Tag: shadows of the empire

Shadows of the Empire

Shadows of the Empire: The Movie-Without-the-Movie Extravaganza of 1996

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In 2015, I conducted a series of interviews with some of the people who worked on the Shadows of the Empire project concocted by Lucasfilm back in 1996. I loved the project, warts and all, from the moment it was released so it was a joy to conduct these interviews and gain multiple inside perspectives on what it was like to create such an expansive project. The essay was written for the Expanded Universe anthology called A More Civilized Age: Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe (2016) from my friends Rich Handley and Joe Berenato. I’ve decided to reprint the essay here on my site because I feel it sheds some more light on the nearly 30-year-old project and ended up revealing a few facts that were previously unknown to me about the inner workings of Lucasfilm at the time.

I’ve slightly edited this essay for the Internet by removing footnotes and changing them to links, and other small things like that. All quotes, unless otherwise indicated, are from my interviews. For more fun, head over to Facebook and like my Shadows of the Empire fan page.

I hope you enjoy the essay.

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A More Civilized Age…Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe

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Last year, Sequart published a pair of anthology books discussing Star Wars, starting with A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and followed by A Galaxy Far, Far Away… Exploring Star Wars Comics. To round out the trilogy, as is often the case with many things Star Wars, Sequart released its third in the series, A More Civilized Age… Exploring the Star Wars Expanded Universe! Read More

Interview with Steve Perry
(Original posting: February 8, 1998)

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Steve Perry, author of Shadows of the Empire, was the first author to pen a Star Wars novel that took place between two original trilogy films: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Most of the books that came out since Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire in 1991 were set after the theatrical trilogy’s finale. Shadows of the Empire is a fantastic piece of work and accurately reflects the action, adventure, and excitement of the original trilogy. It was launched as part of a huge multimedia extravaganza including a CD soundtrack, video game, action figures and toys, comics, and more. Some aspects of the project were even referenced in the Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition. Steve was kind enough to answer a few quick questions about his work. (Original posting: February 8, 1998)

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Shadows of the Empire Fan Film on Kickstarter

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Shadows of the Empire is hands down my favorite Expanded Universe story. I feel it’s one of the only ones that really captured the essence of the other Star Wars films. Neatly sandwiched between Empire and Jedi, it filled a gap which definitely needed filling.

It read just like one of the films. It had a great story, a really cool villain, all the usual characters (except Han who was still frozen at the time), plus enough new bits and pieces to keep it fresh and interesting.

Those who were around and following it at the time will remember that it was a huge media blitz consisting of a book, comic adaptation, video game, soundtrack score, action figures, toys, trading cards and more. I loved the book and even interviewed the author for this site.

So when I saw that some fan-filmmakers started a Kickstarter drive to make the film, my interest was naturally piqued. They’re looking to raise $10,000.

Head over and check out the Kickstarter page. If you’re interested, back the project.

Echo Base & The Battle of Hoth

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Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, and proving themselves a force to be reckoned with, the Rebel Alliance found themselves using the ice planet of Hoth as their base of operations. They thought they’d be safe on the near-uninhabitable world. They thought wrong. Between Darth Vader’s intuition and the Empire’s probe droids scouring the galaxy, it was just a matter of time before they were tracked down. The Rebels soon found themselves fighting for their lives and on the run. The scenes that take place on Hoth are quite breathtaking, especially the battle with the walkers. Of course, there are plenty of deleted scenes to be examined as well, most noticeably the ones that deal with the Wampa ice creatures.

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