Eric Geller's Blog

Lucasfilm "Stealth Strike" might be as close to a perfect episode of Star Wars Rebels as we've seen in a long time. It ties with "Wings of the Master" as the best of season 2. Not only did it blend moments of humor with moments of gravity (pun intended), but it resolved some tension between two main characters, taught another character an important lesson about the past, and put a formerly background character in a central role in a way that hinted at the struggles of the growing Rebellion. "Stealth Strike" balanced a story full of homages with a raft of meaningful dialog and still managed to tell a fascinating story that equally leveraged the strengths and weaknesses of several fan-favorite characters.

Lucasfilm "Blood Sisters" was another uneven Star Wars Rebels episode. Chopper positively shined, Sabine's past started to come into the light, Ezra offered some welcome comic relief, and the walking, clanking, gonking MacGuffin brought some quintessentially Star Wars humor to the story. In short, most of the characters were great. But "Blood Sisters" turned on the involvement of a new character, brought in to highlight an unknown side of Sabine, and that newcomer was poorly written to the point of logical incoherence, casting a pall over the rest of the episode.

Lucasfilm In many ways, "Wings of the Master" mirrored the experimental blade-wing at the center of its story. It was the product of many moving pieces—writing, voice acting, animation, and music—and to really deliver on its promise, all of those pieces had to fit together perfectly. Thankfully, like the blade-wing itself, this episode came out firing on all cylinders. Everything just worked. We learned a little bit more about Hera's backstory, we met a new ally of the Rebellion (and his whiz-bang prototype ship), and we were treated to one of the most breathtaking sequences of animation and music that Star Wars Rebels has ever given us.

Lucasfilm Every television show has its hits and its misses. "Brothers of the Broken Horn" was unquestionably a miss. It was fantastic to see Hondo Ohnaka again, but he was the only good thing about this episode. It began with a farfetched premise and continued in a manner that was alternately boring and unbelievable. As a huge fan of Star Wars Rebels , "Brothers of the Broken Horn" was more than disappointing—it was unsettling. The crew of this show is so good that it was almost inconceivable that they could stumble this much. Since October 2014, they've been developing Ezra Bridger in a fascinating, nuanced, and realistic way. With this episode, they seemed to forget what they were doing with him.

Lucasfilm Every group of heroes needs a group of villains to keep them on their toes. The relatively simple first season of Star Wars Rebels pitted the Ghost crew against one Grand Inquisitor, but with their allies multiplying in Season Two, the rebels needed more enemies, too—and in "Always Two There Are," we met two of those enemies. There wasn't much to this episode; it was neither complex in theme nor grand in scope. But its central conflict—the clash of personalities between a young, unrefined Jedi and a young, sadistic Jedi-hunter—was entertaining enough to carry the story.

Lucasfilm "Relics of the Old Republic" was everything I could have wanted from an episode of its name. It advanced the story of Kanan's tense relationship with the clones, as well as Ezra's more easygoing friendship with them. It brought back memories of The Clone Wars animated series by giving Rex a few bouts of nostalgia. And it did something that no canon Star Wars story has done before: It showed us clones reacting to the new and darker regime that grew out of their own war, offering a contrast between the competent and loyal "relics" of the Republic and the shiny but heartless war machine of the New Order.

Lucasfilm Star Wars Rebels returned to television with an episode that felt almost as plodding as an AT-TE on a big-game hunt. If the relationships that developed on that aging walker had involved anyone other than fan-favorite clone troopers, I probably would have been sorely disappointed by "The Lost Commanders." As it was, I enjoyed the fact that meeting the clones brought out important qualities in Ezra and Kanan. Despite lacking anything truly exciting, "The Lost Commanders" played a valuable role by reintroducing Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor, whose very existence challenged Kanan to move on from the past — or risk being bogged down by the pain of distant conflicts.

Today is my last day with TheForce.Net, Rebelscum.com, and The ForceCast. I joined the team on May 2, 2009, having been recruited to help with social media. In the six years and six days since then, I've had some incredible opportunities, met some fantastic people, and gone to exciting places. I've interviewed talented Star Wars creators, reviewed Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels , reported news, written book reviews, managed our book reviews team, and coordinated giveaways. I've covered three Celebrations, two Star Wars Weekends, and one New York Comic Con, along with many smaller events. I've also helped remotely with our coverage of events like San Diego Comic-Con and Toy Fair. I helped rebuild the ForceCast podcast network in early 2013 and hosted or co-hosted multiple shows on the network, including the flagship program. It's great to see the network continue to expand and bring in new hosts. I've had fun doing all of this, but all go...

