star wars

In the tradition of ScreenCrush series like You Think You Know Movies and You Think You Know TV comes a new YouTube series: Top Five! Every two weeks (or so; we’ve got a lot of other stuff going on), ScreenCrush editor and critic Matt Singer will count down a particular topic from the world of movies (and probably write these introductory posts in the third person).

We finally know what the title of the next Star Wars movie is, and it’s a pretty great one. “The Last Jedi” is full of drama and mystery, giving nothing away while implying a whole lot. As it turns out, the movie’s stars like the title just as much as the rest of us do, and Mark Hamill had a pretty great reaction to it.

After months of radio silence, it looks like we’re finally going to get to see a little more of the next episode in the Star Wars saga. Yesterday, we had that sweet title reveal (along with some troubling Sith red in the logo…), and today director Rian Johnson shared a photo from the editing bay, where he and his crew are hard at work putting the finishing touches on their new movie.

The official title of the next chapter in the Star Wars saga was announced this morning, and there’s already been a little speculation among fans about who The Last Jedi might be — is it Luke Skywalker (the obvious choice) or Rey (the second-most obvious choice)? As it turns out, we already know, and by “we,” we mean you do, too…unless you didn’t see The Force Awakens. But observant fans will tell you that there may be a third option — one that’s less apparent, but a little more intriguing.

While Star Wars: The Force Awakens was an international smash hit, it wasn’t devoid of criticism. Some people felt that the film veered a little close to the storyline of the original Star Wars film; others felt that the family friendly action didn’t quite line up with the darker tone they expected from movies like The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith. So to those fans, I offer you the above deleted scene (via i09) where Chewbacca rips out the arm of Unkar Plutt. It may be another throwback to the original movies, but at least it’s one with a little bit of bite.

The new year is officially off and running, and SNL mercifully isn’t going to let another day go by without us thinking about Rogue One. Jyn Erso herself, Felicity Jones makes her SNL debut in the first official 2017 promos, and wouldn’t you know it, likes to reference that Star Wars everyone seems so fond of.

We lost an incomparable actress, writer, icon, and amazing human being when Carrie Fisher passed away on December 27, 2016. No one is feeling that loss as deeply as those closest to her, and in the days since Fisher’s passing, we’ve had the privilege of reading and hearing some of their remembrances. Today, Mark Hamill has shared his own personal tribute to Fisher, offering a touching, humorous and appropriately candid essay for his Star Wars co-star and longtime friend.

Rogue One made impressive effort not just to tie into the original Star Wars films, but also the animated Star Wars Rebels in at least three instances. We’ll even meet a younger Rogue One character on Rebels in 2017, though the film’s visual guide might also tease another Rogue favorite making an animated debut at some point in the series.

The world’s still stinging from the loss of Carrie Fisher yesterday, and while we will most likely remember her first as Princess Leia, the actress cultivated a long career of comedy after her Star Wars years. Her one-woman show Wishful Drinking was a must-see on Broadway, and her hilarious, often inscrutable Twitter account will stand as a testament to her bizarre wit. In the wake of Fisher’s sad death on Tuesday, one video in particular has begun to pop up again, and it might just be the comic’s most searing public appearance of all.

It’s undeniable that Carrie Fisher was a rare talent — and she’d have to be, to charm the notoriously picky George Lucas with her Star Wars audition. In a recently resurfaced video, originally posted on YouTube in 2006, Fisher sits down to read a scene opposite Harrison Ford (whom Lucas initially didn’t want to cast, but he was so good in the screen tests that Ford became his Han Solo).

Carrie Fisher’s General-Princess Leia Organa was such an iconic character, J.J. Abrams knew he had to bring her back for the new trilogy. We knew that she had been cast in Episode VIII, and with her passing today, some wondered whether she had completed all of her production as Leia before her heart attack. But an official from Lucasfilm assured us today that all of her scenes were “absolutely wrapped.”

Today we mourn the loss of Carrie Fisher: Iconic actor, talented author, brilliant script doctor and, most of all, an incomparable force to be reckoned with. There are so many great adjectives you could use to describe Fisher: Uncompromising, unapologetic, fierce, witty, relatable, real, honest. She took all of those qualities and put them to work in her books — from memoirs to novels, Fisher had a knack for telling poignant and painful stories with wit and wisdom. Writing a worthy obituary for one of the best and boldest women on this planet or any other is surely an impossible task…so it’s a good thing that the perfect obit basically already exists, and unsurprisingly, Fisher came up with it herself.