Creation of the image of Rotta the Hutt in the series “The Mandalorian” and “Grogu”

Brandon Wainerdy, author of StarWars.com, goes behind the scenes of The Mandalorian and Grogu to learn how the artists at Industrial Light & Magic brought Jabba's son to life Hutta, Rottu, in the latest Star Wars film.

In the 1997 special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope, viewers saw smuggler Han Solo walk behind a computer model of Jabba the Hutt and step on his tail. And although Rotta is not at all like his father, he is also no stranger to having his personal space trampled upon. “It all happens very quickly, but there’s actually a moment during their fight where Mando comes around from behind Rotta, steps on his tail to give him a little extra height, and then pushes his hand away,” Hal Hickel, longtime head of ILM’s animation department, told StarWars.com.

“We included this not as a reference to the original joke, but still, it’s like poetry, it rhymes.”

Many longtime fans were introduced to Rotta before The Mandalorian and Grogu premiered in late summer 2008. At the time of the release of the animated film The Clone Wars, Jabba the Hutt's son was just a little green lump nicknamed "Stinky" who walked around in Ahsoka Tano's backpack. In fact, the movie The Clone Wars also marked the debut of the young Torgruta Padawan in a galaxy far, far away. Nearly 20 years later, both characters have matured significantly, and both have now been adapted into live-action films: Rotta has returned to the big screen as one of the main characters in The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Ahsoka has starred in her own series starring Rosario Dawson, with a second season due early next year.

Rotta is back as a movie star, but it took a whole team of new artists to prepare for his close-up.

Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars: Starfighter will debut in IMAX 70mm in 2027

Lucasfilm and Disney will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic film's first IMAX screening, followed by a screening of Star Wars: Starfighter in IMAX 70mm in May!

Star Wars (1977) films and Star Wars: Star Wars Starfighter—both the original and the latest in Lucasfilm's series that changed cinema forever—will be available for viewing in IMAX 70mm in 2027.

The film that started it all, Star Wars (1977), will be shown in IMAX for the first time - digitally or on film - as part of a highly anticipated anniversary re-release on February 19, 2027. As part of Lucasfilm's year-long 50th anniversary celebration, the newly restored version of the original film, later retitled Star Wars: A New Hope, will be shown in a limited number of IMAX 70mm theaters, as well as select theaters for a limited time.

Then, on May 28, 2027—the 50th anniversary weekend of the original Star Wars film—Lucasfilm will release Star Wars: Starfighter, shot for IMAX, using IMAX-certified film cameras, and converted to 70mm IMAX prints for release in a limited number of IMAX theaters. An all-new standalone adventure from director and producer Shawn Levy (Deadpool and Wolverine, Stranger Things) starring Ryan Gosling (Drive, Blade Runner, La La Land, The Place Beyond the Pines, Barbie) as Cade Oberron, Star Wars: Starfighter A cynical adventurer confronts his mysterious past and finds himself embroiled in a dangerous adventure across the galaxy that puts him on a collision course with fate.

The film also stars Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray and Amy Adams.The screenplay was written by Jonathan Tropper, produced by Shawn Levy and Kathleen Kennedy, with Ryan Gosling, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Dave Filoni and Dan Levine serving as executive producers.

Book review: “Hiding from the Darkness: A Star Wars Horror Novel”

Lucasfilm's recent efforts to explore different genres within the Star Wars galaxy have already taken readers in some exciting directions. The first book in this new initiative, Eyes Like Stars, immersed the reader in romance and offered many unexpected details about the galaxy leading up to the events of The Force Awakens. Now, Star Wars is delving into much darker themes with the first canonical "Star Wars Horror Novel."

Kirsten White's novel Hiding from the Darkness tells the story of Bia, a young girl who lives an ordinary life with her mother, an Imperial officer, on Coruscant. But when her mother disappears, Biya finds herself pursued by a sinister figure in black: Darth Vader.

