Star Wars director Gareth Edwards on AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a divisive ethical issue as studios scramble to respond.

From deepfake technology to the replacement of creatives in the pursuit of profit, AI is deeply embedded in our daily lives.

Star Wars and Jurassic World director Gareth Edwards, who directed the AI-themed tale The Creator, has come out in support of AI.

Edwards speaking at AI on the Lot, an event in Culver City, California, organised by Amazon, said: “I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a film-maker. It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be better than CGI.”

Edwards said that AI is most useful in preproduction, saying: “It’s only good for iteration and discovering what the movie should be, and then once you know what it is, go in and start making it your movie.”

He added, “It has no taste whatsoever. It is a f***ing genius at helping you. I view it like having a second-unit director who is a billionaire on acid. Like, it’ll do anything you ask, not a problem. Sometimes, it’ll [go] batshit crazy. And you’ll give it notes, and it’ll be like, ‘I don’t do notes. I’ll just do something totally different.’ But it’s worth it.”

The use of generative AI imagery in film and television has garnered a mixed reaction from critics (myself included).

Edwards, however, said that the pace of change in AI technology made it impossible to predict its future. “We don’t know where it’s going to go. I think anybody saying they know exactly what’s going to happen over the next five years is just a liar.”

What are your thoughts on AI? Is it more Star Slop than Star Wars? Let me know in the comments below.

Marcia Lucas, who saved Star Wars, dies aged 80

Marcia Lucas, an Oscar-winning editor of Star Wars and ex-wife of Star Wars creator George Lucas, has passed away from cancer at the age of 80.

“Marcia will be remembered as a brilliant storyteller, a trailblazer for women in film, a loving mother and grandmother, a generous host, and a loyal friend whose humor and sparkle filled every room she entered. Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun, and more full of love,” Marcia Lucas’ family said in a statement.

Lucas was a founding force behind Star Wars and helped shape its culture-defining success in 1977.

“Her work was known for its emotional intelligence, rhythm, and humanity — a rare ability to find the truth of a scene and bring heart, momentum, and clarity to the screen,” the statement added.

During the filming of Star Wars, she suggested to her then-husband that Obi-Wan Kenobi should sacrifice himself fighting Darth Vader on the Death Star. That narrative decision raised the stakes for the film’s third act and set up the conflict between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the sequels.

Along with editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew at a fledgling Lucasfilm, Lucas literally saved George Lucas' space opera in the editing suite. The climactic Death Star battle succeeds because of her tireless dedication to storytelling. Forming a foundation for the wizardry of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and John Williams' legendary score.

George Lucas credited her with helping make sense of the vast amount of footage filmed for the climactic Death Star battle.

"It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that," he told Rolling Stone shortly after the film's release.

"Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that."

She also collaborated with director Martin Scorsese on a string of his acclaimed 1970s films, including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and New York, New York.

Lucas would go on to work with George Lucas on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark in an uncredited capacity, and, finally, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

In a poignant quote shared by Lucasfilm, Lucas once described her passion for the craft of editing.

“I love film editing,” she said. “I have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair.”

Doctor Who: The Movie at 30

30 years ago, Doctor Who: The Movie was broadcast on UK TV!

The movie began life when Amblin's Philip Segal took the idea to director Steven Spielberg (Jaws), who ultimately passed on the project. Segal, who had worked on seaQuest DSV, Earth 2 and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, partnered with Universal and Fox.

There was fevered press speculation about spider-like Daleks created with computer-generated imagery (CGI), as seen in Babylon 5 and seaQuest DSV.

In the weeks leading up to its eagerly anticipated premiere, I was scrambling to finish my final year dissertation (should have written about Doctor Who and Star Wars, but that’s a story for another time) and edit my video major for an undergraduate course in BA (Hons) Media Production at Bournemouth University.

The Anglo-American co-production is somewhat of a curiosity decades before Disney+, as it failed to relaunch Doctor Who before Russell T Davies’ successful reboot in 2005. Whilst it was a ratings success on this side of the Atlantic, the Fox Network did not order a full series despite The X-Files' popularity. However, it gave fans (myself included) Sylvester McCoy’s swansong as the Seventh Doctor and introduced Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.

McGann channelled H.G. Wells’ Victoriana as the titular Time Lord and has subsequently reprised the role on television and for Big Finish (I’ve never listened to any of the audiobooks).

