"I am a huge fan of Star Wars," opines an article from the gaming Aftermath. "As every Star Wars fan knows, being a Star Wars fan means you hate Star Wars as much as you love it." But fortunately there's Going Rogue and Galactic — two tabletop games "inspired" by the Star Wars universe (which just successfully crowdfunded a printed illustrated hardcover edition). They're described as "war among the stars" role-playing games, where members of The Liberation dedicate their lives to the war against The Mandate — "rebels, soldiers, spies, and criminals, or perhaps someone who simply picked up and blaster and said 'enough is enough.'" The article notes that Going Rogue was a way for the game's designer to work out their issues with Star Wars: "You can re-skin Going Rogue to be all the original stuff [from Star Wars]. I prefer, at this point, to play it not in canon Star Wars," Levine said. "And also, there are things I hate about canon Star Wars. I think it sucks that the Jedi are child kidnapping, sexless acetics!" In particular Going Rogue is a remix of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which depicts the lives of a group of rebel agents who give their lives for the rebellion before the original trilogy. "I love Rogue One and I hate Rogue One," Levine said... But Going Rogue aims to do more than just allow players to "fix" Star Wars's narrative problems. It also allows players to explore this narrative of rebellion without having to interface with an evil entertainment empire: Disney... Going Rogue is an opportunity for Star Wars fans to make the story of Star Wars their own, including making it more in league with their own politics by taking Disney out of it. "Something I like about tabletop role playing and adaptational tabletop role playing is it says, 'Actually, fuck them. They don't get to own this thing,'" Levine said. "We can't fully divest from the connection to Star Wars. Obviously, we are downstream of it in certain ways. But we are also trying to say, fuck [Disney's] ownership of this thing that you love." Aftermath adds that the game Going Rogue "intrigued me specifically because it was inspired by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor — in particular, Going Rogue has a mechanic baked into the game where your character is more or less guaranteed to go out in a blaze of glory for the cause." [The game's designer says] "I wanted to design the game in a way that, as your character realized that they were willing to voluntarily sacrifice their life for this, you were narratively guaranteed by the mechanics that that sacrifice was worth it. You get to see, after they die, how it transforms the galaxy. I wanted you to get that feeling because you don't get that certainty in real life." They didn't make this game to convince anyone to become a socialist, but instead to create an emotional tool that serves as a mirror for the players' own feelings about what it means to devote your life to a political cause.

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SAG-AFTRA has filed a labor complaint against Fortnite developer Epic Games, alleging the game improperly used AI to replicate James Earl Jones' Darth Vader voice without bargaining with the union, despite the estate's approval. Gizmodo reports: The union has now filed an unfair labor practice charge (link to the PDF is on the SAG-AFTRA website) that calls out "Fortnite's signatory company, Llama Productions" for "[replacing] the work of human performers with AI technology" without "providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms." The union notes that it's not against the general idea here: "We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles." The problem is that the AI being used here makes human voice actors obsolete, and "we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader's iconic rhythm and tone in video games." So far there's been no response from Epic Games on the filing. The Hollywood Reporter notes that despite the SAG-AFTRA's still-ongoing Interactive Media Agreement strike, which has been stuck for months on negotiating "AI protections for voice actors in video games," actors can actually work on Fortnite without violating the strike, since the game falls under an exception for titles that were in production before August 2023.

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As May the 4th transforms into Star Wars Day, dozens of sites and games have found ways to celebrate. The official Star Wars channel on YouTube released a celebratory video. Disney+ released Tales of the Underworld , a six-part animated series about bounty hunters during the reign of the Empire. And Friday the first two episodes began streaming in Fortnite in a special early premiere on "Star Wars Watch Party island," according to IGN. (Disney acquired a $1.5 billion stake in Epic in March 2024, they note, "positioning itself to collaborate with the game developer for many years to come." One example from StarWars.com: Introducing the GALACTIC BATTLE Season: the largest crossover yet between Fortnite Battle Royale and Star Wars. Strap into a TIE fighter or X-wing and take to the skies over new locations like the First Order Base where you can take on Captain Phasma and her legion of stormtroopers. Players can expect new gameplay updates to drop every week throughout the season, including new weapons, Force Abilities and quests to complete. - There's additional Star Wars celebrations today in several other games, including LEGO Fortnite Brick Life, Rocket League, and Monopoly GO! - CNN is publishing its own list of Star Wars day products and deals. (Including Panasonic's Stormtrooper electric shaver and the Darth Vader toaster.) - There's special Star Wars pages at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Lego. - On X.com the UK's national library posted what looks a picture of a medieval manuscript with Yoda painted into the text. Someone posted a clip from the 1977 Bob Hope Christmas Special which ends with Mark Hamill rescuing Princess Leia (played by Olivia Newton-John). Even the White House has posted an AI-generated image of president Trump wielding a lightsaber. - Starbucks even has its own line of Star Wars-themed mugs. And if today isn't enough, the Austin American-Statesman reminds readers that there's more Star Wars celebrations are coming up: Sometimes also known as Geek Pride Day, May 25 is known as "Star Wars Day" because it marks the release of the anniversary of the series' debut. "A New Hope" premiered in United States theaters on May 25, 1997... May 21 is Talk Like Yoda Day, an annual celebration marking the release of "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back" on May 21, 1980 — the film that introduced Yoda to the galaxy...

