Though Darth Vader is at the center of the story, the shadow of the Emperor looms, even as far as the Sequel Trilogy, and Empire has asked Ian McDiarmid about the character and how he’s affected the entire franchise after all this time.

With so many people against Palpatine returning in the ST, McDiarmid shares the process on how he was brought back and why he thought it also worked. He explains:

“A lot of people said it was ridiculous… Of course, he was dead at the end of Return Of The Jedi! And frankly, I think George thought he’d killed me too. But J.J. thought it would be a good idea – I wasn’t going to argue with him. I felt that Palpatine always had a plan B – probably a plan C, D, E, and F as well. And he was an expert in cloning, so…”

With Palpatine also coming back for the ST, McDiarmid says that it kind of solidifies his character as one of the most vile figures in cinema. He continues, “That is total evil, and that’s strangely satisfying as an arc. I do feel fortunate to have been able to do it – and other villains of cinema now have to compete with that.”

There is also the fact that Palpatine is now the biological grandfather of the ST protagonist Rey, and a lot of fans immediately cringed at the thought that the Emperor would actually reproduce.“Please don’t pursue that line too vigorously,” says McDiarmid, “But yes, he does [have sex]. It’s a horrible idea to think of Palpatine having sex in any shape or form. But then, of course, perhaps he didn’t. Maybe it’s all to do with midi-chlorians – and don’t ask me what those are!

For your own piece of mind, the canon explains that Rey’s father was actually a failed Palpatine clone who ran away with his wife. It’s not explained in the movie, but for the sake of tying up loose ends, the EU pretty much explains it.

It’s not the most satisfying answer, but it’s… definitely an answer.

For now, fans wait for the next Star Wars movie with Rey which is expected to come out in 2025.

We don’t have any details about the plot yet, but Ridley does tease what’s making her excited about the story. Talking to AlloCine, Ridley said, “Once I knew what the story was and everything, I knew it was something that I really wanted to do. I think it’s a really fantastic exploration of the Star Wars world. It’s a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction.”

It’s unclear what story Ridley is pertaining to, because Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen) was originally set to write the film, but he left due to creative differences and was replaced by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). Fingers crossed that Ridley knows about what Knight is going to do with the script, because I can’t handle her having to go through a major overhaul of her character arc again.

For now, the film is still in development (despite online rumors), but The Mandalorian and Grogu directed by Jon Favreau is now set to come out first in theaters. Though I would love for Rey to come back already, I do hope they’re spending the time making sure the movie is solid—then again, there really is no pleasing everyone, so they should take that in mind.

I just hope they don’t come at this learning the wrong lessons from The Rise of Skywalker and the rest of Star Wars media since. I mean, the ‘action figure’ shows are fine, but the story, character development, and themes should always come first—like they did with Andor and the Star Wars: Visions series.

No release date has been set for the Rey Skywalker movie.

Talking to CNN, Obaid-Chinoy shares, “I’m very thrilled about the project because I feel what we’re about to create is something very special. And we’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story in a galaxy far, far away.”

Though this is Obaid-Chinoy’s first movie with Lucasfilm, she has worked for the Disney banner before with two episodes of Ms. Marvel under her wing. It’s also worth noting that she has won two Oscars for her work on the documentaries Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.

We don’t know what story Rey Skywalker will tackle again, but Damon Lindelof (Watchmen) was originally attached to come up with a treatment, but he left after some creative differences—which isn’t a surprise with Lucasfilm since they fired Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story.

If anything, I’m hoping Lucasfilm approaches Rey Skywalker’s next movie with the right lessons learned from the Sequel Trilogy. I’m just crossing my fingers we get something closer to The Last Jedi or Andor rather than the fanservice-heavy Ahsoka or The Mandalorian.

No release date has been set for Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars movie.

Now Lucasfilm is looking to hold back on its film releases, and president Kathleen Kennedy says they could be embracing James Bond’s model of releasing a film every 2-3 years. Talking to Empire, Kennedy explains:

“I’ve often brought up Bond… That’s every three or four years and there wasn’t this pressure to feel like you had to have a movie every year. I feel that was very important to Star Wars. We have to eventize this.”

Kennedy also adds, “It’s much better to tell the truth, that we’re going to make these movies when they’re ready to be made, and release them when they’re ready to be released.”

Though Star Wars fans are now far from the time when they got one film a year, the existence of Disney+ as an avenue for releases allows Lucasfilm to work on other smaller, more experimental projects. Since The Rise of Skywalker, we’ve gotten series The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor. Personally, I’m hoping they continue the plot thread they started with Solo, but I’d love for that to be a full-on theatrically released film.

