Review: ‘Star Wars Insider’ #219 Digs Deep Into ‘Star Wars’ TV and Fiction of the Past Year
The latest issue of Star Wars Insider hits shelves on June 6th (US and Canada) and July 6th (UK), and takes an in-depth look at the locations where Andor was filmed and the animation secrets of The Bad Batch. The issue also features an interview with author Zoraida Córdova and an exclusive High Republic short story
Cassian’s Travels
The first season of Andor featured a number of worlds, from familiar locations like Coruscant, to far-flung worlds like Aldhani and Niamos. With a production base in London, most of these exotic locations were filmed in the UK. Going through the series in timeline order, the article picks out all the real-world locations, from the highlands of Scotland to the forests of England, that doubled as Star Wars planets. While at Celebration we visited one location in London but there are plenty of others to explore and Insider has them all listed in detail.
As a UK resident, this has me very excited and, like Anakin Skywalker, I want to be the first one to see ’em all!
The Anatomy of Animation: Part 1
Insider speaks to The Bad Batch head writer Jennifer Corbett and supervising director Brad Rau to dig into the development of the season two episode ‘The Solitary Clone’. The creators break down the process from initial writer’s room discussions and the ideas behind making Cody part of Crosshair’s story and having a story focused on ‘a day in the life’ of one clone.
The creators dig into the design inspirations behind the world of Desix and the practical tricks of the trade used to make small virtual sets feel like a large living city. Accompanied by production artwork and design boards we get an insight into the creation of the early script that will become an animated episode. The interview will conclude in the next issue.
Day Wana Wanga
Four decades after they were first introduced in Return of the Jedi, Insider takes a look back the origins of the Twi’lek species and how a brief description of a ‘humanlike alien with long tentacles protruding from his skull’ from screenwriter became iconic character Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter), Jabba’s majordomo. The article looks at how George Lucas continued to expand their lore in the prequels and takes a look at some of the key Twi’leks that have driven Star Wars storytelling from the original trilogy to more recently in The Book of Boba Fett.
The Art of Star Wars
Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak, along with authors and designers Jonathan Bresman, Amy Ratcliffe, Kristin Baver and Ellen Moon Lee with down to talk about the history of The Art of Star Wars, a book series dating all the way back to 1979. The team talk about their individual books, covering the prequels and sequels to wider topics like The High Republic and Galaxy’s Edge and the inspiration and process that goes into them all. As you might expect the interview is accompanied by stunning production artwork!
Zoraida Córdova interview
The author of A Crash of Fate and The High Republic: Convergence talks about the inspiration behind both her latest novel, which she describes as ‘Romeo and Juliet in space, except less tragic!’ and what inspires her two write in general. Córdova talks about her love of fairy tales and how that easily translates into the space fantasy of Star Wars and how the central love story drives the plot of Convergence. The author also touches on her pieces of short fiction for anthologies such as A Certain Point of View.
Exclusive High Republic Fiction
This issue contains the final instalment of George Mann’s Tales from Enlightenment series of short stories, concluding the run of tales about the citizens of Jedha during the events of Phase 2 of the publishing initiative. This tale acts as an epilogue, focusing on the patrons of the Enlightenment bar as they recover and rebuild from the climactic events on the sacred planet.
As always, Star Wars Insider also includes updates on the latest books, comics, and collectibles, plus stories from the worldwide fandom.
REST OF THE WORLD SUBSCRIPTIONS
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.
