Gary: 00:00:01

Hello there. We would be honored if you would join us. Spark of Rebellion.

Mark Asquith: 00:00:15

Hello and welcome to Spark of Rebellion. Brought to you from a galaxy far, far away. This is actually a news episode, believe it or not.

Two of us recording, doing the news, a little bit old school. We've got some pretty good stories.

We've got a Liam Neeson thing, we've got an artwork thing, we've got a hot toys thing, we've got a Rey Skywalker movie thing. Calm yourself. And of course, we've got a bloody andor thing. Oh.

Coming out of our ears today with the Star wars news after complaining for weeks that there is none. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be an interesting one. I'm of course Mark Asquith.

And before I bring on my co host with the co host, I am going to just remind you that if you want to get some stickers or if you just want to show your love for the show, get involved. Sparkofrebellion.com support Chuck as a Bob or two and we'll get a beer or two. We say it's to put into the show and it is mostly.

But we do often get a Moretti as well. Not going to lie, so reimbursement thereof. Always welcome. Sparkrebellion.com/support. Now we are gonna get to the news.

Like I said, calm yourself, calm yourself, calm yourself. It's gonna be a lot of fun and we'll make it fun, even though some of the stories are a bit dry.

But I can't do that on my own despite my inbuilt clear hilarity. So I'm gonna bring on the Chewbacca with the tobacco. It is.

Gary: 00:01:42

Garry.

Mark Asquith: 00:01:43

Ellen. All right, geese.

Gary: 00:01:44

All right, geese.

Mark Asquith: 00:01:45

Geez.

Gary: 00:01:46

Morning. Friday morning recording with the Moretti. Very nice.

Mark Asquith: 00:01:51

That'd be nice, wouldn't it?

Gary: 00:01:53

Yeah. That's like when you see these companies that go on the big work retreats, you know, when they go to Greece or something for a week.

You don't have to do the slack meeting or the Zoom whatever. Just have a beer on the beach, talk about some work.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:06

Yeah, that's all the time.

Gary: 00:02:08

Yeah. Oh, yeah, we're. We're pros at that stuff.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:12

Sick of doing it.

Gary: 00:02:14

Happy November, dude.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:16

Isn't it?

Gary: 00:02:18

First of November. We're a week closer to having the Ray movie. My old boss used to say that. Wish him happy birthday all the time. He's like, piss off.

I'm a year closer to death. Thank you very much. That's the outlook, mate. That's The. That's the spirit.

Mark Asquith: 00:02:36

Glass half empty there, shag. Yeah, but we're not the boss anymore, is he?

Gary: 00:02:41

Well, not anymore he ever was the boss, but I let him think that. Yeah. I covered some news last week about some Star wars movie stuff, but there is another story that was overlapped.

ing, haven't we, to close out: 2024

Mark Asquith: 00:03:02

Do you know what? Actually I am, because I'm like a sucker. I'm an absolute twat for being hooked in by the Star wars bullshittery and not real.

So I am looking forward to it. I read an interview yesterday with like John Watson, Bryce, Dallas Howard in Empire and all the other directors.

We've got some really good directors and it actually sounds good. It's just an ambling thing, which, you know, I'm all right with that. A bit of a Stand by Me Goonies, you know, whatever.

I'm sort of willing to give anything a try at this point. So I'm. I'm looking forward to it and I just. You know what I mean? I'm just looking forward to Jude Law's All Saints look. Know what I mean?

With his Diesel jeans on and his distressed leather jacket and his little scarf.

Gary: 00:03:45

Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. And his little. Do you reckon he have any rips in his. He's not wearing jeans, is he?

Mark Asquith: 00:03:52

I bet he has boots on. You know, like when people did boots, even with T shirts and sort of. I could never pull that off. But like, your celebs can pull that off.

Gary: 00:04:00

I like your Harry Styles and all that vibe, you know, with the. The long coat with the T shirt and the boots and.

Mark Asquith: 00:04:08

ah, yeah. Like back into like: 2004

Everything's a bit distressed, but it's not. It's just been distressed because it's been been put through Latila all since. No, I mean.

Gary: 00:04:25

Yeah, and when he says All Saints, he means the shop. Also, if you're. If you're from the US or anywhere else. Listener. There is a band, isn't there, called All Saints?

Mark Asquith: 00:04:34

All Saints is a US shop as well. You know, I bought a jacket in LA from there because I was cold and I was like, oh, so then what do I want to look like today from Skeleton Crew?