When it comes to Star Wars, I guess releasing a movie is just the tip of the iceberg. The merchandising and advertising also go hand-in-hand with these releases, and I can only imagine the nightmare these manufacturers and publishers go through when the movie suddenly changes something. Just think about all the Rise of Skywalker supplementary materials like books and action figures that had to be scrapped because they had to change the script.

For now, I’m just happy we’re coming back to the Sequel Era, and I’m hoping Lucasfilm has learned a lot since The Force Awakens.

Watch the clip for Summer Vacation here: 

Just like with previous holiday specials, we should expect Summer Vacation to encompass all eras of the Star Wars universe from the Prequel Trilogy to the Sequels. Even though the main cast includes the likes of Poe, Rey, and Finn, we should expect appearances from Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, and maybe even Jar Jar as well. Not to mention we could see some faces from other spinoffs like The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett.

Admittedly, it’s kind of a shame that we haven’t gotten anything from the Sequel Trilogy on the big screen, but until then, we have these fun LEGO specials that might as well be our closest thing next to canon.

“LEGO® Star Wars Summer Vacation,” which is set shortly after the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” features the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and returning cast members from previous “LEGO Star Wars” specials, and includes “Weird Al’s” new original song, Scarif Beach Party.

LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation comes to Disney+ on Aug. 5.

Check out the trailer for Summer Vacation down here: 

Here’s the official description:

“LEGO® Star Wars Summer Vacation,” which is set shortly after the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” features the voices of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kelly Marie Tran, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and returning cast members from previous “LEGO Star Wars” specials, and includes “Weird Al’s” new original song, Scarif Beach Party.

Though we don’t have any update on whether Lucasfilm will give us more stories in the Sequel Trilogy era, we have been getting these stories set in the ST with the characters like Finn, Rey, and Poe undergoing a story which will feature flashbacks placed in the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy timelines.

While these stories are non-canon, it feels like there is a little truth to them, what with Rey training Finn to be a Jedi or watching the flashback with Ben Solo’s younger days. Just watching the trailer there is already hints at more of Ben Solo’s past—albeit, it is told with that wacky LEGO slapstick.

Hopefully with all these Sequel Trilogy ‘updates’, Lucasfilm has something cooking for the ST fans in the future. We’ll just have to wait and see.

LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation hits Disney+ on Aug. 5.

Here’s her post:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Daisy Ridley (@daisyridley)

We don’t really know how active she’s going to be on the platform, but it’s great to see that she once again has an avenue where she has a chance to get close to fans. With Mark Hamill being so active in social media, it’s only right that fans of the Sequel Trilogy should get to connect to their hero as well.

For now, ‘Daisy Ridley’ is trending on Twitter, and fans are posting:

Daisy Ridley returning to social media in full “done with the BS” tea-sipping mode is GOAT behavior. pic.twitter.com/Sk6QNiYIhZ

— Alden Diaz @ SWCA (@ThatAldenDiaz) April 4, 2022

now that daisy ridley is back on social media, i hope everyone remembers to be kind and not drive her away again. pic.twitter.com/Rpk0HxG4A4

— peanut | ramadan mubarak (@REYSKYGOAT) April 4, 2022

https://twitter.com/CutieRidley/status/1511077773984604168

Of course, there’s no real way that you can get rid of toxic fans. I’m sure there are still a bunch of nuts sending toxicity Ridley’s way, but hopefully she prepared for it. What are the odds that she got advice from Rian Johnson? That guy has just been so optimistic on Twitter, it’s not like there are entire troll armies out there who are just continually bashing on him for making The Last Jedi.

We don’t know what’s next for Ridley now, but hopefully she has more roles for herself down the line. With The Rise of Skywalker far behind her, I hope she makes a return in the future, but for now, she’ll have to make do with cameo appearances like in Netflix’s The Bubble.

Talking to Empire (via @TheSWU), Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has explained that development of the series didn’t get really far, and future concepts would just be brought over to the next season of Mando. She says, “We’d never written any scripts or anything on that. Some of that will figure into future episodes, I’m sure, of the next iteration of Mandalorian.”

With the character of Din Djarin not having any specific allegiance with neither the Empire nor the New Republic, it would make sense for a series to focus on the characters who know they are on the side of the Rebellion.

With Mando said to be expecting a huge time jump for its next season, some think that they will finally be entering Sequel Era territory. It would be interesting to watch the early days of the New Republic, and maybe we can have cameos from Sequel characters like pilots Snap Wexley or Jess Pava. Would it be too hard to get Oscar Isaac to make a cameo as Poe?

For now, Disney+ is prepping for the release of The Book of Boba Fett on Dec. 29.

Talking to Empire, Kennedy said about the Sequel characters, “Certainly, those are not characters we’re going to forget… They will live on, and those are conversations that are going on with the creative team as well.”

