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https://nerdist.com/article/disney-obi-wan-kenobi-star-wars-series-put-on-hold/
Last week, rumors swirled that Disney+ cancelled its recently announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor. Fans panicked, but evidence indicated those reports were untrue. According to a report Thursday on Collider, the Obi-Wan series was delayed indefinitely, although it is not outright cancelled. Ewan McGregor and Lucasfilm seemingly remain committed to making this series a reality.
Lucasfilm
The report says that producers for the show, set to begin shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, sent the crew home. The hope is that the show could start gearing up again to start shooting as soon as this coming summer. Why the reason for the delay? Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy evidently reacted unhappy to the scripts. As they get reworked, it’s unclear whether or not screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive) and director Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) will stay on board. Another story in The Hollywood Reporter added that the feeling was that the current scripts were too similar to The Mandalorian, and had Obi-Wan protecting a young Luke (and possibly Leia?!?) from hostile forces. They also said the project had gone from six episodes down to four.
As most Star Wars fans know, Lucasfilm originally conceived the Obi-Wan series as a feature film. But after Solo flopped at the box office, the studio decided to take all of those “A Star Wars Story” side movies and transform them into Disney+ series. Rumor has it that the Josh Trank Boba Fett movie simply morphed into The Mandalorian. And thus, the Obi-Wan movie became a series as well. Rumors became fact when Ewan McGregor finally confirmed the series on stage last summer at the D23 Expo. He even admitted he’d kept it a secret for nearly five years.
Lucasfilm
So what becomes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series now? As long as Ewan McGregor remains committed to the role, I don’t think Disney+ will cancel it outright. Fans have been clamoring for years to see something new with McGregor’s Obi-Wan ever since he last wielded a lightsaber in Revenge of the Sith, and it’s exciting to imagine him playing a version of the legendary Jedi Knight that hues closer to Alec Guinness’ portrayal in A New Hope. If nothing else, Lucasfilm probably doesn’t want to dodge questions for the next decade or more about how they dropped the ball on a potential Obi-Wan show.
If Lucasfilm is unsure of the creative direction of the potential Obi-Wan show, it’s probably better to hit pause on production until they get their ducks in a row. There’s no firm release date to meet (as with The Rise of Skywalker), and no one wants another situation like what happened behind-the-scenes with Rogue One and Solo. With the level of anticipation that the Kenobi show has, this is a show people want to see come together harmoniously. Here’s hoping this all gets sorted out soon, and we see Ewan McGregor swinging his lightsaber on set very soon.
Featured Image: Lucasfilm
The post Disney+ OBI-WAN KENOBI Series Put On Hold appeared first on Nerdist.
Last week, rumors swirled that Disney+ cancelled its recently announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor. Fans panicked, but evidence indicated those reports were untrue. According to a report Thursday on Collider, the Obi-Wan series was delayed indefinitely, although it is not outright cancelled. Ewan McGregor and Lucasfilm seemingly remain committed to making this series a reality.
Lucasfilm
The report says that producers for the show, set to begin shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, sent the crew home. The hope is that the show could start gearing up again to start shooting as soon as this coming summer. Why the reason for the delay? Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy evidently reacted unhappy to the scripts. As they get reworked, it’s unclear whether or not screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive) and director Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) will stay on board. Another story in The Hollywood Reporter added that the feeling was that the current scripts were too similar to The Mandalorian, and had Obi-Wan protecting a young Luke (and possibly Leia?!?) from hostile forces. They also said the project had gone from six episodes down to four.
As most Star Wars fans know, Lucasfilm originally conceived the Obi-Wan series as a feature film. But after Solo flopped at the box office, the studio decided to take all of those “A Star Wars Story” side movies and transform them into Disney+ series. Rumor has it that the Josh Trank Boba Fett movie simply morphed into The Mandalorian. And thus, the Obi-Wan movie became a series as well. Rumors became fact when Ewan McGregor finally confirmed the series on stage last summer at the D23 Expo. He even admitted he’d kept it a secret for nearly five years.
Lucasfilm
So what becomes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series now? As long as Ewan McGregor remains committed to the role, I don’t think Disney+ will cancel it outright. Fans have been clamoring for years to see something new with McGregor’s Obi-Wan ever since he last wielded a lightsaber in Revenge of the Sith, and it’s exciting to imagine him playing a version of the legendary Jedi Knight that hues closer to Alec Guinness’ portrayal in A New Hope. If nothing else, Lucasfilm probably doesn’t want to dodge questions for the next decade or more about how they dropped the ball on a potential Obi-Wan show.
