Hyperspace Theories

On January 15, 2026, Lucasfilm formally announced 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...

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 D...

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 Par...

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" reac...

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, cinema...

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 ...

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 Ro...

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...

Ahoy, mateys! Pirates, pirate ships, and a search for lost treasure have returned to Star Wars – and so has the familiar story structure, complete with a boring home planet (A New Hope) and ten-year-old (The Phantom Menace) protagonists flung into a very unexpected adventure in the wider galaxy. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine the first four episodes of Skeleton Crew to unpack the story...

Continuing our recent witchy trend on Hyperspace Theories alongside our discussion of Agatha All Along, this episode discusses the movie Wicked: Part I, which broke box office records in its first week of release. Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester begin with a common focus of the podcast: the storytelling structure of the movie, and how it compares and contrasts with the Broadway musical that the films adapts. Dir...

In this podcast episode, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester consider the recently released MCU Disney+ series Agatha All Along from the perspective of long-running themes at FANgirl Blog and Hyperspace Theories: the influence of myth and heroic journeys on contemporary storytelling and how contemporary storytelling is evolving those ideas, especially in stories told by women and other creators from diverse and marginalized backgrounds. ...

It's been ten years since FANgirl Blog launched the Hyperspace Theories podcast. On the latest episode, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester look back on the podcast's evolution from its origin in discussing how to speculate wisely on upcoming Star Wars stories to a broader consideration of storytelling, character arcs and the Hero's Journey, and franchise management. We reminisce about our favorite episodes of the podcast over the years....

The Marvel Cinematic Universe accomplished an unprecedented track record of box office earnings, followed by an uneven phase that included a few box office miscues and a mixed reactions to its span of Disney+ streaming series. In this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester discuss two MCU series that had lower profiles in fan attention and viewership, but much to consider in what they got right in their story...

On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine the Disney+ live-action series Star Wars: The Acolyte through the lens of recent Lucasfilm's brand management struggles, especially with the Star Wars franchise. We begin with the strengths of The Acolyte that we want to praise, including the fight choreography, the performances of the cast, and the diversity, inclusion, and representation the series demo...

Before turning to the currently releasing third season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Hyperspace Theories podcast returns to the concluding episodes of Season Two. Having previously analyzed the first ten episodes, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester discuss episodes 11 through 16, starting with "Metamorphosis" and "The Outpost" and ending with Tech's (apparent) self-sacrifice by implementing the tragic "Plan 99" during the squad's fateful...

Hyperspace Theories kicks off 2024 with a new episode analyzing recent developments that appear to chart a new course for the future of Star Wars. Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester begin with the November 2023 news, first revealed in a Vanity Fair article by longtime Star Wars and entertainment journalist Anthony Breznican, that Dave Filoni has been promoted to the position of Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm. We discuss what a CCO ...

The epilogue montage of the recently concluded Ahsoka series on Disney+ included a surprising and exciting image: former Jedi turned antagonist Baylan Skoll standing amid colossal statues of the Father, Son, and (partially destroyed) Daughter of Mortis. These mysterious and powerful "Force Wielders" have a long connection to Ahsoka mastermind Dave Filoni: they interacted with Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the...

The Ahsoka series on Disney+ has reached its finale. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester analyze the storytelling in Part Six "Far, Far Away," Part Seven "Dreams and Madness," and Part Eight "The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord" and consider what Ahsoka establishes for the future of Star Wars tales.

We begin by examining the conclusions to the character arcs of Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren, and the...