Galactic Empire

Image: LucasfilmIn current Star Wars canon, the plot to steal the Death Star’s technical plans is incredibly straight forward: it’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the tale of Galen Erso’s sacrifice and the ragtag team that swooped down to Scarif and gave their lives to ensure that data fell into Rebel hands. But in the expanded universe, one of Star Wars’ most legendary games set the stage for a much larger, more complicated process.Dark Forces, released in 1995—and re-released this week with a new remaster across PC and…

Nearly three decades ago, Dark Forces hit the PC with all the firepower of a fully armed and operational battle station—and in doing so helped revolutionize gaming, Star Wars or otherwise. But even after it changed the genre as we knew it, its legacy has persisted; its view of the galaxy far, far away has continued to shape Star Wars to this very day, even as it returns to PC and consoles today in a new remaster.How Invincible's Omni-Man Joined Mortal Kombat 1Developed by LucasArts—which up to this point had balanced…

Image: Lucasfilm/DK PublishingEverything in Star Wars in its 47-year lifetime has revolved arond the Galactic Empire. No matter when, or no mater who, all roads eventually lead to Sheev Palpatine’s dominance over the galaxy. It’s understandable if you’re a little confused on how it’s all meant to make sense from a timeline perspective, which is why DK Publishing is putting out a book specifically about the Empire’s 24-year reign. Andor Episodes 1-3 ReviewIn July, DK Publishing is releasing Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of…

Screenshot: LucasfilmThe idea of a Force sensitive clone isn’t at all surprising—it’s an idea that was explored repeatedly in Star Wars’ old Expanded Universe, and in contemporary canon we’ve known the potential is possible, considering that’s how Palpatine ultimately returned in Rise of Skywalker. But one interesting thing that Bad Batch has subtly brought to the fore in this mix that was lacking in the Expanded Universe’s exploration of the concept is that, well, clones are actually also as much their own people in 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…

It’s safe to say that most people walking out of The Rise of Skywalker for the first time were left with a lot of questions, but one at the forefront of our minds back in 2019, and frankly, still even now, is perhaps the darkest ever raised by Star Wars: when, exactly, did Palpatine fuck? We’re just glad to know that Ian McDiarmid has been thinking about this too.Spoilers of the Week May 2-6 “Please don’t pursue that line too vigorously,” McDiarmid recently told Empire magazine, about the idea of Rey being Palpatine’s…

Image: Killian Plunkett/Dark HorseDecades even before the Republic was made aware of the existence of the Kaminoan clone army, the Senate backed multiple elaborate projects to support and enhance the effectiveness of the various, smaller defense forces aligned with the Republic and its member worlds. One such project, completed in 46BBY—14 years before the events of The Phantom Menace—was the Katana Fleet.A 200-ship strong fleet made entirely of Rendili StarDrive dreadnaught heavy cruisers, the Katana Fleet was valuable…

Image: LucasfilmLook. Hear me out.It would be insane for Lucasfilm to make Luke Skywalker the antagonist of a film. Let alone, once again, the first Star Wars theatrical release since 2019. Insane! Ballsy, which would be a nice change of pace for the risk-averse studio, but still, insane! And yet, dear reader. And yet. Luke Skywalker is the perfect balance of everything we’ve talked about in an antagonist so far. He’d be a big, shocking name, hugely important to Star Wars and worthy of the scale of a movie, but also one…

Screenshot: LucasfilmThe answer is... no. Or at least it’s extremely unlikely. Although Caamas itself has been canonized in the comic Star Wars Adventures, and an allusion to the genocidal bombardment of the world was mentioned in source material for the Age of Rebellion roleplaying game, contemporary Star Wars canon rapidly sped up the official end of the Galactic Civil War compared to the EU, ending it after the Battle of Jakku in 5ABY. And while the Imperial Remnant as a concept is currently being explored in The…

Foundation, a gloriously over-the-top space epic from Apple TV+, is back for a second season. Based on the series of stories by science fiction legend, Isaac Asimov, the series takes the original ideas and tweaks them to fit in with contemporary sci-fi considerations, creating a massive saga about the inevitable downfall of the Galactic Empire.Foundation — Season 2 Official Trailer 2 | Apple TV+Season two takes place over a century after the first season’s finale. Lee Pace stars as a clone of the emperor Cleon, who has…