Once again, we join Star Wars fans in eagerly awaiting a new episode of The Mandalorian. For weeks, the show has been teasing the return of Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon, who somehow escaped New Republic custody. His current location is unknown, though a fragment of Beskar embedded in the wall of the shuttle transporting him seems to point to Mandalorian intervention.
Whether this is the work of the Nite Owls or even a Thrawn-ish bit of misdirection is a hot topic of debate amongst the fandom, but we want some answers tomorrow — along with more of Esposito’s deliciously smug Star Wars villain.
Beyond that, we’re now just days away from ‘Star Wars Celebration’, which will take place in London’s ExCel convention center over Easter weekend. It’s looking like there are going to be some big reveals from Disney and Lucasfilm, hopefully delivering trailers for upcoming shows and potentially the unveiling of a new movie.
But a piece of merchandise may have already spoiled one Ahsoka character…
An ‘Ahsoka’ LEGO set may reveal more than Lucasfilm intended
German LEGO site Promo Bricks has unveiled a series of upcoming Star Wars LEGO sets: a Republic Gunship, A Republic Swamp Speeder, and the UCS Venator Star Destroyer. But it’s the Ghost set from Star Wars Rebels that has fans intrigued. Translated from German, the site says “the Ghost will be available as a set based on the Ahsoka series” and confirms that five minifigs are included. They are:
“These are Hera, Chopper, the Mon Calamari mechanic Quarrie, also known from Rebels , Hera’s son Jacen and a previously unknown male character with dark skin.”
We have no idea who the “unknown male character” is, but this is a great indication that Jacen Syndulla, son of pilot Hera Syndulla and Jedi Kanan Jarrus will be making the leap to live action. Rebels was set in the years before A New Hope, at which point Jacen was a child. Ahsoka is set around the time of The Mandalorian, likely meaning that he’ll have grown up a bit in the meantime and should be a teenager.
Alternatively, we know at least some of Ahsoka will be told via flashbacks, meaning there’s a chance we’ll see key moments from Rebels reworked into live-action and we’d get the child version of the character.
It seems likely Jacen will have inherited his father’s force sensitivity, so we may see Ahsoka and Ezra Bridger taking on the responsibility of training him in the Force. Post-Return of the Jedi, there aren’t too many Padawans around, but we just hope Hera doesn’t drop him off at Luke’s Jedi Academy for training, as he’d likely have ended up mincemeat at the hands of Kylo Ren.
We don’t have any indication of who’s been cast as Jacen, so let’s hope we get a trailer soon.
When to tune in for the ‘Star Wars Celebration’
Expect a raft of updates on upcoming Star Wars projects over Easter as ‘Star Wars Celebration’ takes place in London. As this is taking place in the U.K. many big announcements may be made in the early hours of the morning for U.S. fans, so here are the times to keep an eye on.
On Friday, April 7 at 11:00 am GMT (07:00 am ET) we’ll get Lucasfilm’s Studio Showcase, which is billed as a “must-see” where key creatives and special guests will meet “to discuss the many current and upcoming Star Wars adventures, including The Mandalorian, Andor, and more!”.
The following day on Saturday, April 8, the Ahsoka showcase will begin at 11:00 am (07:00 am ET), featuring Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau and some of the cast, with them promising “a look at the upcoming series”. Expect a trailer to drop soon afterward.
On Monday, April 10 at 01:00 pm (09:00 ET) we’ll get our first look at the second season of the animated anthology Star Wars Visions, featuring representatives from animation studios Aardman, Cartoon Saloon, D’ART Shtajio, El Guiri, La Cachette, Punk Robot, Studio Mir, Triggerfish, and 88 Pictures.
Finally, the weekend will conclude with the closing ceremony at 04:00 pm GMT (12:00 pm ET) which will recap the weekend. We don’t know if this event will feature one last trailer reveal, but Lucasfilm promises that “this is a send-off you won’t want to miss” so we have high hopes. The one fly in the ointment may be that these are exclusive trailers for the event and won’t be made available online, though we’re sure there’ll be at least one sneaky fan recording this with their phone.
Fans single out General Grievous’ exceptional battle skills for praise
Any non-Force user who can square off against a Jedi and come out on top is worthy of praise. Even the galaxy’s most fearsome conventional warriors like Jango Fett could only temporarily slow down a Jedi and beat a hasty retreat, so fans are giving Revenge of the Sith‘s General Grievous some love for managing to defeat countless Jedi in battle, only losing to Obi-Wan Kenobi at the height of his powers (and only then once he’d forced him to resort to a blaster).
Grievous also featured in Star Wars: Clone Wars by Genndy Tartakovsky, where we saw him at the height of his powers as essentially the Jedi’s boogeyman. Here he showed why he was so feared, using his cybernetic body and quad-lightsaber style to aggressively attack Jedi in a way they simply couldn’t train for. This post just about sums it up:
We’d have loved to see more of him in live-action, as his full potential on screen was never realized. So, if Disney is willing to go back and explore relatively obscure characters, why not something going into detail on Count Dooku training and building this custom-designed Jedi murder machine? Can anyone say Tales of the Jedi, season two?
We’ll once again be burning the midnight oil to see The Mandalorian‘s sixth episode the moment it lands. If we don’t get Moff Gideon, we’re going to riot.