After last month’s episode sharing our initial reactions to The Force Awakens, this month’s episode begins our analysis and discussion of the new movie, as well as the lessons about storytelling and speculation that can be learned from it. Needless to say, we’ll have plenty more discussion of the movie to come in future episodes.

Before turning to The Force Awakens, though, we start off the show with a different topic for our meta segment on how to speculate wisely – the Star Wars Rebels midseason trailer for the back half of Season Two. We consider some elements of the trailer that make connections to The Force Awakens to increase interest in Rebels, such as the Jedi crossguard lightsaber, a Jedi temple site, and the appearance of Princess Leia. We also discuss the trailer’s links to prior Star Wars lore, such as a Sith holocron, Twi’lek freedom fighters and Mandalorian warriors from The Clone Wars, and the “Old Master” Ezra encounters. Another feature of note was the social media message shared by showrunner Dave Filoni prior to the trailer’s release, advising fans about its spoiler-heavy content.

For the world-building segment, longtime fan of the Empire, Jay Shah, joins us to talk about the First Order in The Force Awakens. In some ways the First Order operates as a direct descendant of the Empire, but in other ways it differs significantly. Some of these distinctions, Jay points out, have significant moral implications for whether fans would feel willing to root for the First Order in the way they may have done previously for the Empire. In addition to the politics and military statuses of the galaxy, we share our views on the individuals who lead the First Order, including Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren, and General Hux.

The storytelling segment focuses on the use of the Original Trilogy’s legacy heroes in The Force Awakens and the hints at their post-Return of the Jedi backstory revealed in the movie. A key touchstone for our discussion is Devin Faraci’s article at Birth Movies Death on the portrayal of Han Solo in the film. Faraci analyzes Han’s character arc in The Force Awakens as a regression to his early Original Trilogy persona rather than progression forward, and maintains that alternative characterizations and backstories for Han could have kept his role in the movie essentially the same in relation to the new generation heroes while making his characterization stronger and more believable to the audience. Our discussion of the legacy Big Three agrees in large measure with the kinds of concerns Faraci raises, and we discuss similar dilemmas with the portrayals of Leia and Luke in the movie, as well as Han.

Our plot bunny giveaway draws upon one of the great open questions after The Force Awakens: how missing scenes might be used to reveal or further hint at Rey’s heritage.

You can also listen to Hyperspace Theories at Libsyn or download the show there. Or subscribe on iTunes.

Hyperspace Theories is on Twitter @HyperspacePod!

Tricia is @FANgirlcantina on Twitter, as well as posting at FANgirl Zone on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Kay tweets @Geek_Kay.

B.J. tweets @RedPenofLex.

Jay Shah tweets @admiraljello.

The Force has awakened. In the December episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester, and Kay from the popular Star Wars critical discussion site FANgirl Blog share their initial reactions to Episode VII. We discuss the characters, plot, and more after multiple viewings of the film, with minimal additional information from opening-weekend creator interviews or the opening-day book releases. We also address the storytelling decisions to withhold certain key information from the audience in the first movie of the new trilogy, as well as the trailers and other marketing containing imagery and dialogue that do not appear in the final film.

This episode contains discussion of all of the major spoilers from The Force Awakens from the opening minutes of the show, so steer clear if you haven't yet seen the movie.

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Hyperspace Theories is on Twitter @HyperspacePod!

Tricia Barr is @FANgirlcantina on Twitter, as well as posting at FANgirl Zone on Facebook and on Tumblr. Email: tricia@fangirlblog.com

Kay tweets @Geek_Kay. Email: Kay@fangirlblog.com

B.J. tweets @RedPenofLex. Email lex@fangirlblog.com

Johnamarie Macias from The Wookiee Gunner joins Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester, and Geek Kay for a wide-ranging discussion on storytelling in Star Wars.

We continue our exploration of the individuals influencing the future of Star Wars storytelling with Diana Williams, a member of Lucasfilm’s Story Group. In October, Johna attended “A Conversation With Diana Williams” at the New York Film Festival, in which Williams talked about her upbringing, her path into the entertainment industry, and her perspective on transmedia storytelling and other technological changes altering the ways people can tell stories. At Lucasfilm, Williams is the Story Group’s lead on videogames, including the recently released Star Wars Battlefront, which offers a wide variety of gender and ethnicity combinations for players to use. She is vocal on Twitter about her criticisms of Hollywood for its problems with diversity, inclusion, and representation, and she no doubt speaks her mind within Lucasfilm’s creative team, as well. Thank you to Johna for sharing her report and reactions to Williams’ presentation.

For our world-building segment, we discuss Claudia Gray’s novel Lost Stars, released in September as part of the Journey to The Force Awakens. Like the three regular hosts, Johna also is a big fan of the book. We praised Gray’s effectiveness at designing the two cultures on the planet Jelucan, the valley kindred and the second-wavers, to create the personality traits in the lead characters, Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell, which ultimately motivate the choices they make as the Empire and Rebellion clash over the course of the story.

The early season two episodes of Star Wars Rebels are featured in our storytelling segment.

Johna is keeping spoiler-free for The Force Awakens, so Tricia, B.J., and Kay conclude the show with a Spoilers Beware segment examining the new information and clues revealed in the marketing for the movie since our last show.