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80-year-old George Lucas appeared this week at a 45th anniversary screening of The Empire Strikes Back, reports CNN — and finally gave a good explanation for why Yoda speaks the way he does. "He explained that it came about in order to ensure that the little alien's usually profound messages really landed with audiences." "Because if you speak regular English, people won't listen that much," Lucas said at the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival, per Variety . "But if he had an accent, or it's really hard to understand what he's saying, they focus on what he's saying." Yoda was "basically the philosopher of the movie," the filmmaker added. "I had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen — especially 12-year-olds." Also this week, the verified Instagram accounts for Disney+, Star Wars and LucasFilm — Lucas' film and television production company — posted clips of Yoda doing bloopers on the set of "Star Wars" films, with [Frank] Oz continuing to do the voice and manipulate the heavy Yoda puppet even on takes that were unusable. Suffice it to say: One for the ages, Yoda is. Lucas also remembered how he'd "mounted a guerilla campaign to generate excitement" for the first Star Wars movie, reports Variety. ("I got the kids walking around Disneyland and the Comic Cons and all that kind of stuff... that's why Fox was so shocked when the first day the lines were all around the block.") And Variety says Lucas described a condition in his contract for Star Wars "that would again be life-changing, both for him and the entertainment industry as a whole." "I said, 'besides that, I'd like licensing.' They went, 'What's licensing?'" Unimpressed by the film, and colored by the history of movie merchandising to that point, the studio capitulated to his demands. "They talked to themselves, and they went, 'He's never going to be able to do that. It takes them a billion dollars and a year to make a toy or make anything. There's no money in that at all.'"

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A new Star Wars movie — starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy — will be released in 2027, the two announced Friday at the "Star Wars Celebration" (a fan event in Japan). CNN reports: Set to begin production this fall, the movie will be set approximately five years after "Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker," released in 2019, but will sit outside the Skywalker story as a standalone film. "The film... is an entirely new adventure featuring all-new characters set in a period of time that has not been explored on screen," said a statement from Lucasfilm, the owner of the "Star Wars" franchise... "The script is just so good, the story, it has so much adventure, so much heart and original character. It's an opportunity to shine the light into a side of the universe that we may not have seen," Gosling said. Levy, the director of "Deadpool & Wolverine," told the crowd the film would have all the "fun of 'Star Wars'" but it would be done "in ways that are new and original...." The next movie in the franchise, "The Mandalorian & Grogu," a spin-off of "The Mandalorian" series, directed by Jon Favreau, will hit cinemas in May 2026. USA Today notes that more new Star Wars movies have also been announced: Daisy Ridley is set to star in a film that will see her character, Rey, building a new Jedi Order after the events of "The Rise of Skywalker." [This is sometimes referred to as "Star Wars Episode X: New Jedi Order."] "Logan" filmmaker James Mangold has also been tapped to direct a movie about the dawn of the Jedi, and [Dave] Filoni is directing one said to "close out the interconnected stories" told in the live-action Disney+ shows like "The Mandalorian."

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Long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger brings news that in June "a rare screening of the original 1977 Star Wars movie — complete with Han shooting first — will be shown at a theater in London..." Petapixel reports: Subsequent alterations made to the film are well-documented: Han Solo being shot at by the bounty hunter Greedo first, rather than the original in which anti-hero Han killed Greedo without being shot at. Then there is the addition of a CGI Jabba the Hutt who was only mentioned by name in the 1977 release. Fans have also complained about the color grading painted on re-releases. But for those attending the British Film Institute (BFI)'s Film on Film festival in London, they are in for a treat. Star Wars will play not once but twice on the opening night on June 12... BFI says the print is "unfaded" and "ready to transport us to a long time ago, and a galaxy far, far away, back to the moment in 1977 when George Lucas's vision cast a spell on cinema audiences." Lucas has little sympathy for those who want to see his first version of the film, telling the Associated Press in 2004, "I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be." The film festival promises "a glorious dye-transfer" of Star Wars — and will also show "a pristine 35mm print of the original US pilot episode of Twin Peaks, screening for the first time ever in the UK" — followed by a Q&A with the 1990 show's original star Kyle MacLachlan. On display to coincide with the opening night screening there is also a rare opportunity to view material from the original continuity script for Star Wars, which includes rare on-set Polaroids, annotations and deleted scenes. The script is from the collection of Ann Skinner, script editor on the original film, and is now cared for by the BFI National Archive.

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