What? A jacket.

Gary: 00:04:47

Nice. Did you get a scarf as well?

Mark Asquith: 00:04:49

n. Like the mullets from like: 2001

But now it's all the muscle guys that are getting them with the mustaches and the tattoos and the BMWs on the drive and you know what I mean, they're all selling, they're all selling like Herbalife and you know, trying to get you into their, well, life mentality. You know, you only, you only miss the shots that you don't take. That's right. That is true.

Someone should have mentioned that when you got your mullet shagger. That's sort of understand the All Saints vibe coming back in. I think it surprises me to see that.

Gary: 00:05:28

Yeah. And I'm serious. Yeah. I think on a serious note, I think Skeleton Crew is going to be the most human, like Earth. How do I put this?

You know what I'm trying to say?

Mark Asquith: 00:05:41

It's got the suburbs. Exactly.

Gary: 00:05:43

It's got high school, it's got the burbs, it's got the All Saints vibe. I think it's going to be the most Earth related in comparison to, you know, real life.

Mark Asquith: 00:05:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gary: 00:05:53

You know what I mean?

Mark Asquith: 00:05:54

And I like John Watts as well. You know, John Watts is good. I do like John Watts. He's. He's had, you know, he's all. What he's done for Spider man is great.

I really, really enjoy his Spider man stuff. Regardless of what you think of, you know, it's, you know, Tony Stark, Spider man, whatever, any of that. But I just really like the films.

Light hearted, decent pacing, everything's pretty tied in. Yeah. A few plot holes, who gives a crap?

So yeah, if, if this is more the same and Bryce Dallas Howard is there a few of the fantastic directors, so why not, man? It's done on the volume. Just give us a bit of fun, man. I. We said it before, it'd be almost cool if it just didn't link to anything.

Just leave it, leave it out. Yeah.

Gary: 00:06:41

Yeah. I am looking forward to it because it's.

I like these shows that have got influences from other things and when the ingredients are there and it's done well, I like it.

You know, one of my favorite descriptions of Stranger Things is it's like the Goonies meets the X Files with a bit of Stephen King sprinkled over the top.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:01

Yeah, that's sound.

Gary: 00:07:02

Yeah, I love that. And when it comes together really well, it's really cool. So I think if this is the Goonies, meet Star Wars.

We just need to see what that sprinkling is, if you know what I mean. Are they gonna go like a serious undertone with it? Like. Yeah, it's mainly for the kids, but this has got some. Some serious darkness to it.

Or if it's just an isolated fun, don't give a. It's Star Wars. Let's have a laugh, you know? You know? Yeah, I'm looking for.

Mark Asquith: 00:07:27

I'm keen for it, man. I'm keen for it. Do you want to do your Ray thing first, then? Tell us about that.

Gary: 00:07:32

Oh, tell us about your ray and your kung fu and all that. So, yeah, it was last week I spoke about the Rey movie losing its writer. And it was like I did this kind of good news, bad news thing.

So on one hand, I didn't speak about this bit we've got coming up with the Mandalorian Grogu, but the other film, the Mangold film, is going ahead, which is good. So that was the good news, but the bad news was the Ray film. That just seems to be going downhill pretty quick, dude. It's the.

At one point it was like, yeah, all steam ahead. Daisy Ridley was interview saying, yeah, it's all good. Looking forward to it. It's gonna be cool.

And then all of a sudden, the wheel seemed to have fallen off. So it was. It was paused, wasn't it? Because of. The script wasn't right. They weren't happy. So they needed to go back to the.

Not about the drawing board, but they needed to work on the script that was paused. And then, yeah, last week or the week before this, the. The lead writer for it was like, I've had enough. I've just had enough. I'm off. See you later.

And then they tried. I think Daisy really tried to try to get some good vibes going amongst fandom because she was like, I'm really excited still.

There's gonna be an announcement soon. It's all good. And then the. The rug was pulled from under her. And the announcement was not what they were hoping for, that their lead writer has gone.

So, yeah, dude, it's. I don't know what's happening with that film now. It's. A lot of people have said it's done. You can't believe Phantom too much.

But a lot of people have said that film's just forget about it. But I don't think that's the case. But, yeah, not good, man. Not good.

