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This Date in Star Wars History
Happy birthday, Ben Burtt! The man who created R2-D2’s “voice,” the sound of lightsabers, Darth Vader’s rasping breathing, Chewie’s barks and growls, and so much more of the audio world of the franchise. And good news, fans – he’s on board for Episode VII, too!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
Yoda: Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to nachos. Anakin: That doesn’t sound right. Yoda: ALL THINGS LEAD TO NACHOS!
— Star Wars Problems (@StarWarsProblms) June 29, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
Star Wars beach towels – save when you get all 4! Click the pic for more.
Trivia Time!
Yesterday’s answer: Cloaking devices
Today’s question: What was Han’s brief response when Leia asked if he could trust Lando?
Force Feature – No Spoilers!
As far as I recall, the whole idea of spoilers was invented between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. And part of that is because of the whole sequel thing. Though you never heard of the James Bond movies or the Planet of the Apes movies ever requiring any kind of secrecy on set. Everyone was content to find out what happened when they got to the theater.
Things changed after Empire. The unresolved ending of the movie, and the Vader twist leading into it, created the desire in all of us. It created the gap in knowledge that we all desperately wanted to fill.
Thankfully, Lucas and company were right on top of this. They went so far as to use the fake movie title Blue Harvest to cover up their filming activity in the redwood forests of California. You know, the moon of Endor. You’d think people would’ve been suspicious when all the dwarves showed up to play the Ewoks.
Deep Fans, of course, know that Star Wars in its early draft stages was once known as Blue Harvest. And for the record, I know I’ve used the phrase “True Fans” in the past to describe people who know certain facts about the Star Wars universe, but in retrospect, I don’t think that’s fair. I consider myself a True Fan, but I can’t recite the number of the garbage smasher Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie were trapped in on the Death Star, or the model number of a standard issue Stormtrooper blaster. So I’m going to start saying “Deep Fans” instead for the dedicated and passionate people who dive super-far into the details of the universe. I admire those folks, and their insight and creativity are tremendous.
But back to spoilers. Now that we have an always-on media culture – one that becomes ever more obsessed with Hollywood and celebrity and entertainment as the years pass – news outlets of all stripes are STARVING for news of any kind. And with something as hotly anticipated as Star Wars VII, everyone’s going after a piece of the pie.
Where do you stand on the whole spoiler thing? Let us know in the comments on the show page. In the meantime, I’ll tell you where Star Wars 7×7 stands, based on this one story.
When the build-up around Phantom Menace was happening, I was thrilled to hear any little details about the plot, the characters, the vehicles, the toys, you name it. Then, Vanity Fair magazine published the opening crawl, which wasn’t so much a true spoiler as it was just an intentionally timed media release to help keep the hype machine ramped up. And yet, that was the moment when my personal embargo started. I finally found the point beyond which I wanted to be surprised by the movie. I wanted to be transported into the new series of events. I already knew enough, anyway, since a lot of the prequel history was already out there. Republic falls, Anakin goes rogue, et cetera, et cetera.
So, we’ll be covering news items every so often in the run-up to the new movies, but the podcast will be a no-spoiler zone. There’s a great piece by Lily Rothman for Time.com where she explains why she wants to avoid the hype overload, and I tend to agree with her.
That said, if you don’t mind spoilers – or maybe you even dig them! – then follow our breaking news Twitter feed at @SW7x7Podcast. And don’t say we didn’t warn you. 🙂