Eric Roberts, brother of Oscar-winner Julia Roberts, played The Master, which was stipulated for the US market.

That day in 1996 was the first and last time I watched Doctor Who: The Movie! Watching with housemates was a poignant farewell to 3 years of university life. I'm looking forward to watching the remastered movie in 4K UHD on Blu-ray.

What are your memories of watching Doctor Who: The Movie? Let me know in the comments below.

The Mandalorian and Grogu lifts off

It's a long weekend on both sides of the Atlantic, and Star Wars is number one at the box office.

The Mandalorian and Grogu may have garnered mixed reviews with the lowest box office bow in the franchise's storied history. However, it's on track to recoup its $165 million budget with an estimated $103 million opening weekend through Memorial Day in the US and $64 million internationally.

Star Wars fans (myself included) are mostly enjoying the first big-screen adventure in almost 7 years. I’m reminded of childhood cinema trips to see the original trilogy with my late mum! Action figures in tow! Read our spoiler-free review.

Star Wars turns 49 today! Next year, George Lucas' space opera celebrates its 50th anniversary with the original Star Wars back on the big screen, followed by Star Wars: Starfighter on 28th May 2027.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, based on the fan-favourite characters from The Mandalorian on Disney+, is in cinemas and IMAX now.

Have you seen The Mandalorian and Grogu? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

The Mandalorian and Grogu

Star Wars is back on the big screen!

For over half a decade, Star Wars has been on the small screen with animated and live-action spin-off series on Disney+. Will The Mandalorian and Grogu, based on the fan-favourite characters from The Mandalorian, be more than a feature-length episode that should have been released on Disney+?

Matt, Harry and Luke Charlton don Beskar armour and embark on a family-friendly adventure in a galaxy far, far away...

Guest post by the Charltons

This is the way.

2026 is shaping up to be one of the biggest box-office draws in years. Already planning to see well over 5 films this year (I can’t remember the last time that happened) with the kids, it's great to go to the movies and share laughter, shock, awe, and excitement over popcorn.

Our last outing was The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and we had a great time – I couldn’t help but notice just how many times they had to labour the point about putting your mobile phones away and enjoying the movie – I know that since COVID, a lot of people have struggled being separated from their devices for 2 hours but generally speaking I’ve found most people to be respective of these rules – especially at a £15 per person IMAX showing.

Anticipation has been building for The Mandalorian and Grogu for years!

I watched all of The Mandalorian series as they aired on Disney+, Ahsoka season one, too. I’ve dabbled in Star Wars: Rebels, and I haven’t seen all of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, even though I enjoyed the ones I’ve watched so far.

My 10-year-old has gotten really into the series and has watched all of it in the last month. We had a Mandalorian-themed birthday party. I 3D printed him a helmet, we painted it together, and he’s looking at one of the really expensive Darksabers with his birthday money. He was worried that he hadn’t finished Ahsoka yet, and he hasn’t watched Star Wars: Rebels, but he absolutely adores The Mandalorian.

Safe to say, the stakes were high when we booked this movie.

This is our spoiler-free review.

The movie carries a 12A rating in the UK, which means you need an adult to go and see it if you’re not at least 12. The trailers we saw at Cineworld included Scary Movie, which was interesting, but that looks to carry a 12A certificate too – not too surprising for this day and age, but one that’s worth bearing in mind if you are taking smaller kids with you.

Being neurodivergent, we booked the first showing on a Saturday morning, and we arrived in plenty of time to get settled, ear defenders in tow.

We were lucky to get a free poster with each ticket, we passed on the Cineworld exclusive Grogu popcorn buckets as I’ve been told at £34.99 the quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I guess that’s to be expected – we certainly don’t have the same sort of madness over this side of the pond for popcorn buckets and whilst I do have a mouse droid bucket downstairs in my MattCave™ it was gifted to me rather than something I actively sought out to purchase.

The biggest problem I have with these things is once you start putting food in there, how on earth do you get it clean? Then it's sticky, and just no – it doesn’t work for me.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

You might be wondering if you need to have seen the plethora of Disney+ material that Star Wars has put out there to properly enjoy The Mandalorian and Grogu – and let’s not beat about the bush here, we’re talking hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Star Wars content.

