Lucasfilm just announced the Star Wars books that will lead to The Rise of Skywalker - The Verge

The Star Wars franchise famously includes a wide range of mediums beyond just the films — numerous books, comics, and games fill in the untold corners of the galaxy, and have set up the world for the coming installments. Lucasfilm just unveiled its publishing slate that will lead to the next film, The Rise of Skywalker, and it includes a novel that will bridge the gap from The Last Jedi, written by author Rebecca Roanhorse.

The new adult novel is Resistance Reborn, set to be released on November 12th, just before the The Rise of Skywalker premieres in December. The bare-bones description says that it will follow General Leia Organa, Poe Dameron, Finn, and Rey as they “struggle to rebuild the Resistance after their defeat at the hands of the First Order.” Excitingly, the book will be written by Rebecca Roanhorse, who earned a Hugo and Nebula nomination for her fantastic debut novel Trail of Lightning, and a Nebula win for her short story Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM. Her latest book, Storm of Locus, just hit stores.

That isn’t the only book that Lucasfilm will release under the “Journey to Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” label. November will also bring Force Collector, a YA novel authored by Kevin Shinick, about teenager who “sets out to discover what connection his mysterious Force powers have to the fabled Jedi, and what the Force has in store for him.” Marvel Comics will also release a 4-issue miniseries called Allegiance, about the surviving Resistance fighters and Leia’s efforts to “reach out to her former allies, the Mon Calamari, whose shipyards once powered the Rebel Alliance.” That’ll be written by Ethan Sacks and illustrated by Luke Ross.

The publishing slate will also include a number of kid-oriented books, picture books, and comics, as well as some non-fiction tie-ins like The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, and others. What’s missing out of all that is an official novelization of the film, although Lucasfilm has opted to publish the novelizations for The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story months after the films came out.

These new books add on to the already-busy publishing slate that Lucasfilm is overseeing this year. June will bring Alphabet Squadron from Alexander Freed, the first of a new trilogy about the New Republic’s starfighter pilots, Timothy Zahn will release a new Thrawn novel in July, and Delilah S. Dawson’s Black Spire is due out on September 3rd, 2019 and will tie in with Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge theme park.

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2019-05-04 16:41:17Z
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‘Avengers: Endgame’ to Cross $2 Billion Worldwide in Second Weekend - Variety

Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” is heading for a stellar second weekend with an estimated $145 million domestically, topping the U.S. box office by an immense margin.

Its second frame haul will tack on to its current $1.915 billion worldwide total, bringing it to over $2 billion. Its current total makes it the no. 5 highest-grossing global movie of all time as of Friday, behind “Avengers: Infinity War” with $2.048 billion. Depending on “Endgame’s” exact weekend cume, it could ascend to no. 3 of all time, passing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens'” $2.068 billion, or possibly no. 2, beating out “Titanic’s” $2.187 billion. That would leave “Avatar’s” massive $2.788 billion as the last hurdle before “Endgame” became the highest-grossing film of all time.

“Endgame” has so far raked in $515 million domestically.

Three new releases will fill out most of the top five at the box office, with Sony’s “The Intruder” in a very distant second with an estimated $11 million.

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Starring Dennis Quaid as a home seller who terrorizes the young couple who purchases his house, “The Intruder” took in $3.9 million on Friday from 2,222 North American locations. Deon Taylor directed the film from a script by David Loughery. Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, and Joseph Sikora also star.

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron’s rom-com “Long Shot” will duke it out with STXfilms and Alibaba Pictures’ “UglyDolls,” each estimated at around $9 million.

“Long Shot,” which stars Theron as a powerful politician and Rogen as the former child she babysat who she brings on to punch up her speeches, earned $3.63 million on Friday from 3,230 theaters. Jonathan Levine directed from Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah’s script. “Long Shot,” which premiered at South by Southwest, has a 83% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes along with a B CinemaScore.

“UglyDolls” took in $2.5 million on Friday from 3,652 domestic sites. The musical comedy, which is based on the plush dolls of the same name, features the voices of Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae, Blake Shelton, Pitbull,  and a slew of other stars. Led by Clarkson’s Moxy, a group of dolls who live in Uglyville, where reject dolls go, journey to find the Big World, where perfect dolls are united with a child. It has a B+ CinemaScore and 36% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Elsewhere, the ninth weekend of Disney’s “Captain Marvel” is on its way to bagging another $4 million for no. 5 at the box office, bringing its domestic total to a little over $420 million.

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2019-05-04 15:42:00Z
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Could Avengers time travel to kill baby Thanos? The comic heroes tried. - Polygon

Superhero universes like that of Avengers: Endgame have always followed a generous interpretation of the laws of science — and that can lead our heroes to some knotty ethical dilemmas. Do clones have rights? Can ghosts testify at their own murder trials? Can we go back in time and kill a murderer in his crib?

