Watch The Star Wars Show’s extended interviews with Timothy Zahn and Eugene Byrd
By Elaine Tveit
The Star Wars Show, Lucasfilm’s weekly YouTube series, uploaded extended interviews with Thrawn author TImothy Zahn and The Freemaker Adventures actor Eugene Byrd.
In every episode of The Star Wars Show, Lucasfilm weekly YouTube series, hosts Andi Gutierrez and Anthony Carboni interview a different celebrity guest. On May 24, Gutierrez sat down with Thrawn author TImothy Zahn. On June 7th, Carboni talked to Eugene Byrd, the voice of Zander on LEGO Star Wars The Freemaker Adventures.
Thursday, the official Star Wars YouTube channel uploaded the extended versions of the above two interviews. Watch them below.
In the extended interview with Timothy Zahn, Zahn talks about his love of Star Wars. He recalls seeing A New Hope at least 17 or 18 times in theaters in 1977. When asked why he thought people kept coming back to the franchise for more, Zahn said it was because it had everything in it which humans respond to:
"“There’s loyalty, there’s love, devotion, there’s sacrifice, all the things that are common to humanity are right there in the movie. And we can follow along, we can share with them, we can tense up… These are people we want to root for ’cause these are us in many ways.”"
Zahn also explained that Thrawn, the beloved Star Wars character he created, is an amalgamation of different military officers:
"“I like the Rommel comparison [Erwin Rommel, a senior military commander in Nazi Germany during World War II], because like Rommel, Thrawn is under the leadership of someone who is not necessarily unstable, but certainly… has his own agenda, shall we say.”"
Finally, Zahn offered advice for writers who aspire to create Star Wars stories like he does:
"“Star Wars has always been an invitation-only franchise, as far as books and stories. So you need to build up your track record of writing your own stuff first, and then you can start maybe slipping into the Star Wars universe. But you have to have your own stuff, you have to… demonstrate your own creativity and your ability to write satisfying stories and books, and then go from there.”"
In Eugene Byrd’s interview, the voice actor talked about his admiration for Sam Witwer, the voice of Darth Maul in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels:
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"“Sam’s amazing… When he starts going super-nerd, the jock in me always wants to beat him up… Honestly, I think he should be on a story team. The stuff that he can tell you [about Star Wars]…”"
Byrd also gushed about the voice actors onboard The Freemaker Adventures, particularly for the series’ upcoming second season:
"“This last season was me just keep opening my mouth going wider and wider… because we just kept getting these amazing voice actors and these amazing actors that came in with their voices. So I’m excited.”"
I love that The Star Wars Show highlights artists like Zahn and Byrd. Interviews like the two above give fans a chance to learn about writing, voice acting and Star Wars in general from the experts.
Tune into The Star Wars Show every Wednesday on YouTube.