August 5, 2025 • 23 mins
The Sound of Star Wars.
John & Matt break down how Lucasfilm can win the content war in a challenging, glutted landscape - short form audio content. Audio books are taking off again, so embrace the model and do what George Lucas himself championed by finding ways to elevate and enhance Star Wars in unique ways!
Hosts
John Mills and Matthew Rushing
You’ve found the best Star Wars podcast with one-of-a-kind discussions in the spirit of fun! While you’re here, look around our creator-focused network of podcasts with all the best of Star Trek, a deep-dive read of Harry Potter's magical world, analysis of film's greatest directors, and breaking news from top names in international film festivals, and so much more!
Send us your feedback!
Twitter: @TheJediMasters
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdParty/
Email: http://www.thenerdparty.com/contact
Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
John & Matt break down how Lucasfilm can win the content war in a challenging, glutted landscape - short form audio content. Audio books are taking off again, so embrace the model and do what George Lucas himself championed by finding ways to elevate and enhance Star Wars in unique ways!
Hosts
John Mills and Matthew Rushing
You’ve found the best Star Wars podcast with one-of-a-kind discussions in the spirit of fun! While you’re here, look around our creator-focused network of podcasts with all the best of Star Trek, a deep-dive read of Harry Potter's magical world, analysis of film's greatest directors, and breaking news from top names in international film festivals, and so much more!
Send us your feedback!
Twitter: @TheJediMasters
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdParty/
Email: http://www.thenerdparty.com/contact
Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm going to recruit this Welcome to the note party.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi, this is Nick and Ostasu, story editor on Star Wars,
The Clone Wars and Star Wars bad Batch, and you
are listening to aggressive negotiations.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
That's right, it's aggressive negotiations. The Star Wars podcast that
delves into nooks, crannies and crevice's you never knew existed
in the galaxy far far away. I am one of
your humble hosts, Jedi Master John Mills and joining me
on this journey once more, forever more. Possibly don't know
we lost the map on how to get out of Hyperspace,
(00:45):
Jedi Master Matthew Rushing, Matt, do you know where the
damn map is?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I'm panicking here. I was laughing when you said crevices.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
I was like, did we get lost in one of
the fold some job of the hut here?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You know what if that's where the topics are, that's
where we're going, Matt. That people should expect that by
this point with this show, And something that they should
also expect is that if they're enjoying the show, they
should go over to Apple Podcasts and drop us a
rating and review. Look, we know that we ask so
much of everybody to go over and tiel star rating
(01:21):
and review.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
But it's all we ask of you.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
All we will ever ask of you, and we would
appreciate it if you did. And Matt, we have another
one of our surprise topics sort.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Of nights going on.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We'll having a little bit of fun with this, and
you know what, first and foremost, before we get into
the topic, I just want to say, from Matt and
myself out to everybody, we hope everybody's doing okay, all right, yeah,
genuine side noe. Just I know it's weird to open
the show like this, but you know what, here we
are in summer twenty twenty five and everybody just seems
(01:53):
to get more and more angsty. Let's be more Jedi,
let's be more Qui Gone going forward, and let's let's
roll with little.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Mar Yeah, let's go a little more zen out there,
you know.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, a little a little bit more zen, a little
bit more zen. Even Yoda in the sixth season of
The Clone Wars realized, you know, everything's going to work
out too, shall pass, That's right, But what won't pass
is this idea that I have in my head for
what we're going to talk about, which comes from a
conversation we were having before we started recording. Okay, so
(02:25):
you mentioned how a friend of ours, Yancey, and myself
just listened to a brand new audiobook interpretation of Shadows
of the Empire. Now, you and I, there's an episode
of Aggressive Negotiations. We'll reference it in the show notes
that you can go back and listen to us rereading it.
I just went and I listened to this audiobook and
(02:48):
I enjoyed it more this time than the last time.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
You know, you can try our meetings and everything like that.
I did. I enjoyed it more. It was fun. It
was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Really captured the spirit that maybe I was missing on
the most recent reread.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Anyway. Two questions.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
First question, do you think that this is going to
generate a rebirth of interest in Star Wars books, which
has flagged over recent years by revisiting the classics and
making them available as audio editions. And two, given the
podcast streaming audiobooks Spotify environment, do you think it's time
(03:29):
for Lucasfilm finally to re embrace the radio drama, which
they did so well with the original trilogy.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I love this question, John, and you know, I think
back to a few years ago. I'd been reviewing the
Star Wars books for the longest time, and one of
the things that they they did was they did that
Dooku Jedi Lost audio drama, which is, yeah, phenomenal. The
(04:02):
production value is fantastic, h and you know, a full
cast and all the sound effects and everything like that
so well done. And you know, I grew up listening
to audio dramas as well as as a kid. I
loved them like a radio show that I would I
would listen to all the time, my sister and I
and so I'm predisposed to love this stuff, right, And
(04:26):
so when this came out, I thought it was a
great medium to dive into because it was almost like
listening to an episode of the Clone Wars right in
in a format where they just did such a good job.
