New ‘Star Wars’ Series for Preschoolers Focuses on ‘Young Jedi Adventures’

Star Wars parents rejoice!!! We finally have a Star Wars series for our little ones!

Disney+ and Disney Junior will finally have a series meant for your Jedi younglings who are of preschool age called Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures. The new original animated series will premiere on Star Wars Day aka May the 4th.

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Hard NOC Life 305: Put Some Respeq on Kelleran Beq

Keith and Britney break down the latest episode of The Mandalorian and the return of Ahmed Best to the Star Wars universe. They also discuss the twin controversies surrounding Marvel Studios currently. Yikes!

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying About ‘Star Trek’ Canon and Enjoy the Big Dumb Mystery

As we are halfway through our return to the 25th Century, we can pretty much settle into the rhythm of Star Trek: Picard. It’s a bit of a clunky narrative but a lot of fun character work for new and returning players. Most discouraging but perhaps least surprising is for all the things Season 3 has done to get us those wonderful character moments, it can’t escape the Kurtzman of it all and has at its center a big dumb mystery around Jack Crusher.

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Hard NOC Life 302: Pirates of ‘The Mandalorian’

Keith is out this week, so Britney brought back her Lituation Room partner Vanessa Shark to break down the season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian and share some thoughts on the evolution of her podcast, now titled the DC Studios Podcast.

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‘Quantumania’ and ‘Mandalorian’ Star Katy O’Brian on Finding Nuanced Roles

With Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania currently in theaters and The Mandalorian season 3 streaming on Disney+, we have every reason to be excited to see more of Katy O’Brian.

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‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 is Off to Bold New Adventures

Star Wars has always been more than a space opera. It mixes in different genres from action-adventure to space westerns. It even takes inspiration from the great Akira Kurosawa. And The Mandalorian brings a lot of what we love about Star Wars and throws in a brand-new story that doesn’t have much to do with the Skywalker saga.

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‘The Mandalorian’ Director Rick Famuyiwa on Ambitious Season 3 and Easter Eggs

The Mandalorian finally makes its season three debut tomorrow after a year-long hiatus. The season promises to be its most ambitious as Din Darjin (Pedro Pascal) seeks redemption for breaking the Mandalorian code after he had to off his helmet twice in season 2.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ — That’s Not How Accents Work

Mercifully, Picard is not hiding the ball. A recurrent problem with a lot of serialized shows is setting up a lot of mysteries that are slowly dripped throughout the season and you have to hope the mystery at the end is worth it.

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Hard NOC Life 299: All Good ‘Star Trek’ for the Next Generation

In anticipation for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard, Keith welcomes his brother Raymond to Hard NOC Life as they countdown their top five episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation!

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‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Poster and Featurette Celebrate Din and Grogu

Today marks the 30-day countdown to the season 3 premiere of The Mandalorian. Starring Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, the critically acclaimed, original, live-action series sees its titular protagonist reunited with his cute but very powerful Grogu — let’s face it, his real name is Baby Yoda — and going on new adventures across the galaxy. To mark such an occasion, Disney has released a brand-new poster along with a featurette centered on the show’s legacy.

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Din Djarin Finds His Way Home in ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Trailer

Though The Mandalorian season two finale saw Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) part ways with Grogu, their separation was short-lived as the two were eventually reunited in the final episodes of The Book of Boba Fett. Together once again, they’ll travel across the galaxy in pursuit of adventure. And a new trailer reveals more of the overarching plot and character drama, which sees Din trying to make amends for his past transgressions and the Republic making an effort to move away from its dark past.  

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‘The Bad Batch’ Stars and Executive Producers Discuss Making the Second Season

One day remains until the return of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. For its second season, audiences will get to continue riding along with this troop of genetically altered clones as they navigate the ever-changing galaxy following Order 66, and where they fit into all of this.

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ VFX Artists on Creating Realistic Water in a CG World

When Avatar first came out in 2009, it used cutting-edge VFX technology to bring the jungle world of Pandora to life. The alien flora and fauna and the indigenous 10-foot-tall blue-skinned Na’vi looked so real. Even more so when watching it in 3D. More than a decade later, director James Cameron gives audiences a reason to revisit Pandora with the highly anticipated sequel Avatar: The Way of Water. The sequel explores new territories and utilizes newer natural elements like water. The latter of which has never been done before.

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Sinks More than It Floats

When James Cameron’s Avatar premiered in 2009, it represented a landmark moment in visual effects for film. Cameron made some of the most effective use of CGI and motion-capture performances since Andy Serkis’ brilliant portrayal of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Na’vi, as alien and as CGI as they were, felt real to audiences as their animation took realistic form, as did the stunningly beautiful planet of Pandora. But while these visual effects were a spectacle, the story itself, while moving at times, was simplistic and derivative of other films in the realm of colonists and Indigenous peoples.

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New ‘Bad Batch’ Trailer Teases Action Packed, High Stakes Second Season

A peaceful-looking island on an unknown planet, followed immediately by members of the squad of genetically altered clones, the Bad Batch, being chased by large crabs, breaks the ground for a glimpse at what’s to come from the upcoming second season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Set in the aftermath of Order 66, the show follows these group of rogue clones, as they navigate a galaxy under this questionable new Empire.

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First Teaser for Bong Joon Ho’s Next Film ‘Mickey 17’

The name Bong Joon Ho is one that instills excitement into every cinephile out there. Right up there with Spielberg, Tarantino, del Toro, and Nolan, any time a Bong project is announced, the film world stops, and speculates about what the master has up his sleeve.

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Hard NOC Life 293: ‘Andor’ and Holiday Specials

On the final Hard NOC Life before we go on hiatus, Dominic, Britney, and Keith rank Andor against other live action Star Wars projects, including the Holiday Special from the 1970s. Speaking of Holiday Specials, James Gunn brings the tradition back with a special Guardians of the Galaxy mission to save Christmas.

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Hard NOC Life 292: Thankful for ‘Andor’

This week on Hard NOC Life, Britney and Keith remember Jason David Frank and discuss how much grief has preoccupied the nerd spaces with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the most recent episode of Andor.

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NOC Review: When Grogu Met the Soot Sprites

It’s been three years since the first-ever Star Wars live-action series, The Mandalorian — as well as the platform it lives on, Disney+ — debuted. In celebration, viewers received a little treat, by way of a collaboration between two beloved studios.

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