Avengers: Endgame only toyed with one of these questions, but it’s one that Marvel Comics recently, definitively, and bizarrely answered. To really dig in, we’ll have to get into spoiler territory.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.]

Marvel Studios

During the course of Avengers: Endgame, War Machine raises a pertinent question: Given that they are planning to go back in time and recover the Infinity Stones before Thanos destroyed them, why don’t the heroes just go back in time and kill Thanos as a baby?

The answer is, first of all, the Avengers don’t kill babies. Second of all, time travel doesn’t work that way. Changing the past doesn’t affect the present, because by the time you go back to the past the present IS your past and the PAST is your PRESENT and ... well, just read our post about it.

But if Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t have the guts to try to kill baby Thanos in his crib, the Marvel Comics Universe totally did, in the pages of last year’s Cosmic Ghost Rider. It shouldn’t be a surprise to tell you that it doesn’t work — and not just because the person going back in time was nowhere near as responsible as the Avengers.

Frank and baby Thanos in his baby-bjorn made of hell chains.

Donny Cates, Dylan Burnett/Marvel Comics

Meet Frank Castle, the Cosmic Ghost Rider

Yes, the Punisher is the one behind the flaming skull. This version of the character comes from a timeline in which Thanos succeeded in his attempt to murder most of the universe, leaving Frank as one of Earth’s only superhero survivors. From the wreckage, the devil Mephisto offered Frank the powers of the Spirit of Vengeance, so that he could, you know, get vengeance on Thanos .

Frank used the powers of Ghost Rider to follow Thanos into space, where he ran into Galactus, who was also pretty mad at Thanos for killing all the planetary life that the Devourer of Worlds needed to sustain himself. They decided to team up, and Galactus made Frank his herald, giving him the Power Cosmic — a limitless source of god-like cosmic energy — on top of his Ghost Rider abilities. After thousands of years of struggle, Thanos defeated Galactus AND Frank, and honestly, after all that adventuring with the Power Cosmic and the Spirit of Vengeance inside him, Frank was a little off his rocker.

Cosmic Ghost Rider picks up with Odin kicking Frank out of Valhalla for being too annoying. But, in recognition for his heroism in life, Odin grants him a boon: He’ll release Frank anywhere in time and space that he wants. So, naturally, Frank, asked to go to the planet Titan on the day of Thanos’ birth, so he could kill him in his crib. But things don’t go as planned.

Frank Castle might be crazy, he might be the Spirit of Vengeance, and he might have the Power Cosmic — but he can’t bring himself to kill an innocent. And even though both Galactus and the Watcher told him it was a bad idea, he decided to try and raise Thanos to not be an evil murdering conqueror himself.

Donny Cates, Dylan Burnett/Marvel Comics

As soon as Frank makes the decision, he is immediately attacked by several future versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy, each led by progressively older and older time-traveling Cable, who are all trying to do the same thing he did — kill Thanos as a baby. Why?

Well, obviously it’s because Frank turned out to not be the best role model. He fails, and Thanos grows up with the Punisher’s ethos. This new Thanos’ goal — which he explains after he comes back in time to pick Frank and baby Thanos up and take them to his future — isn’t balance, or worshiping death. It’s punishment. Punishment for anyone who doesn’t obey him.

So, of course, Frank has to kick his large purple son’s ass, kill him, and then take baby Thanos back to his crib. And that’s where he learns that he was playing into Mistress Death’s plans for Thanos all along.

Donny Cates, Dylan Burnett/Marvel Comics

And that’s why you can’t go back in time to kill baby Thanos in his crib. You’ll just wind up raising baby Thanos into a different flavor of homicidal space dictator, having to rip his skull off, and become a pawn of yet another cosmic force.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can read Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die.

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2019-05-04 14:52:33Z
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Are Making a Huge Mistake Keeping Their Baby's Birth Details a Secret - The Cheat Sheet

No one was too surprised to hear the news—after months of keeping so many details of the pregnancy private, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle admitted that they were taking it one step further. Instead of posing for a post-birth photo a few hours after Baby Sussex’s debut, the couple announced that they “have taken the personal decision to keep the plans around the arrival of their baby private” and that they “look forward to sharing the exciting news with everyone once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family.”

Understandably, the decree drove royal fans into a frenzy. As the hours ticked by towards the speculated (yet unconfirmed) due date, conspiracy theories abounded. Did Meghan Markle already have the baby in secret? Could we guess the plans based on Prince Harry’s travel plans? How long would the Duke and Duchess of Sussex make everyone wait before sharing the news?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle | Dominic Lipinski/AFP/Getty Images

This baby’s birth feels even more exciting than any of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s kids, which is weird because he or she is even further from the throne. The mystery is part of the appeal. However, there are critics who believe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making a huge mistake by being so secretive.