So I think that there really is something to this
to to be able to create stories in this this
(04:49):
type of format that like the Extended Universe novels that
we loved, you know, started with Air to the Empire
and beyond, you know, to go back and tell stories
in this manner that can fill in those wonderful little
gaps that we have in all of these characters' lives,
(05:11):
I think is pretty fantastic. And obviously, you know, one
of the things that has been kind of filling that
kind of void is you know, the Tales of series
that they've been doing in animation, which both of you
and I very big fans of. We've we've been you know,
big proponents of people going to watch those. It's great stuff.
(05:33):
But this I think is really an untapped medium to
be able to tell Star Wars stories uh and really
interesting and powerful ways, and to experience Star Wars uh,
you know, in in new and fascinating ways. And I
am surprised that we haven't gotten more of this. Now
(05:54):
they have to their to their credit, uh, you know,
Star Wars has done this in other series. They did
this in the High Republic series. They actually did a
couple of audio dramas and people seem to like those.
So it's not as though they have not continued this.
(06:14):
But I'm surprised that we don't have a more regular
like every year, you know, one of these comes out.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Right, and that I think hits the nail on the
head is especially in the crowded content field. We were
talking about this in a whole different context. Recently, in
a crowded content field, content's just getting more and more hectic,
and it's just more and more of just a fire
hose turned on everybody. And the only shot you have
(06:44):
at keeping your IP alive is you have to flood
the content in. And the thing is, I will I
will throw Stranger Things under the bus right now. I
understand there are different production considerations and stuff like that,
but any TV show, not just Stranger Things, but any
TV show which has taken two to three year breaks. Yep,
(07:05):
that's why people cool on these things. The whole reason
that you go back to the golden era of television,
which I contend goes through the nineteen nineties, are agreed,
and maybe even the early two thousands, is you had
something every single week. When something caught on, you could
hammer people with it. You can't let up on the gas.
(07:26):
So to your point, yes, I should have a new
audiobook on a regular basis. I should have a subscription
feed on a regular basis. They should be making it
available through Disney Plus or little tastes of it on
Disney Plus, where it's like, hey, check out our audio books.
They have all of these outlets open to them and
they don't take advantage of them, which blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And in terms of, like, you know, radio dramas, wouldn't
it be great just we just had the renaissance with
the anniversary re releases, a Phantom Menace and Revenge of
the Sith. Yeah, let's do a radio drama, guys, come on?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, No, I think that is actually a fantastic idea
because in that you know what you can do, especially
you know, you think of creating a radio drama that's
based off of Stover's Episode three novelization. Oh my gosh,
can you imagine how? Because that novelization is the high
(08:23):
water mark of Star Wars novelizations. It's up there with
the greatest of Star Wars books because what it did
is it took one of the very best Star Wars
movies that was ever made and it made it even better,
right because it gave you that insight into the characters
(08:46):
with that moment, this is Anakin Skywalker, this is Obi
wan Kenobi, which filled in those places that you always
wanted to go and allows you to experience the characters
that you would always love in a way that expanded
your knowledge of who they were by getting to explore
(09:08):
pieces of information that brought them to life in a
whole new way. And so I couldn't imagine a better way,
you know, to then celebrate Star Wars than by doing
something like you just mentioned well.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And I think additionally, you know, you go back to
the original Star Wars radio dramas and Jedi unfortunately doesn't
live up to the first two, and it's because they
took so long to get around to it. There were
only six episodes. Brian Daley was ill at the time
their hold. But it's fun in its own regard. But
I go back to Star Wars and Empire, and there
(09:47):
are so many things that are different. It embraced the
fact that the medium was different. It frees you up
in a certain way, and I think it allows you
to do certain things where other act get the opportunity
to perform these beloved characters and bring their own spin
on things. And in addition to their own spin, you
(10:09):
get to the essence of what makes the character the character.
