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In this edition of The Week in Star Wars, we’ve got George Lucas talking about Greedo shooting first as well as liking The Force Awakens, news on Disney’s casting plans for a young Han Solo, UK cinemas adding an extra charge on The Force Awakens and some predictions for box office numbers…
With two weeks to go until the film hits theaters, we’re kicking things off with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and following last week’s featurette focused on Daisy Ridley’s Rey, we got one for Finn this week titled Finn’s Adventure. There was also a couple of TV spots which offered some brief glimpses of new footage…
…And another featurette landed online, this time focusing on the cute new droid BB-8. Which was then joined by a behind the scenes featurette called “Legacy”…
…Speaking of new things, Rolling Stone debuted a new image from the upcoming blockbuster which sees Kylo Ren staring down the charred mask of Darth Vader…
…We’ve heard some wild box office predictions over the past few months, but this latest one is making claims that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will topple James Cameron’s Avatar as the biggest movie of all time. The Hollywood Reporter’s claims are that the movie will make $1 billion domestically with a further $2.5 billion from worldwide markets, giving the movie a total of $3.5 billion overall. Seems like a pretty high number if you ask me…
…If The Force Awakens is going to hit that incredible box office number, it’s going to need to conquer the lucrative Chinese market. This week we got a new poster for the Middle Kingdom release as well as word that they will have to wait until next year to see the film when it’s released on January 9th…
…And if the Chinese market doesn’t help get The Force Awakens to that $3.5 billion mark, then UK cinemas will certainly try their hardest as it was revealed this week that Odeon and Vue are adding an extra ticket premium for showings of the movie. It was reported that Odeon is charging an extra £1 on top of their pre-existing £1 premium for new blockbusters, creating an overall £2 uplift on tickets…
…Back to posters for a second, and John Boyega’s Finn got his own motion poster and Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron got his own character poster…
…Comedy movie Sisters starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey (which is hilarious, by the way) posted a spoof video of The Force Awakens this week to promote their movie. Along with Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, Sisters opens on the same weekend as Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Which, is either brave or foolish…
…I was on Radio Yorkshire again this week talking about the Star Wars: The Force Awakens box office predictions, as well as the trailers for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War, which you can listen to below:
…George Lucas has now seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And what did he make of it? “[He] really liked it,” Kathleen Kennedy claims. She also added that Lucas will be at the premiere, and that the process has been tough for him, “watching this go on without his direct involvement. At the same time, he really wanted to step away. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about George is it’s that he’s never, ever held back. Having him 100 percent on board is up to him and he can’t do that unless he’s running everything…”
…Lawrence Kasdan has also been talking about The Force Awakens, and how it won’t tie too much into the prequel trilogy. “The story [in the prequels] does not interfere. We only have to deal with the first trilogy so we didn’t have to deal with it much. They obviously have a certain feel, and that was not the feel we wanted this one to have. This is much more related to A New Hope and Empire. The thing I always loved about Star Wars — and George had this when he made A New Hope and J.J. can hook into this very strongly — is that it’s goofy, you know? There are big issues and there’s some philosophy, but it’s basically goofy. And I think The Force Awakens is goofy — in the best way. Wherever there’s a question: Could that happen? Well, why not?..”
…The official Star Wars site released the cover to Star Wars: Aftermath – Life Debt, the second part of Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of novels (read our review of the first part here), which sees the Millennium Falcon being pursued by a group of TIE Fighters…
…Harrison Ford, who will be reprising his role of Han Solo in case you didn’t already know, has been speaking about returning to the Star Wars saga this week: “It was great,” states Ford. “It’s a wonderful movie. It’s got great production values. It’s a real big movie, and I was delighted to see it. I think [Han] has got a more complex story now. A little more of an emotional context than perhaps there was before. But he’s still the same guy…”
…Speaking of Han, expect to see a lot of rumours and speculation about the casting for his younger self to be in the news a lot over the coming weeks following the announcement that Disney have tested over 2,500 actors for the role. With so many actors competing for the coveted role, a lot of famous names are among the list including Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), Dave Franco (Bad Neighbours), Miles Teller (Fantastic Four), Nick Robinson (Jurassic World), Rami Malek (Mr. Robot), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Colton Haynes (Arrow), Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction), Max Thieriot (Bates Motel), Logan Lerman (Fury), Hunter Parrish (Weeds) and Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl)…
…And speaking of Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (nice little segue there), Lawrence Kasdan has been talking about what we can expect from the movie. “You know, he’s younger in this [spinoff] movie and that’s fun because you have to imagine him 10 years earlier in his early 20s. What was he like before he hardened up? Before he had some setbacks? Before he put on this cynical coat? What got him there?”
Head to the next page to read why George Lucas had Greedo shoot first, Carrie Fisher talking Slave Leia controversy, news on Star Wars Battleftont and Star Wars Rebels and your comic book previews for the week…
Originally published December 6, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
