Out Of The Basement Podcast

May the 4th be with you!  Yes quite possibly the ‘cheesiest’ line I’ve have ever heard.  But seeing how it is soon to be “Star Wars Day” I’ll let it slide.  Apparently a day set aside for the celebration of everything Star Wars has been around since 1979, but it seems to be that this is the first year that I have been aware of it’s existence.  I suppose this is because it was only in 2011 at the ‘Toronto Underground Cinema’ in the wonderful city Toronto, that it was first celebrated in an organized fashion.  It seems since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in late 2012 they have celebrated the holiday with several events and festivities at all their Disney Park locations.  Going hand in hand with these celebrations, Disney is also launching their new animated series “Star Wars Rebels” on May 4th.  I for one am looking forward to seeing something new coming to the franchise. I came across an article a few months ago about this show, they stated that it was going to be a TV movie to start of the new series, I can only hope this is still the case.

The new series takes place as the Evil Empire is gaining more power and tightening it’s grip on the galaxy.  On a small remote planet the empire is grinding the people who live there under their boots. The story focuses around a motley crew of a star ship named Ghost.  From what little information I can gleam about this upcoming show, it seems to me they have finally chosen to focus on characters other then Jedi and Sith, although I’m sure those types of characters will make appearances.  It’s unfortunate however, because it was always stated that all the force users had been wiped out leaving only Yoda, and Obi-wan as the living Jedi. Come to think of it though, Obi-wan was quoted as saying that Darth Vader helped the Emperor and the Empire hunt down and kill all the remaining Jedi.  This new series could be that portion of the Star Wars history that was never really touched upon.  I guess that means we should look forward to seeing a random Jedi that lived through Order 66 struggling to survive, and then we should promptly see Darth Vader show up and chop said Jedi’s head off.  Well that’s going to be depressing. I mean why get invested in loving characters that you ultimately know are going to die.  It really is a let down.  Perhaps this is one of the hidden reasons hardcore Star Wars fans dislike the Prequels so much.  They where introduced to a wide range of characters that had no future.

It seems to me that this new show could fit easily within the realm of “Star Wars: Galaxies” in terms of timeline.  As cool as it is to have nifty mind powers and a light saber, I have always preferred to play a common person struggling in the Star Wars Universe.  I mean seriously, life would be pretty short for you if you where constantly being hunted by the government, and where everyone and their brother would sell you out for a ticket off the crappy rock they where currently living on.  So why not play one of those people who are struggling to just get by, like may be being a ship mechanic or a pilot, or a bounty hunter, smuggler, militia trooper, heck who knows.  There is so much more story to one of those characters then a hunted Jedi.  That’s why I see this show being a success.  For those who are only interested in seeing Jedi jump around and all the fancy light saber duels, and force powers, the exit is over there to the left, behind that fern.  Everyone else, come this way and let me welcome you to a world of intrigue and excitement.

On another note, Mara Jade who has been a long standing character and love interest of Luke Skywalker is being made canon.  Mara was first introduced in the Thrawn Series of novels where she was the “Emperors Hand” a force sensitive assassin and spy sent out into the galaxy to do the Emperors bidding.  In later novels Mara moved past her dark side and became close to Luke, eventually marrying him and becoming the mother of their son Ben Skywalker.  Her beloved character is finally going to take the leap from fiction to fact as she is introduced in the Star Wars: Rebels series.

There is little more that I have to share at this time, but I felt it important to do a tribute to May the 4th and Star Wars Day. On this note I’ll leave everyone with a little video that was posted to our Facebook page, I found it to be highly entertaining and everyone should check it out.  See you all later!  May the 4th be with you!  God… so cheesy.

Excited does not even begin to describe the way I feel about the upcoming Star Wars trilogy.  Too long have I waited for something decent to happen to this movie franchise, but I wonder if it will be a success like the original trilogy or another gigantic flop like the prequels.  Although that’s not really fair is it, I mean while the storyline was full of flaws and the script writing was dismal the actual movies themselves were very beautiful.  I really enjoyed them from an artistic standpoint.  Then again the same thing can be said about Avatar, and for anyone out there that actually listened to our “Pat’s Avatar Rant” podcast episode know exactly how we feel about that movie.  But I grew up with Star Wars, from religiously watching the movies on a weekly basis to reading most of the non-canon fiction that was written in the Star Wars Universe.  I live and breath Star Wars and regularly win at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit whenever I can find a poor sap that is willing to play against me.

There is one unfortunate problem with the Star Wars franchise as a whole, there is just so much material out there that is considered non-canon (that everyone wish was canon) that making the masses happy is next to impossible.   Characters that I gave grown up to love and who seem to resurface through out most of the post Star Wars movies, sadly, will never make it to the big screen.  I can understand how difficult it is going to be for writers that are working on this new project, to determine what is canon, what should be canon and what simply isn’t canon.  I ask people who may be confused as to what I mean by Canon and Non-Canon to check out the following website. (Small picture to the right) They do pretty good job describing what I mean.

Thirty years.  That is when these movies are supposed to take place after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  That’s a long time for things to happen in an unstable universe, where the Emperor has been defeated and the fate of the Empire is in flux.  But it gives the writers a chance to touch back with existing characters and introduce new ones.  My only concern is that the movie will spend a good portion of itself explaining what happened in the previous thirty years.  I for one will not be content to a fifteen minute expiation of what happened.  I was given three incredible movies depicting the struggles of the Rebel Alliance against the Empire and just because they kill the Emperor suddenly everything falls into place as they swoop in and there is this massive change throughout the galaxy.  Are you kidding me?  If anything there should be three movies covering those thirty years of struggling with the remains of the empire.  You can not honestly tell me that there aren’t other people high up in the hierarchy of the Empire that could just step in and keep it together.  Take the Thrawn series of books written by Timothy Zahn.  Now that was a well developed character, and set of events that would more realistically depict what would happen after the death of the Emperor.  The Empire is made up of who knows how many planets and peoples, yes there is slavery and general unrest, but they have the largest army in the galaxy.  Somewhere, someone is going to take command and things are going to continue as they always have.

Sadly I am getting off topic and almost starting an unwanted rant.  My main focus was to talk about rumors concerning the new movies and the actors that may or may not have parts in them.  From what I can determine during my research is just about anyone famous out there has been approached at one point or another about a possible role in the next few movies.  However, whether or not any of these people have actual roles is somewhat in question.  The original scripts call for characters that no longer exist.  Once J.J. Abrams was brought into the fold it was said that the current script was junked for a new one and characters that were offered to certain actors have been changed or removed.  However, this has little effect on rumors floating around Hollywood.

Some people who haven’t been approached, are campaigning for roles, such as Katee Sackhoff.  Sackhoff voiced a Mandalorian warrior in the fourth and fifth Seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, and would be perfect in a bounty hunter role in the new movies.  It’s true Star Wars need more female characters in strong roles.

Other rumors claim that one of my favorite actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, has been approached for perhaps a villain role in the new trilogy.  While many people did not thing he was very good as Khan in the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise, I felt he pulled off a villain wonderfully.  Then again I maybe biased because I like just about anything he has ever done.  While Cumberbatch’s people have denied his involvement, Benedict himself hasn’t given a clear “Yes” or “No” when asked about it.

The rumors could go on for ages, and there is just so much that I could add that would make this article drag on and on.  I will spare you that and end it here.