I'll be at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (April 16-19) covering the convention for TheForce.Net , Rebelscum.com , and The ForceCast . I'll be splitting my time between public panels, press events, and activities at the ForceCast booth. I've posted my schedule below, in case you're interested in meeting up with me. You can also  follow me on Twitter  to see everything I'm doing at Celebration. Thursday, April 16 10 a.m:  Writer/Director/Producer J.J. Abrams and Producer Kathleen Kennedy  (Celebration Stage) 11:30 a.m.: ForceCast Booth (Details coming soon!) 12 p.m.: ForceCast Booth (Details coming soon!) 3:30 p.m.: The Untold Clone Wars with Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo  (Digital Stage) 4:30 p.m.: ForceCast Booth (Details coming soon!) Friday, April 17 10:30 a.m.:  Bryan Young: Star Wars Journalism  (Fan Stage - 303ABCD) 12 p.m.:  The Clone Wars “Bad Batch” Screening and Panel Discussion   (Digital Stage)...

The ForceCast, the podcast that I've co-hosted for the past two years, unveiled a new format in this week's show . At the end of the episode, I made an announcement: Beginning next week, I will no longer be one of the voices welcoming you to the ForceCast. I'm not leaving the network, and you'll still hear me on the flagship program on a regular basis. But beginning with ForceCast #341, Justin Bolger will be the main host, with Erik Blythe as co-host, and I will assume a new role as a contributor. (More on that in a second.) I will continue to host the Rebels Roundtable, with Spencer Brinkerhoff III as my co-host. I will continue to appear as a regular panelist on Echo Base, hosted by Erik. I will continue to produce special reports for the ForceCast, including long-form interviews and convention coverage. (Celebration Anaheim approaches!) The only change will be on the main show. A lot has changed in my life since Erik and I released our first episode on F...

I appeared on the TouchVision network to discuss George Lucas' recent comments about having nothing to do with The Force Awakens and whether the movie is in good hands at Lucasfilm. Post by TouchVision . I had a great time talking to Ken, the producer of the segment, and hope we can connect again in the future. It was also nice to see Chris Seekell , a fellow podcaster, appear in the segment.

“We don’t reboot. We don’t start from scratch,” Leland Chee, Lucasfilm’s continuity database administrator, told Wired’s Chris Baker in a 2008 profile . “When Chewbacca died, he died.” What a difference six years  ––  and $4.05 billion  ––  makes. On Friday, April 25, Lucasfilm announced that it was restarting its tie-in literature program. The Expanded Universe of books, comics, short stories, and other material was declared an alternate universe, although EU titles will continue to be sold under the “Legends” banner. As of today, only the six films and  The Clone Wars  movie and TV series are canon. The Disney animated series  Star Wars Rebels  will be canon when it premieres, as will  the four new books  that Lucasfilm announced. Let’s get this out of the way right now: I have been a big fan of the Expanded Universe for a long time. I own hundreds of books. I write for Suvudu, the science-fiction blog run by ...

I've been on a few BBC stations talking about the news that Star Wars Episode VII will hold open auditions in the United Kingdom and Ireland. If you want to listen to the interviews, I've embedded them below.

Last Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter published an article describing an internal dispute between Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy regarding the appropriate time to release the most eagerly anticipated movie of this decade, Star Wars Episode VII.

When I was six years old, I drew a picture of a house. I wouldn’t call it a particularly magnificent house, but someone at Highlights for Children magazine evidently liked it, because my drawing appeared in a 1997 issue of the magazine. That was a pretty big deal for me. You never forget the first time your work appears in a commercial publication, especially if you didn’t get paid for it. (Curse you and your fine-print voluntary submission policy, Highlights !)

Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt and I hosted our second “Get Thee to the Geek” Google Hangout last night, this time discussing the latest Star Trek movie. Anthony Pascale, editor-in-chief of TrekMovie.com, and Bonnie Burton, all-around geek extraordinaire, joined us to talk about the ups and downs (but mostly the downs).

I’m really excited to be starting a new project this summer along with my friend Christian Blauvelt of Hollywood.com. A few weeks ago, Christian asked me to co-host Hollywood.com’s summer Google Hangout series, “Get Thee to the Geek,” with him. Even if the subject matter -- weekly discussions about geek culture - hadn't appealed to me, I might have said yes for the punny title alone.

I put together a list of original and, dare I say it, clever Star Wars puns for The Official Star Wars Blog, as part of their pre-game festivities for May the Fourth, a.k.a. Star Wars Day. Anyone who knows me can tell you that puns are a specialty of mine, and since Star Wars is a passion of mine, I really enjoy it when I can mix the two.

Lucasfilm announced today that its animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not getting a sixth season. It's not completely done and over with, because Lucasfilm Animation still plans to release "bonus content" based on the episodes they produced for Season 6. As a big fan of the series, I wanted to share my thoughts about what this means for me, for fans, and for the franchise in general.

Hello, mainstream media. It’s me, Eric. Since you’ve already started writing a lot of stories about Star Wars , I thought it would be a good idea for us to clarify a few things. Some of your reporters may have never seen a Star Wars movie, but they still ought to employ proper journalistic skills in covering developments pertaining to the franchise. Let’s review a few of the do’s and don’ts so that you don’t have to make embarrassing mistakes and I don’t have to go on Twitter and criticize and/or mock you (usually both).