Star Wars Weekly: Palpatine's clone son and rumors of a High Republic VR game

Time again for STAR WARS WEEKLY, the SYFY WIRE series that rounds up the most important news of the week from a galaxy far, far away. Think of us as your own personal Star Wars Holocron.

THE HIGH REPUBLIC VR?

There are rumors that the next big era of the Star Wars franchise, The High Republic, may be getting a VR game, according to Jordan Maison over at Cinelinx. Vader: Immortal was the most recent foray Lucasfilm took into the world of virtual reality, and it was a mind-blowing experience. The High Republic has been billed as an all-encompassing experience that covers a lot of ground through different media, but Lucasfilm has only announced published books so far. VR, according to Cinelinx's unconfirmed report, is apparently on the table.

It’s all unsubstantiated at this point, but it’s definitely something worth dreaming about. And it’s a good reminder that while what’s being currently heard might be true, since it hasn’t been announced yet, that still means anything can happen. Remember Star Wars: 1313 and Ragtag? Both were in active development, and both were canceled before release.

As Yoda says, "Always in motion is the future."

STAR WARS: PROJECT MAVERICK?

Another dubious bit of game news comes from an automated bot that trolls through the PlayStation Network.

What is Project: Maverick? Who knows for sure, but some outlets have cobbled together a bit of information based on the information. Inverse reports that they believe this game might be getting a beta release before the end of the year, and that it supports five-player multiplayer action. The leaked art offers us a view of some X-Wings and a Star Destroyer, which could lead one to believe that maybe we’re getting a multiplayer flight simulator? But the art also appears to be Mustafar, so it could be something entirely different.

Watch this space as more information becomes available.

KYLO REN SAVES BATMAN

On a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ben Affleck poured his heart and soul out for quite a while and, naturally, the subject of Star Wars came up.

During the interview, Affleck explains that his son is a huge Star Wars nerd, and Affleck was coming home from a shoot on a film with Adam Driver to see the boy for his birthday. Well, the birthday presents he ordered didn’t arrive, but all of the signed Kylo Ren merch that Adam Driver sent did. And it didn’t even matter that Affleck didn’t arrive with presents for his son, he had all the Star Wars stuff he wanted. It speaks a lot to the amount of heart Adam Driver has and how the love of Star Wars transcends generations.

You really should give the video above a watch. The relevant story starts at about seven and a half minutes in.

REY’S DAD, PALPATINE’S CLONE?

The novelization of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is billed as an expanded edition and includes deleted scenes and other bits of material and context, giving a richer experience. Yes, it explains quite a lot of the things that left the audience scratching their heads at the end of the film, but it also adds a lot of rich material that might make one cry. Like that Uncle Chewie business …

The one scene that seems to be getting the most traction is the reveal that Palpatine’s son wasn’t really a son, but a failed clone.

This seems like the only logical conclusion after watching the film, anyway. Palpatine didn’t conceive a child by natural means. But that makes sense, right? Because the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be … unnatural.

Does that make Rey Palpatine’s actual granddaughter? Only from a certain point of view.

And it’s important to point out that the novels are counted as canon. If there are specific instances where the movie contradicts it, then the movie is taken as the canon source, but for the extra scenes, the books are as much a part of the canon gospel as the rest.

The novel, by the wonderful Rae Carson, was released early at C2E2, but will be released widely March 17, 2020.

REVENGE OF THE SITH BEHIND THE SCENES

We’ve been paying an awful lot of attention to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, but let’s not forget that this year also marks the 15th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith. This week, here’s a behind-the-scenes featurette for the film produced by E!, which is different than all of the official accounts of the film we saw.

Until next week: May the Force be with you!