It’s like 1999 all over again.<\/p>\n
Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>fans have been getting a crazy amount of content\u00a0since the entire franchise was bought by Disney. Though\u00a0Clone Wars\u00a0<\/em>ended, and canon was subsequently reset, there’s been multiple novels, comics, and the new\u00a0Star Wars Rebels<\/em> cartoon released (which ended its first season on a high note, including the return\u00a0of\u00a0Clone Wars<\/em> character Ahsoka Tano). Information on upcoming media continues to pour out, from long-awaited\u00a0Battlefront 3<\/em> to rumors of\u00a0Episode VII<\/em>‘s plot.<\/p>\n Today,\u00a0Episode VIII<\/em> got a release date (subject to change, I’m sure, given how far out it is) and, more interestingly, the first stand-alone\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> movie was announced:\u00a0Rogue One<\/em>.<\/p>\n For readers who aren’t big\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>fans, the title doesn’t mean much. To longtime fans, though, this is an extremely exciting announcement.<\/p>\n Pre-canon wipe,\u00a0Rogue Squadron was an elite fighter squadron led by Wedge Antilles in the war against the Empire. Founded by Luke Skywalker, they were the “best of the best” X-wing unit and were the spearhead of offensive operations.<\/p>\n Rogue Squadron featured in a series of comics by the same name, plus a set of four novels written by Michael Stackpole. The late Aaron Allston wrote a trilogy of X-wing novels that immediately followed Stackpole’s Rogue Squadron, though Allston’s relegated the Rogues to secondary status to focus on the screwups of Wraith Squadron.<\/p>\n Among the original expanded universe novels,\u00a0the\u00a0X-wing<\/em> series is consistently listed among the best and most-loved, often just after Zahn’s\u00a0Heir to the Empire<\/em> series that kicked off the entire EU.<\/p>\n Before\u00a0The Phantom Menace<\/em>, the Rogues also inspired a series of games also collectively referred to as\u00a0X-wing<\/em> – the titular game, which started it in 1993, followed by\u00a0TIE Fighter<\/em> (often considered the best of the series),\u00a0X-wing vs TIE Fighter<\/em>, and finally\u00a0X-wing Alliance<\/em>. The final game came out just before\u00a0The Phantom Menace<\/em>, and the series has never been revisited, though it had a spiritual successor of sorts in the\u00a0Star Wars Galaxies<\/em> MMO’s\u00a0Jump to Lightspeed<\/em> expansion.<\/p>\n Among the\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> fandom, there are distinct groups (though they’re seldom spelled out as such). Jedi and Sith are definitely one group (and arguably the most popular); there’s also the stormtrooper cosplayers (most notably the 501st, which does a large amount of charity work); and a smaller segment of X-wing fans.<\/p>\n So, at least a part of the fanbase is\u00a0very<\/em> fired up to see an X-wing movie. And this is a huge change of pace – for the first time since\u00a0The Phantom Menace<\/em> released in 1999, there’s a major\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> project that\u00a0isn’t<\/em> based on Jedi or Sith.<\/p>\n And pilots everywhere rejoiced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s like 1999 all over again. Star Wars\u00a0fans have been getting a crazy amount of content\u00a0since the entire franchise was bought by Disney. Though\u00a0Clone Wars\u00a0ended, and canon was subsequently reset, there’s been multiple novels, comics, and the new\u00a0Star Wars Rebels … Continue reading