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Soundside's NO SPOILERS says, 'May the Fourth be with you!'

Soundside presents: NO SPOILERS!
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Grab your lightsaber and hop into your X-Wing… It’s time for our monthly trip to the nerdier side of things! And this month, we’re expanding beyond the Pacific Northwest to a Galaxy Far, Far Away because…

It’s Star Wars Day!

May 4th, or, "May the fourth be with you," has been an unofficial holiday for fans for more than 40 years. And to celebrate, we’ve put together a fantastic Star Wars themed panel…

Rachel Leishman is the assistant editor at The Mary Sue, and one of the co-hosts of "PodroPascal," the Pedro Pascal podcast.

And we're also joined by actor Verona Blue. You’ll recognize her voice as that of the first female stormtrooper in "The Force Awakens." She also voiced the computer at the top of the tower at the end of "Rogue One," and most recently did the voice and motion capture for Caij Vanda in the game "Star Wars Jedi: Survivor."

Caij Vanda from the game "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor"
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Matt Lefferts

Disney and Lucasfilm held “Star Wars Celebration” in London last month. “Celebration” is a huge convention held every few years where they announce all of the upcoming movies, TV shows, books, games — basically anything that happens in Star Wars. We asked our panel what they're most looking forward to.

For both Blue and Leishman, stories outside of the main timeline are the most interesting.

Leishman is all about "The Acolyte."

"It's a series that takes place during the High Republic era of Star Wars," she explained, "which is all when the Jedi are kind of at their strongest, hundreds of years before the prequels happen."

Verona Blue said it's time to move beyond the Skywalker Saga.

"I think that the further you can move away from Tatooine, that myth of Luke becomes fractured and is no longer a pressing ideal for every character going on an adventure in the universe," Blue said.

As for which characters from the games she thinks would be good for live action, Blue admits to being a little partial to her own character, Caij Vanda, but also says that fans have been asking to see Cal Kestis, too.

caption: Cal Kestis and BD-1 from the game "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor."
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Cal Kestis and BD-1 from the game "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor."
Matt Lefferts

"Cameron [Monaghan] is a really terrific actor with a background in television already," Blue explained. "He knows Cal so well, and it'd be such a natural transition for him to move from the mocap stage to the green screen stage."

And when asked where a newcomer should start if they're just jumping into the Star Wars universe for the first time, both Leishman and Blue said the same thing: "The original trilogy."

And to be absolutely thorough, Leishman recommended the "Machete Order."

You can listen to the entire conversation through the audio above, and we'd love to know what YOU think about Star Wars. Let us know at Soundside@kuow.org

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