Star Wars & Entertainment News | George Lucas on Grogu | Moon Knight | Uncharted

Star Wars & Entertainment News | George Lucas on Grogu | Moon Knight | Uncharted

Lucas and Grogu:
Star Wars' ownership may have officially changed hands, but only one man's vision of the galaxy far, far away is truly pure: George Lucas. The Maker's imagination spawned one of the most successful franchises of all time, a classic story of good vs evil that's inspired several generations of fans. While some of his work was maligned in the past, many critics have come around to appreciating what the creator was able to accomplish.

It's only fitting that his own Padawan, Dave Filoni, has taken on a major role in Star Wars storytelling, overseeing the live-action MandoVerse alongside Jon Favreau. Lucas remains in close contact with Filoni, as well as Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and has visited the sets of each Star Wars project under Disney's umbrella. He spent significant time hanging around The Mandalorian's production, watching Filoni and Rosario Dawson bring Ahsoka Tano to life.

Lucas essentially is the Yoda of Star Wars - a wise man with lessons to impart on those who will listen on how to be a good person and overcome trying times. Filoni was initially hesitant to include a baby of Yoda's species in The Mandalorian, as he didn't want to take away from the mystique of the Jedi Master. Eventually, he acquiesced, and with Favreau, he created one of the most popular characters in the franchise.

But it took some convincing, and the director needed to hear from his master on the idea as well. Grogu's abilities with the Force and how he chose to follow the Jedi path are known now, but there was a time when the creative minds behind the character didn't fully know the little guy's backstory - so Filoni turned to Lucas for advice.

Moon Knight:
Moon Knight is inching closer to its Disney+ premiere, meaning that marketing is slowly ramping up for the series. The upcoming MCU show will showcase Oscar Isaac's Marvel debut as the titular antihero, a complex character with dissociative identity disorder who becomes the agent of the Egyptian God Khonshu. Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but it has been confirmed that Isaac's character will go up against Ethan Hawke's villainous Arthur Harrow.

Moon Knight's promotional push indicates that the series will go all-in in terms of exploring the character's different personalities as well as diving deep into Egyptian mythology.

Uncharted:
Sony will release its first movie of 2022, and second Tom Holland title after Spider-Man: No Way Home, over the four-day Presidents Day weekend. Uncharted is expected to bring in a $70 million-plus haul worldwide.

Broken down, that’s another $40M overseas from 47 markets starting Wednesday with France and Korea, then traveling to Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Norway. The movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer and based on the 15-year-old Amy Henning-created Sony PlayStation video game, has already bagged $22M from last weekend’s offshore start in 15 markets including the UK, Russia and Spain, where it ranked No. 1. The pic had a particularly huge start in Ukraine despite the threat of Russian forces in the headlines.

If you sit down to watch Uncharted, you won’t hate yourself for doing so. The plane and pirate ship scenes are exhilarating to watch, Holland is super charming, his banter with Wahlberg is humorous, and Gabrielle’s Braddock is a showstopper. But all of that feels less carefully constructed and more thrown together with the hope that a name brand will tie it all together. It does not, a fact that becomes abundantly clear during the film’s credits. Then, and only then, is when the very recognizable, very awesome musical theme to the Uncharted games by Greg Edmonson is played. There it sits. Catchy, emotional, and a total afterthought, like so much of the movie before it.

Batman:
New set photos from Batgirl show Michael Keaton's Batman with Jim Gordon (J.K. Simmons). Warner Bros. began developing plans for a Barbara Gordon solo movie in 2017, but it went through some big changes before making progress in recent years. Leslie Grace was cast to play Batgirl, while the movie's script was written by Birds of Prey's Christina Hodson and is being directed by Bad Boys for Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. One of the biggest changes that Batgirl includes is a reflection of the DC Extended Universe's state, as Michael Keaton is playing Batman again instead of Ben Affleck.

Transformers:
Paramount confirms plans for Transformers 8 and Transformers 9, both of which will release after Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The studio originally launched the Transformers movie franchise in 2007 with Micahel Bay directing and Shia LaBeouf starring. After five entries in the main series, Paramount delivered a soft reboot with Bumblebee in 2018, but a return for the main series is coming in 2023 with Rise of the Beasts.