Feel the Force Friday: Star Wars Apps, Interviews, Rumors and MORE!

Happy Friday, Dork Siders! If you’re looking for all of the week’s biggest Star Wars news, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve got plenty to keep you busy, reading about that galaxy far, far away… Spend your weekend with us, right here at DSOTF.

Here we go! There’s plenty to cover in this week’s edition of Feel the Force Friday!

On Thursday, Disney Interactive and Lucasfilm released a brand new game for iOS. Titled Star Wars: Commander, this new game is free to download and play! It’s available right meow at the iTunes store.

From the iTunes app store:

"LucasArts’ vibrant strategy game has you choose a side — the heroic Rebel Alliance or ruthless Galactic Empire — and build a base worthy of that faction. Both parties offer special units and powers to help you tackle each mission, and whether you send Chewbacca on a rampage or deploy a deadly strike with TIE fighters, victory requires thoughtful tactics and watchful troop management. As you garner experience and fortify your defenses, you can join squads with your friends, invade players’ bases, and embark on a stirring campaign that leads you across Star Wars’ unforgettable universe."

During an event at the Apple retail store in New York City on Thursday evening, developers of the game spoke about the new app and how it fits into the Star Wars galaxy. Johnamarie Macias of MakingStarWars.Net was at the event and gives us the full scoop, here.

Check out this awesome trailer for the new Star Wars: Commander game for iOS:

The ALS Association‘s Ice Bucket Challenge has recently swept the nation, with an internet driven campaign that was originally intended to raise ALS awareness and benefit those afflicted with this terrible disease. Several Star Wars celebs have stepped forward to help in the cause, including Episode VII Director J.J. Abrams, The Clone Wars voice actor James Arnold Taylor and the incredible Mary Franklin, Lucasfilm‘s own Senior Events Lead. You can read all about these great folks and their efforts to raise awareness for this important case by checking out our report, here.

This week, a few more members of the Star Wars family posted videos of themselves having ice water dumped on them.

First, Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger accepted the challenge:

Next, Star Wars Director Gareth Edwards got wet with a little help from Gary Whitta [Writer of an as of yet untitled Star Wars spinoff film] while at Skywalker Ranch:

For fans, there was more than just some icy cold fun hidden in this video, as Justin LaSalata of Jedi News pointed out in his post on Thursday.

"In the video below, we see Star Wars stand-alone film director Gareth Edwards accepting his ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. But did you also notice the little nugget of info posted in the description of this video? It contains our first official confirmation from Lucasfilm that director Rian Johnson, who has been linked to Episode XIII and IX in in previous reports, will in fact be involved in the development of the Sequel Trilogy."

On Wednesday night’s episode of Conan, Jaime King; talented actress and star of Frank Miller‘s Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For, spoke about her love of Star Wars. King, along with her husband Kyle Newman, has played a major role as an ambassador of Star Wars for many years. She has provided voices for several voices on the hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and also appeared in Newman‘s cult hit turned phenomenon Fanboys.

You can read all about Jaime King‘s Conan appearance in our report, here.

Jaime King provided the voice of cold hearted killer Aurra Sing on Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The Clone Wars actress Jaime King appears alongside her husband Kyle Newman, director of Fanboys.

Lucasfilm announced this week that yet another exciting guest will be appearing at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim next year. Rancho Obi-Wan‘s own Steve Sansweet will join Celebration guests Dave Filoni and David W. Collins in April of 2015. Having formerly served as the Head of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm, Sansweet is the ultimate representation of Star Wars fandom.

From the official Star Wars Celebration site:

"Rancho Obi-Wan, home of the world’s largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia, will have a special exhibit at Celebration Anaheim highlighting nearly 38 years of Star Wars fan passion and creativity.It will be ROW’s third trip to a Celebration, and each time the curators have presented a different selection of treasures from a collection estimated to contain nearly 500,000 different Star Wars items."

You can read more on next year’s Star Wars Celebration in our report, here.

On Monday evening, Disney XD premiered another exclusive look at their upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels. The new clip; titled “Art Attack”, was the second in a series of four shorts that are scheduled to air at 9:29pm EST each Monday for the next two weeks.

For an in depth look at the latest Rebels short, check out our report here.

Enjoy the new clip “Art Attack”, in the video below:

More NEWS from the Dork Side:

Justin Bolger of TheForce.Net interviewed Dark Horse Comics writer Jeremy Barlow this week. In the interview, Barlow discusses his work on the final Star Wars series “Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir”. You can hear all about it by visiting Justin Bolger‘s post, here.

Speaking of Darth Maul, the man who provided his voice on Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Sam Witwer, appeared on this week’s episode of The Wolfpack Podcast. Witwer is an incredible talent and diehard fan of the Wars. You owe it to yourself to check out the interview, here.

The latest episode of Coffee With Kenobi features a lengthy interview with Star Wars author John Jackson Miller. In the interview, JJM discusses his new novel Star Wars: A New Dawn. You don’t want to miss this one. You can listen in on this great podcast, here.

There have been an insane amount of rumors surrounding Star Wars: Episode VII lately. Jason Ward of MakingStarWars.Net attempts to make sense of it all by speculating on the potential that all of these rumors hold for the upcoming film. You can read up on all of that, here. WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOUND! DO NOT CLICK LINK IF YOU ARE AVOIDING ANY EPISODE VII NEWS!!!

DSOTF is being spotlighted during this week’s episode of Skywalking Through Neverland. This fantastic podcast covers all the news from both the Disney and Star Wars fronts. Hosted by power couple Richard Woloski and Sarah Woloski, you’ll find plenty of reasons to keep tuning into this show! You can tune into the latest episode of SWTN, which also features specials guests David W. Collins and Corey Burton, by clicking here. Just remember, Dork Siders: “Never land on Alderaan!”

Thanks for visiting DSOTF! Don’t forget to return to us on Monday morning for our weekly recap of all the Star Wars news that you may have missed over the weekend. We’ll have everything you’d ever want to know and more, in The Ronto Roundup!

Until then, Dork Siders! May the Force be with you all.