NYCC 2008: Lucasfilm Panel

Written by: Ron Bricker

Steve Sansweet opened the panel announcing Star Wars will be returning to the big screen with the new Clone Wars CGI animated cartoon that will continue on cable television episodically after its theatrical premiere. The film and episodes continue the story of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars.

The latest Star Wars: The Force Unleashed trailer was then premiered which looks rather exciting. The game is about completely over the top force powers as you take the control of Darth Vader’s apprentice. The panel then showed a video of an interview between Steve Sanweet and one of the game developers showcasing some cooler things about The Force Unleashed. The first video focused on the actual force manipulating that can be done to the environment and enemies. The second video focused on a combination of environmental graphics and a slight preview of lightsaber fighting.

Sansweet then shifted the panel towards Indiana Jones, first touching on the Young Indiana Jones Volume 3 DVD that will be releasing soon. The set includes 10 jam packed discs of Indy goodness.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was obviously the next hot topic to which Steve Sansweet showed the theatrical trailer. He then discussed a new making of book covering all four Indiana Jones films/ The book was designed by the maker of the Episode I Making-Of book.

Lego Indiana Jones will be released on June 3rd on most platforms and the PC.

A trailer for the Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special was then shown followed by Seth Green and Matt Senreich joining the panel. The two creators of Robot Chicken then discussed how much Star Wars means to them.

The genesis of Robot Chicken was then discussed to which Seth Green delivered a humorous story about how Matt use to work for Toyfare magazine, a branch of Wizard, and Seth wanted to make a show with him after briefly discussing toys. The panel wasvery entertaining, concluding when Sansweet decided to instead show more videos from WonderCon a couple of months ago for interviews with the developers of Clone Wars.

 A trailer was finally shown, and it looks awesome. Overall, the panel wasn't incredibly informative in the way of announcements, but Star Wars is always entertaining.