Review: Star Wars Insider #220 Gets Ready for ‘Ahsoka’ With Exclusive Rosario Dawson Interview
The latest issue of Star Wars Insider hits shelves on August 15th (US and Canada) and September 14th (UK), and features an in-depth interview with Rosario Dawson in the build up to her taking the lead role in Ahsoka. Also featured are interviews with a Marvel comics legend, a High Republic author and a young Luke Skywalker as well as an exclusive short story.
Warrior, Rebel, Jedi – The return of Ahsoka Tano
Rosario Dawson talks to Insider about her love for Ahsoka and how she has had the advantage of studying her character’s journey through the animated tales. It’s clear that she has taken the character to heart and has studied all her on-screen appearances, including the recent first season of Tales of the Jedi. She digs into the character and how she admires Ahsoka’s strength, having gone through a trial by fire in the Clone Wars at such a young age and going on to face further trials and loss as part of the Rebellion. But Ahsoka’s strength of character is combined with a humility that means she is comfortable with not knowing all the answers.
Rosario talks about how the intensity of preparing for the role bonded her with Ahsoka. Trying to replicate Ahsoka’s fighting style, which was dubbed ‘impossible for a human’ by he stunt coordinator required training in wire-work as well as combat. Seven days a week training to practice for up to twelve hours of filming for fight scenes helped her bond with Ahsoka, who has a warrior’s spirit and won’t give up no matter how gruelling the circumstances before her are.
As well as sharing some touching memories of working with the late Ray Stevenson, Rosario talks how the character of Ahsoka has affected her personally and is more than just another role to her.
Ahsoka is not come character I can just play and then dismiss when I take off the head montrals. It’s been a lifestyle shift in connecting to her and performing her.
She’s in me.
Walt Simonson interview
After the release of Star Wars in 1977, Marvel comics gave eager fans a chance to continue to explore a galaxy far, far away in the years before the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Walt Simonson speaks to Insider about his work on the now legendary Marvel Star Wars comics. Simonson talks about his love of sci-fi, and admiration of Archie Goodwin’s writing, which attracted him to working on the series.
Simonson talks about the first comic he drew; Star Wars #16, which introduced a new character named Beilert Valance. The former Imperial turned cyborg turned bounty hunter has gone on to live a long life. He reappeared in 2019 in Star Wars #108 a special one-shot comic released to celebrate Marvel’s 80th anniversary and has made the leap into canon comics and is a mainstay character of the Bounty Hunters comic run.
Walt talks about his work on Star Wars #49 ‘The Last Jedi’ which is one of his favourite stories, and how he went on to become the main penciller for the series after issue 50, which brought the challenge of creating stories set after the release of The Empire Strikes Back – no more Han! He speaks fondly about his experiences creating the long-remembered run and the ‘labour of love’ that was creating the comic books.
Lucky Luke
Young actor Grant Feely gives a delightful interview, discussing the amazing opportunity to play a young Luke Skywalker in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. Grant gives a number of insights into the process of filming, revealing that while he was aware of Star Wars he didn’t actually watch any of the films until after he’d finished filming because Deborah Chow didn’t want him to try and replicate Mark Hamill’s performance in his acting. Feely talks about how Chow’s vision for the series gave him direction in finding the character of young Luke.
Secrecy on set during the production was high and this meant that the young actor didn’t know that he was playing Luke until he actually started production! Neither did he know about his final scene with Ewan McGregor until the day the scene was filmed! Playing such a beloved character as Luke brought a certain amount of pressure, but Feely recalls the confidence boost he get on seeing Mark Hamill tweeting his support after his casting was announced. He also talks about the support and advice of Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse, who helped him with some of his scenes, and how the immersive sets helped inform his performance.
Lydia Kang interview
The High Republic: Cataclysm author talks about the importance of diversity in Star Wars, drawing on what it meant for her to see Rose and Paige Tico on screen and then to be able to create a Korean-influenced lead character in a galaxy far, far away. She talks about her collaboration with author Zoraida Córdova, following on from her novel Convergence.
Kang touches on her lifelong love of Star Wars, how her medical background influences her writing and her joy at seeing the fandom embracing The High Republic and her characters within it as well as her writing process in creating Cataclysm.
Exclusive Short Fiction – Shockwave
Alexander Freed, author of the Alphabet Squadron trilogy, begins a new trilogy of short stories set around the time of Return of the Jedi. ‘Shockwave’ tells the story of a Rebel pilot caught in the chaos immediately of an exploding Death Star above Endor.
Also included in the issue:
Anatomy of Animation – Part 2
A continuation of last issues in-depth breakdown of the creation of a Bad Batch episode, featuring insights from the directors, VFX department, sound and more, accompanied by stills and artwork from the series.
On Program
A look back at some of the best scenes from the first season of Andor
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.