If I change the actor who's playing the character, doesn't
change the character.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
If I change certain dialogue, does it change the character? No,
Like you suddenly under you get a better understanding of
character by the fact that different people. It's just like
a Broadway play. Yeah, I didn't see Michael Crawford play
the Phantom of the Opera. I saw Steve Barton play
the Fano of the Opera. Steve Barton was the original role.
He did it differently similar enough because it's a big
(10:42):
Broadway production sort of thing. But he did Phantom in
his own way. It was his voice, it was his mannerisms,
it was his speaking, it was his movement. That gets
that you know, that gets further to that core, you know,
because Christopher Lee wasn't in Dooku Jedi Lost, right, but
it was still Doku well.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
And I mean again to point to the clone Wars, right,
they helped us to be able to see how different
voice actors could bring characters together and and vibe them
with a whole new sense of being. You know, James
Arnold Taylor or Obi Wan Kenobi or Matt Lantern as Anakin.
You know, in some ways, you know, you think about
those those two specifically. I mean, they are an expression
(11:28):
of those characters that some kids that's all they've ever known.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh you know what, I actually I want to interject
there really really funny really quick is when when my
youngest saw Revenge of the Sith for the first time,
it was in the theater re release that was recent
compared to when we're releasing this to whatever historian finds
this on a disc lost somewhere three hundred years from now.
(11:53):
I'm talking relative time here anyway. So in the beginning,
Hayden Christensen walks out, you know, in that little intro
where it's like, hey, thanks everybody for coming to this
special anniversary President blah blah blah blah blah. To her,
Matt Lanter's voice was Anakin's voice, right, because she had
been watching the Clone Wars up to that point. When
(12:16):
Hayden Christiansen walks out, she leans over to me and
she says, oh, I can tell that's Anakin. And I
didn't say anything to her, but in my head I
was like, Wow, what a tribute to Matt Lanter that
to her, there's no difference between these two people like that.
That I think speaks to what we're talking about. Yeah,
where you can have it in different media but people
(12:38):
will still accept it.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, when you think
too about this, you know, one of the things that
you mentioned kind of at the top of the show,
was the whole idea of, you know, does this kind
of help revitalize you know, Star Wars fiction, which you
know has had a rough time.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I'm actually reading a review cop right now of the
bad Batch Sanctuary novel that is going to come out
later this year, enjoying it. But I'm thinking to myself
as I'm reading it, how wonderful would it be to
have a full audio production of this book with all
of the actors from the bad Batch series playing these
(13:20):
characters in an audio drama version of this It would
be astounding, you know, because it would be like having
an episode of the show, but in this format, which
I think, you know, if if you're going to do
these things, this is I gosh, this is the way
to go, man, I think, because you could really bring
(13:43):
people back to Star Wars fiction and by then also
doing great dramatizations of some of the very best of
the expanded universe, Like say, can you imagine doing this
with a audio drama version of the Air to the
(14:04):
Empire series?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah? You couldn't.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Just me from buying all of them as fast as
humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
And and to your point.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It's not just somebody reading the book that's fun. An
audiobook is fun. And again I will sing praises on
Shadows of the Empire. They did just the right amount
of production on it. It was really well done and
it was read really well. But taking Air of the
Empire and making it a proper script with a voice cast,
(14:37):
and paying attention to the way they did the way
that Brian Daily created those original ones, you could have
real magic there, real real magic there. And agree, I
think that I think that the thing that gives me
hope is that it seems that in this Disney era,
(14:58):
what hobbled some efforts was this desire to control and
unify all of the media to tell one single story.
And I think, especially for an old Geezer fan like myself,
we always accepted that that wasn't necessary. These were, you know,
(15:20):
the comics were the additional adventures of Luke and Hahn
and leg.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, we didn't care.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Oh that doesn't jibe with what's on it. We didn't care.
We just wanted our monthly fix. We just wanted some content.
And again it gets back to that whole thing of
like just giving that content, and I think it would
be so beautiful, even if you did like a fifteen
minute weekly show where it was story like you and
you broke it up as like, imagine the story possibilities
(15:46):
of a Jedi trying to survive Order sixty six. Or
you want to tell the story of the origin of
the Jedi. We were talked about this on the recent show.
You want to tell a story about the origin of
the Jedi. Here's your formata and now you're not locked in.
