Artwork courtesy of Joshua Stolte
Welcome back to the Star Wars HoloNet Digest, a weekly feature where I bring you a recap of the latest news from the world of Star Wars. Whether it’s a movie announcement or a noteworthy author interview, you’ll find it here. Let’s check the HoloNet and see what happened in the last week. The big story today is that New York Comic Con begins today! There’s all kinds of great programming happening from Thursday through Sunday, but the big Star Wars day is Saturday. At 3:15 p.m., Del Rey is hosting a panel about A New Dawn and the “future of Star Wars publishing,” with author John Jackson Miller, Rebels voice actress Vanessa Marshall, LucasBooks Senior Editor Jennifer Heddle, and Del Rey editor Shelly Shapiro. Then, at 5:45 p.m., Star Wars Rebels lands at New York Comic Con, as my friend Christian Blauvelt from BBC Culture hosts a Rebels panel with Vanessa Marshall that will offer “an exclusive preview of what’s to come in the first season” of the show. In addition to the A New Dawn panel, Del Rey has a number of author signings and giveaways scheduled for NYCC. You can get a complete rundown of what Del Rey has planned right here. The week’s other big story is the series premiere last Friday of Star Wars Rebels, which was viewed by 6.5 million people around the world, earning numbers “52% higher than Disney Channel's year-to-date ratings average in the timeslot.” Immediately following the premiere, Lucasfilm unveiled its Rebels episode guides, including a new feature called “Rebels Recon” that will offer behind-the-scenes looks at each episode and “exclusive sit-downs with cast and crew.” In what I hope will become a recurring event, Disney offered up the next episode of the series, “Droids in Distress,” for free viewing on its website (verified cable subscribers only) and on iTunes as soon as the premiere had ended. If you’re hungering for still more Rebels content, listen to a roundtable interview with Vanessa Marshall and several Star Wars podcasters (myself included), read the first and second parts of StarWars.com’s interview with executive producer Simon Kinberg. There’s more good news: The day before it premiered, Rebels was renewed for a second season! The next novel on the Star Wars release calendar is Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno, which is set for publication on November 4. I’m about halfway through an advance copy and I have to say it’s a masterpiece. But instead of listening to me blab about it, why not hear from James Luceno himself? In his first interview about Tarkin, Luceno talked to SciFiNow about getting inspiration for writing the famous Grand Moff, how the Star Wars canon changes have (or haven’t) affected his work, and much more. Elsewhere in the Star Wars world, the Wall Street Journal profiled Kiri Hart, Kathleen Kennedy’s right-hand woman who is taking point on developing new Star Wars stories. “I certainly am experiencing in talking to creative people a lot of interest in all areas of the ‘Star Wars’ timeline," Hart told the Journal. “I think as we keep going we want to explore, to let the idea lead and then go with that.” Hart described part of her job as “sitting down with filmmakers and writers, talking with them about what they love about ‘Star Wars,’ and playing matchmaker.” That’s it for this week. If you’re attending New York Comic Con, don’t forget to stop by the Del Rey booth, and if you see me around the convention, say hi!