a new season of The Mandalorian in the next month. And I get to be in front of the camera again, and I get to direct again. So I hope you all stay on the lookout for it, watch it, and support it.
Star Wars Reshoots & Additional Photography
Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo has created a Twitter mega-thread showcasing all the scenes that required reshoots and additional photography in the Star Wars films. Of course, reshoots and pick-ups (small, relatively minor shots filmed or recorded after the fact to augment footage already shot) have been a part of filmmaking — and Star Wars — since the beginning, so it's cool to see that some of our favorite moments in Star Wars were found not during production, but after the fact.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Easter Eggs
Star Wars Explained has a great video compiling 82 Easter eggs, Legends references, and other Star Wars connections in the first season of The Bad Batch.
This Week! in Star Wars
On This Week! in Star Wars, host Kristin Baver breaks down all the latest Star Wars news:
And that's it for this edition of Star Wars Bits! If you have something cool from the Star Wars universe that should be included in this column, reach out on Twitter!