If Lucasfilm is unsure of the creative direction of the potential Obi-Wan show, it’s probably better to hit pause on production until they get their ducks in a row. There’s no firm release date to meet (as with The Rise of Skywalker), and no one wants another situation like what happened behind-the-scenes with Rogue One and Solo. With the level of anticipation that the Kenobi show has, this is a show people want to see come together harmoniously. Here’s hoping this all gets sorted out soon, and we see Ewan McGregor swinging his lightsaber on set very soon.
Featured Image: Lucasfilm
The post Disney+ OBI-WAN KENOBI Series Put On Hold appeared first on Nerdist.
At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, climate activist Greta Thunberg told corporate leaders, politicians, economists, and journalists, that “Our house is still on fire.” Thunberg, who’s castigated world leaders at public forums many times before, continued to harshly criticize them for failing to halt carbon emissions in any significant way. She did, however, note some optimistic observations about awareness of the issues at hand, and make clear that “This is just the very beginning” of the climate change movement.
In her eight-and-a-half minute speech (above), Thunberg told attendees of the annual gathering—which included presidents, billionaire CEOs, and award-winning journalists, among others—that “Any plan or policy of yours that doesn’t include radical emission cuts at the source, starting today, is completely insufficient for meeting the 1.5 or well-below-2-degree [Celsius] commitments of the Paris Agreement.” She added that from the perspective of environmental sustainability, world leaders from across the political spectrum “have all failed” in their charge of tackling “the climate… emergency and [creating] a cohesive and sustainable world.”
That 1.5-2.0°C change Greta highlighted in her speech is a reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in 2018, which states that a rise in average global temperatures by that amount would almost certainly result in catastrophic climate changes. Catastrophic climate changes including a loss of nearly all of the world’s coral reefs, a complete dissolution of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean once every decade, and annihilation of nearly a fifth of the world’s plants and trees.
Thunberg called for members of the forum to “immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies, and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels.” In terms of a timeline, she said that these changes shouldn’t be made in decades or even in 2021, but should be done now.
.@GretaThunberg has just given this message to Davos.
Read more: https://t.co/j80IqPOt2T@TIME #howtosavetheplanet #wef20 pic.twitter.com/NwHFHtBjXP
— World Economic Forum (@wef) January 21, 2020
Although much of Thunberg’s speech focused on criticizing the major producers of carbon emissions, she also took the media task. During a panel discussion that took place prior to her speech, Thunberg recapped the climate science described in the 2018 IPCC report, but then told members of the media that she didn’t think she had seen them once communicate this part of her message to the public. “I know you don’t want to report about this,” Thunberg told the audience attending the panel discussion, “I know you don’t want to talk about this, but I assure you I will continue to repeat these [IPCC report] numbers until you do.”
What do you think about Greta Thunberg’s remarks at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos? Do you think world leaders are finally primed to divest from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy resources, or do there need to be a lot more popular movements before any real changes take place? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Feature image: World Economic Forum
The post At Davos, Greta Thunberg Says This Is ‘Very Beginning’ of Climate Movement appeared first on Nerdist.
A Brief Prelude
Transcribed from my RP Discord…
Me: Our decisions will have consequences and I am both terrified and excited for what comes next.
My GM: This has given me an idea.
Me: Did… did our decisions not have consequences before?
My GM: There are now new consequences.
Me: Oh no.
My GM: There were… less circumstances in the final encounter. Now there are more. Be brave. Be bold.
Me, internally and externally: %$#@.
A Brief History of Me and the Tabletops
Tabletops are where I explore my identities. Tabletops are where I take stock of who I am and what I have done. On the weeks where I felt more dejected, the promise of my alter ego’s adventure was usually more than enough to get me through. Because they never gave up. They may have died, but they never gave up.
I cannot tell you the names of every single PC (playable characters) I have ever played, but I can tell you at least one story about each. I can tell you every thought going through my head as I Random Number Generator-ed my avatar into existence even if I can’t remember the stat blocks. I can tell you the type of person that I was and the exact moment I stopped being that person and moved on. Sometimes, it was the dice telling me that this wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes, it was the dungeon’s master decree. Sometimes, it was me in a moment of quiet revelation. That last one happened a lot in my Starfinder campaign from when my first Skittermander PC sacrificed himself for refusing to rat out his crew and this type of pensive self-sacrifice happened often.
There is a fundamental difference between the tabletop and the video game screen. I’m the type to become attached to any characters that represent me. I’m obsessed with this idea of the “persona,” the masks we wear and present to others. The visage we project in attempt to give us strength. We become Shepherd. We become our Guardian. But those PCs adhere to the rules of a distant realm, a developer with static options.