It's not a film and your uh, your your whole
return on investment is different. Your expenditure is different, your
distribution is different, your presence is different. I mean, I'm
(16:10):
talking myself into doing something now and just be like,
let Disney come after me. This is this is uh
uh my name is Matt Rushing, and Disney consume me
at Matt Rushing zero two on any social networks. Remember
that name is Matt Rushing. Yes, go after him, Disney Wolds, yes, yes.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Please please don't.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh No.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I I see the thing about this is and I
you know, I just couldn't agree with you more. I
think that there's there's just kind of so much to
love here about this idea and what it does is
it really gives us the opportunity to to just be
able to enjoy uh Star Wars in a new way,
(16:54):
you know, and you and Yancy living that experience of
of of getting to hear a great audio version of
Shadows of the Empire and it bringing the book to
life to you in a way that made you think,
oh my gosh, this is like way better than I remember.
I think that's that's kind of the beauty of what
(17:15):
we're talking about, Like you're you're actually allowing people to
be able to then experience things that may make them
fall in love with it in a way that they
weren't in love with it before. Uh And and in
that experience, people then are hungry then to go and
(17:37):
search for more, you know, because you know, I don't
think Yancy will mind me saying this, but one of
the things that happened is that he immediately went and
listened to the audiobook version of Rogue Planet that had
also just come out. Because of his experience that he
had with the Shadows of the Empire, he immediately thought, well, man,
(18:01):
I want more of this. So he went and picked
up Rogue Planet and he listened to it. And so
when you do that you're just you know, you're encouraging
people then to go explore more of the content because
they liked something so much, they're like, oh, I want
(18:23):
more of this, and you know if you provide it,
if you build it, they will come.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
That's that's what they say. And so I would love
to see them build more of these things so that
when people enjoy something like Shadows of the Empire, they
can immediately be pointed to, if you liked that, you
should try this. And that's just all about creating that
(18:51):
content to make sure that it's there.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Can you imagine if they had done something like this
and then you tease it on Disney Plus and stuff
like that for galaxies Edge to sell the place as
a place you wanted to go. If you had an
audio series Tales from galaxies Edge, Tails from the Galaxy's Edge,
(19:13):
and it's it's not just centered around the Kylo Renen
character or anything like that. They can you know, come
and go as you need them to. But you could
actually tell those stories because look, I hate to break
it to everybody, as just as a closing point, kids
ain't reading no more. They're they're not They're they're scrolling
on on their devices.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I'm not saying that like old man shaking his physic clouds.
You know, I'm not yelling at the cloud right, I'm saying,
like it's rare for books to move. Now. This is it.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
This is how you're going to revitalize what was your
expanded universe in the past and move it beyond the
Gen xers and older millennials who are still okay with reading.
And I said, people aren't giving up reading because they're dumb.
They're giving up reading just because it takes a lot
of time and you can engage somebody a lot faster
(20:09):
and you can get anyway. I think we've made our point.
I'm not trying to be labor it or anything like that.
I think it would be great if the taste makers
and producers somehow heard this. I'll offer my services for free.
I think you would too. Matt Will Will Will be
(20:32):
your your initial group to get this moving inside the
hallowed halls of Disney and Lucasfilm. Just you know, I'll
show up for a weekend. I'll just pitch some ideas
that you guys walk out there. You go, free charge,
free charge. Just put my face like a little stamp
on every single product you sell.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
That's all I'm going to ask him at her. So
that's a boy. I'll kill sales.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But what won't kill sales is if people reach out
to you online.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Matt, where can people find you?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Well, you could find me all over social media under
the name Matt Rushing zero two, So just search the
media platform if I'm there, that's the name I'm under.
Of course, here on the network, there's a completed show
I did with Dre Kaufman talk about every single chapter
of the Harry Potter series one chapter of time. Speaking
of books. Also over on the TFM network doing a
bunch of shows once called the six Oho two Club,
(21:24):
which is a show where we talk about all of
the franchises we love. John's a frequent guest. We also
cross over with Star Wars episodes here with Aggressive Negotiations
or so. I'm also doing a lot of great Star
Trek up over there with my wonderful friend Chris Jones.
So if you like that franchise, that is the place
to be. But John, you know, if people would like
(21:46):
to talk to you, maybe they have some great ideas
of you know, stories that they would love to see
in this format where could people find you.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh well, you could go ahead and you can find
me as Kessel Junkie on your social network of choice
best one, and I think is letterboxed because all I
can do is talk about movies. You can also find
me on good Reads for those nerds out there like
me who are still reading. I'm active on that platform.
