Fictional cyborgs

A small sample of new Star Wars merch. Image: LucasfilmThree things you can count on in this world are death, taxes, and new Star Wars merchandise. Just days after a huge dump of new figures for the upcoming show The Acolyte, it’s now time for a “March to May the 4th.” Basically, that means a reveal of new May the Fourth merchandise in March. (Also March is a word in “Imperial March”—because, you know, synergy.)Nevertheless, this merch runs the gamut, from a limited edition Darth Maul lightsaber timed to the 25th…

Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season had a lot going on—and that’s even before you throw in half the regular cast of The Next Generation, and then some, showing up as the weeks went on. But it turns out, there were almost even more returning faces—and not necessarily just from TNG.‘I Saw Jonathan Frakes Giving Patrick Stewart a Noogie’Speaking to Master Replicas Collectors Club members in a Zoom Q&A recently (via TrekMovie), Picard showrunner and perpetual hoper-for-a-spinoff Terry Matalas revealed that Picard…

Image: LucasfilmIn the wake of Disney’s wave of content deletion on Disney+ in the last few years, physical releases of the platform’s original shows are more important than ever. Especially so when it’s physical releases of the far and away best piece of media to come out of the platform’s entire existence.That is, of course, Andor, which will finally receive the lavish treatment it deserves when it releases on 4K UHD Blu-ray on April 30. It’s not the only Disney+ show to receive a release—the second wave after The…

Right now in Star Wars, if something evil is going on, odds are it’s all part of Emperor Palpatine’s master plan. The Bad Batch has been playing with this idea as it set up its Rise of the Empire-era world across its first two seasons, but season three’s premiere made it even more explicit with the big boss showing up at Mount Tantiss... and a very tantalizing namedrop.Spoilers of the Week May 2-6“Shadows of Tantiss”—the third episode of The Bad Batch’s three-part season three premiere —saw Omega and Crosshair’s plans to…

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Bad Batch find themselves up against, and running away from, some kind of giant creature. “Why,” grunts Wrecker, the team’s beefy strongman as he huffs along, “why is there always a huge monster?” It’s a fun gag, because really, with The Bad Batch, there almost always is a huge monster. But it’s also an awkward truth of the show at large.Bad Batch has struggled to find a balance between telling a variety of one-off stories of the week (like, say, the perpetual huge monster the…

Screenshot: LucasfilmSo that’s where we are, who’s gone and who’s back. So what can we expect in season three? All eyes are on Mount Tantiss right now—not just for whatever project Hemlock has cooking for the Emperor, but for our surviving Batchers to rescue Omega before it’s too late, to see wherever Crosshair’s re-examination of his duty takes him while he’s imprisoned there, and to figure out just what is up with Emerie and her connections to both Omega and Hemlock.But then there’s a billion other questions. How’s…

The Bad Batch has had to, for obvious reasons, spend a lot of time revolving around the characters of its masculine stars—Omega aside, the series must look beyond the rank and file of the former Clone Army for a feminine perspective. But as the third and final season looms, it’s setting the stage to center three very intriguing female foils.What Drew Gillian Jacobs to Invincible? | io9 InterviewOmega, of course, remains a vital part of The Bad Batch, but she and the rest of the team will find themselves brushing up…

Image: LucasfilmSeeing Hayden Christensen get his due and recognition has been one the best things to come out of the Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau universe of shows. From donning the suit as Darth Vader on Obi-Wan Kenobi to playing a Force ghost as well as Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka, it’s been amazing to see Christensen flex his chops as the Star Wars saga’s tragic figure. What Drew Gillian Jacobs to Invincible? | io9 InterviewAll the sides of Anakin we wished to see Christensen play have started to be included…

The Star Wars fandom got into a tizzy earlier this week when Empire Magazine teased something. Rather than being a look at the future of the franchise—like say, The Acolyte, Andor, or Bad Batch—it was all about the past. Thanks to Empire, we’re going back to the Prequels, babyyyyyyyy!What Drew Gillian Jacobs to Invincible? | io9 InterviewAs part of its larger cover story for the second set of Star Wars movies, Empire’s revealed that Episode I: The Phantom Menace will be making its way back to theaters for a limited time,…

Screenshot: LucasfilmWell, aside from being another legacy character for whom death is a revolving door or something to frequently lie about for the drama of it all, Ventress’ return in the final season of The Bad Batch raises a lot of interesting questions about how she’ll fit into events, and more broadly into this era of Star Wars. After all, we thought she didn’t survive to see Sidious’ rise and his ultimate plan to form the Empire actually come to fruition—but now she has, so what will her place in all that be? Is…