A new player for a new adventure! That’s right folks. Today, Lucasfilm announced that global treasure, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) has joined the cast of the next Indiana Jones adventure! Phoebe will naturally star alongside the obviously already confirmed Harrison Ford, who is stepping back in the fedora one final time.
Continue reading “Phoebe Waller-Bridge Joins the Cast of the Next ‘Indiana Jones’”
Warning: The following contains spoilers from the recent and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Twelve years following its premiere to initially hesitant audiences, the now beloved Star Wars animated series, The Clone Wars, has at last received the proper ending it deserved. Set after Attack of the Clones and concluding sometime after Revenge of the Sith, the brainchild of Star Wars creator George Lucas and supervising director Dave Filoni explored stories of a wide variety of characters — both familiar and new faces — during the war that was previously more of a backdrop to the fall of Anakin Skywalker.
Continue reading “Action, Depth, and Poetry Mark the End of ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’”
When I first saw The Force Awakens after a fully funded summer media apparatus of hype in the winter of 2015, I remember the following Christmas morning my mother turned the corner, threw me a Force Awakens pillow, and coldly chuckled “Merry Christmas.” It was a good joke — like many the Force is moderately strong in my family — but it left me to wonder, what Christmas spirit at Walmart possessed my Mom to buy me this gift? I suspect my mother may have unknowingly become a Disney market research statistic. But after the last five years and our predestined Rise of Skywalker, I am largely left to ask the same question.
Continue reading “The Rise of Disney and the Future of Fantasy in the Shadow of the Empire”
Before December 2019 ends, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on one of the most significant pop culture artifacts of the year. This is the month, after all, in which one of the co-creators of the iconic series Lost gave us a critically acclaimed and universally praised ninth episode of a series that breathed new life into a franchise that had not been this beloved since the mid-1980s. By shifting the focus away from the historically white male heroes of the original and toward a story centering women and people of color, the creators had to also confront the toxic — and often racist — fan culture that had laid claim to the property for over thirty years. Plus, they were able to do all of this without the consent of the property’s original creator.
Of course, I’m talking about Watchmen on HBO.
Continue reading “‘Lost’ Legacies: How to Re-imagine Sacred Nerd Texts”
After 42 years, the Skywalker Saga comes to a close with the release of The Rise of Skywalker. Keith was joined by Jamie Noguchi to screen the movie at Baltimore’s historic Senator Theater. Here are their instant reactions. SPOILERS!
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: The Reaction to ‘Skywalker’”
Let’s be honest. The reason you, the skeptic who hated on The Last Jedi for two years (not me, but you know who you are!), went on this site and clicked on this review is to find out whether or not Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is any good. But the answer to this isn’t a simple one. Now before the cynic in you dismisses the movie entirely just because it’s not an overwhelmingly positive “yes,” just know that it’s not terrible either. To put it simply, in a year where we had Avengers: Endgame and the finale of Game of Thrones, The Rise of Skywalker, the conclusion to the 40 year Skywalker saga, is squarely in between: neither as amazingly uplifting and universally praised, nor as abysmally disappointing and anticlimactic as some other fantasy finales that pissed me off.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Ends the ‘Star Wars’ Saga with a Whimper”
With Rise of Skywalker and the end of the Skywalker Saga at the end of the month to look forward to, Hard NOC Life is going to be a Star Wars podcast for the month of December. Because there aren’t enough Star Wars podcasts on the internet! Each week, Dominic and Keith will be breaking down a different trilogy that make up the beloved Star Wars franchise.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: The Last Rogue Force Awakens One Solo Jedi”
With Rise of Skywalker and the end of the Skywalker Saga at the end of the month to look forward to, Hard NOC Life is going to be a Star Wars podcast for the month of December. Because there aren’t enough Star Wars podcasts on the internet! Each week, Dominic and Keith will be breaking down a different trilogy that make up the beloved Star Wars franchise.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Return of a New Empire Strikes the Jedi Hope Back”
With Rise of Skywalker and the end of the Skywalker Saga at the end of the month to look forward to, Hard NOC Life is going to be a Star Wars podcast for the month of December. Because there aren’t enough Star Wars podcasts on the internet!
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: The Phantom Attack of the Sith Menace Revenge Clones”
Dominic and Keith weigh the pros and cons of Disney+ and review The Mandalorian on this week’s Hard NOC Life.
Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Is ‘The Mandalorian’ Maclunky?”
August 15, 2015. That was the date that Disney announced at their biennial D23 Expo that it was going to fulfill the fantasies of every Star Wars fan in the world. They were going to bring the universe George Lucas had created to life, and give us all the opportunity to become a part of the world of Luke, Han, Chewie, and Leia, and allow us to finally live our adventure too. At the time the implications and details behind all of that were top secret, and for years speculation among fans became rampant. What would the rides be like? Could we drink Blue Milk? Would there be a Cantina? Can you become a Jedi? And most importantly can we fly the Millennium Falcon?
Finally on May 31, 2019, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge finally opened and answered all those questions. And The Nerds of Color were fortunate enough to have had a chance to visit the planet of Batuu twice. So after two trips, a couple of glasses of blue and green milk, and four trips on the Falcon, we would love to humbly be your guides, as we walk you, our loyal readers through the highlights, sights, tastes, experiences, and tips we have to share to prepare you for your trip to a galaxy far, far away!
The land is so massive, that we will need two, count ’em two, articles to cover everything. This first part will cover intros to the land and linguistics while there, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, Blue and Green Milk, Oga’s Cantina, and Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities.
Continue reading “NOC Goes to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Tips and Tricks for Your Visit (Part I)”
The month of May holds a special place in the hearts of Asian American and Pacific Islander Star Wars fans. For starters, May has been AAPI Heritage Month since 1990, though it originally began as “Asian Pacific Heritage Week” when it was proposed in Congress by Representatives Frank Horton and Norman Y. Mineta in 1977. That’s right, 1977. You know what else debuted in May 1977?
Continue reading “Go Asians: A History of AAPI Representation in ‘Star Wars’”
UPDATE: November 4, 2019
Vanity Fair has an exclusive first look at Ming-Na in The Mandalorian! She has the Disney Triple Crown, y’all!!
Earlier this week, Lucasfilm announced the addition of two more actors to the cast of Star Wars Episode VII. We do not yet know who the two relatively unknown actors — Pip Anderson, who’s British, and Crystal Clarke, who’s African American — will play in the movie, but I’m guessing their roles must be substantial enough to warrant a press release about their casting. If their characters are indeed prominent, Clarke will join John Boyega and Lupita Nyong’o in making this “the blackest Star Wars ever.”
Still, every time breaking Star Wars casting news comes across my feed, there’s always one name that I hope to see in the headlines: Ming-Na Wen.
Continue reading “The Disney Triple Crown: Why Ming-Na Needs to Be in Star Wars“
Minutes ago, Lucasfilm rocked the internet and officially announced the cast for Star Wars: Episode VII, the upcoming continuation of George Lucas’ classic saga, this time from Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. In addition to confirming the long-rumored appearances by Original Trilogy stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, the announcement also ends months of casting speculation by naming John Boyega (Attack the Block) and Adam Driver (Girls) in lead roles.
Continue reading “Attack the Clones: John Boyega Officially Leading New Star Wars“
I don’t remember the wonder anymore.
As a child, I did not collect comics weekly. At ten, I lacked the funds and access to a friendly neighborhood comic book shop. Travel to the closest store required leaving Black suburban safety, crossing highways and railroad tracks, and strolling through an alien White community three miles away to feed a Cable and Nightwing habit. No. Besides, graphic novels offered complete story arcs, so to read new comics I would cajole my mother into forking over twenty dollars American (not including sales tax) each time I wished to depart Waldenbooks in Chesapeake Square Mall with the Spider-Man Clone Saga, or Batman: Contagion.
Continue reading “Comics are for Children”
It is a shame that, for the rest of my life, I will associate the word “nigger” with the Star Wars universe. It was 1977, and by the time that I got to kindergarten, I had seen George Lucas’ epic five times. It was everything a little boy could want: spaceships, laser guns, good vs. evil, all the stuff a growing boy needs to activate his imagination.
I’m not sure about you, but the kids at my school always wanted to “play” whatever movie or television show that was popular at the time. So, that autumn, all you heard at recess was, “let’s play Star Wars.” I always wanted to play, but I used my recess time to read comic books and daydream. Rarely did I hang out with the other kids. The Sunday of my second week of kindergarten, my mother took my uncle and me to see the film again. It was different this time. Much different. I was no longer a voyeur to the spectacle; I was in that mutha! I was Han Solo. By this time, I had already shown that I had criminal leanings, so Mr. Solo was the perfect choice.
Monday’s recess came around, and this time I was ready to get my Star Wars on. I stood in line to get picked, and Matthew May (his real name) began to assign people to their respective characters:
“Okay, Bobby, you can be Luke Skywalker. Tia, you’re Princess Leia. Nick and Mike, you’re twins, so you can be R2-D2 and CfweePeeO. And I’m always Han Solo.” He looked at me, his face one big ass knot of confusion, “Um…Shawn. Um…Well, you’re a nigger, so you can be either Chewbacca or Dark Vader.”
Dark Vader, mind you. Not Darth.
