Worldbuilding in Maul - Shadow Lord
Hyperspace Theories
On the new episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester begin our discussion of the latest series from Lucasfilm Animation, Maul – Shadow Lord. The ten-episode first season has been releasing on Disney+ with paired episodes each Monday in April 2026, culminating in the season finale on May the Fourth. The creative team already has confirmed a second season of the series is in production, ensuring the character arcs of the principal figures in the story will have much more to come. For this podcast episode, we focus on the world-building developed for Maul –...
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Lucasfilm's New Era Officially Begins
Hyperspace Theories
On January 15, 2026, Lucasfilm that Kathleen Kennedy is “stepping down” as president of the company. Dave Filoni will take on the role of President and Chief Creative Officer. Lynwen Brennan, who for the past two years has held the title of “President & General Manager, Lucasfilm Business” alongside Kennedy, will continue in that role as “Co-President” with Filoni. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, recorded days later, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester discuss the implications of this long-anticipated transition in the highest levels of Lucasfilm’s leadership. We...
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Two 2025 Superhero Movies Show Star Wars' Missed Path
Hyperspace Theories
The year 2025 marked the sixth without a new Star Wars movie in theaters since The Rise of Skywalker concluded the Sequel Trilogy. In the past few years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC superhero films have struggled with consistency at reaching their prior levels of box-office earnings and fan satisfaction. We found it interesting, then, that two 2025 superhero movies – the MCU’s rebooted The Fantastic Four: First Steps and DC’s new iteration of Superman – showcased several prominent storytelling elements that we wish Lucasfilm had been able to...
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Wicked For Good
Hyperspace Theories
A year after Part I, the Wicked movie franchise returns with For Good, an adaptation of the second act of the Broadway musical. In this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine how Wicked: For Good takes advantage of the movie format, and the passage of time since the original musical was written, to strengthen the character arcs of Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero in tandem with the story’s themes. Like Part I, For Good also maximizes the opportunity to include locations, action sequences, and other visual elements which...
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K-Pop Demon Hunters: Evolving Myth
Hyperspace Theories
In a matter of weeks, the Sony-produced animated movie K-Pop Demon Hunters became the all-time most-viewed original title on Netflix. A limited-release theatrical run of the sing-along version of the film, for two days on fewer than two thousand screens after it had been available on streaming for two months, was the #1 movie at the box office for that weekend. With four songs in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Golden” reaching #1, K-Pop Demon Hunters has attained soundtrack feats not seen since Purple Rain (1984) and Saturday Night...
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ANDOR's Point of View
Hyperspace Theories
For our third episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast discussing the second season of Andor, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine how the series portrays characterization through the use of point of view in its writing and visual imagery. Although prose fiction Star Wars usually relies upon third-person limited storytelling, only revealing to the reader what the characters themselves know or understand, cinematic Star Wars sometimes gives the impression of a third-person omniscient perspective, with the audience as an external observer watching a "true" version of events unfold. In Andor,...
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Bad Luck Ghorman: ANDOR & History
Hyperspace Theories
On the latest episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester continue their analysis of Season Two of the Disney+ streaming series Andor: A Star Wars Story with a discussion centered on the Ghorman storyline heavily featured across Episodes 4 to 8 and culminating in the eighth episode focused entirely on the the tragedy of the Ghorman Massacre. One major theme of this storyline is the power of propaganda, introduced in the first Imperial scenes of the season’s first episode. We then consider other forms of Imperial manipulation of the events on Ghorman, and the...
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One Year Later: ANDOR Kicks Off Season 2
Hyperspace Theories
Beginning immediately on the heels of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025, the second season of the Disney+ streaming series Andor, now carrying the same A Star Wars Story subtitle as Rogue One, kicked off its four-week run with its first trio of episodes. The premiere and its title, "One Year Later," sets the framework for Season Two: as each "a movie a week" batch of three episodes brings us a year closer to Rogue One, several interweaving plots advance the characters arcs of Andor's expansive cast. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester analyze the...
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Star Wars Celebration Japan
Hyperspace Theories
On the latest episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, hosts Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester report from Star Wars Celebration Japan on the latest news and happenings. Highlights from key panels - The Mandalorian and Grogu, Andor Season 2, Ahsoka, Star Wars Animation 25th Anniversary - are discussed. Let's celebrate Star Wars!
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The Curious Case of Kathleen Kennedy's Retirement
Hyperspace Theories
On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester detour from our usual focus on fictional storytelling to discuss an instance of real-world events and surrounding narratives in the form of journalistic coverage of the upcoming retirement of Kathleen Kennedy from her current role as president of Lucasfilm. On February 24, 2025, experienced Hollywood journalist Matt Belloni at Puck reported that “Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year, per three sources.”...
info_outlineOn the new episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester begin our discussion of the latest series from Lucasfilm Animation, Maul – Shadow Lord. The ten-episode first season has been releasing on Disney+ with paired episodes each Monday in April 2026, culminating in the season finale on May the Fourth. The creative team already has confirmed a second season of the series is in production, ensuring the character arcs of the principal figures in the story will have much more to come.
For this podcast episode, we focus on the world-building developed for Maul – Shadow Lord and how the series reveals it across the first six episodes. The first episode, titled “The Dark Revenge” rather ominously, naturally does a lot of the heavy lifting, but additional layers and implications to the world-building continue to unfold in further episodes. Interestingly, the season (through eight episodes) is set entirely on the planet of Janix, which has many recognizable location types from previous Star Wars storytelling as well as elements familiar from its other inspirational source material, such as gangster films and police procedurals. More importantly, however, Maul – Shadow Lord benefits from a development process that facilitated the entire season to be designed and written as a whole. This enabled the writers and creators to plan out the core character arcs, then build the world to suit the needs of that story in a way that feels natural and organic to the audience. From the symmetry in the disrupted fates of Maul and Devon to the buddy-cop duo of Lawson and Two-Boots, the criminal underworld and a Master-Padawan relationship, Maul – Shadow Lord takes advantage of its ability to rely on common traits and tropes to build a world with strong verisimilitude that serves, rather than distracts from, the trials and tribulations of the characters.
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