Review: ‘Star Wars: Insider’ #233 Interviews the Cast of ‘Andor’, ‘Skeleton Crew’ and More

The latest issue of Star Wars: Insider will release on August 19th (US/CAN) and September 18th (UK) and is jam-packed with interviews. Genieveve O’Reilley and Stellan Skarskgard discuss their experiences playing Rebel leaders in Andor season 2 while Kriyana Kratter and Marti Matulis share their experiences playing KB and the Mandalorian crossover pirate Vane in Skeleton Crew. The issue also takes a look behind the curtain at Hasbro and launches a brand new series of short fiction.

 

Genevieve O’Reilly and Stellan Skarsgård interview

 

The actors behind Rebel Alliance founders Mon Mothma and Luthen Rael look back at the journey of their characters and what they sacrificed in the name of freedom. O’Reilly, who first played Mon Mothma in a scene for Revenge of the Sith that was cut from the final film before returning in Rogue One, talks about having the space to expand on Mon as more than just a leader but a wife, a mother, a senator and more and how becoming the head of the Alliance cost her everything else in her life. Stellan reflects on his character too, who he regards ultimately as a good person but a leader who has to sacrifice other people in the grander plan, before finally sacrificing himself to keep Yavin secret.

 

Both actors reflect on their legendary speeches, which are printed in full within the article, and what it meant to give them. O’Reilly in particular talks about the timeliness of her defiant address to the senate and how impactful it is, within a story of grand space battles, to see the power of a woman’s voice. Both actors speak highly of Tony Gilroy’s writing and the energy and impact it gave to their scenes, with Skarskgård describing the series as one of the happiest he’s been involved with.

 

 

Andor Season Two Companion

Look back at the second season of Andor with detailed recap guides for each episode, accompanied by stills from the series and quotes from the production team on how they created elements of each episode.

 

 

Kyriana Kratter interview

Moving on to Skeleton Crew, the actress who played KB, one of the four youngsters swept away on a galactic adventure, talks about getting the role and what it meant to her. She talks about dealing with secrecy in auditioning for and getting the role for the series and how the experience supported her as an actor. She is keen to praise the crew, in particular showrunner Jon Watts and director Bryce Dallas Howard who encouraged her to be open, ask questions and put her own ideas into the performance.

 

The actress talks about the standout cybernetic visor of her character and the process of building it, involving a full 3D scan and model of her head so that the visor could fit perfectly until it was as comfortable as wearing a pair of sunglasses. She talks about how filming on the Volume helped her deal with the overwhelming experience of being in a crowded set full of monsters and extras as she could lose herself in the scene by focusing on the background projected all around her. To further support her performance, the directors added touches to help her performance be more real, such as setting up a sandpit for her to sit in when filming the scene on Lanupa where her augments fail so that she was truly immersed in the scene. She also recalls a touching moment at the end of filming when a collage of images from the shoot were put up onto the Volume screens around them.

 

 

 

Marti Matulis interview

The actor and creature performer talks about his experience playing the Nikto pirate in The Mandalorian and returning to play the character again in Skeleton Crew. He goes back to his childhood memories of watching Star Wars aged 7 and getting to fulfil the dream of being part of the saga when an audition for a Wild West role turned out to be The Mandalorian! He shares his favourite memories from filming, such as meeting Carl Weathers and filming the Port Borgo scenes with so many other alien characters. The actor talks about the physicality of the role (especially when taking a gut-punch from SM-33!) and is full of praise for the cast and crew of both series.

 

Inside Hasbro

Insider sit down with Steve Evans, senior design director on the Star Wars lines, to look at the process of choosing, designing and creating character figures for the Black Series and Vintage Collection lines. Evans takes us through the intensely complex process of producing a figure, from researching and tapping into what the fans are interested in while keeping up with the past few years’ steady stream of animated and live-action content. From there every detail of design, from 3D modelling using design software to prototype and final manufacture are detailed along with production images of a Black Series Luke Skywalker showing how the design progresses.

 

Readers will also have the opportunity to enter a competition to win Hera Syndulla’s ship ‘The Ghost’ Vintage collection model

 

 

Bad Batch ‘Sanctuary’ novel author Lamar Giles interview

The author discusses his work in Star Wars, recalling his joy of being chosen to write a short story for From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, as that movie was his first experience of Star Wars. Transitioning to writing a full novel he talks about how the pressure to get it right was balanced with the knowledge and availability of his partners at Lucasfilm to ensure his novel blended seamlessly into canon in a process he describes as being more like writing historical fiction than sci-fi as the story and setting are already so well established. He describes how he studied each episode of the series, despite already being a fan, to enable him to capture each character’s voice and plan meaningful moments for each of them.

 

If you want to know more about the novel, you can read our review to see what we thought.

 

New Exclusive fiction

Following the conclusion of The High Republic, a new series of short fiction exploring different events begins. ‘The Failing of the Light’ by Adam Lance Garcia takes place during the events of Revenge of the Sith, detailing what life was like for survivors of the war as refugees flee homes turned into battlegrounds and show what life was like for citizens of Coruscant as debris reigns down from the space battle in orbit. When a refugee survivor meets a Jedi Padawn in hiding she promises to keep his secret from the Empire but hides her own agenda.

 

All this, and more is available when the latest issue of Insider hits shelves and digital. Preorder your copy through the links below

 

U.S. / CANADA SUBSCRIPTIONS 

U.K. SUBSCRIPTIONS

REST OF THE WORLD SUBSCRIPTIONS

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS