In this week’s edition of The Week in Star Wars, we’ve got thematic details of The Force Awakens, a shocking poll number, a returning character, playthrough of Star Wars: Battlefront and more…
Kicking things off with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Kathleen Kennedy has been talking about the movie’s themes and how the Skywalker family play into everything. It had been rumoured that this new trilogy would focus on the offspring of Luke and Leia (not together you weirdos!), but we still don’t know the full story despite being less than 3 months away from the release of the movie. But we do know that the lineage will play a role. “The Saga films focus on the Skywalker family saga,” Kennedy said. “The stories follow a linear narrative that connects to the previous six films. The Force Awakens follows Return of the Jedi and continues that generational story…”
…A character spotlight from AllPosters threw up an interesting rumour about just who might continue that generational storyline, and it’s probably not who you think. Click here for the details, but beware of potential spoilers…
…We can add another name to the original saga cast returning for another outing. Joining Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Daniels is Tim Rose, who will be reprising his role as Admiral Ackbar. Nope, this is not a trap. The character had been rumoured to return, and then seemingly confirmed in the sizzle reel shown at Comic Con. Rose confirmed his return to the saga, but didn’t sound too happy about it. “I’m very frustrated by [the secrecy on the film]. Out of the need to be secret, we’re not actually able to get everything we need to do our jobs as well as we could, and as someone who has been doing it for 35 years, I find it very frustrating.” Looks like someone yanked on the wrong tentacle…
…Last week we brought you the baffling results of a poll that said The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 was the more anticipated movie over The Force Awakens (nonsense), well a new poll of Star Wars fans (and non-fans) reckons this movie will be the best one yet. 63% of those polled think The Force Awakens will be the best movie of the franchise, with 36% saying the “advanced CGI” will be a benefit, 25% citing “a more interesting story” and another 25% saying The Force Awakens will be “more true to Star Wars” (presumably compared to the prequel trilogy). 15% say it will be better because of director J.J. Abrams while 14% think the cast is better than previous movies. One of the more shocking stats to come from the survey however is that 7% of those polled would trip over an elderly person to get Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise in the event of it being sold out, while 5% would fake a panic attack…
…This week has also brought us some new promotional character images for The Force Awakens courtesy of the Topps Card Trader app, which includes stills of Kylo Ren, Rey, Chewbacca, Captain Phasma, R2-D2, C-3PO, BB-8, and a First Order Stormtrooper and Snowtrooper…
…According to a new rumour, British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who, Belle) has joined the shortlist for the new female lead in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII. Other actresses said to be in contention include Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) and Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel)
…With Star Wars Rebels set to return for its second season this month, it has been announced that Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar is voicing the new Inquisitor, known as The Seventh Sister…
…Rebels executive producer Simon Kinberg has been discussing the possibility of Ezra, Kanan and company appearing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or other future movies: “There’s certainly potential for it. And as a fan of everything that Lucasfilm’s doing, it’d be fun to see different characters pop up across different stories. But the thing we’re really focused on is just making sure there is real continuity, that it is a unified universe from a story perspective, where anything that happens in Rebels is canon, in the same way as the original movies or prequels, The Clone Wars, and the movies going forward. There’s just a lot of care that’s taken to make sure that whatever happens in whatever different story right now is acknowledged, and that it actually feels like a coherent world or galaxy. The idea of characters actually popping up or transferring from animation to live-action and live-action to animation, we’re obviously open to because we have a lot of characters from the original movie and actually prequels who pop up in Rebels as substantial characters,” he continues. “That was true in the first season and will continue to be true in the second season, I’d say. Our second season is more Clone Wars, but there are lots of characters from the original movies too, like Vader, who will be a big part of the show now. So we’ve talked about it, and the Lucasfilm folks are–I’ve never seen anything like it, where they’re so good at telling story over not just different media, but completely different worlds…”
…Hot Toys have unveiled their 1/6th scale First Order TIE Pilot collectible figurine, which joins their 1/6th scale Kylo Ren, First Order Stormtrooper, First Order Heavy Gunner Stormtrooper, First Order Stormtrooper Squad Leader, First Order Snowtrooper and First Order Snowtrooper Officer collectible figures…
…Secret Cinema’s run of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back has come to an end, and the organisers were proud to announce they had over 100,000 people attend the show. “We took over 100,000 adventurers to a galaxy far far away, building an epic world for one of the most loved films of all time whilst continuing to re-imagine the cultural experience,” Founder and Creative Director of Secret Cinema Fabien Riggall said. “We are excited to build the next stage of Secret Cinema with our community.” And at £80 a ticket with all the staff working as volunteers, you do the maths as to how well Secret Cinema have done out of all this…
…Replay Events have announced another special guest for PLAY Expo in Manchester on the 10th & 11th October 2015: The Dark Lord himself, Darth Vader, otherwise known as Dave Prowse…
…Our own Kris Wall was down at EGX 2015 last week, and got a chance to play Star Wars Battlefront, and here’s what he thought: “From the moment I picked up the controller, Star Wars Battlefront had me hooked. The sights and sounds, the way it looks and feels like Star Wars, the excitement of taking part in such a large scale battle in that iconic universe, it was easily one of my highlights of EGX 2015 and I can’t wait to get back to the frontlines when the beta goes live in October.” Read his full preview here…
…This could bring back some *ahem* memories for certain Star Wars fans, but the Princess Leia bikini from Return of the Jedi is going on auction if you fancy buying it (and have really deep pockets). The bikini is rumoured to sell for between $80,000 and $120,000. Yeah, you read that right…
…And lastly, we’ve got a load of comic book previews. Starting off with Star Wars #10: Luke Skywalker…imprisoned! His friends race across the galaxy to save him before he enters… THE ARENA OF DEATH!; next up is Star Wars: Lando #5: It began as the heist of a lifetime…now it’s a fight to survive! When Lando and Lobot took this gig, it seemed like an easy payday… But with this conclusion, they will never be the same.; And then we have Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Shattered Empire #2: For the first time in the new Star Wars canon, journey with us into the time after the end of Return of the Jedi! Writer Greg Rucka (PUNISHER, WOLVERINE, Gotham Central) and artist Marco Checchetto (AVENGERS WORLD, PUNISHER) take us past the destruction of the second Death Star into the chaos of a Shattered Empire.; and lastly we have Star Wars: Darth Vader #10: Vader has a new mission to do for the Empire. Unfortunately, it’s completely at odds with his own mission. What’s a Dark Lord to do?
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.
