This edition of The Week in Star Wars sees more updates on The Force Awakens’ box office totals, casting news for Han Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rogue One rumours and more…
We’re going to kick things off this week by looking at Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ box office totals. The film is still out, and it’s still climbing, but its reach for Avatar is getting further and further away. The film did cross $800 million domestically – becoming the first movie in history to do so – and it passed Jurassic World to become the third biggest movie of all-time. We’ve been saying for weeks, however, that if it was going to topple James Cameron’s sci-fi flick it was going to need a big opening in China. As noted in The Week in Star Wars a couple of editions ago, Star Wars isn’t as big of a deal in The Middle Kingdom, and as such it would have been surprising if it had opened big. And, well, it didn’t. The film opened to $53 million in China, and while it topped the weekend box office, it pales in comparison to films like Avengers: Age of Ultron which opened to $155 million last year. It also falls behind other openings including Furious 7, Jurassic World, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3 and even Terminator: Genisys. China was Disney’s last big territory to open in, and it tried hard to promote itself by even recording a new theme song with their country’s version of Justin Bieber, but it wasn’t enough. Sadly, it looks like Avatar will remain the biggest movie of all-time…
…There were some more behind-the-scenes images from Star Wars: The Force Awakens released this week., while VFX supervisor Chris Corbould detailed a deleted scene featuring Maz Kanata: “There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they’re going into the underground passageways, and stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling,” states Corbould. “From my point of view, [that] worked absolutely brilliantly because you had all the main actors running up and then Maz does her bit and then the whole ceiling collapses in front of them, but that never made it. That was a shot I was quite proud of, actually. It worked really, really well…”
…If you’re still asking #WheresRey, then you’ll be pleased to see that she’s in the second wave of figures for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “This new wave of product has got key elements from the film. You see Rey with a saber, her blaster, and a number of other elements we wanted to hold back until the film had been released,” says Paul Southern, head of Lucasfilm licensing. “The timing is good to try to address some of the social discussion that has been created through the ‘Where’s Rey?’ movement…”
…Speaking of which, Hot Toys unveiled some spoilery updates to their 1/6th scale Rey figure, which includes new accessories including Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber! Rey joins Hot Toys’ other collectible figures from The Force Awakens including Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma, Stormtrooper, Gunner Stormtrooper,Stormtrooper Squad Leader, Snowtrooper, Snowtrooper Officer,Flametrooper,Stormtrooper (Jakku), TIE Pilot, Finn and Finn vs. First Order Riot Control Stormtrooper…
…Hot Toys also unveiled their 1/6th scale Shock Trooper Collectible Figure from the video game Star Wars Battlefront, while we also got a look at Previews’ exclusive PX Pop! Vinyl 3-pack from Return of the Jedi, which features the Rancor, Luke Skywalker and Oola…
…Moving over to Star Wars: Episode VIII and star John Boyega agrees with co-star Daisy Ridley’s assessment of the script and even called it “darker”. He also added that his role will be more physical…
…Last week we reported on a petition to bring back George Lucas to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, and now the movie’s actual director Colin Trevorrow has spoken out about it. “It’s funny, I saw that, and it was on a day where I was at Lucasfilm giving this big speech to everyone about how we want to channel the invention and just the raw creativity and the boldness that George brought to these films and not being afraid that we’re going to embarrass ourselves by doing something that might be crazy. When George Lucas made Star Wars, a lot of people thought it was crazy. When you try to pitch what that movie’s about — if you’ve never heard of Star Wars before, you say, ‘Here’s a character. His father’s part robot, but he can also do magic. And there’s a guy who can fly in a spaceship. He’s got a dog for a friend!’ — it sounds insane. But it’s the greatest story ever told. I just want to embrace that kind of invention and creativity that he brought to it…”
…Speaking of Trevorrow, he also promised us a satisfying reveal for Rey’s parentage – which suggest we won’t find out until Star Wars: Episode IX. “I’ve seen all of the theories… What I do know is that we’re going to make sure that that answer is deeply and profoundly satisfying, because Rey is a character that is important in this universe, not just in the context of The Force Awakens but in the entire galaxy, and she deserves it. So we’ll make sure that that answer is something that feels like it was—it’s something that happened a long time ago [in a galaxy] far, far away, we’re just telling you what happened…”
…Looking even further ahead to Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (if that’s what it will be called), and the huge casting call from last year has now been whittled down to twelve. They include Miles Teller (Fantastic Four), Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), Dave Franco (Unfinished Business), Jack Reynor (Room), Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad), Logan Lerman (Fury), Emory Cohen (Brooklyn) and Blake Jenner (Glee). The other rumour surrounding this casting is that Disney are looking to get a name down soon as Han Solo will feature in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Myself and Oli Davis of FMTV fame sat down to talk about these casting choices, which you can watch below…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_lZVmS6xQ
…And while J.J. Abrams has nothing to do with Han Solo: A Star Wars Story, he has some friendly advice for whoever nabs the coveted role…
…But before we get to all of that, we’ve got Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And as we promised in last week’s edition, the rumours for the film are coming in thick and fast. This week is slightly different as it’s a rumour we can confirm: Darth Vader will be in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and he won’t be played by Hayden Christensen. Not only that, but James Earl Jones will be returning to provide his unique voice for the character…
…Leia Organa didn’t just return to the Star Wars Universe via The Force Awakens, as she’s guest starring in Star Wars Rebels as Princess Leia when season two resumes next week with the tenth episode, ‘A Princess on Lothal’. Meanwhile, Disney XD also released an exciting new trailer for the second half of Rebels season two, which features appearances from Yoda, Darth Vader (and Anakin Skywalker), Ahsoka Tano, Leia, a Kylo Ren-style crossguard lightsaber and a returning Sith Lord from the Prequel era…
…Ahead of its release next month, BioWare has released a trailer for ‘Anarchy in Paradise’, the next chapter in the episodic expansion story for Star Wars: The Old Republic – Knights of the Fallen Empire, which you can watch right here…
…Those of you who are huge fans of Poe Dameron will be pleased to hear that the character is getting his own comic series from Marvel. The new series will take place prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and “will dig into Poe’s status as the top X-wing fighter jockey for General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and leader of a squadron with an important mission. But the evil First Order also has a goal of finding Luke, and a new villain from the organization is introduced as Poe’s chief nemesis…”
…And finally, here’s your comic book preview for the week. Marvel’s Star Wars #15, which is out January 20th: Another tale of Obi-Wan’s exile on Tatooine! Owen Lars took Luke in…but he refused to let Ben be part of his life. Why? What trouble could have been stirred up by Ben protecting Luke?
That’s all for this week – may The Force be with you…
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and a contributor on The Flickering Myth Movie Show. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