Meghan Markle’s influence has changed Prince Harry

Whether it’s good or bad is up for discussion. But there’s no denying that Prince Harry is a much different man these days than he used to be, and many say it’s Meghan Markle’s presence that inspired the change.

Before Markle came along, Prince Harry was known for wild partying and controversial antics. He had calmed down in recent years, but he seemed perfectly content to hang out as the third wheel with his brother and sister-in-law. That’s all different now.

Ever since they became serious, Prince Harry has been forging a new path with his wife by his side. First, it was the break from offices at Kensington Palace and starting his own official household apart from Prince William. Now it’s throwing up walls of privacy where none existed before.

Critics think Prince Harry is shirking his royal responsibilities

Meghan Markle joined the royal family with little exposure to their customs. It makes sense—Markle is an American Hollywood actress, not a British socialite. It’s logical she’d expect a different approach.

But now people are miffed by her reticence and failure to do those things that the public expects from the royal family. It may not go along with Markle’s agenda, but in certain ways the royal family “belongs” to the public, and allowing them access to their big life events is part of the deal. This whole veil of mystery was fun at first but it’s starting to make people irritated.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpBzNPXn9m-/

Prince Harry may be intentionally punishing the media

There are lots of people blaming Meghan Markle for keeping all the birth details secret, but there are just as many fans who think it stems from Prince Harry, too. It’s common knowledge that the Duke of Sussex has a complicated relationship with the press and some say he’s hiding royal baby details on purpose to punish them.

As Sun photographer Arthur Edwards told the New York Times: “It’s the way Harry is at the moment, he’s just got this bee in his bonnet that all the media are to be ignored.”

But destroying his relationship with the media could prove disastrous for Prince Harry, especially as he and his wife are trying to get specific issues (such as mental health) into the spotlight.

The next few weeks will reveal more about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s deeper agenda. For now, we all just have to wait some more.

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2019-05-04 13:46:33Z
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Jenelle Evans' Husband David Eason Seeking Anger Management - TMZ

Jenelle Evans' Husband I Need Help ... Anger Issues Made Me Kill Family Dog

5/4/2019 1:00 AM PDT

EXCLUSIVE

Jenelle Evans husband is now admitting what seems obvious after brutalizing and shooting his family dog -- that he has dangerous anger issues, but he's ready to get help keeping his temper in check. 

Sources close to David Eason say the former reality star is on the hunt for a program or therapist to administer anger management. We're told he knows his temper has become a massive strain on his marriage.

It's not just about impressing Jenelle, though. On the heels of killing their French bulldog, Nugget ... we're told Eason truly understands his anger could be a danger to his loved ones.

TMZ broke the story ... Eason is under investigation for animal cruelty after pummeling, and then shooting Nugget -- all after the dog barely nipped at their 2-year-old daughter. 

While the investigation is ongoing, a law enforcement source tells us Eason could catch a break if he can prove he feared the dog could become aggressive again. There's a section under animal cruelty laws in North Carolina that states a pet owner can kill an animal lawfully for "the purposes of protecting the public, other animals, property or the public health."

As for Eason's temper ... it was on full display Friday in a Wilmington, NC courthouse when he threatened a reporter attempting to ask him about the dog case. Eason was in court to pay back child support to an ex-girlfriend. Sources tell us he had to pawn some personal items last minute to come up with the $5,187.

Jenelle hasn't said much since announcing Nugget's death, but has said ending her marriage to Eason is definitely a possibility. 

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2019-05-04 08:00:00Z
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The Detective Pikachu Movie Reviews Are In, And It's Actually Pretty Mixed - Nintendo Life

The Pokémon Detective Pikachu movie releases in cinemas worldwide next Friday, just one week from today. We've been feeling pretty optimistic about this one - the trailers have seemed surprisingly promising throughout the build-up to the film's release - but now it's time to see what the critics think.

Yes, select media have now had the opportunity to check out the full film and have posted early reviews online. We're pretty shocked to see that views are rather mixed; at the time of writing, the film has a Metascore of 50 out of 100 - you can't get much more average than that. On Rotten Tomatoes, it's currently sitting at a much better 74%, however.

We've included a few snippets of reviews for you below (with links to all of the full reviews provided).

