This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: The Bad Batch Marketing Ramps Up, More on Pedro Pascals Schedule, and Small Video Game Updates

Happy Sunday! Welcome to a lighter-than-usual edition of 'This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away'. I've been away all week on a work trip so I've hardly had time to catch up on what's happening... And that was apparently OK because it seems like it's been a slow week for Star Wars, with minor exceptions. As usual, let me know your thoughts, suggestions, and complaints in the comments below! Today, we'll be talking about Pedro Pascal's schedule, The Bad Batch season 3 marketing, and more.



Once again, this week we had new episodes on our YouTube channel of our main shows: The Timeline Show, on Monday, where Tyler and Brian discussed the High Republic book Convergence, and SWNN Live!, where Tyler, Brian, and Jay had a deep discussion on the prophecy of the Chosen One. You might also be interested in Tyler's 'Who Is Avar Kriss?' video we recently posted. (While we're on the High Republic topic, the cover for Tessa Gratton's Temptation of the Force was revealed this week.)


<h2>Three Things That May Have Flown Casual</h2>

• This Is the Way: The latest rumor says that Respawn Entertainment is developing a first-person-shooter video game centered around a Mandalorian going bounty hunting. Details are scarce at this point, but you may find out more here. The studio is also developing a third Jedi game. A Mandalorian video game was also in development once upon a time, but it's since been scrapped. In other video game news, new details for the Dark Forces remaster, coming out on Feb. 28, have been revealed.
• More snippets from Empire Magazine: The latest actor to advocate for his character's return is... Samuel L Jackson! The 75-year-old actor is claiming that Mace Windu is alive and that he should get his own Disney Plus series. Do we need this sort of debate, when Star Wars should be moving forward with their storytelling, instead of revisiting the same eras and the same characters over and over again? I think not, but maybe you disagree altogether...
• More on this... Ian McDiarmid defended The Rise of Skywalker's decision to bring Palpatine back. (I always thought it could have been a good move if executed correctly; making him Rey's grandfather was where they completely lost me, though.) Hayden Christensen also discussed the connectivity between his character arcs in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. The Empire issue is now out. Also, kind of related to actors discussing their live-action Star Wars roles, Ben Mendelsohn is out promoting Apple's The New Look (not good, hopefully I'll get around to reviewing it soon) and said he wasn't asked to return for Andor season 2. Do we believe him? I kinda do, though I wish he was lying.
• New comic reviews out this week: Rosie reviews Darth Vader #43, and Jay discusses The High Republic Adventures #3.

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<h2>This Week, In Star Wars-Adjacent News…</h2>


The second edition of this segment is focused on Pedro Pascal's schedule, a recurring topic for 'This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away' readers. Marvel Studios announced this week that he will officially be playing Mr. Fantastic in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot for the Disney-owned studio, with Variety saying that filming will begin this summer.



That alone sounds kind of vague, but it could give him the chance to visit the Mandalorian &amp; Grogu set for a few weeks before he puts on the blue spandex suit. We expect Favreau's movie to begin filming in June, per reports, in Manhattan Beach. Meanwhile, Fantastic Four is supposed to go up in Pinewood. Earlier reports had suggested a Q3 2024 shoot, which would push the now-reported summer shooting window into a 'late summer/early fall' situation.



I have to ask here: What is taking so long? This cast has been set for months, and I doubt they're doing heavy rewriting on the script at this point. Could this be that they're waiting on Pedro Pascal's schedule to clear up, and that would involve him doing to The Mandalorian &amp; Grogu before? Jeff Sneider in his newsletter also suggested it may be that they're waiting on Javier Bardem's schedule -- the actor is the frontrunner to play Galactus, but he is tied up elsewhere in the UK doing Joseph Kosinski's F1 movie for Apple.



LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 22: Pedro Pascal and Jon Favreau attend 'The Forge' experience inspired by the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, on February 22, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)





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<h2>The Bad Batch Ramps Up Its Marketing Campaign</h2>


The first wave of reactions for The Bad Batch season 3 came out this week, as selected press were given the first eight episodes of the new season. I'll be honest, putting aside that Rotten Tomatoes clip from a few days ago, I'd almost forgotten this was coming out now. The point of announcing the release date and dropping the trailer one month in advance should be to have an all-killer-no-filler marketing push, yet that was kind of it for a few weeks.



But Lucasfilm woke up this week, with members of the press who were invited to junkets and interviews with the creators of the show dropping their coverage of the new season. Supervising director Brad Rau discussed the return of both Asajj Ventress, whose involvement in the new season has been the source of a lot of online discussion, and also Fennec Shand, who was confirmed last year at Star Wars Celebration.



The key? Brad Rau telling The Direct 'We’re not contradicting anything that happened in Dark Disciple.' At this point, I'm not expecting Ventress to be in the new season for more than one or two episodes, which would mean this is being blown out of proportion -- yet at the same time, it's easy, attention-grabbing publicity for the show, so I'm starting to understand Lucasfilm's move on including her in the trailer.



Asajj Ventress in The Bad Batch season 3.



Rau also said that Ventress' return might not be fully explained in The Bad Batch season 3. I'll say it right now: that'd be such a cop-out way of dancing around the issue. Did we learn nothing from all the 'Somehow, Palpatine returned' memes? I don't expect to get all the answers right away, of course -- I'm even trying not to read too much into the creators answering these questions after the press saw the first eight episodes. But some answers will be given this Wednesday, when The Bad Batch drops its first three episodes. If everything goes right, I'll be reviewing those, so look forward to that!



In other animation news, the Annie Awards were fruitful for Star Wars, with Visions Volume 2 coming out on top in two categories: Best Direction (Paul Young for 'Screecher's Reach') and Best Music (Markus Wormstorm, Nadia Darries, and Dineo Du Toit for 'Aau's Song').



Crosshair in a scene from 'STAR WARS: THE BAD BATCH', season 3 exclusively on Disney+. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. &amp; &#x2122;. All Rights Reserved.



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No reading recommendations this week as I haven't kept up with what's out there, but do check out Nate's full-season review of Young Jedi Adventures here. Plus, Sydney wrote a beautiful piece for Reactor Magazine on Ewoks and environmental agency, which you can read here.



What did you think of the latest edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions down below in the comment section. You can also send them, or reach out with any information tips, directly via our Contact page.



Have a great week!



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