Star Wars Weekly: May The 4DX Be With You (28/04/25 to 04/05/25)
A Belated May the Fourth Be With You...
Have you ever been on Star Tours and thought, “This is great, but it should be ten times longer and, at least, twice as aggressive?”
You may not have, but I suspect the designers who created the Revenge of the Sith 4DX experience for the film’s 20th anniversary re-release, which wrapped up this past week, did.
If you’re not familiar with 4DX, it’s an “immersive” cinematic experience in which the chairs move and vibrate like you’re on a theme park ride. The theatre also has other special effects, like wind machines, water effects, and additional lighting effects.
Back during the sequel trilogy era, when new Star Wars movies were being released every year, I always wanted to see the movies in a theatre with motion effects. But for whatever reason, I never did. Starting with The Force Awakens, I would say I wanted to see the movie that way and then put it off until it was too late. “Next time,” I would say as each film finished its theatrical run. But next time never came, and Star Wars stopped making new movies over the last few years.
Then, earlier this year, they announced that Revenge of the Sith was returning to cinemas for a special one-week run AND that a brand new 4DX experience had been created. Thinking back to all the iconic action scenes in the third prequel, I knew there was potential for this to be great.
And so, on Wednesday, the last day the film was in theatres, I got my ticket to experience Star Wars like never before.
The only other movie I’ve seen in 4DX was Dune Part One in 2021. That movie had a couple of action scenes where the seats shook vigorously, and one moment where you felt like you were stabbed in the back (yes, it’s exactly the moment you're thinking of, RIP Duke Leto), but mostly the seats just moved in way that serenely mimicked the camera movements. This is to say, I had a sense of what the technology could do. But I still wasn’t fully prepared for what I was in for.
During the crawl, the seats gently rocked back and forth, it was almost as if they were lulling us into a false sense of security. Then, as the camera pans down to Coruscant and the Venator-class star destroyer, the seats vibrated—right under your butt—in time with the drum beat. It was a somewhat disconcerting experience so far.
And then the battle of Coruscant began in earnest, and I didn’t know a moment of stillness for the next 25 minutes.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we were being thrown around in our seats while Anakin and Obi-Wan navigated their way to the Invisible Hand. When there was the briefest pause, I foolishly thought it was safe to pick up my drink. Suffice it to say, more wound up on my shirt than in my mouth when a starship exploded on screen and my seat shook in unison with the action.
I’m a 6’, close to 200 lbs man, and the seats were throwing me around like a bag of feathers. My 4DX enthusiast friend, who came with me despite not being a Star Wars fan, is considerably smaller than me and I’m pretty sure she got air at a couple of points during the opening battle!
It was awesome.
The lightsaber duels were a similar experience, with the seats both vibrating and shaking with every swing of a laser sword. And the water effects were utilized several times, including during the battle of Kashyyyk, the Order 66 sequence on Seleucemi, and when Palpatine returns Anakin to Coruscant in the pouring rain. During that sequence, it literally felt like it was raining in the theatre.
Again, it was awesome.
I expect that some of you are reading this and have decided that I’m insane for this take. I get it, I know this sort of experience isn’t for everyone. And, in general, I do have a love for immersive experiences and gimmicks.
I’m not saying I want to see Star Wars this way every time. Most of the time, I will be happiest watching movies in a nice theatre with comfortable, stationary seats. As I’ve said before, the classic Star Wars cinematic experience is unsurpassed, and I’m beyond excited to get back to it next year.
But if The Mandalorian & Grogu gets a 4DX experience, you can bet that my ass will be in one of those shaking, vibrating seats, while Din Djarin and Baby Yoda rampage around the galaxy on a jetpack.
This is the way.
Top Story
Tales of the Underworld Mini Review (Spoiler Free)
The third Star Wars: Tales anthology of shorts dropped this week, fittingly, on May 4th, giving us a new look into untold chapters in the lives of Assajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Since Tales of the Underworld just came out yesterday, I won’t go into spoilers (yet), but I wanted to share some quick thoughts on the new series.
The Ventress trilogy feels most like a backdoor pilot to a new full-length series out of any set of Tales episodes. Picking up right after Dark Disciple, the trio of shorts reintroduces us to Ventress as she tries to figure out her new life. Enter Lyco, a Jedi youngling on the run from the Empire. Their dynamic becomes the heart of the first half of Tales of the Underworld, and is incredibly affecting as the two reluctantly, at first, give each other exactly what they’re looking for.
