In this pre-Comic Con edition of The Week in Star Wars, the Han Solo movie has been confirmed, there’s a couple of possible cameos in Rogue One and more…
It had been rumoured for quite some time that one of the Anthology movies for Star Wars would be focused on Han Solo. We’ve heard news stories that Taron Edgerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) had screen tested for the movie and several sites claimed the plan was for a Han Solo vs. Boba Fett flick. But, now we have the official announcement. The film doesn’t have an official title yet, but it will be directed by The LEGO Movie‘s Phil Lord and Chris Miller with a script by Lawrence Kasdan. “This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with,” said Lord and Miller. “We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us. This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you’re late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you’ve loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.” Expect a full announcement of the title at Friday’s Hall H panel at San Diego Comic Con (click here to keep up to date)…
…Sticking with SDCC for a moment and it was revealed that no new footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be shown at the event. What those in attendance will be treated to however is a panel from J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan, with a behind-the-scenes video of The Force Awakens…
…Speaking of a third trailer for The Force Awakens, here is an alleged description of what we’ll see when it debuts in the Fall…
…And lastly on the SDCC front, there was this image floating around the Internet that suggested Disney and Lucasfilm will be announcing their full slate of Star Wars movies. The image claimed that we can expect an announcement of Kenobi: The Balance of the Force and Star Wars Anthology: Solo/Fett alongside the already announcement The Force Awakens, Rogue One and the yet-to-be-titled Episode VIII and Episode IX. There was a similar image last year for Marvel’s Phase Three announcement that turned out to be bogus, and it turns out this one was too. Not really that surprising as it contradicted the Han Solo news story from earlier at the very least…
…Star Wars also launched their first official App this week which gives you tonnes of cool stuff. Sadly, it’s for US users the moment only. Boo! It’s available on iOS and Android now…
…The official Star Wars site also gave us our first look at the covers and synopsis for the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens series of books, that will set up the new official cannon. The books include Star Wars: Aftermath, Star Wars: Lost Stars, Star Wars: The Weapon of a Jedi — A Luke Skywalker Adventure, Star Wars: Moving Target — A Princess Leia Adventure and Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run — A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure…
…Looking towards to Star Wars: Episode VIII, a new report claims that Donnie Yen has joined the cast. The Hong Kong tabloid that reported the story also claimed that he beat out Wang Lee Hom, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Daniel Wu, Jet Li and Chang Chen for the role, and that he would start shooting next week in London. Wait – next week?! This seems a touch unlikely now. However, Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One is currently in production, and it is rumoured to be looking for Chinese actors…
…Speaking of Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One, a new rumour has surfaced that Darth Vader will play a role in the movie, albeit a small one. The website Birth.Movies.Death says that, “he will not be the main antagonist but he will be working behind the scenes, pulling strings and will appear onscreen. Literally, I’m told – he’ll be showing up via viewscreen or holo projection or something…”
…But Darth Vader might not be the only cameo for Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One with some new reports claiming that Boba Fett, Bossk and more bounty hunters could have big roles in the film. “These bounty hunters include Boba Fett, Bossk, Dengar, Zuckuss & 4LOM, IG-88, and Cad Bane, who is from Clone Wars and is making his live action debut,” the site claims. “There might some new ones as well, but that’s the core group…”
…Moving away from the movies to the video game landscape, and we got some new gameplay images from Star Wars Battlefront this week which you can see here. Star Wars Battlefront launches on November 17th on PS4, Xbox One and PC…
…And finally, Disney Infinity 3.0 has announced this week that they are heading to a galaxy far, far away with the launch of Star Wars themed playsets based on the original and prequel trilogy. Speaking about the design for Princess Leia, Jeff Bunker said, “coming up with our own Infinitized version of Leia was really a fun challenge, but at the same time, very daunting. The fans of Star Wars are second to none in their passion, so we really felt we had to come up with a Leia that would hold up to their scrutiny and they would appreciate. When considering Leia, the first thing we had to decide was which Leia. As any fan of the films knows, there are a number of different outfits and hair styles she wears throughout the films. We always strive to capture the most iconic or representative attitude, pose and costume for any character, so it didn’t take very long to decide on the Leia with the bun hair style and white dress. There might not be a more famous costume in film. We began the model looking for enough resemblance to Carrie Fisher to be authentic while still pushing the important features. There was a fine line when creating her caricature, as it’s very easy to push too far and lose the appeal. When talking with Lucasfilm about Leia, they made it clear that she was a strong woman… very independent, strong-willed and a leader… When designing her pose, she should not come off as sexy or sultry in any way. So we worked hard to find a pose that captured a moment where she is determined and in control.”
That’s it for this week, but we’ll be back again on Sunday for the post-Comic Con news round-up. Until then, 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.
