The problem with Disney trying to turn 'Star Wars' into the Marvel cinematic universe

In case you haven't figured it out yet, we're getting a whole bunch more Star Wars over the next decade. With three films down, two are already spinning up, Solo and Episode IX, and after that, a possible Obi-Wan movie, a new Rian Johnson trilogy and a series of films produced and written by Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Guessing "series" there is at least three.

On top of that, Disney is cooking up a few Star Wars shows for its coming streaming service, as well.

Solo: first trailer for Star Wars spin-off finally confirmed

News of a Star Wars spin-off film focusing on Han Solo's early life was first announced a long time ago (though not in a galaxy far away). But now fans will finally be able to see the young rapscallion in action, with the long-awaited first trailer for Solo.

Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire is a VR game you can feel and smell

A new VR attraction invites users to strap into a haptic vest, grab a VR gun, and embark on a real-world indoor adventure as an undercover stormtrooper from the Star Wars movies. Complete with props, smells, sound effects, and weather, the experience is called "hyper reality" and it looks awesome.

The fascinating ways Star Wars and Star Trek are challenging their own franchises

It's very rare to see contemporary versions of Star Wars and Star Trek make similar creative choices. After all, part of what's fueled the age-old Wars v. Trek debate are the series' wildly different approaches to scifi. But with The Last Jedi in theaters and Discovery airing online, both franchises seem to be tackling something fascinating, questioning institutions in each world that fans have held dear for decades.

A new anthology will honour Arthur C. Clarke with 2,001-word stories

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke would have turned 100 years old in 2017. Over the course of his long career, he left a legacy that science fiction authors still follow, by putting a premium on the scientific realism in his stories. A new anthology aims to honor the late author's legacy by collecting a series of stories. Each story will have exactly 2,001 words, a reference to his most famous work, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Rian Johnson had some pretty insane ideas for Rey's parents in The Last Jedi

The latest Star Wars almost turned out really weird.

I's hard to imagine the pressure Rian Johnson was under to write the middle chapter in the final trilogy of the Skywalker Saga. And the guy had some tough choices to make-including how to reveal one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the Star Wars franchise: Who the hell are Rey's parents?

10 underrated science fiction movies you must see

It's not all about replicants, Terminators, and galaxies far, far away. Across the spectrum of literary and cinematic genres, science fiction has long since proved one of the most enduring and popular of them all. This is no doubt largely down to its tremendous malleability.

'Annihilation' is an unsettling science fiction fever dream

Writer-director Alex Garland has said that his adaptation of Annihilation isn't a straightforward retelling of the book - instead, he's described it as "true to my subjective response to the novel."

That's a fair warning: The movie's details don't really match the book, which was written by Jeff VanderMeer. What carries over, however, is a sense of dread and unease; readers of the novel and watchers of the film will both feel a pervasive discomfort that they can't quite put their finger on.

John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction Vortex #4 review: delightfully disgusting body horror

The team at the mining facility is left reeling from the discovery of Sinclair, the young woman who was a part of Dixon's initial investigation team, still alive. The facility was left decompressed and vulnerable to the deathly cold of space after Dixon and Cheron escaped in the initial visit. Her survival should be impossible. Plus, there are communication problems between the mining facility and the space station.

Science in pop culture

What is first thing that you can think of about dinosaurs?

Where did you learn this information? Was it from a museum, a book, a documentary, or the internet? Or did you learn it from Jurassic Park? Maybe some other fictional depiction?

Doctor Who' unveils a new logo

This year's new season of 'Doctor Who' brings with it a new showrunner, new companions, and of course, a new Doctor. All told, it's the start of a new era for the venerable series, so what better time to introduce a new logo? And that's exactly what they've done.

Joss Whedon departs 'Batgirl' film

Batgirl is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realize I really didn't have a story. I'm grateful to Geoff (Johns) and Toby (Emmerich) and everyone who was so welcoming when I arrived, and so understanding when I... uh, is there a sexier word for 'failed'?"

Science fiction law - still reeling: Minority Report, sixteen years later

Michigan Law Professor Nicholson Price is teaching an interesting seminar this semester merging science fiction and legal analysis. We agreed that his students should write blog posts and that I would publish the most worthy on Patently-O. The first post comes from Lauren Kimmel and is focused on stopping future crimes.

20 stellar science fiction after effects templates

We've assembled a collection of sci-fi After Effects templates most likely to induce awe and wonder and tried to pick ones that show a wide range of visual styles. 2017 was a banner year for science fiction and its popularity is at an all-time high.

Star Wars' Lucasfilm sued over failed Darth Vader movie

Filmmaker claims he lost over £1m from scrapped project.

Star Wars company Lucasfilm is being sued by a filmmaker over his claim that they ruined his plans to make a documentary about Darth Vader.
Marc John argues that the company prohibited him from filming an interview with actor David Prowse, unlawfully losing him a potential $1.35 million.

More rumours about what could be the next Star Wars show

Get a brief teaser of Zachary Levi's Shazam appearance. Our first look at Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is finally here. Some familiar faces will be showing up in Legends of Tomorrow's season finale. Plus, more footage from Ash vs. Evil Dead's return, and new iZombie pictures. Spoilers now!

