BIG news for space opera: Star Wars Rebels, Farscape, The Expanse, and more!

Looks like there's a ton of great news after Wonder Con (in Anaheim, CA) this weekend. Disney/Lucasfilm released some amazing concept art that hearkens back to the ol' Ralph McQuarrie aesthetic from the original movies. This followed a quick glimpse at a scene from the show:


Man, it's great to hear some classic John Williams Star Wars again! Here's a selection of the concept art:

Farscape isn't so far away

Meanwhile in another corner of the galaxy (the Wonder Con convention hall), Farscape creator/producer Rockne O'Bannon confirmed an earlier report that a Farscape film will be happening. So now we've heard it from the man himself!

SyFy wakes "Leviathan" for new series

In other news, the SyFy channel has picked up the rights to develop the space opera series of novels set in "the Expanse" by James S.A. Corey (the pen name for collaborating writers Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). They're calling their approach to the series"A Game of Thrones" in space. The source material is already pretty well developed and includes "Leviathan Wakes," "Caliban's War," and "Abaddon's Gate," with a fourth title due in June, "Cibola Burn". Time to get to the bookstore folks!

UPDATE: The James S.A. Corey Twitter account has posted SyFy's official webpage for the series. Not much there yet, so better bookmark it and go back: http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse. The account also confirmed that the show is in production!

 

"Ascension" series announced at SyFy

This is welcome news, as there seems to signs of a shift from inside SyFy to return to developing more space opera-focused stories for television. They'd previously announced back in March a new series called "Ascension" which also takes place in space. and they describe as:

Part Battlestar and part Downton Abbey, it follows the 100-year-long space shuttle of colonists fleeing an Earth threatened by the early Cold War.

SO MUCH SPACE OPERA! CAN YOU HANDLE IT?!

Just to make sure your head goes full supernova, here's the latest behind-the-scenes clip for Guardians of the Galaxy:



Enjoy!


Star Wars images via  io9.com and StarWars.com.