Naya Rivera Among The Celebrities Featured in Chris Barker’s Annual Beatles-Style Tribute to 2020’s Biggest Losses

Naya Rivera is getting a special tribute…

British artist Chris Barker‘s annual Beatles-style tribute to lost celebrities features some of 2020’s biggest losses, including the late half-Puerto Rican actress/singer and Glee star, who drowned in July while on an outing with her son on California’s Lake Piru, as well as soccer legend Diego Maradona, Little Richard, Chadwick Boseman and Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

Naya Rivera

Barker, who has been meticulously crafting his homage to the infamous cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band since 2016 as a tribute to dearly departed pop culture icons and newsmakers — said his initial idea was to start with a blank slate in January and just add faces as the year went on.

The approach would’ve simply meant swapping out some images for more prominent ones as the year went on for a more “interactive” art project. But as this year just kept getting worse, he was glad he didn’t switch up his style.

Chris Barker's 2020 Sgt. Peppers Tribute

“Early spring I thought the devastating wildfires in Australia would be the defining moment of the year but, goodness me, 2020 just kept piling it on,” he tells Billboard. “So I had a couple of options of how to show this year was a year like no other. My immediate thought was social distancing; to have the characters all really spread out. But that would have proved really impractical.”

Instead, he stuck to the template of cramming as many singers, actors, athletes, public figures and news events as possible into the image, which this year includes everyone from police violence victim George Floyd to actors Kirk Douglas, Dave Prowse (Star WarsDarth Vader), Sean Connery, Diana Rigg, Monty Python‘s Terry Jones, Fred Willard and Jerry Stiller, as well as musical icons Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk), Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Kenny Rogers, Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne), reggae great Toots Hibbert, Neil Peart (Rush), Ronald Bell (Kool & the Gang), DJ José Padilla, Bonnie Pointer (Pointer Sisters) and Afrobeat star Tony Allen, among many others.

Barker’s next idea was to include a nod to how important masks were this year during the pandemic, but that would have made the concept way too complicated to pull off. After starting work a month earlier than usual (in September), he realized masking the figures would make many of them unrecognizable, and posting it around the American election as he usually does would likely leave too many important figures off in a year when the devastating hits just kept on coming.

“Who knew what else could be just around the corner? It has been such an awful, bleak year,” he said, revealing that his original background was a red sky with burning forests in a nod to the devastating Australian and American wildfires. But with Joe Biden‘s victory over one-term President Donald Trump last month and talk of a COVID-19 vaccine right around the corner, suddenly there was a glimmer of hope. And instead of sticking the Biden/Harris logo “in the middle of a burning hellscape,” the Trump campaign gave him an unexpected gift with lawyer Rudy Giuliani‘s legendarily disastrous presser at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

“The surreal backdrop perfectly encapsulates the final nail in the coffin of the nightmarish Trump administration that inspired this whole project,” Barker said. “When I first did the 2016 montage, the loss of such an overwhelming number of iconic heroes was undoubtedly one of the defining stories of the year — even overshadowing Brexit and Trump. But this year, obviously the huge number of deaths from coronavirus is far more significant.”

With the real human cost of losses from COVID-19 piling up every day, Barker decided that the chalky floor of the Four Seasons parking lot was the perfect backdrop for an homage that also includes the losses of nearly 1.5 million worldwide to COVID, Trump’s presidency, Spencer Davis, Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, drag queen Chi Chi DeVayne, directors Alan Parker and Joel Schumacher, magician Roy Horn, Glee‘s Rivera, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, Vera Lynn, Kelly Preston, and Gone With the Wind star Olivia de Havilland.

“Every line a reminder of a life taken, a family ripped apart. Every time I do this montage it is an emotional journey, however detached I may get from the subject matter while I’m in the thick of the Photoshop, when I put the list together for the key at the end and look at it, it is a quite sobering moment,” he said. “I know a lot of people who have lost family members this year and I always try to remember that all the people I am including have left people behind too. I have to try to be respectful to everyone and to pay tribute to them and the way they lived their lives.”