Why wasn't 'Star Wars' sound legend a part of 'The Last Jedi?'

Ben Burtt, Jr. is the genius behind R2-D2's voice, lightsaber sounds and countless audio effects for a galaxy far, far away. So why wasn't he part of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi?" A new documentary explores the sound design behind the latest "Star Wars" movie, but Burtt is noticeably absent. A trailer for "The Force of Sound," premiering Tuesday on ABC News, only shows archival footage of him from the 1970s.

Well we hope you enjoyed this issue of StarWarrior. Let us know what you think, we'd love to hear from you! Send in your Cosplay photos and a brief bio and you too could feature in StarWarrior!

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'Game of Thrones' creators developing new 'Star Wars' films

Lucasfilm has just announced that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who brought the epic world of George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones to television, will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films.

These new movies will not be tied to either the ongoing Skywalker saga of the "Episodes" movies nor will they be connected to the trilogy being developed by The Last Jedi filmmaker Rian Johnson.

'Solo' trailer sells 'Star Wars story' like 'Star Trek' reboot

In what was an end to our national nightmare, we got our first look at Solo: A Star Wars Story on Sunday night with that Super Bowl commercial and then again on Monday with a 105-second trailer. The template for the initial pitch is actually pretty logical. Pop quiz (hotshot): What's another successful franchise picture from the last decade that successfully offered a younger/hipper version of an iconic pop culture character defined entirely by the original actor's performance?

Yes, I was struck by how much the first Solo trailer plays like the first two trailers to J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

The best recent science fiction - reviews roundup

Alastair Reynolds excels at world building - his impressive backlist attests to that - but he's also a master at constructing complex technological, far-future societies peopled by fully rounded characters. In Elysium Fire (Gollancz, £14.99), the Glitter Band is a vast ring of spatial habitats orbiting the planet of Yellowstone.

New study finds thousands of alien asteroids could bring extraterrestrial life to Earth

When it comes to the potential that aliens might land on Earth, an invasion often comes to mind. Science fiction also has a place for the accidental infestation that might occur when an alien craft or asteroid crashes, though, and a new paper suggests the likelihood of this happening belongs firmly in the realm of reality.

Authors of this study estimated the capture rate of interstellar objects by means of three-body gravitational interactions to explore the implications of their model or the transfer of life by means of rocky material.

Altered Carbon may not be the cyberpunk show you're looking for

In the world of Altered Carbon, death is cheap. The human mind is digitized in a transferrable chip called a "stack," capable of being moved from body to body as necessary-or, if you've got the cash for it, as desired.

Bodies have become increasingly uncoupled from the consciousnesses that occupy them. Slang now just calls them "sleeves." The future of Altered Carbon, Netflix's new science fiction series, is one the flesh is just another kind of economy.

Disney wants you to buy a 'Star Wars' book to find out what didn't make it into 'The Last Jedi'

If you weren't satisfied with "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" or have been on the edge of your seat waiting for deleted scenes some of the wait is almost over.

YouTube's "The Star Wars Show" confirmed the tie-in novelization for "The Last Jedi" will contain expanded and deleted scenes from the "Star Wars" sequel. Director Rian Johnson said he met with Jason Fry, the author behind "The Last Jedi" novelization, to write new scenes for the book.

Women in science fiction: If Mary Shelley invented the genre why are so few female sci-fi writers household names?

Two hundred years ago, Mary Shelley sat down to write a ghost story and created science fiction. Women still pen the genre's finest, exemplified by Ursula K Le Guin, who died this week. Yet so often they are overlooked.

David Barnett asks: whither the brides of Frankenstein?

Two centuries. Two hundred years. That's how long we've had science fiction. From the birth of Frankenstein, to the death of Ursula K Le Guin. Two hundred years.

Ursula K Le Guin: The 'fearless' author who showed us a different world

By Ian YoungsArts & entertainment reporter

Ursula Le Guin was loved for her groundbreaking fantasy novels that tackled questions of gender, race and the environment. She influenced generations of authors from Margaret Atwood to Neil Gaiman - and wrote about a boy wizard 30 years before Harry Potter.

In her writing and in her life, Ursula Le Guin refused to blindly accept how the world is supposed to work. In life, if something was illogical or unjust, she simply decided that things would be different. "I am a man," she said in a 2015 BBC Radio 4 documentary, somewhat surprisingly. "When I was born, there were actually only men. People were men."

Final Frontier Friday: 'Threshold'

Hello and welcome as always to 'Final Frontier Friday.' This week I'll be continuing my quest to focus on things that aren't the original 'Star Trek' or 'The Next Generation' by tackling an episode of 'Voyager'. In fact, for some of you, 'Threshold' may very well be "that episode" of 'Voyager'. Suffice to say, last time I was to some extent taking up the defense of an unpopular (or at least divisive) character in Ezri Dax.

But I'd be shocked, if anything, if I had to say about 'Threshold' was terribly controversial.