Name again is Kessel Junkie. And of course here on
the network you can hear me co hosting a series
with Darren Moser and Trisian Radel called house Lights, where
(22:18):
we talk about the works of different directors. We just
wrapped up Wes Craven and we're talking about Spike Jones
and if you have an idea for any directors, go
ahead and reach out to us.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And let us know. I'm just saying, Joseph Kasinski, I'm
on board. I'm already sold. I'm already on board.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I'm huge fan of the guy, and hopefully we can
get there and if they're listening, I hope that they
finally listen to me and we do a series about
Catherine Bigelow, because talk about a great director. People have
slept on over the years, but I had to go
back and I have to go into the Jedi archives,
and I have to reorganize Yoda's DVD collection so that yeah, right,
(23:01):
there's some classics in there, i'll tell you, but he's
into one of the he's there's some weird stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The less I say, the better. But I think it's
time we close these negotiations.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
John, negotiations are closed.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Join the Revolution, Join the Nerd Party,
I'm going to recruit this Welcome to the note party.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi, this is Nick and Ostasu, story editor on Star Wars,
The Clone Wars and Star Wars bad Batch, and you
are listening to aggressive negotiations.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
That's right, it's aggressive negotiations. The Star Wars podcast that
delves into nooks, crannies and crevice's you never knew existed
in the galaxy far far away. I am one of
your humble hosts, Jedi Master John Mills and joining me
on this journey once more, forever more. Possibly don't know
we lost the map on how to get out of Hyperspace,
(00:45):
Jedi Master Matthew Rushing, Matt, do you know where the
damn map is?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I'm panicking here. I was laughing when you said crevices.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
I was like, did we get lost in one of
the fold some job of the hut here?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You know what if that's where the topics are, that's
where we're going, Matt. That people should expect that by
this point with this show, And something that they should
also expect is that if they're enjoying the show, they
should go over to Apple Podcasts and drop us a
rating and review. Look, we know that we ask so
much of everybody to go over and tiel star rating
(01:21):
and review.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
But it's all we ask of you.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
All we will ever ask of you, and we would
appreciate it if you did. And Matt, we have another
one of our surprise topics sort.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Of nights going on.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
We'll having a little bit of fun with this, and
you know what, first and foremost, before we get into
the topic, I just want to say, from Matt and
myself out to everybody, we hope everybody's doing okay, all right, yeah,
genuine side noe. Just I know it's weird to open
the show like this, but you know what, here we
are in summer twenty twenty five and everybody just seems
(01:53):
to get more and more angsty. Let's be more Jedi,
let's be more Qui Gone going forward, and let's let's
roll with little.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Mar Yeah, let's go a little more zen out there,
you know.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, a little a little bit more zen, a little
bit more zen. Even Yoda in the sixth season of
The Clone Wars realized, you know, everything's going to work
out too, shall pass, That's right, But what won't pass
is this idea that I have in my head for
what we're going to talk about, which comes from a
conversation we were having before we started recording. Okay, so
(02:25):
you mentioned how a friend of ours, Yancey, and myself
just listened to a brand new audiobook interpretation of Shadows
of the Empire. Now, you and I, there's an episode
of Aggressive Negotiations. We'll reference it in the show notes
that you can go back and listen to us rereading it.
I just went and I listened to this audiobook and
(02:48):
I enjoyed it more this time than the last time.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
You know, you can try our meetings and everything like that.
I did. I enjoyed it more. It was fun. It
was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Really captured the spirit that maybe I was missing on
the most recent reread.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Anyway. Two questions.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
First question, do you think that this is going to
generate a rebirth of interest in Star Wars books, which
has flagged over recent years by revisiting the classics and
making them available as audio editions. And two, given the
podcast streaming audiobooks Spotify environment, do you think it's time
(03:29):
for Lucasfilm finally to re embrace the radio drama, which
they did so well with the original trilogy.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I love this question, John, and you know, I think
back to a few years ago. I'd been reviewing the
Star Wars books for the longest time, and one of
the things that they they did was they did that
Dooku Jedi Lost audio drama, which is, yeah, phenomenal. The
(04:02):
production value is fantastic, h and you know, a full
cast and all the sound effects and everything like that
so well done. And you know, I grew up listening
to audio dramas as well as as a kid. I
loved them like a radio show that I would I
would listen to all the time, my sister and I
and so I'm predisposed to love this stuff, right, And
(04:26):
so when this came out, I thought it was a
great medium to dive into because it was almost like
listening to an episode of the Clone Wars right in
in a format where they just did such a good job.
