Category: sequel trilogy

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The Force Awakens teaser will debut in ‘select theaters’ this weekend…

tfa-88secsPart of the weekend reports that The Force Awakens trailer would show up at select theaters have turned out to be true… And J.J. Abrams has confirmed that ‘select theaters’ will be involved, and that the teaser will be 88 seconds.

And now we have the list: 30 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

The news broke this morning when Regal jumped the gun, announcing it’ll be at 9 of their theaters. Later, AMC and Cinemark said they’ll have it, too, and the full announcement had a few other chains as well.

The wording on StarWars.com is vague enough that they could they still surprise us with a TV or online debut… And I hope they do, because otherwise this is less ‘special’ than it is cruel.

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Today in Episode VII: Another report that the trailer will be in (some) theaters next weekend

rumors-swirl-falcon-esb/Film has “independently confirmed” that The Force Awakens teaser “will be shown in a limited number of theaters during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend,” per the basics of the Reddit report from yesterday. I’m still not very fond of a theaters-only plan, though I can’t imagine they wouldn’t pair it with an online debut…

Also floating around today is a GIF that claims to be from the trailer, though it’s noteworthy that may be the easiest part to fake from the rumors we’ve heard.

UPDATE: The source of the GIF is this admittedly fanmade video. (via)

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Rumor: The Force Awakens trailer will be on EVERYTHING next weekend… At 100 theaters

This is on Reddit, so take it as you will, but user KokiriEmerald claims that the teaser trailer will be shown “before every single showtime for every single movie at 100 theaters nationwide” next weekend. Their source is a “manager at one of the theaters getting the trailer.”

Obviously, we don’t know if there’s any truth to this yet. It is pretty grand, I guess, but a bit cruel… Unless we’re going to see it debut online as well. (via)

There’s at least one theater chain employee calling bull on this, though they go on to speculate based on the earlier rumors that it’ll debut on TV ahead of theater placement on The Hobbit.

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Today in Episode VII and such: Spin-off ideas, plus a dose of less than probable The Force Awakens ‘spoilers’

→ This isn’t a rumor, and it isn’t about Episode VII, but /Film has a nice article today about some ‘mysteries’ that the spin-offs could answer. Some of them are obvious (Boba Fett, yawn) and some less so. (And bonus points for not just serving up a selection of old EU stuff, though some of them do happen there.) Safe for the spoilerphobes!

rumors-swirl-fisher→ Want to know a possible ending to The Force Awakens, according to some random dude on 4chan? Da7e at Latino Review is ON IT. I trust 4chan/message board spoilers about as much as I’d trust a creepy stranger in a white van to babysit a young child, but at least you’re duly warned.

→ Has Underworld learned a line of dialogue? Maybe! (It’s pretty generic, actually.)

→ So the Chewbacca suit we saw way back when with Bob Iger may be the one in the movie after all, per Making Star Wars. We had conflicting reports from Lucasfilm at the time, and this doesn’t count as a confirmation, but hey: Chewbacca!

→ Oh, and we apparently do have a novelization in the pipeline from Del Rey. No, we don’t know who yet.

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Today in Episode VII: Did The Force Awakens really ‘lose control’ of their secrets? Who is Lupita Nyong’o playing?

Today’s biggest rumor adds another wrinkle to all the teaser trailer reports, but it wasn’t the only thing we heard today.

rumors-swirl-driver→ The Hollywood Reporter has an article on secrecy measures taken on the Episode VII set – and how some of them failed. Mostly this revolves around the Greenham Common and Puzzlewood set stuff and the occasional tweet – nothing about the (apparently) massive concept art leaks, the stormtroopers or any of the most mysterious things we’ve heard.

An object from the TMZ pics gets a mention, bit not the leak itself. Oversight? Request? Either way, it seems like they’re deliberately ignoring a huge chunk of stuff that’s been fueling the madness, and that just seems really odd. My conspiracy theory that many of these ‘leaks’ are intended to be misleading really doesn’t need the help, THR.

Though, for those who are constantly railing that Lucasfilm needs to address every rumor/leak that comes down the tubes, this rings very true:

Disney, besieged by the blanket media coverage of the shoot, essentially has thrown up its hands, choosing to ignore it all. “There’s so much out there, it’s easier to not correct false rumors because then people think the stuff we don’t correct is true,” says one insider.

