John Williams willing to return for Episode IX (and who’s going to tell him no?)

In an interview regarding his Oscar chances this year, composer John Williams says that he’s already told J.J. Abrams that he’ll return for Episode IX. “I would very much like to complete that,” he told Variety.

Williams is eligible for both The Last Jedi and The Post this year. He’s received 50 nominations over his career and won 5, including one for the original Star Wars.

Before IX, Williams will be contributing a theme for Solo.

What the hell is going on with Kylo Ren’s pants?

Here’s one of those sentences no one ever dreamed of typing: The Wall Street Journal is covering Kylo Ren’s high-waisted pants, complete with one of their classic stipple portraits. (And an official still from Lucasfilm. No more need for fuzzy pirated screenshots!)

It’s mostly about the #KyloRenChallenge meme, but we do get word from from the film’s costume designer:

“The world of Star Wars is not our world,” Michael Kaplan, costume designer for “The Last Jedi,” wrote in an email. “Kylo Ren is not some hipster in hip-hugging jeans. Think Errol Flynn swashbuckling coolness as a point of departure. Hide that navel!”

We get something of the history of high-waisted pants, and a Bruce Lee shoutout as well. I guess Kylo finally gets one up on grandpa Anakin in at least one area: His waistband.

Rumor: Home release of The Last Jedi coming March 27?

The Digital Bits is reporting that The Last Jedi will likely be out on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on March 27. This is still tentative, and both The Force Awakens and Rogue One had layered releases, so keep that in mind before planning time off for GIFmaking and the like.

Going by the previous releases, we could get official word on the release date in February.

We expect that the release will contain at least 20 minutes of deleted scenes in addition to the usual making-of extras. Hopefully a director’s commentary is included in this one: We had to wait for the 3D home release to get J.J. Abrams’ commentary on The Force Awakens, but we know that Rian Johnson was recording one back in November.

Rumor: Is something Star Wars going to film in Scotland in June?

There have been reports out of Scotland that Star Wars may be headed to Argyll and other areas in the north of the country in the summer for a new film.

Unfortunately, they all seem to peg it being for Rian Johnson’s new trilogy, which has no script, cast or release date yet. J.J. Abrams’ Episode IX seems like a more likely bet, and a tweet from a local tourism account lends slighly more credibility to that theory. IX is due out in December 2019.

There’s also the possibility it’s for the fifth Indiana Jones movie, which has a 2020 release date.

However, it’s noteworthy that we’ve seen plenty of false claims for shooting locations over recent years, so I hesitate to buy this one in full.

Star Wars out this week: Storms of Crait #1

Today (December 27) brings three new comics, two with significant The Last Jedi tie-ins. First up is Storms of Crait #1, with Leia and Leia on the base during the Rebellion. It also comes in two variant covers. Star Wars Adventures #5 brings us more porg content (also in a non-porg cover.) And then there’s Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu #5.

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