Anime “Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi”: how the Japanese spirit was returned to the world of the Jedi

The new series based on the Star Wars universe was released on August 5 and went almost unnoticed, although it scored 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and received good ratings from a few viewers. The Ninth Jedi, like the entire Visions project, is not bound by the official Star Wars canon, which gave showrunner Kenji Kamiyama the opportunity to tell his own story without fan service and the New Republic framework. What did Production I.G studio do?

John Williams surprised fans at the Hollywood Bowl with an encore performance of the "Imperial March" under the baton of a conductor.

Legendary composer John Williams surprised guests at the Maestro of Cinema: A Tribute to John Williams festival, which will take place at the Hollywood Bowl from September 4 to 6, by appearing at the event and conducting the Imperial March encore from a wheelchair. Williams performed on both Friday and Saturday nights and is expected to attend the festival today as well.

Star Wars Zero Company - how many cycles will a complete playthrough take?

In Star Wars Zero Company, cycles are the basic unit of game time. One cycle corresponds to one day and one completed task.

If you want to understand how long a complete playthrough will take, here's all the information you need.

Total number of cycles

Completing the campaign from start to finish takes approximately 30–40 cycles. The exact number depends on your decisions and how deeply you explore the game.

What determines the number of cycles

Each completed tactical mission advances the campaign by one cycle. Between missions you return to the Holographic Table, where the set of available targets may change. Therefore, the number of cycles does not always strictly correspond to the number of completed missions.

• If you focus only on the key missions needed to advance the story, the game can be completed in about 30 cycles.
• If you complete additional tasks - missions of comrades, crisis and ordinary ones - the passage will stretch to about 40 cycles.

How much is this in real hours

In real time terms, 30–40 cycles mean approximately 35–45 hours of completion. One cycle takes on average just under an hour, provided you don't die on missions and don't spend too much time in the Lair customizing equipment and builds.

The developers from Bit Reactor give a similar assessment: according to their calculations, the average player will take about 30-40 hours to complete the main story campaign. At higher difficulty levels this time may increase.

The classic Star Wars game gets an upgrade and is available on PS Plus

Star Wars fans have been receiving video games regularly for years. Your favorite game will depend on what genre you prefer and what you played as a child, but for most, the presence of a lightsaber is important.

Looking forward to Star Wars Jedi 3 is another series that set the standard for the franchise for years to come. Not long ago, a fan made one of the parts better.

On YouTube, user Gamer King shared a video showing off Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in 4K resolution at 60 fps. If you played The Force Unleashed when it came out, you were probably impressed by the features in it. Previously, no game in the franchise had revealed the Force in all its glory.

As great as it was in 2008, it was released almost two decades ago. Visually, the project is noticeably outdated, so it needs an update.

The game looks great in the video, but this is not the official version. Although Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is available with a PS Plus Premium subscription, it runs in the original resolution and frame rate. Most likely, the video shows footage from the emulator. In this case, mods could have been applied to improve performance and image quality.

Star Wars Unveils New Canon-Breaking Lightsaber Color

Disney and Lucasfilm have introduced a new lightsaber color in Star Wars that contradicts the established mythology of the franchise.

Over the nearly 50 years of the franchise's existence, lightsabers have undergone transformations, and their colors have changed along with them. There are now nearly a dozen different lightsaber colors in the Star Wars canon, from the classic blue, red and green to new ones like yellow and white.

The colors of lightsabers are very important in Star Wars. They distinguish the Jedi from the Sith, but have taken on new meaning in recent years. Thanks to new mythology about the transformation of a kyber crystal into red and, conversely, white, the color of a blade can tell a lot about its owner.

In the old Expanded Universe (Legends), lightsaber colors were also given more explicit meanings. Yellow, for example, was used by the Jedi Guardians. Additionally, there are fun facts related to lightsaber colors. For example, the color green appeared in Return of the Jedi because George Lucas wanted Luke's lightsaber to stand out against the blue sky. Mace Windu's purple lightsaber came simply at the request of Samuel L. Jackson.

Despite all the changes, there have always been certain rules. For example, the Sith always used red blades. However, in Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi, a new color for the sword was introduced - silver.