Throughout Tales, we see how drastic the Ventress’s evolution has been. The compassion shown to her by her fellow Nightsisters and Quinlan Vos has made a real impact on her. She’s no Jedi, but she’s a far cry from the Separatist assassin we first met in The Clone Wars. And she has no interest in fighting the old battles anymore. The future may not exactly be bright for Ventress, but she’s determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The Bane trilogy, meanwhile, is classic Tales, taking a familiar character and giving us quick looks into untold parts of their story. It’s very Andor-esque in how it uses time jumps between episodes, lots happens off-screen, and we’re just dropped back into the story and expected to get up to speed quickly. This works well between the first two parts, but the jump between parts two and three is a little too jarring, with too many important story details delivered in expositional dialogue.
Still, the episodes are a fascinating character study of Bane and his former friend-turned-foe, Niro. We see how the paths of the childhood friend diverge thanks to Bane’s decisions, and how those choices put them on a collision course later in life. Bane has always been portrayed as a cold-blooded killer, and Tales makes no effort to shy away from this reputation. If Ventress is an anti-hero, Bane is the villain. It’s a powerful origin story, giving context to the remorselessness we saw from him in The Clone Wars, Bad Batch, and The Book of Boba Fett.
Overall, I think this is the strongest series of Tales we’ve seen to date. The Ventress half is as close to flawless as something can be, and her story feels ripe for continuation. Meanwhile, the Bane story, while perhaps a little too reliant on exposition in places, takes us into the darkly tragic past of one of The Clone Wars’ most iconic creations. An excellent May the Fourth treat from Lucasfilm Animation!
Headlines
Tony Gilroy Explains The Bail Organa Recast In Andor
One of the biggest surprises of Andor season two so far has had nothing to do with the story. In the sixth episode, “What A Festive Evening,” when Mon Mothma and her husband, Perrin, arrive at Davos Skulden’s party, they are greeted by the departing Bail Organa. Only Bail looks a little different, because instead of being played by Jimmy Smits as he was in the prequel trilogy, Rogue One, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, he’s now played by Benjamin Bratt (Blood In Blood Out).
The reason for the recast, as well as the brief cameo in episode six, was explained by showrunner Tony Gilroy in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Unsurprisingly, the change in actors was a result of scheduling. “The scheduling didn’t work out,” Gilroy told EW. “We really tried hard, but he wasn't available and couldn't make it.”
Smits was filming the CBS police procedural East New York, on which he plays the lead role, at the same time that Andor was in production. Though it hasn’t been confirmed, this is likely the source of the scheduling conflict that led to him missing out on another return to the galaxy far, far away.
Gilroy then revealed that the character will have a larger role in the coming weeks, and he wanted to introduce Bratt as Bail early to prepare the audience.
“We don't do many things that are unnecessary, but it's like, ‘Let's get him in here now so people can discuss it for a week and get it out of their system and then he can come back to really work,’” explained Gilroy. “I didn’t want the guy's work to be confused with his introduction.”
For a guy who said he wasn’t a Star Wars fan before working on Rogue One, Gilroy has shown he has a remarkable read on Star Wars fandom. As he predicted, there has been plenty of online chatter about the recast, with some expressing disappointment or frustration.
Personally, I have no issue with it. Bail is such a key part of the Rebel Alliance that it would feel weird if he weren’t part of a series like Andor. While my first choice would have been to have Smits return, I’m perfectly fine with Bratt stepping into the role if the alternative was for the character to be written out.
I’m also relieved Lucasfilm didn’t try to use CGI/AI to recreate Smits’ performance as they did with Mark Hamill in The Mandalorian. The GCI Luke is one of my least favourite things in all of Star Wars. I had been loving the sequence right up until he took his hood off and we saw his face. The result nearly spoiled the whole scene for me. I will take a recast any day of the week and twice on Sunday if it means I never have to go through that again.
Bratt, for his part, spoke about taking over the role from Smits with StarWars.com, saying, “I’ve always known Jimmy to be an incredibly talented actor. He possesses elegance, a natural grace, a goodness really, an earnestness that this particular character requires.”
Gilroy also discussed Cinta’s death and Saw Gerrera’s memorable gas scene with EW.
Ahsoka Season Two Begins Filming
We heard lots about the second season of Ahsoka last month during Star Wars Celebration, despite the fact that filming hadn’t yet begun.
Well, cameras finally started rolling on the new season this week. The announcement was made by star Rosario Dawson on social media, who posted a picture of her shadow while in costume as Ahsoka with the caption, “& we’re off…to galaxies far, far away….!”
Dawson co-star, Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), teased the upcoming filming a day before Dawson by posting a carousel of images from the UK, including one with her co-star Ivanna Sakhno (Shin Hati), with the caption “the calm before the storm.”