So I think that there really is something to this
to to be able to create stories in this this
(04:49):
type of format that like the Extended Universe novels that
we loved, you know, started with Air to the Empire
and beyond, you know, to go back and tell stories
in this manner that can fill in those wonderful little
gaps that we have in all of these characters' lives,
(05:11):
I think is pretty fantastic. And obviously, you know, one
of the things that has been kind of filling that
kind of void is you know, the Tales of series
that they've been doing in animation, which both of you
and I very big fans of. We've we've been you know,
big proponents of people going to watch those. It's great stuff.
(05:33):
But this I think is really an untapped medium to
be able to tell Star Wars stories uh and really
interesting and powerful ways, and to experience Star Wars uh,
you know, in in new and fascinating ways. And I
am surprised that we haven't gotten more of this. Now
(05:54):
they have to their to their credit, uh, you know,
Star Wars has done this in other series. They did
this in the High Republic series. They actually did a
couple of audio dramas and people seem to like those.
So it's not as though they have not continued this.
(06:14):
But I'm surprised that we don't have a more regular
like every year, you know, one of these comes out.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Right, and that I think hits the nail on the
head is especially in the crowded content field. We were
talking about this in a whole different context. Recently, in
a crowded content field, content's just getting more and more hectic,
and it's just more and more of just a fire
hose turned on everybody. And the only shot you have
(06:44):
at keeping your IP alive is you have to flood
the content in. And the thing is, I will I
will throw Stranger Things under the bus right now. I
understand there are different production considerations and stuff like that,
but any TV show, not just Stranger Things, but any
TV show which has taken two to three year breaks. Yep,
(07:05):
that's why people cool on these things. The whole reason
that you go back to the golden era of television,
which I contend goes through the nineteen nineties, are agreed,
and maybe even the early two thousands, is you had
something every single week. When something caught on, you could
hammer people with it. You can't let up on the gas.
(07:26):
So to your point, yes, I should have a new
audiobook on a regular basis. I should have a subscription
feed on a regular basis. They should be making it
available through Disney Plus or little tastes of it on
Disney Plus, where it's like, hey, check out our audio books.
They have all of these outlets open to them and
they don't take advantage of them, which blows my mind.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And in terms of, like, you know, radio dramas, wouldn't
it be great just we just had the renaissance with
the anniversary re releases, a Phantom Menace and Revenge of
the Sith. Yeah, let's do a radio drama, guys, come on?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Yeah, No, I think that is actually a fantastic idea
because in that you know what you can do, especially
you know, you think of creating a radio drama that's
based off of Stover's Episode three novelization. Oh my gosh,
can you imagine how? Because that novelization is the high
(08:23):
water mark of Star Wars novelizations. It's up there with
the greatest of Star Wars books because what it did
is it took one of the very best Star Wars
movies that was ever made and it made it even better,
right because it gave you that insight into the characters
(08:46):
with that moment, this is Anakin Skywalker, this is Obi
wan Kenobi, which filled in those places that you always
wanted to go and allows you to experience the characters
that you would always love in a way that expanded
your knowledge of who they were by getting to explore
(09:08):
pieces of information that brought them to life in a
whole new way. And so I couldn't imagine a better way,
you know, to then celebrate Star Wars than by doing
something like you just mentioned well.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And I think additionally, you know, you go back to
the original Star Wars radio dramas and Jedi unfortunately doesn't
live up to the first two, and it's because they
took so long to get around to it. There were
only six episodes. Brian Daley was ill at the time
their hold. But it's fun in its own regard. But
I go back to Star Wars and Empire, and there
(09:47):
are so many things that are different. It embraced the
fact that the medium was different. It frees you up
in a certain way, and I think it allows you
to do certain things where other act get the opportunity
to perform these beloved characters and bring their own spin
on things. And in addition to their own spin, you
(10:09):
get to the essence of what makes the character the character.
If I change the actor who's playing the character, doesn't
change the character.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
If I change certain dialogue, does it change the character? No,
Like you suddenly under you get a better understanding of
character by the fact that different people. It's just like
a Broadway play. Yeah, I didn't see Michael Crawford play
the Phantom of the Opera. I saw Steve Barton play
the Fano of the Opera. Steve Barton was the original role.
He did it differently similar enough because it's a big
(10:42):
Broadway production sort of thing. But he did Phantom in
his own way. It was his voice, it was his mannerisms,
it was his speaking, it was his movement. That gets
that you know, that gets further to that core, you know,
because Christopher Lee wasn't in Dooku Jedi Lost, right, but
it was still Doku well.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
And I mean again to point to the clone Wars, right,
they helped us to be able to see how different
voice actors could bring characters together and and vibe them
with a whole new sense of being. You know, James
Arnold Taylor or Obi Wan Kenobi or Matt Lantern as Anakin.
