Hello there!

Good morning Star Wars lovers. Wookiee Weekly again with the new issue and more interesting Star Wars content for their fans.

Ahsoka, where are you?

Production for Ahsoka season 2 confirmed for 2025

Star Wars fanatics who have been counting down the days until the continuation of Ahsoka have just been given a big boost, with the news that the second season of the fan favorite series is set to begin production next spring.

IndieWire is reporting that Ahsoka Season 2 will be officially relocating production to the United Kingdom, with filming slated to begin in April 2025. The move to the UK for Ahsoka signals a departure from the methods used for its first season, which was filmed entirely on Los Angeles' cutting-edge “volume stages” at Manhattan Beach Studios. The “volume stage” technology, developed by Industrial Light & Magic, uses wraparound LED screens to immerse actors in whatever digital surrounds they like, where they can load backgrounds in real time rather than adding them later on a green screen.

This is actually surprising news, because the last we'd heard in September 2024, production wasn't actually expected to commence until the summer of 2025. That date came from Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Sabine Wren, when she was speaking at Dragon Con 2024, where she participated in a Star Wars panel alongside other stars from the franchise's Disney+ series, including Giancarlo Esposito, Manny Jacinto, and Danny Trejo.

This news that production will begin sooner than expected is thrilling for many fans, especially given the numerous cliffhangers that Season 1 left unresolved. Ahsoka Season 1, which aired in late summer and early fall of 2023, was the live-action debut for several beloved characters from Star Wars Rebels and The Clone Wars. The show was a bit hit, thanks to its stunning visuals, well told story, and how well rounded the characters were, particularly Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson. It also didn't hurt that Hayden Christensen also appeared in a few episodes as Anakin Skywalker as a kind of spooky, charming limbo spirit guide. Exactly what Shmi would have wanted. Yippee! source

Quote of the Week

Skeleton Things… i mean Crew

Skeleton Crew creators discuss season 2

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premiered earlier this week, and fans everywhere are already curious what a potential second season of the Star Wars Disney+ would look like. Show creators Jon Watts and Christopher Ford revealed if there are plans for a second season and what it would look like. One of the kicks of Skeleton Crew is that it’s the first Star Wars show to feature children in prominent roles, which can pose a problem when it comes to stretching content out over multiple years because, as we all know, kids grow up. Watts and Ford already have plans in place to deal with this, and don’t want to end up like another show in the same boat:

“We 100% have an idea for a second season and know what we would do. [...] We have a built-in ticking clock of the kids and their age, and by the time we would get production going, we know what age they would be. So, we would be writing towards that. You’ll be growing up with the kids . [...] It would be something like [a three to four-year time jump] to make sense. We haven’t seen the kids in a while, so it just depends on how tall the kids are. But we wouldn’t do like a Stranger Things thing where we’re like ‘It’s the next day,’ because it won’t be. ”

In a back-and-forth with Watts, Ford further explained:

“It’s built into it that it would be a bigger time jump forward because it does take so long to get things moving. This isn’t like it would take place the next day because the kids are going to be older. [...] There are so many repercussions. It’s like, you kind of want to catch up later.”

One of the biggest issues among the fanbase for Stranger Things is that the show tries to treat young adults like they’re still children instead of further advancing the story to deal with the fact that the actors have aged. It’s already a major green flag to hear that Watts and Ford have contingencies in place to make sure Star Wars: Skeleton Crew doesn’t go down the same path and that if the story picks up in a potential second season several years later, it’s aligned with the children being three or four years older, and not pretending like they’re two weeks older when they’ve aged several years. As for where the plot could go, it’s impossible to speculate on that until the first season of Skeleton Crew has concluded. source

Those creatures are not real?!

Practical Effects and Puppetry in Skeleton Crew

On the official Star Wars YouTube channel, a brand new two-minute video showcases the creativity and talents that help to bring the various creatures, robots, and monsters alive for Skeleton Crew. There’s even a small showcase of one of the show’s larger stop-motion creatures yet to appear.

Many of the show’s directors and creators sat down to praise the work of the puppeteers, makeup artists, and special effects handlers, including The Daniels, Bryce Dallas Howard, and showrunner Jon Watts. Watts specifically drew attention to a crab monster that will likely be seen in future episodes and says he suggested doing it in stop-motion:

“I said, ‘We should do it in stop-motion,’ thinking that everyone would be like, ‘No, that’s insane.’ … Phil Tippet and his team built this puppet and each shot takes two weeks.”

Bryce Dallas Howard and writer Christopher Ford also praised the hard work and efforts of everyone who helped bring the character of Neel on-screen:

Howard: “Part of the joy of having a character that is a creature is that it is truly a team effort. There’s Legacy Effects, the team at ILM [Industrial Light and Magic], you need someone inside of the suit of the creature, and then you need a team of puppeteers.”
Ford: “All these people standing on the edge of the frame with remote controls doing the trunk and the eyes and the expressions [of Neel], they just have it down.”

Finally, Daniel Kwan of The Daniels also spoke on how much joy he received from working with practical effects to create authentic-looking aliens:

“All the creature effects and animatronics that we get to play with — the authenticity of real objects and real things has been really fun.” source

Trivia! 

Did you know?

"On what planet did Han accept Chewbacca as his partner?“

“Devaron.”

Cosplay of the Week

Jango by reddit user TimSimply

Book of the Week

The Force Unleashed II (The Essential Legends Collection)

By Sean Williams (Based on a story by Haden Blackman)
Released Feb 4, 2025
Takes place in 1 BBY
In the Rebellion era
Part of the The Essential Legends Collection Series

Publisher's Summary:

The Force Unleashed II (The Essential Legends Collection)
Wave 12 from the Essential Legends Collection Series

As ruthless apprentice to Darth Vader, Starkiller was mercilessly schooled in the ways of the dark side, commanded to exterminate the last of the purged Jedi Order, and groomed for the ultimate Sith power play: assassination of the Emperor. He served without question, killed without remorse, and lost his heart without warning to beautiful Imperial fighter pilot Juno Eclipse, never suspecting that he was just a tool in the schemes of his masters—until it was too late to escape their lethal betrayal.

Juno mourned Starkiller as dead…but now he is back, purged of all memories and programmed to kill. And as fate brings Juno and Starkiller closer to reuniting, with Darth Vader determined not to lose his assassin a second time, they will both have to make a stand. The prize is freedom. The punishment for failing will be eternal enslavement to the dark side of the Force… source

Meme of the week

THE END

End of this week Wookiee mail!

This Wookiee got tired and needs to drink his Jawa Juice for the rest of the day. See you next week again with best Star Wars Newsletter in the Galaxy!!

This newsletter was a Wookiee mistake!