Category: sequel trilogy

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Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII swag, another look at the set

@riancjohnson [x]
@riancjohnson [x]

Episode VIII director Rian Johnson has shared a couple relevant photos on his Instagram and Twitter. In the first, we see VIII’s “first piece of embroidered swag.” Then there’s an embroidered hat, featuring a ‘Space Bear’ – aka the film’s code name. Yet more signs that the end is nigh… But the third appears to be some sort of high-flying set shenanigans. Much less revealing than what we saw last time, but ain’t that the way.

UPDATE: And on Tuesday, he tweets “Holy cow, we’re starting to wrap main cast members.” Now, the question is: Will we get a wrap announcement (and very possibly a title) before or during Celebration Europe?

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Report: Episode VIII, Rogue One footage shown at Licensing Expo

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Steven Weintraub of Collider claims to have spoken to people who’ve seen footage of Episode VIII and Rogue One at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.

Weintraub isn’t sharing any details – all those who actually saw the footage must be under NDA or it would be all over the internet by now. But if this is true, it seems likely it’ll be unveiled publicly at next month’s Celebration Europe. We already know that Rogue One will be featured heavily, but we’re still not quite sure how much to expect from VIII. But note that they’ve already shown more of it than we saw of Rogue One at Celebration Anaheim!

UPDATE: Making Star Wars says the VIII footage is the Skellig Michael stuff linked above, while the Rogue One stuff was photos of the sidekick droid. Apparently Alan Horn did joke that the VIII title is imminent, but given that they’re almost done with filming that seems fairly obvious.

Also out of the Expo came the news that Star Wars and The Force Awakens helped to lift licensed merchandise sales 4.2%.

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While we were drinking: Rebels S2 Blu-ray, ILMxLab and more

This past weekend, much of Club Jade was at our annual gathering at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, including yours truly. Here’s some of what we missed:

rebels-s2-blu→ The second season of Rebels is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on August 30. The Blu-ray has a special feature of Dave Filoni reflecting on Ahsoka Tano’s showdown with Darth Vader.

→ Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, and Frank Marshall discuss getting J.J. Abrams on board for The Force Awakens, IX director Colin Trevorrow and more.

→ Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB has teamed up with VR startup Magic Leap to develop new Star Wars immersive content.

→ Chewbacca Mom Candace Payne now has her own (custom) action figure from Hasbro.

→ Writer Marjorie Liu talks to Amy Ratcliffe about her Han Solo comic.

→ The latest episode of Tor.com’s Rocket Talk podcast features Alexandra Petri, the Washington Post columnist who’s behind Emo Kylo Ren.

→ Disney World’s Hollywood Studios has a new nighttime Star Wars show.

→ Mara Jade fans: There’s a fanfic exchange for the character just starting on Tumblr, with several prompts still available.

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John Williams expects to score Episode VIII

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Talking to Variety, composer John Williams says he has every intention of returning to score his eighth Star Wars film.

“If I can do it, I certainly will. I told Kathy Kennedy I’m happy to do it, but the real reason is, I didn’t want anybody else writing music for Daisy Ridley,” he quips.

Williams also says he has no intention of retiring. His next film, before VIII, will be Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One.

Williams received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award Thursday night. The ceremony, which features Spielberg, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Harrison Ford and more paying tribute, will air on TNT June 15th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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Sequel stuff: The fork is strong with Carrie and Mark

viii-tweets-carrie-fork052416cI’m sorry. I’m really sorry. But they are adorable, right? “The fork surrounds you, binds you, & feeds you….” Thanks, Carrie.

→ Not cute enough? Some Irish schoolkids got a visit from Chewbacca. On that note, word on the street is that they’ve finished up VIII filming in Ireland…

→ The Force Awakens editor Maryann Brandon took part in a Q&A at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

→ The teaser trailer for Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast has broken the record for 24-hour views set by the second teaser for The Force Awakens last year. I’m puzzled (the B&TB trailer is super bland,) but such is the media ecosystem.

→ And to take us out, a video highlighting the sound editing of The Force Awakens.