Unlike the first season, when production was based out of Los Angeles at the same facilities as The Mandalorian, the second season is based out of Pinewood Studios in London, England. The sequel era films were all shot at Pinewood, as were both seasons of Andor and the first season of The Acolyte.
Good luck to the cast and crew on season two! We look forward to seeing it (hopefully) next year!
New YA Novel Starring Finn and Jannah Announced
Two stars of The Rise of Skywalker are getting their own YA novel!
This week, a new listing was added to the Penguin/Random House website for Star Wars: The Last Order by Kwame Mbalia. It teases a new story set after the events of the sequel trilogy about Finn and Jannah rescuing a ship full of people who were kidnapped by the First Order. This leads the two heroes to grapple with their history as former stormtroopers.
You can read the full synopsis,
New York Times best-selling author Kwame Mbalia makes his Star Wars debut with this exciting YA novel!
Following the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance rescues a ship full of young passengers who had been kidnapped by the First Order. As Finn and Jannah set out to find the First Order officer responsible before he can endanger any more children, the two former stormtroopers must wrestle with their own complicated pasts as soldiers of the oppressive regime.
Take a deep dive into the pasts of popular characters Finn and Jannah in this richly-drawn, action-packed story that fans have been asking for.
It’s great that Lucasfilm is finally telling new stories set after the sequel trilogy; it is long overdue. I can’t help but wonder if the announcement of new films set in this era means we might see more books and comics published to fill out the timeline. I’m not expecting to see Finn or Jannah in Starfighter, but this will at least give a sense of what they are up to at that time.
Additionally, a weakness of the sequel trilogy (in my opinion) is that Finn’s defection from the First Order wasn’t a bigger plot point in the second and third movies. The introduction of Jannah, another former Stormtrooper, felt like it might lead to a larger Stormtrooper rebellion in the final act of Episode IX, but ultimately, nothing like that took place. The whole storyline felt like a big missed opportunity.
While this won’t “fix” that aspect of the sequels, this does present the opportunity to tell an exciting new story about two great characters. Something I am very much looking forward to.
Star Wars: The Last Order will be released on October 21st, 2025.
Fortnite Galactic Battle Cinematic Trailer
The latest Star Wars crossover with Fortnite is here, with the above trailer dropping to tease some of the fun players can expect during the Fortnite Battle Royale season, which began on May 2nd.
Among the things players can look forward to are the debut of Darth Jar Jar in the game (with Ahmed Best returning to voice the Sith Gungan), as well as the ability to pilot X-Wings and TIE fighters, and themed map locations. The event will last five weeks.
I’ve never played Fortnite, so I have to be honest, I don’t really know what any of the above means. But the trailer looks cool, and I know lots of my friends are very excited about it. I hope everyone enjoys!
Hey, Check This Out! (Part 1)
ILM’s Rob Bredow Discusses The Effect of AI on VFX Work
Lucasfilm Senior Vice President, Creative Innovation, Digital Production & Technology, Rob Bredow, who oversees Industrial Light & Magic, presented a TED Talk recently about the evolution of visual effects.
He goes over the history of ILM, from the development of Dykstraflex for Star Wars to the CGI Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to The Volume on The Mandalorian, before shifting into how Artificial Intelligence can be used in the world of VFX. He stresses that AI should be used by VFX artists to enhance their work, rather than replace them (as many fear might happen). He also screens an AI-generated short that was worked on by ILM artists.
I find it very interesting to hear Bredow’s take on this topic. Concerns about AI are running high in Hollywood right now and were a major sticking point in the 2023 writers and actors’ strikes. I think Bredow is right that we need to start looking at AI as another tool for VFX artists to use because it’s not going away. So it’s best to start looking at ways to utilize it, along with existing tools, in a way that won’t cost anyone their job.
That said, I do worry that his bosses at Disney and other major studios don’t see things the same way and would rather use AI to save money by hiring fewer artists. VFX artists presently do not have a union the way many other departments do, and collective action will likely be needed to ensure that Bredow’s more optimistic vision of the future is implemented. AI is coming for Hollywood, there is no doubt of that, how it is used will depend on all of us.
Speaking of the future, another major concern about AI that will need to be addressed is its environmental impact. The electricity demands and water consumption, which are both very high right now, will need to be addressed if AI is to be used ethically.
Hey, Check This Out! (Part 2)
Daisy Ridley on the Off Menu Podcast
Rey, herself, is heading to the Dream Restaurant!
With her new movie, The Cleaner, hitting theatres in the UK, Daisy Ridley made an appearance on Off Menu, the podcast hosted by comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble, to discuss some of her favourite foods.
As a massive fan of both Star Wars and Taskmaster (on which both Acaster and Gamble have appeared), this is truly the best of both worlds! The pod is full of laughs and fun anecdotes, as well as a handful of Star Wars references (though there aren’t as many as you might expect).