On the tabletop, there are rules, but those rules are easier to bend and break. The book is just a reference, and the world is collaborative and if you ask nicely enough, there can be some concessions, a trade off, a discussion. The lack of a graphic cards means that it also exists solely in our heads. You are your character: their voice, their conscience, their guide…until you’re not.
And like in any fiction, there is a point where the character becomes a separate entity from you, still closely entangled, but not quite the same anymore.
Some Time, Right Before The End…
After two and a half long years, my Starfinder campaign has reached the last act, the final confrontation with the Big Bag, the Grand Maw, intent on devouring this universe and leaving nothingness in its wake. In the moments before the final encounter kicks off, my character makes an uncharacteristic call for divine consultation. See, Pasatsat Multo (loving called Alt-Satsat) is a Maraquoi Witchwarper. The maraquoi are a species of macqueue looking alien with large bug eyes. The witchwarpers are spellcasters trained in piercing the veil of infinite realities, able to manipulate the environment and peer into the countless realities.
Alt-Satsat, as the name hinted at, is the alternate reality version of Satsat Mutlo, a Maraquoi Operative, who joined up with the Advent Calamity as a means to gain access to certain places he could not alone and had once listened to Baku’s 18 hour long podcast (a nod to Old Man Henderson). When news of a potential way to combat the Grand Maw by ascending to godhood presented himself, Satsat (and by extension me), took after his inspiration and took the gamble to try and become something greater. He (and I) knew that his specialized skill set of stabbing things would not be enough in the final battle. He had to become more, and alas he failed, and instead blazed a trail for Pasatsat to follow.
Alt-Satsat’s reality was consumed by the Grand Maw. Under Alt-Baku (who through vague narrative choices managed to survive up until the end of days), he trained his compound eyes to each of the realities the Grand Maw consumed, and has been bringing fragments of the doomed worlds to combat the evil that exists in this one. This world has a chance, ever so slightly, to be saved, and Alt-Satsat wants to take it.
Pasatsat Multo knows that gods are real in his universe, but he has not worshiped any. He has never really felt the need to, even when faced with oblivion. Still, in this moment of uncertainty, he calls out and instead finds me.
He asks, “Are you Ibra?”
Ibra is the god of balance, and I’m neither godly or balanced, I reply. No, I’m you. Or rather, a version of you.
He is confused, as he has the right to be.
“I do know why you’re here though. Like the previous version of yourself, you seek knowledge on how these things end,” I reply, “and funnily enough, I don’t know how things will end either.”
Alt-Satsats simmers, “how exactly is that funny?”
“Because you exist because I am so uncertain myself. You, Witchwarper, represent everything I wish I had. The ability to understand how the myriads of every which way unfolds, to see the alternate outcomes just before they happen, to change reality in the smallest ways. You’re a metaphor for catastrophic thinking, for seeing the worst outcomes, the greatest fears come to past, and you’re a metaphor for the deep breath that prevents me before spiraling out. Roleplaying you has given me such a strange courage. The bravery to ask a question and be ready for whatever the response is. To watch the waveform collapse. To remember to take stock of the moment and not just the written past and nebulous future. It’s funny, because even with the ability to see beyond the veil, the only thing certainty in your uncertainty and your only response is to push forward because that’s the only response that works.”
There is a pause. He chuckles, “I guess that is funny… But still, I want to know if there’s any respite for me and companions in the future.”
I break the bad news, “you were actually supposed to have a Beach Episode, but the Advent Calamity decided to beat the evil pirate instead.”
“What’s a beach episode?”
“For you, a chance to rest in some hot springs with your compatriots.”
“I think I’m glad I fought beside them. I think I’m glad I’m fighting beside them. I am certain of this.”
“I know.”
Take a (Deep) Breath
The conversation with myself in my head ends, and I’m back at the tabletop with my best friends. I remember to take a deep breath before confirming that Alt-Satsat got his divine pep talk and is ready for the next session: the final boss.
I laugh to myself because it’s funny how I sometimes forget to breathe. I get so caught up with all the variables, all of the pathways, all of the what-if’s and could-have-been’s, and sometimes forget the most natural thing: to breathe, to feel the air enter and exit the body, give the brain a chance to rest from parsing out an endless count of binary tree branches.
My PCs tend to be representations of my anxieties at a particular time, a test case for how to deal with anxiousness in the sandbox of a game. And Alt-Satsat is just the latest character to help process all the catastrophic thinking I was running in my head yesteryear. And I don’t know how the game or life will end, but I guess I do know one thing I’m certain about.
Our decisions will have consequences and I am both terrified and excited for what comes next.
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The post My Starfinder Character and I Share Notes About Self and Certainty appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.