There are always a few losses that hit Barker the hardest, and this year for him it was Kraftwerk’s Schneider, Game of Thrones star Rigg and Python’s Jones.

All he asks is that if you are moved by his work, donate to the UK’s NHS charities this year.

Pedro Pascal to Star in Disney+’s Live-Action Star Wars Series “The Mandalorian”

May the Force be with Pedro Pascal

The 43-year-old Chilean actor is joining the Jedi universe, portraying the title character in The Mandalorian, the live-action Star Wars series that will be a flagship program for Disney+, the ambitious streaming service launching in 2019.

Pedro Pascal

Pascal is in final negotiations to star in the series, which chronicles the lone-wolf odyssey of a character who hails from the planet Mandalore, which Star Wars fans know as the homeworld of the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett and Jango Fett.

Pascal memorably portrayed the passionate warrior Oberyn Martell, aka the Red Viper, on the fourth season of the HBO series Game of ThronesHe also played DEA agent Javier Peña on three seasons of Narcos, when the Netflix series centered on the cocaine cartels of Colombia. Pascal also played Agent Whiskey in the Foxfeature film Kingsmen: The Golden Circle in 2017.

The Mandalorian is written and executive produced by Jon Favreau, the director of Jungle BookIron Man as well as the upcoming reinterpretation of The Lion King. Favreau’s official description of the show: “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”

The events depicted in the series are set after the events of Return of the Jedi, which concluded with the fiery funeral of Darth Vader on the forest moon of Endor.

The first episode of the series will be directed by Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars). Also on board to direct early episodes are Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones) and actress Bryce Dallas Howard, whose previous directorial work has been limited to short films.

Miranda Proves He’s a Freestyle Genuis on the “Tonight Show”

Lin-Manuel Miranda has massive (free)style

The 35-year-old Puerto Rican composer, rapper, lyricist, and actor stopped by the Tonight Show last week to discuss Hamilton, his smash hit Broadway musical that features a diverse cast performing hip-hop about American history.

Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jimmy Fallon

Miranda first outlined the eventful life of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who was an immigrant, established the country’s treasury and was killed by fellow politician Aaron Burr in a duel.

“The vice president shot him! Dick Cheney was not the first VP to shoot his friend!” he joked to host Jimmy Fallon.

The Hamilton creator and star, who recorded Fallon’s outgoing voicemail message, then discussed the viral phenomenon behind the chart-topping soundtrack, produced by The RootsQuestlove and TariqBlack Thought” Trotter.

Prior to that, “musical theater and pop haven’t been friends for so long, they don’t know each other anymore,” said Miranda, who recently partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to offer student tickets to the production’s matinees.

Miranda then helped Fallon debut the Tonight ShowFreestyle Generator” for a rap battle opposite Black Thought.

In the first round, he managed to spontaneously mention “rainbow,” “pancake” and “slam dunk” between references to Drake and Michael Jordan. A second round had him effortlessly connecting “dinosaur,” “pumpkin pie” and “Darth Vader.”

Meanwhile, Black Thought waxed poetic about Mars, hot pockets and Channing Tatum.

Isaac to Star in the J.J. Abrams-Helmed “Star Wars: Episode VII”

May the force be with Oscar Isaac

The 35-year-old Guatemalan/Cuban actor is among the stars joining the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.

Oscar Isaac

Though casting rumors have been circulating for months about the upcoming prequel from filmmaker J.J. Abrams, an official cast announcement was made Tuesday on the movie’s official website by Disney and Lucasfilm.

Other newcomers to the Star Wars franchise include John Boyega, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Daisy Ridley and Max von Sydow.

Original stars returning for the film include Harrison FordCarrie FisherMark HamillAnthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.

“We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII,” Abrams said in a statement. “It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”

Disney and Lucasfilm did not reveal who the newcomers will be portraying in the film, but Driver and Boyega are reportedly playing the film’s villain, who will be in the vein of Darth Vader, and the lead, respectively.

Episode VII will take place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars: Episode VII is scheduled to open in theaters on December 18, 2015.