Gary Collinson rounds up all the latest Star Wars news ahead of Rogue One’s release this coming week…
Well, here we are. The next time you read a Week in Star Wars, we’ll have a brand new Star Wars movie! Yes, following its premiere on Saturday night, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rolls out around the world this week and according to box office predictions, it’s going to enjoy a massive opening, with tracking suggesting anywhere from $280 million to $350 million worldwide (except China, where it doesn’t open until January). That’s down from Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record-breaking $529 million from last year (which isn’t surprising, really), and would be the third biggest debut of 2016 behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on $422.5 million and Captain America: Civil War with $379.5 million (although both of those included China). Still, as we’ve seen time and again this year, tracking is often wildly inaccurate, so don’t be surprise if Rogue One goes higher than $350 million…
…Naturally we’ve had a lot of marketing material for Rogue One this week, including a new Chinese trailer [watch it here], a clip and TV spots featuring a Star Wars Rebels Easter egg [see here], a clip, featurette and potential Darth Vader spoiler [see here], another clip and TV spot [watch them here], even more TV spots [see here], and a featurette looking at Michael Giacchino’s score for the film [watch it here]. Meanwhile, the tracklisting for the score has also been revealed, and while it doesn’t include any major spoilers, the titles do give a pretty good indication of how the movie plays out [see here]…
…It seems that Rogue One already has one fan, with director Gareth Edwards revealing that Star Wars creator George Lucas was impressed by the movie: “I can die happy now,” said Edwards. He really liked the movie. It was the most important review to me.” Hopefully J.J. Abrams didn’t feel the same way on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, given Lucas’ review of that movie…
…Edwards also took a moment to speak about the dreaded reshoots this week, and how Disney’s ultimate aim was to increase the scale and scope of the film: “I’d say a third of the movie or more has this embedded documentary style to it, and as a result, we shot hours and hours and days and days of material. Normally, when you put a film together it goes together like A-B-C-D-E and you move on. Whereas we had so many permutations, so many different ways it could be constructed, it took longer in the edit to find the exact version.” You can read the rest of Edwards’ comments on the reshoots here…
…Gareth Edwards has also revealed what he’d like to see for a future Star Wars Anthology movie: “I would love to see anything with Obi-Wan Kenobi in it. Someone did a really cool illustration online of a half Ewan McGregor, half Alec Guiness; you couldn’t tell the difference. It was like the wilderness years. I just saw that image and I thought, I would love to… that would be interesting. Sort of a samurai movie or something a little bit lonely. Like a very simple one, not an epic battle. Something more lonely and maybe an incident nearly got to a young Luke Skywalker, or who knows.” However, Edwards has ruled himself out of directing, stating that: “I feel like I’ve won the lottery and as a lottery winner it would be unfair to spend all my money on lottery tickets, so I have to walk away…”
…A rumour surfaced earlier this week suggesting that Darth Vader, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Jan Dodonna won’t be the only familiar faces cameoing in Rogue One. You can read the report here, but beware of major spoilers; meanwhile, I also wrote an article theorising which Original Trilogy characters I’d like to see in the movie, and you can find that here…
…We’re just a little over a year away from the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII, and a trademark filing from Lucasfilm has been uncovered this week which may have revealed the title for the second instalment of the Sequel Trilogy as Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. The trademark contains a lengthy list of goods and serves “and includes items from staplers to Christmas tree ornaments”, as well as toys, clothing and most interestingly, motion pictures. However, the trademark could be for something else entirely (an attraction at Star Wars Land, perhaps?) so for the time being let’s add this to the previously rumoured titles Star Wars: Tale of the Jedi Temple, Star Wars: The Order of the Dark Side, and Star Wars: Fall of the Resistance…
…Star Wars Rebels is on a winter break now until January; be sure to read Chris Cooper’s reviews of ‘An Inside Man’ and ‘Visions and Voices’, and take a look at a synopsis for the two-part midseason premiere ‘Ghosts of Geonosis’ here…
…If you’re looking for something expensive to spend your Christmas money on, you may want to check out Hot Toys’ Jyn Erso collectible figure from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [see here], along with Sideshow and EFX Collectibles’ replica Darth Vader and Imperial Stormtrooper helmets [see here]…
…There’s only one Star Wars comic out this week in Marvel’s Star Wars: Poe Dameron #9: “Poe Dameron is on a secret mission from General Organa herself…to escort none other than C-3PO on a dangerous mission to the planet Kaddak! Also: a sneak peek into Terex’s past…” Read a preview of the issue here…
…And finally, Zack Snyder has shared a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer reedited to include a host of Star Wars references; watch it here.
That’s all for this week – may the Force be with you, and enjoy Rogue On!
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