The answer is no. You do not. There’s no overarching story from any series or movie that came before it. If you know who Mando (Pedro Pascal) is and who Grogu is, you’ve got enough to go see it. Even if you don’t I bet you’d have a great time.

Clocking in at 2 hours and 12 minutes runtime plus ads, trailers (no end credits but there’s some good music worth sticking around for), the whole thing feels like a really well put together Mando series/episode, and that isn’t a bad thing.

There are Easter eggs galore, and I have no doubts that on a second or third or even fourth viewing, I will find even more.

I took my 15-year-old and my 10-year-old. My wife would have joined us, but someone needs to stay with the cockapoos, and she often gets the short straw – mainly because I can drive and she cannot – but I’ll take her to see it for a date night, maybe if we can get a babysitter.

One of the things we do – whether it's just us or our autism – is see something on screen, look across at the person we’re watching it with to see if they are reacting with the same unbridled joy that we are – I caught both the kid doing this, and I do it too. There were so many of these moments throughout the entire movie, and I really do feel like I unlocked a core memory here.

This is Star Wars at its very best – I’ve seen it likened to Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau tipping out all of their Star Wars toys and just playing. I can see that totally. What we got was a romping ride filled with surprise, peril, joy, a few jump scares and satisfaction.

Ludwig Göransson does an amazing job on the soundtrack, with his signature Mandalorian theme featuring throughout (much to the joy of Luke – yes, he is named after *that* Luke, and yes, I am his father).

Sigourney Weaver (Alien) is great, the whole cast is, to be honest. We loved every minute of it, and I would quite happily say that this is one of, if not the best movie that Disney have put out there in the Star Wars universe.

I haven’t enjoyed a Star Wars movie at the cinema this much since "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?" It’s amazing to share this joy with my children, but I think this movie will appeal to Star Wars fans of all ages, genders, and whatever their situation.

Pure unbridled joy, fist pump moments, and so so many "AWWW!" "WOW!" moments. I saw so many different emotions on the face of my 10-year-old – it made every second of it worth it.

I saw some mixed reviews just after the premiere. I also saw some bad press about it being the lowest opening weekend for a Star Wars movie, but the Rotten Tomatoes scores look to have settled at 63% critic and 89% Popcornmeter with over 2.5k reviews.

Ignore the critics who want to spoil the fun for everyone. Ignore any naysayers who might say Star Wars just isn’t for them anymore.

Go and see it, you won’t regret it.

I bet you laugh out loud at least once, and the smiles command the highest bounty there is.

I’m ordering the soundtrack on vinyl as soon as I finish this review.

Have you seen the movie yet? What did you think?

Masters of the Universe, Supergirl, Toy Story 5, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Avengers: Doomsday are just some of the movies on our must-see at the cinema list. What’s on yours? Let us know in the comments below.

Matt, Harry and Luke.

Masters of the Universe unleashes He-Man nostalgia

Following a star-studded press screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre, transformed into Castle Grayskull, Mattel Films and Amazon MGM Studios have dropped an official final trailer for Masters of the Universe.



Read the official synopsis:

"After being separated for 15 years, the Sword of Power leads Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) back to Eternia, where he discovers his home shattered under the fiendish rule of Skeletor (Jared Leto). To save his family and his world, Adam must join forces with his closest allies, Teela (Camila Mendes) and Duncan/Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba), and embrace his true destiny as He-Man — the most powerful man in the universe."

Masters of the Universe is directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee) from a script by Chris Butler. It stars Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Adam/He-Man, alongside Camila Mendes as Teela, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn, Idris Elba as Man-At-Arms, Morena Baccarin as The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Malcolm/Fisto, and Jared Leto as Skeletor.

Mattel launched Masters of the Universe with a toy line in 1982 followed by the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon from 1983-1985. The franchise now includes multiple animated series, toy lines, comics, video games, and books, along with a 1987 live-action film.

Masters of the Universe is in cinemas on 5th June 2026.

Are you looking forward to Masters of the Universe? Let me know in the comments below.

Star Wars actor Tom Kane dies aged 64

Tom Kane, best known to Star Wars fans (myself included) for voicing Yoda and the narrator in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, has died at the age of 64 at a Kansas hospital, surrounded by family.

His talent agency announced the news on Facebook:

"Today we say goodbye to Tom Kane — a legendary voice actor whose work shaped the childhoods and imaginations of millions around the world.

