This week the folks at Star Wars revealed a new sort of lightsaber that'll appear first in The New Republic. This is a new era that takes place before the Prequel movies. That means it's in an era before Luke Skywalker, before Darth Vader... but not before Yoda. And it'll be elegant - oh, so elegant.
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed a lot of conventions and events as governments around the world attempt to slow the spread of the virus, and today we've got one more event to add to the list: Star Wars Celebration 2020. Disney has announced that ticketholders will be able to get refunds for their tickets and credits for merchandise pre-orders, but only for a limited time this summer.
In celebration of May the Forth, aka Star Wars Day 2020, the folks at ILMxLAB have announced a new release of a now-classic piece of VR action. The set of three episodes of the VR experience Vader Immortal will be released this summer on PlayStation VR. That means the most engaging, amazing, and immersive Darth Vader-centric VR experience ever made will soon be on the PlayStation 4-based virtual reality system that's still available for purchase in stores right this minute.
The single most pervasive element to come out of Star Wars: Episode 1 "The Phantom Menace" was podracing. The race was a movie unto itself, a sporting element inside a major motion picture about an innocent young kid from Tatooine that'd one day become a murderer of thousands... but for now, a great pilot! The game is called Star Wars Episode I: Racer, and it's back in action in May of 2020.
Colin Trevorrow wrote a script for Star Wars 9, aka Star Wars IX, that never happened. This movie script was abandoned and a new script was written, that script became Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The abandoned, rumored, mythical script was meant to be used by Trevorrow to direct a film that would have been called Star Wars Duel of the Fates. This was lovingly interpreted, translated, and compacted into a 10-minute animated clip for your consumption.
It would appear that Star Wars lore just cannot stay solid as, just this week, Rey's parentage changed yet again. As events and details in the novelization of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker showed, the official word on the origin of Rey's parents is not exactly what you might've assumed, given the details present in the film. Further, it would seem that the actor who played Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) shed some light on an earlier version of the films' script, after the impenetrable wall of Lucasfilm NDA fell at the film's premiere. This is where I say SPOILER ALERT if you'd like to remain unspoiled.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 7 started its run this week with an episode called "The Bad Batch." With this, the Star Wars animated series jumps right back into the thick of things with one of the most interesting and must-see story elements - the clones! Here we're focusing on individual Clone Troopers, including some new characters we've never seen before - genetically modified to be different from the rest.
With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the saga that started way back in the 1970s is finally complete. That, of course, means that it's time for a box set featuring all nine films in the Skywalker Saga, which is precisely what Disney is giving us. Disney and Lucasfilm revealed the box set today, which is set to launch alongside the Blu-Ray and 4K UHD release of The Rise of Skywalker next month.
The Star Wars franchise is home to a number of vehicles, most of which will probably never become reality. But with cars becoming smarter and gaining wings, some manufacturers might want to give that idea a spin, even if only on a conceptual level. That is exactly what Porsche did with Lucasfilm's blessing, designing a new Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus that you will sadly not see in any official film or media.
You cannot buy an officially-licensed Baby Yoda plush toy in time for Christmas 2019. That's by design... sort of. As Lucasfilm product licensing SVP Paul Southern said today, "It was important to us that the reveal of the new character, the Child, be a special moment for fans, and we could not be more thrilled with the response." Lucasfilm and Disney felt it was so extremely important to keep Baby Yoda a secret that they did not include imagery or descriptions of the character in the first wave of license-ready media for manufacturers. As far as they knew - no such character would even exist!
![All the Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker trailers so far [UPDATE: And another!]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/starwarsriseofskywalkertrailers-1280x720.jpg)
Watch all the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailers released thus far and you might end up having viewed spoilers aplenty. This isn't the sort of movie you go see without any knowledge of its contents. The idea is just baffling - and almost impossible if you're the sort of person who uses the internet on a regular basis. If you've read this far, chances are you're not worried about a silly little SPOILER ALERT or two, right? Let's take a peek at all these little trailers.
Today we get a glimpse of the next Star Wars movie: The Rise of Skywalker, in a full 30-second clip. This is a clip from the movie- without special cuts or nonsense, as far as we're aware. In the clip we're shown some action that, as we're already fully aware, is also captured soundly in a single LEGO set that's already out in stores. What a strange time to be alive!