Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Hot on the heels of JJ Abrams saying there would be no new footage shown at D23 because he doesn't want to over-saturate the market with Star Wars: The Force Awakens buzz we get a ton of new images and details courtesy of a giant blitz appearing in EW's fall movies preview issue.
Yeah, maybe I'd be a little bitter that I missed Comic-Con, but am going to D23 and not getting any goodies, but I still hold out a tiny kernel of hope that he'll still bring something for us eager beavers in the audience.
Let's look at the images EW dropped and we'll move on to some of the TFA details dropped by the multiple stories EW ran in this issue.
First up is Kylo Ren in an image that'll for sure be plastered on the walls of kids for a few years...
Man, it's good to see Threepio and Artoo together again, isn't it?
You should definitely look at EW and read their full Star Wars coverage, but I'll throw some bullet points of stuff that caught my eye below:
-The question that got Abrams to sign up for the movie was "Who is Luke Skywalker?" The idea that Luke may still be fighting Dark Side impulses appealed to JJ in a huge way.
-At some point Leia, Han, Chewie, Finn and Rey are all on the Falcon at the same time. (Or it's possible the article inferred BB8 with the fifth character, in which case Leia is SOL)
-They were sketchy on how involved the original trilogy cast were in this film, but they did confirm Han Solo is one of the main characters.
-Leia comes into possession of the lightsaber seen in the trailer, which isn't just any old lightsaber. It is indeed the one Anakin passed down to Luke and that was lost in the duel with Vader on Bespin.
-Lawrence Kasdan was working on the Han Solo Anthology film even BEFORE JJ Abrams came on board to direct Episode 7.
-Kasdan turned down George Lucas to work on the prequels, but much like Abrams couldn't resist the pull of figuring out what happened to Luke Skywalker post-Return of the Jedi.
-Abrams considers himself the "temporary captain of the ship George built."
-Abrams says it's a thrill to see Rian Johnson's work on Episode 8 "take things and elevate them beyond what we had imagined at the time."
-JJ also says he will NOT be directing Episode 9, but will be available to give advice and thoughts to whomever makes any part of the new trilogy.
-Kylo Ren is definitely obsessed with Darth Vader, his mask a nod to Vader's visage.
-Abrams says Ren isn't as fully formed as Darth Vader was when we met him. He's more ragged. And yes, he built that lightsaber himself.
-Kylo Ren is also not his birth name. Ren is a title, like Darth, and the name he was given by an order called The Knights of Ren. Could the rumors be true that he's Han's kid gone bad? Or what if he's Luke's kid and we have the inverse of the Original Trilogy's quest of a son saving the father and this time it's the other way around? SO MANY QUESTIONS!?!
Lots of info today. Expect the next for sure big drop of stuff to happen around the toy release and the promised Fall trailer, although I'm still holding out hope for some D23 goodness, no matter how small.
Thoughts?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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