Mark Asquith: 00:09:03

Just weird, isn't it? Yeah, it's weird. Like you said, the Mangold one. And again, I like James Mangold, you know, he does some really good stuff. But I'm sort of.

I'm just a bit non plussed by it. We say it all the time, don't we now? It's just. It's a shame that we say it all the time. This is now the default.

We just can't get excited about the movies because everything. It keeps getting binned and cancelled and shifted. It just seems a bit pointless. We've got the good news though. Mando and Grogu has finished filming.

I mean, that's the bankable stuff. We know that. That's the bankable stuff. Like low risk bankable people know about. I still think it's a weird decision to take it to a movie theater.

Gary: 00:09:44

You think so?

Mark Asquith: 00:09:45

Yeah, I mean, I get it, it's a cash in, isn't it? But I don't know, man, it just. I just don't know how it's going to transpose. Like my mum likes it because it's on tv.

She can watch a bit of new Star wars on TV and it falls into that, ooh, what new series shall we watch? You know, that cycle. Whereas is she gonna go out to the movie theater?

No, I mean, I'm gonna go because it's Star wars, but I don't like her other general casual fans gonna go out or they're just gonna wait till it comes on Disney plus. Is this. Do they think that they will get as many people streaming it? Like, are we going to rewatch it on Disney plus? And we'd watched it anyway.

So will they get a similar number on Disney plus? But then the movie stuff is just like the extra bank.

It feels like that's probably the case and maybe sets up like heir to the empire and some other stuff perhaps.

Gary: 00:10:37

Yeah, it's a, it's a big risk, isn't it? Because you hear that saying loads these days where you ask somebody if they're going to watch something that's coming out in the cinema.

And quite often the reply is I just catch it when it lands on in search streaming service here. Do you know what I mean? So I think that could be.

And also the time frame between landing in the cinema and coming to streaming is getting less and less these days.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:04

So even if it was like 25 days, mate.

Gary: 00:11:07

Dude. Yeah, like even if you miss it at the cinema. So don't worry about it, just watch it. Next month it'll be on be on the Telebox. So it is a risk defo.

And I'm not sure if the pull is there because they've lost the momentum a little bit. I can't even remember, mate, most of the things that happened in season, what, three? Was that the last one? Three? Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:28

Yeah.

Gary: 00:11:29

I can't even. I can. I remember the key moments. You know, I remember. I can pull out the key bits, but I can't remember a lot of the. The minutiae of it.

So, you know, the momentum's lost a little bit. So going into the film, it's like. I don't know. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's. You know, it's. You want to sort of capitalize on the.

On the hype that's coming out of it, you know, so it was. It was over a year before they even started filming the thing, since the. The end of season three. So.

Mark Asquith: 00:11:55

Yeah, crazy. Yeah, it's true. There's a little bit of a little. An error somewhere as well in the. So the Superhero High Particle is.

Has been the reporting outlet that we're looking at here. And it just says scheduled to hit. Mando and Grogu scheduled to hit theater May 26.

But then according to Puck via X has wrapped filming and it says with seven months until its release date, Fav and the rest of the post production team should be able to get it ready. So is it May 26 or 25? Who knows? I think it's 25, innit?

Gary: 00:12:25

I. I think so. I was under the impression it was 25.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:29

Can we Google it?

Gary: 00:12:30

Go on the goog.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:33

No, it says 22nd of May 26th.

Gary: 00:12:35

Huh.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:36

So that's a year. And so now that.

Gary: 00:12:38

That can't be.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:38

So they've got a year and seven months to do the effects and the marketing. It. I. I mean, 25 seems a short anyway. Would have got. Would have needed a trailer by now.

Gary: 00:12:50

True. Yeah. So why would they have.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:53

I think it's just a typo.

Gary: 00:12:55

You could be a typo. Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:12:56

I think that's all it is, but good news nonetheless. We'll see what happens with that. Yeah, the movies we're just gonna have to see what go.

I'm really just out of that whole, like, excitement phase for it all. Just sort of when it. When we get it. I've said it before. When we get a trailer, man, that's when I'll start thinking about it. Same stills or whatever.

So what else we got? Well, back to the TV stuff. There's a rumor flying around and I'm. It's from. Right. So it's from a Twitter account called My time to shine. Hello.

Now, this Twitter account recently has been spouting all sorts of stuff. Now, I'm not saying it's not accurate.

