Star Wars Weekly: The Galaxy gets its first woman director and a Snoke comic ignites fandom

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.

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD TALKS THE MANDALORIAN

Bryce Dallas Howard is a famous actor in her own right, but she's also an accomplished filmmaker with one more credit under her belt that should excite Star Wars fans. She is putting on the director's helmet (which is presumably blaster-proof) for an episode of The Mandalorian, which is hotly anticipated. She spoke with IMDb about working on the show, her excitement and her film and Star Wars guides in Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, respectively.

The enthusiasm she shows in this clip is contagious, and I can't wait to see what a woman director brings to the table in the world of Star Wars. Since male directors that have dominated the franchise since its inception, Howard's direction should be quite refreshing. But, it's only a start.

The Mandalorian is the flagship title launching the Disney+ service and episodes will begin appearing weekly on November 12.

THE MANDALORIAN SCORING SESSIONS

Though The Mandalorian is coming out in less than two months, scoring sessions are still going on. Composer Ludwig Göransson is deep in the recording phase of the show and he took to Instagram to share a drawing given to him by Dave Filoni.

It's amazing to see the excitement for this show from everyone on the creative crew. Göransson has certainly done his best to elevate genre work — don't forget that he won an Academy Award and a Grammy for his Black Panther score and he won two Grammys for his work with Childish "Lando Calrissian" Gambino's "This is America."

Expect great things from this television soundtrack.

THE MANDALORIAN'S RIFLE

The Mandalorian is generating so much excitement that fans are getting into the act with prop replicas even before the show is out. Some costume-obsessed Star Wars put their heads together to replicate clothes and props from a galaxy far, far away, and this rifle from The Mandalorian might be one of the most impressive pieces I've seen.

The best part? They've come up with a recipe to 3D print the entire thing (with the exception of two metal rods), which seems like magic to me.

Take a look:

THE SNOKE COMIC

Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Age of Resistance: Snoke came out this week, and it certainly has fans talking. In it, Supreme Leader Snoke takes his new apprentice to Dagobah for training. There, we're treated to Kylo Ren/Ben Solo's failure in the cave.

Because of the nature of Kylo experience, lingering mysteries about Snoke, and the significance of the cave and visions in general to the Star Wars mythos, fans are eager to determine what it all means. Star Wars Explained offered this six-minute video in an attempt to break it all down.

Personally, I think this issue needs to be viewed in the context of not only Luke's failure there in The Empire Strikes Back, but with Anakin's visions on Mortis, and Rey's experience in the mirror cave. What does this tell us about Ben Solo?

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke asks Yoda what was in the cave. "Only what you take with you," he responds.

How does that shade our understanding of what Ben Solo sees in the cave? How will that change when we learn more of his journey?

More than anything, I want to revisit this comic after The Rise of Skywalker comes out and the journey of Kylo/Ben is complete.

MAR WARS: EPISODE II

Last week, Twitter user @vibeswithcisco watched the Star Wars series for the first time, and Star Wars fans online were eager to encourage her — as were folks like Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill! It was a wholly positive and refreshing Star Wars experience online, which is something of a rarity nowadays. Because of her infectious enthusiasm, I asked her to sit down and speak to me about everyone's favorite space film saga, and you can give our conversation a listen right here.

STOP SMOKING, ARTOO

Star Wars has always tried to promote social causes that meant something important. In the wake of A New Hope's popularity, there were a number of PSAs, usually starring Artoo and Threepio. First, there were the famous immunization ads that went out starring Artoo and Threepio (and, frankly, they should bring them back into heavy rotation.)

There was even one about drunk driving set in the Mos Eisley cantina, but one of the most interesting I've found is this ad against the dangers of smoking. Threepio just stumbles upon Artoo smoking a cigarette and it's one of the most bizarre things I've seen. Bonus points for the ridiculous spelling error in the piece. (Galaxay? Really?)

Until next week, May the Force Be With You!