By Adam Pawlus
Photography: Michael Sullenger and David Yeh
UPDATED JULY 24

(SAN DIEGO, CA, July 24, 2004) Steve Sansweet puts on a good show. Always. Even though the 2004 Lucasfilm presentation was stuffed with plugs for all sorts of Lucasfilm-related company projects, the man managed to make it fun, exciting, and well-paced. Plus he got to reveal the title, which, really, is what everybody was excited about-- and it's Revenge of the Sith. Steve Sansweet had a lot to say, as did the special guests Rick McCallum, Hayden Christensen, and Carrie Fisher. So read on, gosh darn it!

DVDs & TV SHOWS

While everybody expected a lot of information on the upcoming Trilogy DVD, we didn't get it. We got some, and we got to find out that the documentary on this disc will be 2.5 hours and all sorts of awesome. Footage shown was a blast, revealing Harrison Ford acting against Cindy Williams and some other woman who was, at best, the worst Leia you'd ever see. Ford's reactions to her readings were well worth the price of admission to the show, as was seeing a few other famous faces reading for that original movie. Mark Hamill commented that the dialogue was awkward, and Ford's often been quoted as saying it was hard to say. The fun thing about this documentary is that it revealed the early dialogue to be far, far more awkward than any of us probably would have expected.

The documentary was really something, and it had dozens of friendly faces. All the major actors and effects workers from the movies, numerous others (including Steven Spielberg and, for some reason, Walter Cronkite), and so much oddball unseen footage that your head may not spin, but if you have any interest in how these films came together, you'll be on cloud nine. The A&E cable network will be showing a shortened, 90-minute cut of this very long feature in early September.

With the various images going around the Web showing a revised Emperor Palptine in The Empire Strikes Back and Hayden as the Spirit of Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi, you might expect someone to talk about these from Lucasfilm, confirming or denying the very plausable but still hard to believe changes. A few Lucas staffers said they would be offering an all-new sound mix, and that they worked with the 1997 Special Edition prints which, it seems, were really dirty and scratchy-- and in far worse shape than the Indiana Jones films. Since the issue was danced around, an audience member asked point-blank about the changes being made to the ending shots of the original trilogy... and received a fairly well thought out non-answer. So, right now, nobody knows if the changes are legit or bogus-- and to paraphrase Sansweet, as we did not get the quote down, we'll just have to wait and see.

But wait, there's more! In addition to feature-laden goods on the Trilogy set, several other Star Wars DVDs are in production before next year. The first 20 episodes of The Clone Wars will be out around Easter, just in time for the final five 12-minute installments to air. (It was also confirmed that the opening crawl for Revenge of the Sith will talk about the events in these five episodes.)

Old-time fans, or fans like me who were still young when the movies were supposedly done for good back in 1983, had their worlds shaken by the announcement of three more DVD sets. Collections for the Ewok movies Caravan of Courage (aka The Ewok Adventure) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, Ewoks (1985-1986, 26 episodes), and Droids (1985, 13 episodes) are all on the way, supposedly in time for the December holidays. Wow! No features were discussed, but for a lot of fans, this is a significant missing (and often silly) part of the Expanded Universe.

So right now, other than the Holiday Special, every major piece of made-for-TV Star Wars fiction will be making its way to DVD within the next year. So what of a new TV series? Sansweet confirmed at the Fan Club panel on Friday, July 23 that Lucasfilm as pursuing numerous non-movie ways to extend Star Wars, including TV programs. He also said the Young Boba Fett thing was bogus.

But what of Young Indiana Jones, you ask? Well, someone asked at the Fan Club panel yet again, and the answer from the Great and Powerful Oz Sansweet: not at this time. Of course, given the choice between goofy robot cartoons and vaguely historical drama/action series, the readership of this site should be happy with the selections at this time.

VIDEO GAMES

There was a tremendous push for the numerous games coming out of Lucasarts, like Republic Commando and many others including Mercanaries, a game about its namesake and South Korea. It seemed very out of place, but the other games shown looked quite good and will no doubt excite at least some gamers. The sequel to Knights of the Old Republic looked excellent, and it seems the much beloved game will see its sequel, The Sith Lords, very soon.

It was also established, often, that the fourth disc of the Trilogy DVD set will include a playable level of Endor from the upcoming Battlefront game if you pop it into your Xbox. A similar thing was done with Hulk and it seems this could be something we'll see a lot more of in the future.

ROTS

So we have ANH, ESB, ROTJ, TPM, AOTC... and now ROTS. Revenge of the Sith was revealed as the title for the prequel sequel finale, and as the name might imply, this time it really is about seeking revenge. The logo for the flick looks exactly like the 1983 Return of the Jedi logo with the red box, and the giant "JEDI" is now a "SITH", if you remember the old Revenge of the Jedi logo. Wisely banking on nostalgia and that which we know, it seems the fans were quite excited to literally run out of the room to the store at the convention to buy, right then, this brand-new logo on a t-shirt. This logo will not appear on the action figure cardbacks, which is an interesting shape devoid of the rectangles we're used to. This is a bit of a shame for many reasons, but such is the way of the business.

Many, many preview images and shots were shown. While few plot points were given away, a very big one was hinted at, and because we like you, we won't write it here. (But if you read the rumor sites, you already heard it.) A lot of new stuff was shown, including what appeared to be a Blockade Runner corridor, a crapload of images of art for Kashyyyk, and numerous photos of Wookiees as well as uniforms and clothing for them. Their homeworld looks like a cross between Endor and a waterpark, and much like the film's logo, seems to echo ROTJ in a few ways.

Q&A

The actors and guests brought a little to the table, like a look at Hayden being outfitted in the Darth Vader armor and us being let know he had to wear lifts as he's shorter than old man Prowse. Carrie Fisher let us know all about her days with gaffer tape, as we all know there's no underwear in space. Just lots of tape. The audience went wild with the guests coming out and were, for the most part, quite respectful. Although it should be noted there were some potshots at Hayden's acting and a fairly audible boo at the insinuation that the original trilogy would receive further changes beyond the 1997 cuts.

Overall, it was much improved over the 2003 panel in which there was a lot of promoting of the original Clone Wars fiction and the then just-launched Hyperspace. With the majority of Star Wars fans declaring their love of this property with a chunk of their paychecks, it's nice to see the sales pitches toned down a lot in favor of things they would want to see, like previews of the movie and the DVDs. All in all, a good show-- we wish you were there to see it!