Force Material: A Star Wars Podcast

This week, we're explaining how Broadway smash Hamilton left its mark on the Star Wars universe. Godspeed, revolutionaries!

Since its debut on Broadway in 2015, smash hit musical Hamilton — based on the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton — has been one of the few cultural events that could stand toe-to-toe with the return of Star Wars. 

On this week's show, we discuss how Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda came to be involved with The Force Awakens!

Naturally, we're also talking Shaggy, Toto, Figrin D'an, Max Rebo, Rick Rubin, NSYNC, Joseph Campbell, Ben Solo fan theories, intergalactic linguistics and much, much more!

This week on the Force Material podcast, we're breaking down an Akira Kurosawa classic that's all about the truth... from a certain point of view.

The first Japanese film to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Rashomon (1950) introduced the world to Japanese cinema at the perfect time, just as director Akira Kurosawa was coming into his own as a force to be reckoned with.

One of the most influential films of all time, it tells the tale of a shocking murder and rape from the very different perspectives of four unreliable narrators. 

This week, we look at what makes Rashomon an enduring classic, and explain how it influenced The Last Jedi!   

We're saying farewell to Rian Johnson's Film Camp with a wrap-up of how each film actually influenced The Last Jedi!

In the lead-up to the release of The Last Jedi, we watched (and podcasted about) seven films recommended by director Rian Johnson — Three Outlaw Samurai, To Catch A Thief, Gunga Din, Twelve O'Clock High, Sahara, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Letter Never Sent.

Of course, we speculated wildly about how each film would influence The Last Jedi — but now that Rian Johnson's film is out there in the wild, we don't need to guess anymore. 

The man himself has finally explained the influence of each film in an interview with Mike Ryan at Uproxx and in the pages of Phil Szostak's fantastic book, The Art of the Last Jedi, and we're breaking down his comments in this week's show!

We're digging deeper into three key themes of The Last Jedi on this week's Force Material podcast.

We've given you our instant, post-midnight screening reaction to The Last Jedi, but now that we've had time to let it marinate, we wanted to break down some of the key themes of the movie that we didn't get into the first time around.

Since teachers and lessons are so prominent in The Last Jedi, and George Lucas always intended the Star Wars films to teach life lessons, we decided to take a leaf out of Luke Skywalker's book this week and examine three lessons of The Last Jedi.

Listen on to find out what Finn and Rose's adventure, Rey's origin and Luke Skywalker's failure can teach us about apathy, birthrights and meeting your heroes!

Find out why Jon Bon Jovi owes his career to C-3PO in this very festive edition of the Force Material podcast!

Did you know that without Star Wars, there would have been no Slippery When Wet? We’d never have heard of Tommy and Gina’s hardscrabble lives in Livin’ On a Prayer? One of the world’s most legendary recording studios would never have existed? And the musicals Nine and Titanic would never have made it to Broadway?

If you are in desperate need of respite from the raging social media wars being waged over the reception of The Last Jedi, we can offer you an (almost) safe space. Pour yourself an egg nog and join us by the fireside this week on a festive Force Material podcast and we’ll spin you the almost-unbelievable tale of Christmas in the Stars.

It’s the story of two plucky risk-taking record executives, a frustrated Broadway wannabe playwright, a fame-seeking actor confined to an uncomfortable golden suit — and an ambitious young man with a broom in his hand who gazed up at the stars, knowing he was destined for something greater. His name was Jon Bon Jovi. You may have heard of him.

Come with us on a journey back to 1980s Manhattan and discover how a schmaltzy, kitschy Star Wars-themed concept album about C-3PO and R2-D2 running Santa’s workshop got made – just two years after George Lucas swore he’d never attempt to make any connection between his galaxy far, far away and Christmas, EVER again.

For more on Christmas in the Stars, check out CBC Music's oral history of the album and Forbes' interview with Bon Jovi himself.

Finally! No more theories and speculation — The Last Jedi is here, and we're here at 3am to talk about it!

Recorded straight after the midnight screening, here's our frantic and feverish review of the film we've all been waiting for. 

We're talking about EVERYTHING, so there will be MAJOR SPOILERS — proceed at your own peril!

For our last episode before the release of The Last Jedi, we're taking a look at the last entry in Rian Johnson's film camp!

Yes, The Last Jedi has begun screening at premiere events around the world, but there'll be no spoilers in this episode. Instead, we'll be talking about a Soviet survival drama from 1960. 

Letter Never Sent tells the intense story of three men and a woman as they head deep into a Siberian forest on the hunt for precious diamonds.

