Tonight marked the third and final virtual author event held by University Book Store in celebration of Lucasfilm Publishing’s new short-story anthology From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. Contributing writers Lilliam Rivera, Brittany N. Williams, Rob Hart, Karen Strong, Lydia Kang, and Django Wexler came together to discuss their individual stories and what it was like putting this Star Wars book together. In the bullet-point list below, I’ve enumerated some of the more interesting tidbits and factoids to come out of this discussion.
- All of the writers featured in tonight’s event are making their debut as published Star Wars authors.
- Lilliam Rivera wrote “Beyond the Clouds,” and she had a very specific character type in mind for her story. She says when she was invited to be a part of this anthology she screamed because it’s such a big deal to her. She’s watched The Empire Strikes Back hundreds of times, but she wanted to create a new Latina character– an aspiring bounty hunter living on Cloud City.
- Karen Strong has a similarly-titled story called “Into the Clouds,” but she loves sharing a title with Lilliam. This story introduces us to two new characters who are an homage to the relationship between Han and Leia. She wanted her main character to be stylish and rich, so she created a Tibanna gas tycoon. She wears the same kind of cloak Leia wears on Bespin.
- Rob Hart’s story “Due on Batuu” stars Willrow Hood, who carries the camtono as he runs around Cloud City. “It was an immense amount of pressure” writing such a popular cult character. He asked his Star Wars fan friend who the coolest blink-and-you’ll-miss-it character in Empire, and he suggested “ice cream maker guy.”
- Django Wexler’s story is about a TIE fighter pilot named Amara Kel, who is very cool. “There are no TIE pilots who don’t wear masks in the movies. Whenever something like that is left out in a movie, it makes me wonder about it.” He says the TIE pilots must be pretty motivated to pull off some of the moves we see in the films. He credits the short fan-made YouTube animated film “TIE Fighter” with inspiring the story. He says despite its cool look, the TIE fighter has a terrible design, because you can’t see to either side due to the giant wings.
- “Right Hand Man” by Lydia Kang focuses on medical droid 2-1B. She got to write new dialogue for Luke Skywalker at one of most pivotal moments in his life. When she got the email inviting her to contribute to this anthology, she had two emotions: joy and fear. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to do this well.” She thought about who she identified with, and came up with 2-1B because she is a practicing physician. “This is familiar to me. I think I can do this.” She watched the movie and analyzed Luke’s face before and after her scene to inform her choices.
- “Faith in an Old Friend” by Brittany N. Williams revisits L3-37, Lando Calrissian’s droid who was introduced in Solo: A Star Wars Story. She made a list of potential characters and pitched L3 after fifteen minutes. She was disappointed by the character’s fate in Solo and then felt like she needed to follow up on it. She says writing the dialogue was the easiest part, because she could hear actress Phoebe Waller Bridge’s voice in her head. She also had to invent other droid voices for the Millennium Falcon’s computer and the Treadwell droid who works on the ship.
- Wexler spent a lot of time Googling and reading Wookieepedia when researching his story.
- Rivera felt an overwhelming pressure and burden in living up to the Star Wars legacy. “This is so huge. I didn’t want to mess it up.” She felt the energy of the uprising happening outside her door while she was writing.
- Strong researched the casinos on Cloud City for her story, but she was told to remove the gangsters she originally inserted. “Cloud City is not a wretched hive of scum and villainy,” says editor Tom Hoeler. “It’s not a crime den like the cantina on Tatooine. It’s also not a tourist destination.”
- Hart had a moment of paralysis where he almost quit the project, but he eventually found the sheer joy of writing for Star Wars. He chose to include Batuu because he had visited Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and liked it. He built a BB-8 droid with his daughter.
- Williams was surprised by how much Lucasfilm let her do. They didn’t have a lot of notes. She used the schematics of the Millennium Falcon to help her in her writing.
- Kang was also afraid Lucasfilm would shoot down a lot of her ideas. She has a 2-1B action figure and sought out every instance of his appearances in Star Wars literature as research. “If 2-1B doesn’t do his job well, then the entire fate of the Star Wars universe would have been very different.”
- Strong wanted to write an ordinary character who would be deeply affected by what they saw, because she wanted the war to have the same effect as it does on us in real life.
- Wexler has always wondered what the background characters’ lives are like. “Star Wars gives us such a rich world, it makes me ask these questions.” He says it’s also freeing to write a character we don’t already know.
- Rivera wanted to write a character who was at the beginning of her journey, as opposed to the heroes who we already know are great or on their way to greatness.
- The remainder of the event was spent discussing surprising things they noticed upon rewatching Empire, the ongoing legacy of the film, and their personal favorite moments from this second volume of From a Certain Point of View.
From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back is available now wherever books are sold.