I don't know this person's track record whatsoever, but I am telling you straight that every third or fourth story on all the big outlets like Superhype have been scoops from this account, right? Spider man stuff, everything. Marvel, all the doomsday stuff, everything. It's like they're just making it up, right?

I'm not saying they are, but they've just come out of nowhere recently with just a spate of things and this is one of them. Right. I suspect a lot of it is just for clickbait, if I'm totally honest with you. I suspect could be very accurate. Who knows?

But the scoop is Kino Lloyd, Andy Circus, of course, played the. The character of Kino Loy on the Nikina 5 episodes. Poor lad couldn't swim. And he reckons. Reckons that he's back for season two.

Gary: 00:14:31

So he didn't drown then? He didn't drown.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:34

I don't know what happened. He just sort of stayed there, I don't think. Did we see him jump in?

Gary: 00:14:38

He jumped in there, yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:14:42

Someone's gonna help Demando, let's be honest.

Gary: 00:14:45

Yeah. So the rumor is he's back then? Yeah. Interesting. Okay, so what is he? They recruited him into the rebellion or something?

Mark Asquith: 00:14:56

No idea, mate. Or whether they've captured him as a bit of a prisoner. I. I honestly don't know. But it is just a rumor. It was sort of.

It's worth mentioning because Andy Serkis is just continuing to take over Hollywood slowly but surely, like he's in everything and he's now directing more. He's playing a lot more mainstream. I mean, I don't want to say more because he's done absolutely shed loads already, but he's just.

It just seems to be continually there. I would be all right with this. I liked him. I thought it was all right. I just.

If the story's all right, then I'd be pretty good because there's a big time jump. So it could be quite interesting. What about you? Do you think he's actually back? Is this just clickbait? Are you keen for it? Do you not care?

What's the. What's the gas scoop on this?

Gary: 00:15:37

Yeah, I think it'd be cool to have him back because those scenes where we. Where it was like that sort of production line and he was a bit of a hard ass. It was. He was quite a cool character. Not Hugely memorable.

But he was quite a cool character in those parts of it. So, yeah, I think it'd be cool. It would be cool to see him. To see what the next move if he is back. Because I think he was.

Although he was a cool character, he was quite a simplistic character. Right. So I think his M.O. was just, I just want to get this shit done so I can get out of here, you know, that was his whole schtick, I think.

So it'd be cool to see where they take that, where he's like, okay, well, you know, my job's done. That's clearly done. You know, there's no more of that, so what do I do with life? You know? So it'd be cool to see him back.

Mark Asquith: 00:16:23

Yeah, it would, it would. And he can pull most things off as well, Andy Circus. So I think he always adds a bit of a gravitas as well to anything.

And I think series and movies are generally better with him in it just because he has got that gravitas. You know what I mean? He was the. If you had like the Robert Pattinson Bruce Wayne, like, he wasn't the fully formed Bruce Wayne yet. He was sort of.

He didn't have the screen presence of a Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne. But Andy Circus always balanced that. Like, he brought the presence in the Batman ready for. To step up. So, yeah, and Snoke as well.

Gary: 00:16:54

Yeah, he was good. Snoke.

Mark Asquith: 00:16:57

Yeah. So, yeah, we could be up for that. All right. We're keen for that one. We are keen. We shall see.

I suspect maybe just a little bit of bluster, but who knows? Who knows? And we know that Andor is only two seasons. You know, this is no. There's no scope for anything after that. So that's pretty cool, right?

Star Wars Outlaws. Dude, you've played that.

Gary: 00:17:15

I've played that.

Mark Asquith: 00:17:16

You've played that. Now you've got it. One of these art books has been released. The Art of Star Wars Outlaws. So it's. It's by Dark Horse randomly.

,: 2025

I don't think we've got a price point on this yet, according to Jedi news.

Gary: 00:17:47

40 quid.

Mark Asquith: 00:17:48

Is it 40 quid? Yeah.

Gary: 00:17:50

Well, 38 technically. I say 40 quid.

Mark Asquith: 00:17:53

Oh, there we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, mate. Yeah, it's on the Amazon Link, isn't it? This looks really nice, man.

I'm not, I'm not a guy that gets these until they're in like, you know, the works for nine quid in 12 years time.

But, and, and I, I always find that I like, I read them once and they become like these coffee table things that gather dust or they go on a shelf and you pull them out every now and again. But I, I do see the appeal of these things, dude. Like, you know, from a, from an art perspective, design perspective. Are you more into these than me?

