It’s a Rogue One special for The Week in Star Wars, and we’ve got everything you need to know…
Before we kick off, this edition of The Week in Star Wars marks the first anniversary of the feature – thank you to everyone who has read it and continues to read it!
Kicking things off this week – with really the only news you’ll need to know – it’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Ignoring all of the production issues [read here and here if you missed all that], and the movie graced the cover of Entertainment Weekly featuring Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, Diego Luna’s Captain Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO. It also confirmed that Darth Vader was in the movie (which we revealed months ago) and that Mads Mikkelsen is playing Jyn Ero’s father (something he already let slip). A couple of days later, they released a load of character portraits and details which you can read here…
…Part of those details teased some amazing information about Forest Whitaker’s character, who it turns out is Saw Gerrera, a character who appeared in four episodes of season five of The Clone Wars, and has also been mentioned by name in Star Wars Rebels and the novel Star Wars: Bloodline. “Consider him kind of a battered veteran who leads a band of Rebel extremists,” states Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. “He’s on the fringe of the Rebel Alliance. Even [they] are a little concerned about him…”
…Back on Darth Vader’s involvement in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Kathleen Kennedy and Gareth Edwards talked about the Sith Lord in the article. “He will be in the movie sparingly,” Kennedy said, confirming James Earl Jones in the role. “But at a key, strategic moment, he’s going to loom large.” Edwards adds: “Within the Rebellion, it’s not commonly spoken about. Within the Empire, there is the culture of knowing of the existence of Darth Vader. There’s definitely an underlying feeling that there is a power – a dark power – available to the Empire and that if you overstep your mark, you will suffer the consequences…”
…As part of all the EW coverage, we also got a huge batch of brand new images from Rogue One, which you can see here and here…
…Meanwhile, LEGO has also teased its upcoming range of sets for Rogue One, which are set to hit shelves in September…
…Former Lucasarts employee Cory Barlog has revealed that Emperor Palpatine would have featured in the cancelled live-action Star Wars: Underground TV series – and that’s not all, as the evil Sith Lord would have been portrayed in a sympathetic light: “When I was working at Lucas, I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [canceled live-action Star Wars] TV show. It was the most mind-blowing thing I’d ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this fucking heartless woman. She’s this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That’s something magical. The writers who worked on that, guys from The Shield and 24, these were excellent writers…”
…Hot Toys is kicking off its latest wave of Star Wars: The Force Awakens collectible figures by releasing a batch of promotional images for its 1/6th scale Han Solo, which was then followed up by Chewbacca…
…Sideshow Collectibles shared its San Diego Comic-Con International exclusives for next month’s con, with the manufacturer set to offer an R2-D2 Unpainted Prototype Sixth Scale Figure which you can check out here…
…And finally, here’s your comic book preview for the week in Star Wars: Darth Vader #22: Vader takes on Cylo and his cybernetic operatives. The Executor moves closer to completion in time for its launch. Meanwhile — the murderbots take on their “master”.
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 June 26, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