From his unforgettable performances in Star Wars to countless animated series, documentaries, and games, Tom brought wisdom, strength, humor, and heart to every role he touched. His voice became part of our lives, our memories, and the stories we carry with us.

But beyond the incredible career was an extraordinary man. Tom was a devoted husband and father who, alongside his wife, built a loving family of nine children — three biological and six welcomed through adoption and fostering. That compassion and generosity defined who he was just as much as his remarkable talent did.

Though his voice may now be silent, the characters, stories, and love he gave to the world will live on forever.

Rest in peace, Tom Kane. Thank you for everything.

May the Force be with you, always."

The Mandalorian and Grogu in Fortnite

Fortnite and Star Wars fans (myself included) can watch a 10-minute sneak peek from The Mandalorian and Grogu for free this Tuesday.



I enjoyed watching the special look at The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+! Seeing an INT-4 Interceptor (as seen in Matt Ferguson's poster art) in action was so much fun! Hopefully, there'll be more deep cut Easter eggs in the upcoming Star Wars movie!

Whilst speaking about the upcoming Star Wars film, director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) teased that he’s already thinking far beyond this next adventure, especially when it comes to where Grogu’s story is headed in the larger Star Wars universe.

"Creatively, I have a lot of plans, and I have a lot of thoughts about these characters, especially for Grogu. Grogu is a character that is – his species lives for centuries.

“He's on a path to be both a Jedi and a Mandalorian. He's making certain choices and decisions, and he has a great teacher now. And so, as he develops and grows, there's opportunities for stories that would emanate from that."

The Mandalorian and Grogu, based on the fan-favourite characters from The Mandalorian on Disney+, embark on their most thrilling mission yet in The Mandalorian and Grogu, an all-new family-friendly Star Wars adventure filmed for IMAX and opening exclusively in cinemas on 22nd May 2026.

Are you looking forward to The Mandalorian and Grogu? Will you be watching the 10-minute sneak peek in Fortnite? Let me know in the comments below.

Star Wars: Starfighter alters the Force

Details regarding Star Wars: Starfighter remain scarce, but an intriguing plot description has emerged from a reliable source.

According to a synopsis published on IMDb:

"In a rebuilding galaxy, a solitary pilot becomes entangled in a crucial mission as new threats emerge. Their journey may alter the future of the Force itself."

The upcoming film directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) stars Ryan Gosling, Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams.

Star Wars: Starfighter, a standalone story set 5 years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, is due for release on 28th May 2027 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of George Lucas' space opera.

Are you looking forward to Star Wars: Starfighter? Let me know in the comments below.

Doctor Who streaming on AMC+

Following the ending of the Disney+ deal after only two seasons, the future of Doctor Who has been in flux. However, AMC+ has signed an exclusive deal to stream the beloved BBC sci-fi series in the US.

“Doctor Who strengthens AMC+’s position as a destination for premium genre storytelling – curated franchises defined by iconic worlds, passionate fan bases and enduring cultural impact,” said Courtney Thomasma, Executive Vice President of AMC Global Media’s linear and streaming products. “We’re thrilled to welcome the Whoniverse into our home of fandoms, giving longtime fans a reason to return while inviting new audiences to discover one of television’s most beloved franchises.”

The streaming rights are for 13 seasons from 2005-2022, featuring Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker. It does not include classic serials or the two seasons starring Ncuti Gatwa as the titular Time Lord on Disney+.

“Doctor Who is one of the most beloved franchises in television, with a fanbase that spans generations,” said Lawrence Szabo, EVP of Content Sales, North America & LatAm, BBC Studios. “AMC+ has built a differentiated home for premium genre franchises and deeply engaged fandoms, making it the ideal exclusive U.S. streaming partner for these 13 seasons of Doctor Who. We’re excited to bring these adventures back to longtime U.S. fans and welcome new audiences into the Whoniverse. Allons-y!”

This announcement follows a Reddit rumour that the BBC has signed a three-series deal with AMC Global Media and Sony Pictures Television (owner of Badwolf Studios) for a new series of Doctor Who. Production is expected to begin in 2027, with the first season slated for a global premiere in 2028.

Beginning 11th June, AMC+ will now be home to 13 seasons and 176 episodes (including specials) of the award-winning sci-fi series.

Are you looking forward to streaming Doctor Who on AMC+? Let me know in the comments below.