Do, do you pick these up?

Gary: 00:18:25

I do occasionally. I, I, I've got some of the older Star wars ones.

They went through a phase of doing these big hardback books that were like all the posters and then they did the, these other, you know, the art of or whatever. They were quite cool. But I've not picked up any of the newer ones of any. I know they did these for the Jedi, Fallen Order and Survivor games.

They looked, I didn't pick them up, but they look pretty cool.

But I do like these ones because it shows that it's mostly concepts, art and then a few screenshots of how that ended up in the game and stuff in Engine and all, all that, all that jazz.

But I do like these books because I feel like the, the concept artists, they really do, you know, pretty much shape the entire game, you know, of how it ultimately ends up looking and feeling and stuff.

So it's good to, it's good to pick it up to, to back up those guys if you like, because not to get too political, but with gaming, the, the gaming industry, there's a lot of, that goes on with like the top execs at people like EA and Ubisoft and all that lot, and they tend to screw over, you know, a lot of people, they'll, they'll say with this game needs to achieve this. And then all the developers and designers are like, nah. And they're like, nope, we're definitely doing this.

And when it doesn't work, it's those guys that get laid off and all that lot. So yeah, so if you can throw a bit of money their way to show some support for the concept artists, I think that's a good thing.

So, but I mean the art of the game itself, it does look, it's, it's not anything too abstract.

It definitely falls into that vibe of if you didn't see the COVID but you were looking through the pictures, you'd definitely say straight away, oh, that's a Star wars thing. They've got that whole in universe vibe going on, which is really nice. But yeah, I just don't know if I want to pay 40 quid like you, man.

It's probably a WH Smith, the works thing.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:14

Yeah.

Gary: 00:20:14

You know. Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:16

Decent run though. 224 pages for a book of this size is actually.

Gary: 00:20:21

Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:21

It's a lot of content in there, so I sort of understand why it's that price. But yeah, I mean this is going to be 20 quid in a year, isn't it? Let's be honest. That's when it's, that's the time to pick it up. So. Yeah, yeah.

No, it does look nice and I like. It's funny because I just like scouting through these when you're in the works and then you stick it back on the shelf, you know.

It's a once and done for me with this sort of thing, so it's rare that I would pick it up and reread it. Which sort of feels like a bit of a wasted spend on this kind of thing, you know.

Gary: 00:20:52

Yeah, same. Yep.

Mark Asquith: 00:20:53

And I think you gotta love the thing, you know, like I really enjoyed Jedi Fallen Order, but I'm not, it's.

It's not my be all and end all from Star wars, you know, I mean, whereas like say the prequels or the ot, I'd be like, do you know what, maybe I'll have a look at that.

Gary: 00:21:07

Yeah, that's. Yeah. I was gonna say you have to really be into this kind of thing. I know there's a lot of like digital artists and concept artists.

All those guys, they'll have like a library of all these type of books because they'll use it for, they'll use it for reference material and inspiration and whatnot. So for those guys, you know, be all over it.

The only other sort of books I've got along this kind of ilk is I've got a few Lord of the Rings books because absolutely love that, that style of, you know, that fantasy stuff. Like those type of books. I love those. But I don't know if I love this game enough to buy it. That's the only thing.

It's a good game, good style, good art style.

Mark Asquith: 00:21:50

But yeah, not a world changing game. So. Yeah, not anything you're gonna be desperate to pick up. Yeah, I get that, man. I get that.

We're gonna, we're gonna do a little bit of Star wars prequel news in a second.

A little bit of some interesting to finish with, but we're just gonna do a Little bit of toy stuff because Hot Toys have released a raft of new things, which is actually quite interesting. There's. There's a lot of Star wars stuff in the dark side going on. As we saw a while ago, there was.

There was a fair bit of dark side stuff announced. We covered this a little bit ago, but we've got a little bit more, I suppose, a bit more news on this one.

So the first thing is we've got over at hot toys on YouTube, they've done the Balen skull unboxing. And, dude, it looks absolutely fantastic. Like, you know, we've said recently that just these face molds have just taken another step.

They've just gone up a level recently, starting with probably with the Ahsoka stuff, actually absolutely insane. So good. And this Balen skull unboxing just looks great.

It looks like if I was enough of a fan of this character to want to spend that kind of money on it. It looks stunning. It just looks fantastic. And the way that they've captured Ray Stevenson and everything alongside it, it just. It looks mega, dude.

