Page 138 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2020)
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Kieron, were you ever nervous pitching but an Empire loyalist. Star Wars is JDW: To me, the greatest and most joyful
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Lucasfilm some of your more… about these big, powerful characters, and surprise was all the new and charming
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inventive ideas? finding novel ones is a big part of it for me. characters that grew in the series. From
KG: Generally speaking, we had a “Don’t the beginning, it was clear that Kieron
self-censor” approach. Don’t assume that Jen and Jordan, did any of Kieron’s pitches understood the Dark Lord and had great
Lucasfilm will say no; pitch it and let them stand out as especially playful or inventive? plans for him. But all the new characters
say no if they want to. We wanted to test JH: The first thing that comes to mind came to life on the page in such awesome
where the limits were, but we were never is the mental image I got when I read and surprising ways. Doctor Aphra,
going to pitch anything that wasn’t Star Kieron’s script about the Geonosian Inspector Thanoth, Triple-Zero… They all
Wars. For me, Star Wars is very much in queen being hooked up to an egg-laying became such compelling additions to the
the space-fantasy mode. It’s never been machine: “Only her top part is flesh. universe. In retrospect, I am pretty surprised
hardcore sci-fi, and that’s its charm. The entire bottom half of her—the whole we got away with making the evil R2 and
reproductive organ—has been replaced C-3PO. They are actively psychopathic!
Characters such as the Mon Calamari by a machine. It is basically the same It’s pretty outrageous, but it seems like
cyborg Karbin have that wonderful “space shape as the organs would have been, everyone at Lucasfilm loves them as much
fantasy” feel to them. What inspires but is clearly a machine. At the bottom, as we do, which is amazing.
these characters? it has an egg-laying nozzle, but it’s
KG: I was trying to think of powerful mechanical.” I’m not sure “playful” is the Heather Antos: The new additions to the
archetypes that would work in the high- word I would use to describe this, but it Star Wars cast have by far been the most
adventure mode that Star Wars runs on. certainly is inventive! The suggestion of pleasing surprise that any editor, creator,
That’s where we get people like Aphra— Triple-Zero as essentially a murderous or reader could have. Kieron, Salva, and
fundamentally an ethically inverted C-3PO was also one of my favorite colorist Edgar Delgado’s ability to bring such
Indiana Jones archetype—and Thanoth— things. I knew it would work really life to them has been astonishing to say
basically the genius detective archetype, beautifully and that fans would love it. the least. They’ve only been around for just
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