The group has its tensions, but the real ‘enemy’ is nature — they almost starve to death in the forest, before finding a stash of diamonds; and before they can bring the diamonds home, they're trapped in a forest fire. And that's just the beginning of their problems...

This was one of six films that director Rian Johnson required the cast and crew of The Last Jedi to watch before they began production of Episode VIII, so naturally, we're taking this classic of Soviet cinema and boiling it down to the only question that really matters - how will it affect Star Wars? 

We'll be back later this week straight after a midnight screening of The Last Jedi with our reaction pod, so stay tuned for updates!

Madness! Madness! We're revisiting one of the all-time great war films for clues about The Last Jedi and making our final predictions in this week's episode of the Force Material podcast!

This episode will be our last before The Last Jedi premieres and renders all of our idle speculation moot, so first up this week, we're putting it all on the table and making our final Episode VIII predictions. 

Who are Rey's parents? Is she just a random, or is the Force strong with her family?

Is Snoke just a bloke, or is he actually a classic character back from the dead? 

How will it all end? What will the state of the galaxy look like heading into Episode IX? 

Bookmark this episode so you can see just how wrong all our guesses turn out to be when the film opens next week! 

Then, in our feature presentation, we're going back to director Rian Johnson's film camp to watch another of the films he made his cast and crew watch before they began shooting The Last Jedi. 

Directed by David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) tells the story of a British officer and POW, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (played by Old Ben Kenobi himself, Sir Alec Guinness), who forms an unlikely working relationship with his Japanese captor, Colonel Saito (played by the utterly fascinating Sessue Hayakwawa).

We're breaking down how Kwai relates to the other films in Johnson's program, and which recurring themes and scenarios pop up again here.

And, mostly, we're just marveling at how bloody brilliant this 60-year-old film continues to be - especially that electrifying finale. 

Join Rohan, Baz and Humphrey Bogart on a perilous journey through the Libyan desert in this week's episode of the Force Material podcast!

There's only a few days left to speculate about The Last Jedi before the first real spoilers will start hitting the web, so we're starting off today's show by breaking down all the revelations from Rolling Stone's Last Jedi cover story. 

What does Daisy Ridley's departure after Episode IX mean for the future of the franchise? How will Carrie Fisher's passing be handled on-screen? Why is Adam Driver being cagey about Kylo Ren's age? When will we find out who Rey's parents are? And is there really a master plan behind the new canon, or are they just making it all up as they go along?

Then, in our feature presentation, we're going back to director Rian Johnson's film camp to examine another film that Johnson required the cast and crew of The Last Jedi to watch before they began production. 

Starring Humphrey Bogart, Sahara (1943) tells the unforgettable story of the American tank Lulu Belle, and the man who loved her as if she were a woman.

It's about 10 men, lost in the desert; men with parched tongues and tortured minds, searching frantically for life-giving water, surrounded by a hostile army, and fighting treachery from within. 

We think it'll have a big influence on the scenes set on Crait in The Last Jedi, as The Resistance makes its valiant last stand...

This week’s Force Material podcast is all about two-fisted tomfoolery and problematic poetry, as we break down why 1939’s Gunga Din is actually part of the Star Wars universe!

This week’s Force Material podcast is all about two-fisted tomfoolery and problematic poetry, as we break down why 1939’s Gunga Din is actually part of the Star Wars universe!

Oh, sure, it may not get Pablo Hidalgo’s official tick of approval - but we’re pretty sure Gunga Din is canon, and we explain why on this week’s episode!

Our breakdown of the 1939 RKO classic marks the fourth entry in our series on director Rian Johnson’s ‘film camp’, the range of classic films Johnson required his cast and crew to watch before they began filming The Last Jedi.

We discuss why the film could never be made today, its deep ties to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Lucasfilm lore, and the hints that it offers us about the events of The Last Jedi!

The film also gives us an opportunity to dig into the origins of the Gungans, and the connection that Jar Jar Binks has with our very own hometown of Brisbane!

We also give our takes on the recent announcements of an all-new trilogy of Star Wars films and a live-action Star Wars TV series!

The Force Material podcast - come for the Star Wars analysis; stay for the surprisingly moving dramatic readings of 19th-century colonialist poetry.

If you liked this episode, check out our earlier entries in the Film Camp series on Three Outlaw Samurai, To Catch A Thief and Twelve O’Clock High!

The episode of DorkLair with the sweet Snoke theory that we reference in this week’s show can be found here.