You can listen to Daisy’s Off Menu episode here.
From The Archives
Heir to the Empire Published May 1st, 1991
Star Wars publishing entered into a new era this week thirty-four years ago.
When Heir to the Empire, a new novel by Timothy Zahn, hit shelves in 1991, it opened up the galaxy far, far away to new stories and new storytellers for the first time since Ewoks went off the air in 1987. The success of Heir, and its two sequels, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, led Bantam Books and Lucasfilm Publishing to begin releasing many more Star Wars novels and short stories.
Zahn’s novels continued to impact Star Wars storytelling even after they were rebranded as non-canonical, “Legends,” stories in 2014. The books introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn as a new villain for the heroes of the original trilogy. Thrawn has since been brought into the current canon, first on the animated series Star Wars Rebels, and now as the primary villain on the live-action series Ahsoka.
I recently re-read the entire “Thrawn Trilogy,” and the books still hold up. They are a fun and exciting take on the post-Return of the Jedi galaxy with great new characters, like Thrawn, Talon Karrde, and Mara Jade, that hold their own alongside the likes of Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca.
If you haven’t checked them out or read them in a while, with Thrawn’s upcoming return in Ahsoka season two, now is a great time to do so!
In Other News
Manny Jacinto and Fiona Shaw To Star In New Comedy
When Qimir met Maarva?
Two Star Wars actors from different projects are linking up for a new project. Manny Jacinto (Qimir/The Stranger in The Acolyte) and Fiona Shaw (Maarva Andor in Andor) are set to star in a new Western-Comedy called The Stalemate. The film is written and directed by Nicholas Arioli. Also starring in the film is Ben Foster (Hell or High Water).
According to Dealdine, “Currently in production in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Stalemate focuses on a robber (Jacinto) and sheriff (Foster) who, out of bullets and far from town, must negotiate their way out of an absurd, unending chase in the Old West.”
No word yet on when the film will be released.
Podcast Corner
Since coming home from Japan, things have been a bit of a whirlwind and settling back into life has been something of a challenge. Hence why I have missed several recording sessions for my own Podcasts. I blame the NHL schedule makers for making me choose between discussing Toronto Maple Leafs playoff games and new episodes of Andor.
I only managed a brief cameo at the end of The Star Wars Underworld Podcast where I ranted about some of my pet peeves, like Disney+’s awful Star Wars intro and the use of BBY in Andor. I also reviewed the Revenge of the Sith 4DX experience (spoiler alert: it’s very similar to the first section of this post).
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch above on YouTube!
I was only able to cameo on the SWU this because I was hosting Game Over: Toronto for Game Six of the Leafs’ first-round series against the Ottawa Senators. Thankfully, they won the game and the series, and we had a great time celebrating that victory before looking ahead at their second-round matchup with the defending Stanley Cup Champions Florida Panthers.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch above and below on YouTube!
Coming Soon
Always in motion is the future, but here’s a look ahead at what we can expect in Star Wars over the next seven days:
Episodes 7-9 of Andor season two will premiere on Disney+ on Tuesday, May 6th, bringing us to the halfway point in the final season.
The latest High Republic middle grade novel hits shelves on May 6th. Justina Ireland’s final addition to the years-long publishing initiative, A Valiant Vow, features Imri Cantaros and Tep Tep on the cover.
May 6th is a big day for Justina Ireland, as also dropping that day is her The Acolyte tie-in novel, Wayseeker. The book covers Vernestra Rwoh’s life between the events of The High Republic and The Acolyte, and if you’ve read The High Republic, you know Vern changes a lot between the two stories. Also worth noting, Wayseeker will contain some spoilers for the final books in The High Republic, including Charles Soule’s novel, Trial of the Jedi.
Also hitting shelves on May 6th, two trade paperback editions of comic book mini-series: Darth Maul: Black, White, and Red and Ahsoka (Season One)/
For something completely different, still on May 6th, A Taste of Star Wars: Snacks, a cookbook of recipes inspired by the galaxy far, far away, will also be released by Insight Editions.
And, on May 7th, two new Star Wars comics will hit shelves. Hyperspace Stories: The Bad Batch: Ghost Agents #3 by Michael Morec will be released by Dark Horse, while Marvel is relaunching their main Star Wars series with stories set after Return of the Jedi with Star Wars (2025) #1 by Alex Segura.
(Belated) May the Fourth Be With You!
I'm also glad that Senator Organa got recast instead of CGI'd. I know we as fans get attached to a certain actor as a certain part but it really feels like the CGI technology still isn't there yet.