Next month The Force Awakens arrives! Look for a reaction show from Hyperspace Theories soon after opening weekend.

Related Links

• J.J. Abrams interview with Wired, and quoted in EW
• Lawrence Kasdan interview with Wired
• George Lucas interviews with Vanity Fair and CBS News
• Daisy Ridley cover story in Elle

Hyperspace Theories is on Twitter @HyperspacePod!

Tricia is @FANgirlcantina on Twitter, as well as posting at FANgirl Zone on Facebook and on Tumblr.

Kay tweets @Geek_Kay.

B.J. tweets @RedPenofLex.

Johna on Twitter @bluejaigeyes

On the heels of D23 Expo, Ryan Hurley from Turtle Power Podcast joins Tricia Barr, BJ Priester and Kay from FANgirl Blog to discuss how Disney will affect the Star Wars galaxy. What happens when Lucasfilm's ownership transitioned from a sole patron to corporate stakeholders? How did this affect script changes? Ryan Hurley relates his experience covering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboot by Michael Bay and how fans affected the script and final movie.

Spoilers, speculation and storytelling serve as the foundation for this episode. From Cover Girl makeup to leaked Russian images, Tricia Barr, BJ Priester and Geek Kay of FANgirl Blog break down recent spoilers for The Force Awakens. (Want to skip the major spoilers then jump from the Spoiler Intro to the 30 minute mark.)

The Meta segment looks at the potential influence of Hayao Miyizaki after Dave Filoni revealed last year it was a foundation suggested by Kathleen Kennedy. We've already seen Miyazaki's influence in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

How to resources affect storytelling? The Hyperspace Calculations segment mulls lightsabers, kyber crystals and the reasons Rey might be on Jakku. 

Then there is that matter of the MacGuffin in The Force Awakens...

Not only did the June 2015 Issue of Vanity Fair give fans a cast of new characters to ponder, it provided a slew of interviews that revealed quite a few things about Star Wars' storytellers.

Season 1 of Star Wars Rebels has opened up an infinite number of possibilities for the future. Join Tricia Barr, Geek Kay and BJ Priester of FANgirl, to consider the future for your favorite Rebels Hera, Kanan, Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Chopper.

With Star Wars Rebels Season 1 now over, B.J. Priester, Tricia Barr and Kay provide insights on executive producer Dave Filoni's career and contributions to Star Wars. They also break down where you can find Dave Filoni at Celebration Anaheim.

We start at the very beginning, with one of the earliest hires in the reinvigoration of the Star Wars franchise: Simon Kinberg. He is definitely a Jedi Master of movie-making. From there, the discussion dives into the role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, including Mark Hamill's recent discussion of the character.

In this episode Bryan Young from Full of Sith joins Kay Serna, BJ Priester and Tricia Barr to explore The Force Awakens screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan's career and consider the ways he will influence the story. Afterward, we discuss mirroring and parallels in storytelling and antagonist journeys.

In this episode Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester and Geek Kay try to peek inside the Mystery Box of The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams. They take a look back at his career - its successes and failures - to predict what he will bring to Star Wars. The teaser trailer and the name reveal provide an opportunity to discuss naming characters and ponder what names like Poe, Kylo Ren, Finn, Rey and BB-8 might mean. The storytelling segment considers the stories in movie theaters and television that may influence how the protagonist's or protgonists' arc may flow through the Sequel Trilogy. The closing plot bunny giveaway is holiday themed.

In this episode, Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester and Geek Kay explore the career of Kathleen Kennedy and what she brings to Lucasfilm. The Force Awakens inspires an infinite number of possibilities considering the philosophies of the storytellers and the storyverse. For the storytelling segment, Tricia, B.J. and Kay look to other succesful heroic stories made recently that suggest how the Hero's Journey will be modernized. The plot bunny giveaway this month is inspired by the Episode VII title.

Megan Crouse joins Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester and Geek Kay of FANgirl Blog to discuss the legacy of George Lucas on Star Wars. The speculation segment considers context and how one picture can be interpreted many different ways. The potential effect of Star Wars Rebels is explored before plot bunnies inspired by the show are shared with listeners.

Today marks the release of the first episode of Hyperspace Theories, a new Star Wars podcast centered on speculation and storytelling in the galaxy far, far away. We plan to record our shows monthly, although we may release shows more frequently on occasion if we have more to say!

The regular co-hosts of Hyperspace Theories are Tricia Barr, my editor and storytelling collaborator B.J. Priester, and FANgirl contributor and longtime fandom pal Kay. For the first show, to introduce the podcast and our goals, we’ll cover all the discussion. In future episodes, we hope to have a guest join us for our conversation.

In our inaugural episode, we begin by introducing ourselves and the goals of the podcast. In our discussion segments, we first talk about the stakeholders whose perspectives will shape the future of Star Wars stories, and how keeping their interests in mind can guide speculation on what choices are being made. Next we consider a key world-building element facing the Story Group and its storytellers: the Force, and how it will be portrayed in the movies and other media. Finally, we end with our short segment just for fun: the Plot Bunny Giveaway.

We hope you’ll give the episode a listen.