This week’s edition of The Week in Star Wars sees a new promotional banner and character sketches for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the return of Obi Wan Kenobi and clips from Star Wars Rebels…
Following a load of leaked images from Star Wars: The Force Awakens last week, we got a new promotional banner for the movie which features Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and some Imperial Stormtroopers. Check out the promo banner here…
…Sticking with The Force Awakens for a moment as one of its stars Greg Grunberg (who we got our first look at last week) has been speaking about his experiences working on the movie – and even dropped some hints at the themes we can expect from J.J. Abrams’ new adventure into a galaxy far, far away. “I can only say that practical effects are as important—if not more important—than the special effects,” the actor said. “And it’s all about the story and family. I mean that’s what J.J. is all about. And these new characters, these actors are unbelievable. They’re so well cast. We got our script pages, only the scenes that we were in. Not even what was being shot that day! It was all on red paper so we couldn’t copy it or take a picture of it. And then we had to give the script pages back at the end of the day.” Read the rest of the interview here…
…And lastly on The Force Awakens, we’ve got these new costume sketches of Han Solo, Finn and Poe Dameron via the French edition of Vanity Fair…
…Moving away from The Force Awakens for a moment to look at the much maligned Prequel Trilogy, with this week bringing the news that Ewan McGregor would be open to the option of returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a spin-off movie. There had been some rumours last month that Disney were planning on doing a trilogy of movies based around Old Ben, though that seems rather unlikely. If they are true however, McGregor is keeping quiet about it as it appears as though he’s yet to be approached about anything. “I’d be happy to do the story from episode three where I finish up and Alec Guinness started,” he said at the Edinburgh International Film Festival while promoting his new film The Last Days In The Desert. “It’s not a fanatical thing”, he added. “I’m really pleased I’m part of the legacy of it and happy to see it, and I’ve seen the trailer [for Star Wars: The Force Awakens] and it looks like they’ve absolutely nailed it”…
…In toy news, Toys “R” Us have unveiled their new Collector Vendor section of the website which contains some new Star Wars figures. Not only that, but they’ve given us our first look at their new Jabba’s Rancor Pit set from Return of the Jedi, which will be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. Fear not, the set will be available later on in the year for those of us who won’t be going to the event…
…Over in the world of video games, Star Wars Battlefront developer Patrick Bach has said that single player campaigns were never planned for the game and multiplayer was always the way forward. Some have speculated that this was to ensure the game was released before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but Bach has said in an interview that single-player was never considered. “To be honest, single-player was never in the plan,” Bach said. “It was never the concept. The concept for us was always that we wanted players to re-live the battles. We wanted them to play the battles from the original movies. And DICE, coming from its Battlefield background, knows how to make awesome battles in that context…”
…And lastly, we’ve got a featurette for Star Wars Rebeles that not only takes us behind the scenes of the season two premiere, but also offers a first look clip from the next episode ‘The Lost Commanders’ (which sadly isn’t set to air until the fall) as well as teasing what else is in store this coming season. Check the promo out here and be sure to read Chris Cooper’s review of the double-length season premiere The Siege of Lothal here.
That’s all for this week, may the Force be with you.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
