Your Evening Linc: Star Wars: Rebels, Smith and Tennant Talk 50th, and Batman: Arkham Origins

Boy, what a weekend! I'm still reeling from the Doctor Who finale, and Game of Thrones is heating up! But let's take a look at what the internet has provided us in the past couple days:

1. Star Wars: Rebels Takes Us Into Unexplored Territory

The Dark Times are upon us, but luckily there is still hope. In a video posted by StarWars.com, Pablo Hidalgo interviews the Man with the Hat, Dave Filoni, on the successor to The Clone Wars. Entitled Star Wars: Rebels, the new animated series will be set between Episodes III and IV and is inspired by the concept art of the late, brilliant Ralph McQuarrie. The Empire has tightened its grip on the galaxy and the Jedi are all but extinct, but a small band of rebels dare to oppose the New Order.



No word yet on  a cast list or plot details, but we do know that some heavy hitters will be joining Filoni's team:

"Leading the development of the series is a creative team of exceptional talent. Screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is an executive producer on Star Wars Rebels and will write the premiere episode. He is joined by Dave Filoni as executive producer, who served as supervising director of the Emmy nominated Star Wars: The Clone Wars since 2008. Executive producer Greg Weisman brings with him a wealth of animation experience with credits such as Young Justice, The Spectacular Spider-Man and Gargoyles."

Clone Wars CG Supervisor and visual effects wizard Joel Aron is also on board. Star Wars: Rebels will air sometime in the Fall of 2014 on Disney XD. And ya know what, I'm excited. For almost two decades we've lived in the world of the prequel era. It's nice to travel back (by travelling forward) to the classic era, even though the series will take place well before that first set of Rebels launched their attack on the Empire's most fearsome superweapon. And seeing Davey Strands in front of a sketch of a TIE Fighter, one of my favorite ships, makes me want to alter time and speed up the production process. I think my excitement can be summed up thusly:



2. Matt Smith and David Tennant are Totally in a Doc-mance

As a thank you for not spoiling Saturday's unbelievable Doctor Who finale, Steven Moffat released a behind the scenes video from the 50th Anniversary Special featuring David Tennant and Matt Smith in their Doctorly garb. It's great to see that the two actors get along so well, and it seems that their characters will be quite chummy come November 23.



The Moff also issued this personal letter of thanks to the 210 fans who kept the leaked Blu-Rays of Series 7B, to the websites that closed their comments sections, and to the multitude of Whovians who chose to go along for the ride rather than be spoiled.

Oh, and where was Moffat and Matt Smith while I was freaking out over the finale? Oh, just about half an hour away at the Way Station, a Doctor Who themed bar in Brooklyn! The hell?! Why did no one tell me about this??



3. Batman: Arkham Origins May Make You Think You're Actually Batman

Capping off this video-heavy post (and cementing my HTML embedding skills in my muscle memory forever) is this incredible trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins. I'll just leave you to flip out on your own:



And that's all for tonight, folks. Til' next time!

- Joe