It just looks really good.

Gary: 00:23:19

It does, doesn't it? And it's interesting that they've really advanced the, like you were saying, the face sculpt the.

The tech for that at the entry level range for, For Hot Toys and sideshow, because typically you'd. You'd need to pay a bit more to get. What's it called? I think the premium format stuff and you know, like the slightly larger statues and whatnot.

Those. Those ones are the. Typically where you get the really detailed stuff. But this, I know I say entry level, it's still expensive.

You know, we're still talking a couple of hundred bucks at least. But yeah, it's just bang on, like. And I know they, for marketing purposes, they really ham up the promo images.

You know, you've got the lightsaber with the glow around it and the background effect. So I get that it does make it look, you know, I mean, like it's meant to be out of a scene from the TV show, whatever.

But you can still see, like these are not sort of distant shots or, you know, just in a glass cabinet at a toy fair or something. These are actual close ups and they just bang on the beard, the hair, even, like when you pose it.

And when you get the pose just right, you know, it's like that could be. At first glance, at least, that could be a photo of a race. So, yeah, I love these, man. Very cool.

Mark Asquith: 00:24:37

So good. They aren't.

Gary: 00:24:38

They.

Mark Asquith: 00:24:38

They're so so nice, man. And to take that just a little bit further as well then. So if you look over at Hot Toys, they did this dark side stuff and they've done.

They've done a couple of different things.

done is Star Wars Celebration: 2025

Like Mikkelsen's face just is perfect for this kind of thing. You know, it's just he's got contours and things. He's not. He's not got a boring face as he that lad. So that's going to look fantastic.

is they've done outside the T: 1000

And that's from the bad batch stuff. So it's kind of the follow up armor, you know, that kind of transitional to stormtrooper armor, which is quite fascinating.

They've done the Sage Oppress, which looks really good as well. And again, the skin texture, everything, the armor texture looks amazing. Looks really, really good. Big fan of that character.

They've done a chopper again, looks fantastic. But the one that they've done that really stands out, man, is they've done a Darth Sidious.

Basically an actual Darth Sidious, but the Palpatine Revenge of the Sith version. Okay, so he's got the robes from Revenge of the Sith, he's got the hood, he's got the kind of Clone wars era sort of vibe.

He's got just the way it's set up. It's not the Sidious from Return of the Jedi. It's not the disfigured Sidious. It's the late Clone wars, early Revenge of the Sith Sidious.

And it looks mint. It's almost like that the Sidious.

It's almost like when you see Anakin as Vader in that tiny little bit of time where he was Vader on the dark side but not in the armor. You know, it's that kind of little pinch of time that they've done for Sidious as well, where he's, he's.

He's fully formed human form, complete wanker. Looking great in his senatorial robes and his, his chancellor robes. But he's D. Sidious.

He's got the facial expressions, he's got the lightsabers, you know, so this is badass, man.

Gary: 00:27:06

Let me have a look. Just quickly. Oh, this one. Hold on. Oh, yeah, that looks badass, dude.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:12

Yeah, even with the lightning hands and stuff, mate, it's fantastic.

Gary: 00:27:15

Yeah, that looks really good. Oh, that's a really good move as well for that, because that face sculpt could have been like every other Palpatine.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:23

Right.

Gary: 00:27:24

You know, like you were saying. But it's got that pre Mace Windu scrap.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:30

Yeah.

Gary: 00:27:30

But it's still got the twisted, evil sort. Yeah, man, that looks really good.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:35

Well, one of the heads that they've chosen with the little smirk, like, it's prop, like, that's proper. Proper Ian McDermid job that, you know, that little probably, you know, the sly little bugger looks. He's got you. You know what I mean? It's that look.

He's got you.

Gary: 00:27:53

Yeah, that looks really good. Oh, man, that's a good play as well.

Mark Asquith: 00:27:57

It, isn't it?

Gary: 00:27:58

Yeah.

Because I imagine there's a lot of people who own Darth Sidious figures already wishing that they had that kind of like, you just want to punch him in the face. Little smirk, sort of spare head that you want to pop on the figure. Yeah, that looks really good. Yeah.

Mark Asquith: 00:28:14

So I wish they'd done the Sith eyes on one of their heads. That's the only thing I'd say is, like, do the Sithis, but, you know, that's a very picky thing. And it's only from the Clone wars episode.

