Star Wars Weekly: The Episode IX multiverse and Mark Hamill's goodbye

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.

A DIFFERENT EPISODE IX

Daisy Ridley appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about her new film Ophelia, and it was inevitable that Star Wars would come up.

Ridley hit on a number of Star Wars topics (a sample of pat responses: the lightsaber battle between her and Adam Driver is “epic,” screenwriter Chris Terrio had a Star Wars bible and took the lore very seriously, and she thinks The Rise of Skywalker is “really great”), but one of the most interesting tidbits was reinforcing the idea that The Rise of Skywalker was going to be very different under Colin Trevorrow’s direction. It makes a lot of sense, though, too. Trevorrow was attached to the project until shortly after Carrie Fisher's passing, and the movie would have had to take on a whole new direction at that point.

You can listen to the whole podcast here, and I highly recommend it.

LUKE’S FINAL EPISODE

Mark Hamill offered further confirmation (as though we needed it) that he would not be returning for future Star Wars films. At least for the time being. 

It’s hard to say never when it comes to Star Wars, though. From 2005 to 2012, it was a pretty solid bet that there would never be another Star Wars film again, yet here we are.

Mark Hamill’s final appearance doesn’t mean the end of appearances by Luke Skywalker, though. With the completion of The Rise of Skywalker and the circle closing on the Skywalker Saga itself, there are still places where stories about Luke need to be filled in. Namely, everything between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Now that the filmmakers have the most important story set, it’s inevitable that the gaps will be filled in with ancillary media. And who knows, maybe they get some animated features or a series to fill in some of those gaps and Hamill could come back for that?

Always in motion is the future.

RUMOR CONTROL

There are a lot of rumors swirling about the future of Star Wars. It always happens like this when we're in a lull of new news and announcements, but I'm here to say, "No, there’s no evidence that Dave Bautista is going to be Darth Bane and Emily Blunt is going to be Mara Jade." Rumors are also swirling out there that there’s an Ahsoka Tano movie in the works and an actor named Ludo Lin has been tapped to play Ezra Bridger in live action. Let’s trace these rumors to their sources, shall we?

All of these rumors that are getting so much play in the press originate with a fan site called We Got This Covered. They’ve previously reported such gems as that Benicio Del Toro would be playing Ezra Bridger in The Last Jedi (he didn’t), Rian Johnson’s trilogy has been canceled (it hasn’t been), Palpatine manipulated the Force to create Anakin (he didn’t), and many, many other stories of dubious origin.

As a rule of thumb, don’t trust any website with “unnamed sources” and a clear track record of not getting scoops right. They might be right occasionally, but in the same way a broken clock might be.

Look to reputable sources with track records of breaking scoops and pay attention to official confirmations. Don't click on things that seem to only be chumming the water for easy clicks.

ANIMATED LIGHTSABER DUELS

Galaxy of Adventures has a new short out, and if you’re not watching these, I’m afraid you’re asleep at the switch. The animation is top-notch, and so are the filmmaking and shot design. This particular short walks viewers through the Skywalker Saga and has a number of beautifully designed transitions between shots and fights.

Until next week, may the Force be with you!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's, and do not necessarily reflect those of SYFY WIRE, SYFY, or NBC Universal.