The article also reveals one step that was taken at Pinewood: Stickers over phone cameras.

→ On that note, we have yet another concept art description from Jason at Making Star Wars, this one of a location and the type of characters we may meet there. Underworld added onto this, saying that one of those characters may be the one played by Lupita Nyong’o. Jason comes back with more description of said character. Curious…

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Report: Disney has ‘bigger plans’ for The Force Awakens trailer drop than The Hobbit

the-force-awakensIn stark contrast to yesterday’s rumor, /Film is saying today that Disney has a ‘bigger plan’ for The Force Awakens trailer than a mere debut on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. They’re aiming for “something more grand.” What is it? /Film doesn’t know, though they offer some ideas. I’m not at all a fan of this one, but it does seem plenty ‘grand:’

Then there’s the chance they go the route James Cameron did with Avatar. Rent out a ton of theaters from coast to coast and invite fans to come in and watch the trailer. Now you’re generating news reports because of the crowds, crazy social media buzz, and an event like atmosphere Star Wars demands.

A bit more palatable is something tied to Thanksgiving on TV. They mention that Jurassic World may debut a trailer during an NFL game on that night, something Star Wars may emulate and also (jokingly) a tie-in with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. At least neither of those require one to be lucky enough to live near a ‘chosen’ theater…

What’s big enough? What’s too big? Then again, look at the title. They just dropped it on Twitter, and that’s all it took to make it the day’s biggest entertainment story. You don’t need an ‘event’ to make a major Star Wars news drop: We, the fans and the media, are more than willing to do the work.

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Rumor: The Force Awakens trailer to be on new Hobbit film?

the-force-awakensWith Mockingjay apparently out of the running, it looks like we may see the (still only rumored itself) The Force Awakens teaser trailer on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Of course, this is per someone with a new-deleted Twitter account who claims to have heard it from Tommy Gormley, The Force Awakens‘s first assistant director.

And even if there’s truth to this, that’s not to say it won’t debut on TV somewhere before The Hobbit is out on December 17… ABC’s most likely candidate, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., has it’s mid-season finale on December 9. Of course, if ABC decides to put all their weight on promoting Agent Carter – which takes over the time slot starting January 6 – who would blame them? And while The Hobbit films haven’t been Jackson’s best, they’ll certainly get more eyeballs.

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Rumor: Two different description of The Force Awakens teaser trailer?

Rumors!Badass Digest had our first Description of The Force Awakens trailer this afternoon; Within a few hours we had another from Making Star Wars. So who’s right? Is anyone right? Turns out, one of those extremely random things that’s been floating around is that there are actually two different 1-minute cuts, and they haven’t chosen which to release yet.

Timing? The only thing that folks in the know agree on is “soon.” One thing that may squash our hopes for this week, though: Disney will be releasing the Cinderella trailer on Wednesday. Sad trombone.

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This weekend in Episode VII: Did John Williams record for The Force Awakens teaser yesterday?

rumors-swirl-mouse-hamillYes, John Williams was recording yesterday, according to a tweet from Scoring Sessions, exactly as we heard earlier. It’s not confirmed to be for Star Wars, but then, it wouldn’t be, would it?

The rumor mill on a possible early teaser trailer has continued to churn. Here’s what Making Star Wars has heard about the teaser itself:

…We heard the rough edit of the teaser was just a little over a minute long, showing off new characters from the film and culminating with the return of the Falcon to the big screen!

Some still say it’ll be on Mockingjay, others the last Hobbit film next month, or on TV during Agents of Shield. (Or maybe Once Upon a Time? Which gets better ratings? When do the winter hiatuses start?) In any case, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is out next week; The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is out December 17 – almost a year to the day of The Force Awakens release date.

If they are going to drop something this year, I have no trouble believing it’ll be on a non-Disney film. Into the Woods isn’t out until Christmas day, and that’s not exactly the greatest week to publicize anything, even Star Wars. (And if the trailer is out by then, it’s not like it wouldn’t get attached anyway.) Even with the internet to do most of the work, their best bet is to get something out before the holiday begins in earnest.

In other news…

→ Squashed (and empty) raw film canisters marked ‘Avco’ in a familiar font were found in London.

→ Making Star Wars also has more concept art descriptions, this time of a character who may have actually been split into two and a man in black.

→ Over at StarWars.com, Jason Fry remembers rumors and speculation back in the original trilogy days.