It’s a Last Jedi heavy edition of The Week in Star Wars with our first look at some key characters, rumours on the first trailer and Finn’s role in the film, some Han Solo casting news, a look at Rogue One’s VFX, the fate of Jar Jar Binks and more…
Let’s kick things off with the official Star Wars Twitter feed sharing some packaging for September’s Force Friday toy release, which gave us our first look at Rey, Finn and Poe in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Not only is Daisy Ridley sporting a new haircut, she’s front and centre of the marketing – which should make up for the #WheresRey backlash with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Not only that, but Rian Johnson released a new image online that gave us our first look at the slightly altered designs for the Stormtroopers in the film. This might be our only look at the movie before the trailer is released…
…Speaking of the trailer and a rumour came out recently that Luke Skywalker wouldn’t feature in it, much like he didn’t for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However a new report this week suggested the complete opposite and the Jedi Master will be a featured character alongside Rey, Finn, Poe and Leia Organa. Is it April yet?..
…April is looking likely to be our first glimpse at the highly-anticipated film, but it’s also likely when we’ll hear the score for the movie courtesy of John Williams who is working on the movie as we speak. Not only that, but its being said that director Rian Johnson wants to cut the movie to Williams’ score, rather than use a temp track. Which is a nice change of pace for modern moviemaking…
…The international titles for Star Wars: The Last Jedi were revealed this week, confirming that the ‘Last Jedi’ is in fact plural. Meanwhile, some rumours also emerged relating to Finn’s secret mission in the movie; they come by way of Making Star Wars, who have proven themselves to be extremely reliable, so if you want to avoid any and all spoilers, you might want to avoid the report…
…Following the sad passing of Kenny Baker last year, Lucasfilm has now officially announced that Jimmy Vee will be taking over the iconic role of R2-D2 for December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Vee, who also worked uncredited on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released a statement which reads: “It’s been an absolute pleasure to have worked alongside the legendary Kenny Baker. Kenny was a fantastic actor and taught me all the ‘tricks’ on how he brought R2-D2 to life which I will continue to portray in his honor. I’m so excited to be a part of the Star Wars universe and can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been working so hard on for the last year…”
…Moving over to the Han Solo movie now, and it’s been rumoured this week that Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be playing a female droid in the movie. Fun fact: So far the most high profile female droid to date is TC-14, the droid who greeted Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan at the start of the much beloved Star Wars: The Phantom Menace…
…Lucasfilm has released a visual effects reel breaking down Industrial Light & Magic’s Oscar-nominated VFX work on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; watch it here…
…And on the subject of Rogue One, Lucasfilm has announced the upcoming publication of Star Wars: Inferno Squad, a new book that will pick up after the events of the Anthology movie and follows an Imperial special forces team tasked with tracking down and eliminating the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Rebel extremist group; take a look at the cover art and synopsis here…
…And on the subject of books, Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath – Empire’s End is out this coming Tuesday, and it has been revealed that the novel will detail the fate of Jar Jar Binks! You can find out where the Gungan is at post-Return of the Jedi here…
…After unveiling its Rogue One, Star Wars Rebels and 40th Anniversary Black Series figures earlier this month, we’ve now got a look at another of Hasbro’s upcoming Star Wars products in the Black Series Poe Dameron Electronic Helmet, which will hit stores in the coming months, with a RRP of $79.99. Take a look at the official promotional images here, and check out Hot Toys’ rather impressive Rey and BB-8 Premium Format Figures from 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens here…
…In other toy news, LEGO has unveiled a selection of its upcoming LEGO Star Wars products, including new sets inspired by the Prequels, Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, along with the next Advent Calendar; take a look at the sets here…
…And finally, we’ve got some titles and synopses for the final five episodes of Star Wars Rebels, which you can read here, while you can also find Chris Cooper’s review of last night’s episode ‘Legacy of Mandalore’ here.
That’s all for this week – may the Force be with you.
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth, the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast and the author of Lights, Camera, GAME OVER!: How Video Game Movies Get Made (which you can pre-order from Amazon UK and Amazon US). You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