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IGN, Joshua Yehl [8.0/10]:

"Smith’s character gives the story an emotional weight and Reynolds delivers an endearing comedic performance that’s closer to his subversive Deadpool schtick than you’d expect. While video game movies haven’t had the best track record, this movie is by and far the best example of how to do one right." Read full review

The Guardian, Steve Rose [3/5]:

"Without Reynolds this would be pretty run-of-the-mill; with him it’s a perfectly acceptable family movie. Given the history, that’s a giant leap for Pokémon-kind." Read full review

The Verge, Julia Alexander:

"Detective Pikachu is a fever dream — a product of night time car rides with a Game Boy, staring up at the street lamps that pass you by, painting the darkened sky with wild imaginations of what a world full of Pokémon might feel like. Detective Pikachu is a silly, almost hallucinogenic ride." Read full review

ScreenCrush, Matt Singer [5/10]:

"Beneath the predictable story, Detective Pikachu isn’t about much, and if you need Wikipedia to explain who Mewtwo is, most of the jokes will go right over your head. The whole thing is a bit too childish for adults, and a bit too convoluted for kids. It absolutely deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects however, even if the subject matter makes me think it’s unlikely to receive one." Read full review

Variety, Peter Debruge:

Though consistent with the game (with a few extra but obvious twists thrown in for good measure), the story of “Detective Pikachu” doesn’t allow nearly enough Pokémon-related action, while the quality of the computer animation (by Moving Picture Co. and Framestore) falls far short of the basic level of competency audiences have come to expect from effects movies. Read full review

Empire, Olly Richards [3/5]:

"It’s impossible to overstate how much this film owes to Ryan Reynolds. Even if you don’t understand Pikachu’s world, everyone can understand a great joke superbly delivered." Read full review

The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy:

"Live-action feature film adaptations of video games have proved a dicey proposition in the past. For every 'Mortal Kombat' there’s a 'Prince of Persia.' This one just feels like a venal money grab from a mega corporation. You’ve played Pokémon Go, right? Call this one Pokémon Don’t Go." Read full review

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We wouldn't be too disheartened, though. Interestingly, comparing the reviews from major film industry press outlets to those from video game backgrounds shows a common trend, and this gets extended even further when taking into account the views of online personalities and influencers who have already seen the film.

Sites such as Polygon and Eurogamer had fairly mixed-to-positive reviews on the whole, but both highlighted the joys of the Pokémon themselves and the world around them. The more film-centric sites, who we'd assume don't have quite the same knowledge of the Pokémon franchise, have commonly argued that the acting of Ryan Reynolds is the saving grace here, with the Pokémon not being particularly special.

Pokémon fansite Serebii scored the film 4/5, saying that it "really plays the line a lot between hardcore Pokémon fan references and things for the uninitiated, but it never goes over the line one way or the other and keeps a perfect balance".

Perhaps this suggests that the film is great for fans of the series, while being simply 'OK' for those who don't know the Pokémon world and not so great for those who have no interest in it at all - which would make sense, after all.

We'll have our very own review of the film right here on Nintendo Life next week, so make sure to keep an eye out for that if you'd like to read our verdict. Until then, why not let us know if you plan to see the film with a comment below?

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2019-05-03 15:15:00Z
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Harrison Ford, ‘Star Wars’ Pay Tribute to Chewbacca Actor Peter Mayhew - Rolling Stone

Harrison Ford has paid tribute to Peter Mayhew, who portrayed Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, following the actor’s death Tuesday at the age of 74.

“Peter Mayhew was a kind and gentle man, possessed of great dignity and noble character,” Ford said of the actor in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “These aspects of his own personality, plus his wit and grace, he brought to Chewbacca. We were partners in film and friends in life for over 30 years and I loved him. He invested his soul in the character and brought great pleasure to the Star Wars audience.”

Ford’s Han Solo and Mayhew’s Chewbacca co-piloted the Millennium Falcon in four Star Wars films: 1977’s A New Hope, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, 1983’s The Return of the Jedi and 2015’s The Force Awakens, a film where the 7’3″ Mayhew “fought his way back from being wheelchair-bound to stand tall and portray Chewbacca once more,” Mayhew’s family said in a statement announcing his death.

Related

Peter Mayhew: A Lost Interview With the Original Chewbacca

Chewbacca Actor Peter Mayhew of 'Star Wars' Dead at 74

Ford continued, “Chewbacca was an important part of the success of the films we made together. He knew how important the fans of the franchise were to its continued success and he was devoted to them. I and millions of others will never forget Peter and what he gave us all.  My thoughts are with his dear wife Angie and his children. Rest easy, my dear friend…”

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement on the Star Wars website, “Since 1976, Peter’s iconic portrayal of the loyal, lovable Chewbacca has been absolutely integral to the character’s success, and to the Star Wars saga itself. When I first met Peter during The Force Awakens, I was immediately impressed by his kind and gentle nature. Peter was brilliantly able to express his personality through his skillful use of gesture, posture, and eyes. We all love Chewie, and have Peter to thank for that enduring memory.”

In This Article: Chewbacca, Harrison Ford, Star Wars

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2019-05-03 14:37:00Z
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