5 Things on a Friday: A New Kind of Star Wars

It’s a lot of entertainment news this week.  I’ll do my best to keep it quick.

1. Future Star Wars Movies Won’t Rely on Legacy Characters (Coming Soon)

Gary Whitta: I think you’ve already seen us get 90% of the way there with “Rogue One.” Yes you see Leia, yes you see the Death Star and Vader, because those are elements of that story and they belong there, you can’t tell that story without those characters. But for the most part, 90% of that story is completely new characters. Completely new planets and places you’ve never seen before. It’s a Star Wars movie with no Jedi! You don’t see a lightsaber once until Vader pops it out at the end.

Whitta was screenwriter on Rogue One, and he gave this interview as part of the press for that movie’s home video release.  

What’s interesting about this is how happy the studio seems to be about it.  They made Rogue One, and suddenly they want to end the Skywalker saga in its entirety and something completely different.  That’s great, and I look forward to seeing what they produce, but I also wonder if they won’t decide to revisit the First Family of Star Wars in another ten years or so.  I mean, Marvel/Disney has also said that they don’t want to make any more Iron Man movies, but then they made Captain America: Civil War, and they’re working on Spider-Man: Homecoming, and neither of those is not an Iron Man movie, exactly.

Vader's castle

For what it's worth, rumors also have The Last Jedi visiting Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar.  I confess that I'd like to see that quite a bit. 

2. Spider-Man: Homecoming Trailer #3

As I said above, Twitter spent the week calling this movie Iron Man 4.  

Well.  Spider-Man has a storied history of team-ups in the comics, from the 80’s Marvel Team-Up to the more recent Avenging Spider-Man.  Personally, I think this still looks like Peter Parker’s movie, though he’s got an obvious complication running with an over-protective Tony Stark, the same Stark who basically just lost all of his friends in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  He’s obviously got a story-arc of his own here, too.

3.  ‘Batgirl’ Movie: Joss Whedon to Direct Standalone Film (Variety)

Batgirl is flying solo. The superheroine is getting her own standalone movie from filmmaker Joss Whedon.

Whedon is nearing a deal to write, direct, and produce an untitled Batgirl pic for Warner Bros. as part of its DC Extended Universe.

Recent runs on Batgirl have been highly regarded.

This news broke yesterday, and folks got all excited.  It’s no secret that DC could use a win with its movie division, and Batgirl by Joss Whedon will probably provide that.

4. Army Football Update

2017 @ArmyWP_Football kick times are out! Hope to see you at Michie Stadium this fall!
👇 pic.twitter.com/eNwHiTHNU6

— ArmyWestPoint Sports (@GoArmyWestPoint) March 29, 2017

The home opener is again a night game.  After that, the games are all at noon, save the showdown with UTEP.  It promises to be a pretty exciting season.

Also: Apparently things got a little chippy at practice yesterday.  That spilled over onto Twitter.

Intensity picks up during week 2 of spring ball #SpringBall2k17

📸 Mady Salvani pic.twitter.com/ashGFTFK4s

— Army WP Football (@ArmyWP_Football) March 31, 2017

It was at this moment Khop realized nobody saw his jersey as red😂 pic.twitter.com/fe9AZIUui4

— Semaj the Gemini (@realjamesgibson) March 31, 2017

Ima be real, my red jersey don't matter! I really be getting smacked like I'm not wearing it! They don't be doing AB and Bhris like that 👀😒😂

— Kelvin Hopkins (@FindingExcuses) March 31, 2017

With Malik McGue now at tailback, Hopkins has moved up to #3 on the QB depth chart.  As you can see, that didn't save him from getting buried yesterday.

5.  A Hoosier On The Potomac (Blogspot)

Once the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen gets whittled down to the Elite Eight, I start feeling a little melancholy, because all of my television basketball community has gone home for the spring.  I bounce back quickly though since the NBA playoffs are soon to begin.  The first two rounds of the NBA playoffs satisfy my insatiable desire for highly competitive sports action.

The Western Conference has been the top conference for years now and there are some compelling matchups pending for the later rounds with San Antonio, Golden State and Houston jockeying toward the top of the conference.

If this NBA commercial doesn’t at least spark your interest, you are not a true hoop head.

I did a piece on indie publishing earlier this week.  Well, this is my friend's new blog.  I like it, but unfortunately, Joe, I can pretty much confirm that I am not a true hoop-head.

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That's all for me, folks.  Have a good weekend!