The Week in Star Wars is dedicated to Kenny Baker.
You were the droid we were looking for.
This edition of The Week in Star Wars brings you the brand new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as well as some casting rumours for young Lando in Han Solo: A Star Wars Story and the latest on Star Wars Rebels season three…
Let’s kick things off this week with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and following a teaser earlier in the week the brand new trailer for the movie dropped on Thursday evening. Not only did it give us a little more action and a look at some new characters, but it also gave our first look (at the back of his head at least) of Darth Vader. You can read the reaction from the Flickering Myth writers here…
…Something interesting to come from the trailer, however, was that Tony Gilroy – who was brought on to help with the reshoots and then supervise the edit – has been given a screenwriting credit. I’ve broken down what this means in the post, but in short it suggests that Gilroy has played a major part in the story for the movie…
…The official synopsis was also released, which reads: From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves…
…Riz Ahmed was interviewed by Entertainment Weeekly and he spoke about his character Bodhi Rook, a former Imperial pilot who has defected to the Rebellion. “A character like Bodhi is not born into the life of a soldier,” states Ahmed. “He’s a pilot working for the Empire, doing his job, getting on with it. But when you put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, it can freak them out. It can inspire deep passions. So I’m gonna defend Bodhi.” You can read more from that interview here…
…Gareth Edwards also spoke out about the planet Jedha, which he explains is a holy land for those who follow The Force. “The Force is basically in Star Wars like a religion, and they’re losing their faith in the period that we start the movie,” he says. “We were trying to find a physical location we could go to that would speak to the themes of losing your faith and the choice between letting the Empire win, or evil win, and good prevailing. It got embodied in this place we called Jedha. It’s a place where people who believe in the Force would go on a pilgrimage,” he continues. “It was essentially taken over by the Empire. It’s an occupied territory… for reasons we probably can’t reveal. There’s something very important in Jedha that serves both the Jedi and the Empire. It felt very much like something we could relate to in the real world.” You can read more from that interview here…
…Lastly on the Rogue One front, and LEGO released some images from their upcoming lines. However it appears that was a mistake as we were asked to remove them. Whoops!..
…Moving over to Han Solo: A Star Wars Story now (not the official title) and it was revealed this week that a young Lando Calrissian will feature in the movie alongside Alden Ehrenreich’s famous smuggler. Shortly after that, Births.Movies.Death jumped in to report that Donald Glover – who is appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming – is the front-runner for the role. However, they seem to be a bit hesitant about the rumour – even saying “I’m not even sure there’s an offer out there” – which leads me to believe it.s not true at all…
…Good news for fans of Star Wars Rebels as you won’t have to wait long for the new series to start. Lucasfilm announced from their Star Wars Twitter account that the third season will premiere on Saturday, September 24 at 8:30 PM…
…Speaking of Star Wars Rebels, and the show’s creator and showrunner Dave Filoni has been talking about whether we’ll see the classic X-Wing vehicles in the series. “Everybody wants X-Wings, you know,” states Filoni. “It’s a tricky thing in Star Wars because now we have so many things going on across so many platforms. That, you know, when you’re creating a show and you’re able to create, you know, stories in Star Wars, I try to see well how can we make this different? So one of the choices that we made early on was that we weren’t gonna have X-Wings at least early on in the show. We’ve done B-Wings. Now we’re doing Y-Wings. But I’ve tried to stay away from a lot of the original trilogy kind of New Hope backbone stuff, because that, I want that to be clearly this is not that story. We’re a different cell.” You can read more from that interview here…
…Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced the release of the free level pack, The Phantom Limb for LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This free new DLC is available exclusively for Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 gamers, and you can watch the trailer here…
…Like the cheeky buggers they are, Lucasfilm announced the release dates for Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, which is set to feature brand new bonus material including additional deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes conversations with cast and crew and a revealing, never-before released audio commentary by director J.J. Abrams. So, it sucks for everyone who bought the last Blu-Ray release and were disappointed by the lack of special features. Guess you’ll just have to buy it again. Read all about the special features here. The Blu-ray is set for release in North America on November 15th, and we’ll get it here in the UK a little earlier on October 31st…
…Here’s your comic book preview for the week in Star Wars: Poe Dameron #5: Black Squadron’s been locked away in a Republic prison! But they’re not locked in there with us, they’re locked in with…Terrex?! Can Poe and co. get the info they need and get free?…
…And finally, we end on a sad note this week, with the news that Kenny Baker – who played the iconic R2-D2 in the first six Star Wars movies – has passed away aged 81, after suffering a long illness. Rest in Peace…
That’s all for this week – may The Force be with you.
Order Star Wars: The Force Awakens via Amazon UK or Amazon US
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the co-host of The Flickering Myth Podcast and Scooperhero News. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen and read his weekly feature The Week in Star Wars.
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Originally published August 14, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