But, dude, this is badass. Like, it's. They're getting you, right? This the Anakin from the Clone wars, the two versions of that.

But you'd get the later one for the better head sculpt, and then the Obi Wan from the Clone wars as well. Like, I would get them. I would. I would get them without a shadow of a doubt. Despite all the. I've not got room for it.

I would still get them because I think they look mint. And I'm glad I pulled the Obi Wan order from Obi Wan Kenobi, because I. You know, they redid the head sculpt after the orders had shipped, I think.

So just some good stuff coming out of hot toys, dude, you could spend all day wages.

Gary: 00:29:02

Oh, you could, yeah. Especially on figures like one for Christmas, one for Crimbo, perhaps. No, down.

Mark Asquith: 00:29:16

Get it written down for the boss. Get it written down. All right, we're gonna wrap up. We've got a short episode today. My fault. Busy at work and all that. You know, the day job.

But a little twist. Oh, according to Zach Shaft from Variety, a bombshell Star wars twist that was cut.

So Ian McC, who, anyone that's read the archives, you know, the Star wars archives books, or just you knows anything about, like the, the prequels will know that Ian McC was heavily involved, heavily involved in the concept, in the storyboarding for the prequels and to mark the 25th anniversary of the Phantom Menace. Ian McCaig actually said that Qui Gon and Obi Wan originally had the exact opposite names.

Ewan McGregor was going to be Qui Gon and Liam Neeson was going to be Obi Wan.

But the twist, the bombshell twist, is that when Liam Neeson, AKA as we know him, Qui Gon, but in this script, Obi wan dies, Ewan McGregor's character, Qui Gon, takes on the Obi Wan name as a marker, respect, which is Theoretically, according to McCaig, is why in A New Hope, it's that I've not heard that name for a long time, you know, because Ben Kenobi sounds really much like fucking Obi Wan. So, yeah, it feels like they sort of had this line in A New Hope and Lucas was like, oh, better sort that actually, yeah, let's go and do this.

And that's sort of the logic for it. And you saw, you could see why it would then link to the Clone wars and whatever else. You know, he'd not heard that name since the Clone Wars.

Maybe it went back to using a different name. So, like, story wise, I totally get it. I totally get why they went down this path. And it would have been fascinating to see that.

But as we know, you know, it's difficult now to look back and think that would have been a good move. But that's just because that's what we know. Had we known this version of it, maybe we would have loved that as well. So not much of a story. Just.

I thought it was quite an interesting thing to wrap up on, dude. A little bit of trivia, a little bit of something fun there, man.

Gary: 00:31:33

Yeah, it's a fun little, little tidbit of, of insight, isn't it? I love those sort of those little stories that we're still getting from these films in 25 years. Like, I feel so bloody old when you hear that.

Like 40 years of the Terminator, 25 years of this. It's like, Jesus Christ. But yeah, it's. It's an interesting little tidbit.

I'm glad they didn't go with it because I think there are more interesting ways you could explain that line that he has in A New Hope. But it's cool, man. Like it?

Mark Asquith: 00:32:02

Yeah. Nice little wrapper. I really recommend those Star wars archives. You can get these in places like the Works.

Now I saw one the other day, the, the big archive books that they do. These big, big, big ass ones.

They do the black one which is the original trilogy and I think is it the red one that's the, the prequels or vice versa? I forget. Yeah, really, really interesting. So in a lot of these tidbits, I'm not even sure this is in there actually I would have remembered that.

I'm sure I would have randomly read them this year. So yeah, highly recommend those as well. But interesting little way to wrap up the episode.

Now, apologies it is a slightly shorter episode, but we wanted to get together and make sure we were recording. Gas flew solo last week, so I appreciate that, dude. And yeah, to everyone listening, we'll see you next week. Thank you for tuning in.

Let us know on Twitter sparker rebellion.com Twitter let us know what do you think of that twist? What do you think of some of the hot toys? You're going to pick them up.

And much love of course to all of our supporters that, that enjoy supporting us every week. Big fans of what you do as you are big fans of what we do and we appreciate that. So you can join that crew@spark rebellion.com support Gaza.

See you next week, old stone, old geezer.

Gary: 00:33:12

Yes, we'll see you next week. Thank you very much. That was 236 and as Mark said, thank you to our supporters. You guys are cool. We'll see you next time for 237.

Until then, take care of yourselves and may the Force be with you always.