We don’t know why Lucasfilm is holding out on Sequel content, but if Kennedy is suggesting that there are plans, then it’s possible that they’re going to be huge. Though there is a huge focus on OT content now with The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, these are admittedly very safe projects with characters that are already well-liked in stories where we pretty much know the outcome.

If you ask me, they should just keep the fan-pandering projects on the Disney+ platform, and have the bigger, general audience-friendly, spectacle films on the big screen. There’s a reason why The Last Jedi was one of the most commercially successful Star Wars movies despite the endless fan bitching about the movie for the last four years.

We don’t know when these Sequel era characters will return, but you can bet, I’m an eager fan waiting for an update. In the meantime, catch The Book of Boba Fett when it hits Disney+ on Dec. 29.

Check the clip out:

With Palpatine’s return being one of the more questionable decisions in the Sequel Trilogy, the skit pretty much pokes fun at all the holes in his plan. Though there are a lot of fans that like to bash and hate on the ST, I like how Robot Chicken can point out problems without feeling overly hateful—kind of the same thing they did with the prequels in the first RCSW specials.

With Disney opening up to some non-canon stories with the LEGO Star Wars specials and Star Wars: Visions, I’m crossing my fingers that they team-up with Seth Green and his gang to give Rey and everyone else in the ST some Robot Chicken fun. They already have some small skits on the ST, so a full episode should be a treat.

ST fans deserve their own version of ‘Robot Chicken Palpatine’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxzXL3hwUp8

We don’t know if Disney will eventually budge on their stance for more Robot Chicken Star Wars, but you can catch their new non-canon show Star Wars: Visions now on Disney+. For more canon material, you can check out The Book of Boba Fett premiering sometime in the holiday season.

Here’s our first look at LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales:

This non-canon story takes place after the events of the first LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special and will follow Poe Dameron and BB-8 as they land into some shenanigans on the planet of Mustafar. The official description of the plot from StarWars.com reads:

After the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Poe Dameron and BB-8 must make an emergency landing on the volcanic planet Mustafar where they meet the greedy and conniving Graballa the Hutt. The crime boss has purchased Darth Vader’s castle and is renovating it into the galaxy’s first all-inclusive Sith-inspired luxury hotel. While waiting for his X-Wing to be repaired, Poe, BB-8, Graballa, and Dean (a plucky and courageous young boy who works as Graballa’s mechanic) venture deep into the mysterious castle with Vader’s loyal servant, Vaneé. Along the way, Vaneé shares three creepy stories linked to ancient artifacts and iconic villains from across all eras of Star Wars. As Vaneé spins his tales and lures our heroes deeper into the shadowy underbelly of the castle, a sinister plan emerges. With the help of Dean, Poe and BB-8 will have to face their fears, stop an ancient evil from rising, and escape to make it back to their friends.

With the future of Star Wars looking to be heavily leaning in on the Prequel and Original trilogy timelines, it’s a relief to get some sort of update on the Sequel era—even if it’s a non-canon Halloween special. We don’t know what Disney plans to do with the characters, but I think it’s great to see stories that push the timeline forward. Though The Rise of Skywalker is considered a finale, it could be seen as a new beginning for characters like Rey, Poe, and Finn.

Catch LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales when it comes out on Oct. 1.

As pointed out by The Direct, several fans online have found out that there have been significant technical edits made to the version of TROS that’s on the streaming service. For one, the color of the film has been re-balanced, removing the green hue in some scenes:

Did you know? The D+ version of The Rise of Skywalker has been updated, and was re colour balanced… it looks absolutely gorgeous.
–
(left = updated) (right = before) pic.twitter.com/uZodzgXi18

— Palpamemes (@PalpyYT) May 23, 2021

There’s also been a change in subtitles where they actually named the Jedi talking to Rey by the climax of the film.

They also fixed the subtitles that the original theatrical and home release got wrong (note coloring off on the right in this case bc my laptop had night mode on) pic.twitter.com/7JRkfwYbar

— Jaclyn: The Lesbian Jedi (@Jbandos) May 23, 2021

While The Rise of Skywalker has been picked apart by fans multiple times, this is probably a great fix for anyone who has been bothered by how the film is colored. We don’t know if Disney plans on releasing some more updated versions of the Star Wars films, but we do know that a lot of things had happened behind the scenes of TROS, and it would be interesting to see what J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio had originally planned before they were told to make more alterations (allegedly Rey and Ben’s kiss, as well as Palpatine’s return).

Here’s the synopsis for The Rise of Skywalker: 

For now, you can catch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker now on Disney+. The next Star Wars property, The Book of Boba Fett, is set to release on the streaming platform sometime this winter.