You know, in some ways, you know, you think about
those those two specifically. I mean, they are an expression
(11:28):
of those characters that some kids that's all they've ever known.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Oh you know what, I actually I want to interject
there really really funny really quick is when when my
youngest saw Revenge of the Sith for the first time,
it was in the theater re release that was recent
compared to when we're releasing this to whatever historian finds
this on a disc lost somewhere three hundred years from now.
(11:53):
I'm talking relative time here anyway. So in the beginning,
Hayden Christensen walks out, you know, in that little intro
where it's like, hey, thanks everybody for coming to this
special anniversary President blah blah blah blah blah. To her,
Matt Lanter's voice was Anakin's voice, right, because she had
been watching the Clone Wars up to that point. When
(12:16):
Hayden Christiansen walks out, she leans over to me and
she says, oh, I can tell that's Anakin. And I
didn't say anything to her, but in my head I
was like, Wow, what a tribute to Matt Lanter that
to her, there's no difference between these two people like that.
That I think speaks to what we're talking about. Yeah,
where you can have it in different media but people
(12:38):
will still accept it.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think you know, when you think
too about this, you know, one of the things that
you mentioned kind of at the top of the show,
was the whole idea of, you know, does this kind
of help revitalize you know, Star Wars fiction, which you
know has had a rough time.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I'm actually reading a review cop right now of the
bad Batch Sanctuary novel that is going to come out
later this year, enjoying it. But I'm thinking to myself
as I'm reading it, how wonderful would it be to
have a full audio production of this book with all
of the actors from the bad Batch series playing these
(13:20):
characters in an audio drama version of this It would
be astounding, you know, because it would be like having
an episode of the show, but in this format, which
I think, you know, if if you're going to do
these things, this is I gosh, this is the way
to go, man, I think, because you could really bring
(13:43):
people back to Star Wars fiction and by then also
doing great dramatizations of some of the very best of
the expanded universe, Like say, can you imagine doing this
with a audio drama version of the Air to the
(14:04):
Empire series?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah? You couldn't.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Just me from buying all of them as fast as
humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
And and to your point.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It's not just somebody reading the book that's fun. An
audiobook is fun. And again I will sing praises on
Shadows of the Empire. They did just the right amount
of production on it. It was really well done and
it was read really well. But taking Air of the
Empire and making it a proper script with a voice cast,
(14:37):
and paying attention to the way they did the way
that Brian Daily created those original ones, you could have
real magic there, real real magic there. And agree, I
think that I think that the thing that gives me
hope is that it seems that in this Disney era,
(14:58):
what hobbled some efforts was this desire to control and
unify all of the media to tell one single story.
And I think, especially for an old Geezer fan like myself,
we always accepted that that wasn't necessary. These were, you know,
(15:20):
the comics were the additional adventures of Luke and Hahn
and leg.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, we didn't care.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Oh that doesn't jibe with what's on it. We didn't care.
We just wanted our monthly fix. We just wanted some content.
And again it gets back to that whole thing of
like just giving that content, and I think it would
be so beautiful, even if you did like a fifteen
minute weekly show where it was story like you and
you broke it up as like, imagine the story possibilities
(15:46):
of a Jedi trying to survive Order sixty six. Or
you want to tell the story of the origin of
the Jedi. We were talked about this on the recent show.
You want to tell a story about the origin of
the Jedi. Here's your formata and now you're not locked in.
It's not a film and your uh, your your whole
return on investment is different. Your expenditure is different, your
distribution is different, your presence is different. I mean, I'm
(16:10):
talking myself into doing something now and just be like,
let Disney come after me. This is this is uh
uh my name is Matt Rushing, and Disney consume me
at Matt Rushing zero two on any social networks. Remember
that name is Matt Rushing. Yes, go after him, Disney Wolds, yes, yes.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Please please don't.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Uh No.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I I see the thing about this is and I
you know, I just couldn't agree with you more. I
think that there's there's just kind of so much to
love here about this idea and what it does is
it really gives us the opportunity to to just be
able to enjoy uh Star Wars in a new way,
(16:54):
you know, and you and Yancy living that experience of
of of getting to hear a great audio version of
Shadows of the Empire and it bringing the book to
life to you in a way that made you think,
oh my gosh, this is like way better than I remember.
