Expanding Universes: An Expanded Universe Podcast

Cole and Victor welcome back Shaun to talk Andor chapters 2 & 3! We check in with Shaun on the state of Disney Star Wars at the end of 2022 before a wide ranging discussion covering weird walkers, diegetic scores, gatekeeping lingo, talkative propulsion specialists, Imperial arrogance and a whole heck of a lot more.

Cole and Victor are back in the saddle with a mug full of revnog to review the pilot episode of Disney's new Star Wars series "Andor". Topics of conversation include: Cole getting married, Andor's charming a-hole status, Richard Karn, Phil Tippett, suspisciously familiar props and more!

Cole and Victor re-unite again to discuss Chapters 3 and 4 of "The Book of Boba Fett".

Cole and Victor re-unite at long last to cover the latest excursion into Disney's "Expanded Universe" after watching the first two episodes of "The Book of Boba Fett". Join our hosts as they ponder the correct pronunciation of "gaderffii", Temuera Morrison's acting chops and the joys of pulp storytelling.

Victor recounts the tale of how a switch in publisher brought about the first death of a major Star Wars character in the Expanded Universe. Why did they do Chewie dirty? The answers are revealed within!

Chris Higgins from the Star Wars Loose Canon podcast (https://www.starwarsloosecanon.com/) sits down with our co-hosts to recap the first 10 years of Star Wars and answer the question "What killed Star Wars?" Was it a conspiracy, or just George shooting himself in the foot? We dig in for answers.

Victor returns with Part II of his drunken retelling of how we got to now in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Picking up from last episode, our host gets sloppy as he spins the yarn of how the "Adventure in Multimedia" that was Shadows of the Empire came to be. In this stunning tale of cross-medium synchronization, Lucy Wilson at LucasBooks and Tom Dupree at Bantam Spectra worked with creatives from an array of disciplines to tell a single story across multiple channels. It wasn't easy, of course. From characterization battles between artists, to having to develop a video game for a console you don't even have, the road to victory was rife with obstacles. How did they get it all done? You'll just have to listen and find out...

Cole and Victor give the E-E-E-Ewoks a try and watch the first three episodes of their mid-80s ABC comedy special. Join Wicket and the gang as we play “Throw the Sack”, decipher titty/scrotum hieroglyphics and spray the Ewok Wealthy Dowager with fire extinguisher foam. Playlist available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx1UA5PiBi5r8t6kNWrpL9DkSoVEdHErf

Cole, Victor and guest Lauren watch the first arc of 1985's Saturday morning ABC cartoon, "Droids". Watch along with the link below or listen to the commentary by itself. In the episodes watched, C-3PO gets pupils and proves himself a master power bottom, while R2-D2 screams his head off and repeatedly tips over. Droids is a world where you always wear a seat belt and there are never guns, ever, and even gangsters have unloving fathers. If you're ready for the surprisingly well-animated hijinks of everyone's favorite droids, this episode is for you. Watch along: bit.ly/droids-playlist

Cole and Victor sit down to watch the 1984 made-for-TV movie "Caravan of Courage: an Ewok Adventure". Topics of conversations include: Ewok sex noises, the canon status of the "Gorax", nuclear hot takes about "Indiana Jones", Three Stoogian antics, Warwick Davis' master acting, the disturbing nature of Ewok teeth, the history of the name "Mace" in Star Wars, the existence of Earth animals on Endor, and how this whole thing feels like a National Geographic documentary. Enjoy the episode as a standalone or watch it as a commentary with the movie with our stream at: bit.ly/caravan-of-courage

Join Victor as he downs a few cold ones and recounts the tale of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, going as far back as the Ancient Sumerians and then through to Catholic doctrine, the world of Sherlock fanboys, the Star Trek books, and eventually Star Wars itself. Learn how some nerds writing an RPG sourcebook laid the foundation for decades of extra-cinematic media and even the mainline Star Wars films themselves! We take it all the way through the Thrawn trilogy and land just before the New Jedi Order shakes everything up. Part II coming... soon?

Izzy Johnson joins our intrepid duo to conquer the bizarre, psychedelic and crypto-libertarian text known as Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu. Digressions abound as we discuss everything from: Star Wars salads, Vuffi Raa's NAP-abiding programming, Detective John Munch, nootropic crystals, Jandler Bing and the difference between Staryu and Starmie.

When Cole & Victor welcome Zach Kocanda to the studio, a deluge of poorly drawn Han and Chewies assault our hosts' eyes. But just when all is lost, a wrestling porcupine, a woman in a bikini, a knock-off Luke Skywalker, a Cervantian Jedi and Space Jam minus the Jam Bugs Bunny guide our heroes to safety against the evil man with the disappearing scar.

When Victor & Cole join Shaun to read Brian Daley's 1979 novel Han Solo at Star's End, it becomes fast apparent that Daley wants Star Wars to be hard sci-fi. On top of that, our heroes learn Han Solo has a gambling addiction and a predisposition for Pixar-inspired shenanigans! Plus, we get our first mentions of dumb Star Wars stuff that exists to this day!

UNLOCKED FROM OUR PATREON! Cole, Victor & Shaun fork over 12 bucks to Regal in exchange for a viewing of the new Star Wars picture, but what they come away with could change everything. Do Disney Star Wars characters talk too much like Marvel superheroes? Who would win in a fight, JJ Abrams or Rian Johnson? Was this movie even good? We struggle to answer these questions.

As Cole and Victor dive right into the very first book from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, they discover a world of the mind constrained by the possibilities of low-budget film adaptation, a lack of a sequel deal with Harrison Ford, and the jumbled stew of tropes brewing in George Lucas' mind.

This new podcast premiering Monday sets out to explore the wet and wild world of the now-defunct Star Wars Expanded Universe. Join our hosts Victor Espeland and Cole Mariottini as they find answers to questions you never thought you'd ask, like: Why is Luke Skywalker so horny for space? How do you bake low-budget production design into a novel, just in case it needs to get made into a movie on the cheap? Is gambling the closest thing Han Solo has to a religion? Why does Chewbacca look like the wolf man? Can you sneak into a maximum security prison using tactics borrowed from the Pixar film A Bug’s Life? Why is Wilford Brimley in an Ewoks movie? What’s going on with this green Bugs Bunny alien? Did Chewbacca really die by getting crushed by a planet? Why did they think it would be cool to have Boba Fett escape from the Sarlacc Pit? Does George Lucas have a hard-on for furry aliens? Just how horny is Alan Dean Foster?? And much much more. New episodes start this Monday, on your favorite podcast app, except apple podcasts. Just kidding it’s on there too. OK bye!