A little controversy, a few Mandolorians, Episode VIII and a Blu Ray release. All in a day’s work for Mike Audette.
By Mike Audette // In the words of local Boston sports broadcaster Gary Tanguay, “CONTROVERSY!” This week featured a new episode of Star Wars Rebels, online subscription controversies over Season Two of Rebels and a some Episode VIII news. Let’s get into it.
Starting with the big story of week, apparently online subscription services for television, such as iTunes, Amazon, and other providers did not include The Protector of Concord Dawn in previously purchased season passes. As of this week, these season passes only covered half of the season. These customers are now forced to pay an additional $20 for the rest of the season 2’s episodes. I myself am not sure how “Season Passes” for television normally work, but from what I’ve been seeing discussed this appears to be far from the norm. Whether this came from the Lucasfilm/Disney side or the subscription service side, it seems they reduced the price for rest of the episodes, but the sting of an apparent bait-and switch still hurts for unsuspecting fans.
On a lighter note, this week’s episode of Rebels was certainly a doozy. The return of the Mandolorians was a welcome sight, even though they almost killed Hera. The leader of this group of Mandos known as “The Protectors” was Fenn Rau and in a piece of brilliant, brilliant media symmetry he was featured in issue #10 of the Kanan comic series that came out earlier in the day on Wednesday. I absolutely love to see things like this happening more often. Cementing events or characters in the larger storytelling scheme will strengthen and enrich the saga going forward.
This week also provided some Episode VIII news as well as the release date of The Force Awakens. From a picture posted on Instagram from Daisy Ridley, it looks like the cast of the film has begun initial script readings which is plenty awesome. The unnamed film is set to begin shooting in the coming months. Hopefully. with the altered release schedule for Episode VIII, the creative team is able to create best film possible.
Also it looks like the official release dates for The Force Awakens home media release appears to be coming on April 5th. The sleuths across the Internet on Twitter uncovered the information over on Amazon. I’m really looking forward to having the movie in my hands.