I think that's that's kind of the beauty of what
(17:15):
we're talking about, Like you're you're actually allowing people to
be able to then experience things that may make them
fall in love with it in a way that they
weren't in love with it before. Uh And and in
that experience, people then are hungry then to go and
(17:37):
search for more, you know, because you know, I don't
think Yancy will mind me saying this, but one of
the things that happened is that he immediately went and
listened to the audiobook version of Rogue Planet that had
also just come out. Because of his experience that he
had with the Shadows of the Empire, he immediately thought, well, man,
(18:01):
I want more of this. So he went and picked
up Rogue Planet and he listened to it. And so
when you do that you're just you know, you're encouraging
people then to go explore more of the content because
they liked something so much, they're like, oh, I want
(18:23):
more of this, and you know if you provide it,
if you build it, they will come.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
That's that's what they say. And so I would love
to see them build more of these things so that
when people enjoy something like Shadows of the Empire, they
can immediately be pointed to, if you liked that, you
should try this. And that's just all about creating that
(18:51):
content to make sure that it's there.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Can you imagine if they had done something like this
and then you tease it on Disney Plus and stuff
like that for galaxies Edge to sell the place as
a place you wanted to go. If you had an
audio series Tales from galaxies Edge, Tails from the Galaxy's Edge,
(19:13):
and it's it's not just centered around the Kylo Renen
character or anything like that. They can you know, come
and go as you need them to. But you could
actually tell those stories because look, I hate to break
it to everybody, as just as a closing point, kids
ain't reading no more. They're they're not They're they're scrolling
on on their devices.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I'm not saying that like old man shaking his physic clouds.
You know, I'm not yelling at the cloud right, I'm saying,
like it's rare for books to move. Now. This is it.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
This is how you're going to revitalize what was your
expanded universe in the past and move it beyond the
Gen xers and older millennials who are still okay with reading.
And I said, people aren't giving up reading because they're dumb.
They're giving up reading just because it takes a lot
of time and you can engage somebody a lot faster
(20:09):
and you can get anyway. I think we've made our point.
I'm not trying to be labor it or anything like that.
I think it would be great if the taste makers
and producers somehow heard this. I'll offer my services for free.
I think you would too. Matt Will Will Will be
(20:32):
your your initial group to get this moving inside the
hallowed halls of Disney and Lucasfilm. Just you know, I'll
show up for a weekend. I'll just pitch some ideas
that you guys walk out there. You go, free charge,
free charge. Just put my face like a little stamp
on every single product you sell.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
That's all I'm going to ask him at her. So
that's a boy. I'll kill sales.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But what won't kill sales is if people reach out
to you online.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Matt, where can people find you?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Well, you could find me all over social media under
the name Matt Rushing zero two, So just search the
media platform if I'm there, that's the name I'm under.
Of course, here on the network, there's a completed show
I did with Dre Kaufman talk about every single chapter
of the Harry Potter series one chapter of time. Speaking
of books. Also over on the TFM network doing a
bunch of shows once called the six Oho two Club,
(21:24):
which is a show where we talk about all of
the franchises we love. John's a frequent guest. We also
cross over with Star Wars episodes here with Aggressive Negotiations
or so. I'm also doing a lot of great Star
Trek up over there with my wonderful friend Chris Jones.
So if you like that franchise, that is the place
to be. But John, you know, if people would like
(21:46):
to talk to you, maybe they have some great ideas
of you know, stories that they would love to see
in this format where could people find you.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh well, you could go ahead and you can find
me as Kessel Junkie on your social network of choice
best one, and I think is letterboxed because all I
can do is talk about movies. You can also find
me on good Reads for those nerds out there like
me who are still reading. I'm active on that platform.
Name again is Kessel Junkie. And of course here on
the network you can hear me co hosting a series
with Darren Moser and Trisian Radel called house Lights, where
(22:18):
we talk about the works of different directors. We just
wrapped up Wes Craven and we're talking about Spike Jones
and if you have an idea for any directors, go
ahead and reach out to us.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And let us know. I'm just saying, Joseph Kasinski, I'm
on board. I'm already sold. I'm already on board.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I'm huge fan of the guy, and hopefully we can
get there and if they're listening, I hope that they
finally listen to me and we do a series about
Catherine Bigelow, because talk about a great director. People have
slept on over the years, but I had to go
back and I have to go into the Jedi archives,
and I have to reorganize Yoda's DVD collection so that yeah, right,
(23:01):
there's some classics in there, i'll tell you, but he's
into one of the he's there's some weird stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The less I say, the better. But I think it's
time we close these negotiations.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
John, negotiations are closed.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
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