Principal photography begins on Han Solo standalone, release date is still May

StarWars.com has annouced that principal photography has begin on the Han Solo standalone, along with confirming rumored cast members Thandie Newton and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It’s also the first time they’ve mentioned the release date in quite a while – and surprisingly, it’s still May 25, 2018.

If it does indeed remain May, this would be our first non-December release since Disney bought the franchise, and could signal a permanent move back to spring for Episode IX and beyond. The May release date will put Han just on the heels of Episode VII, The Last Jedi, which is out December 15, 2017.

The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca along with Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are directing, from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.

Josh Gad brings on (even more) friends to pester Daisy Ridley about The Last Jedi

It takes a lot of star power to top Dame Judy Dench, so Josh Gad has assembled an all-star cast for his final (hopefully) Daisy Ridley question session on The Last Jedi secrets, including Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow, Leslie Odom, Jr., Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Penelope Cruz and more.

The Last Jedi is plural – in translation, anyway

Several foreign translations for The Last Jedi title came through today, and it’s noteworthy because every single one of them – French, Spanish, German and Italian) – implies that the term ‘Jedi’ is a plural. (The term Jedi itself is both singular and plural, so it depends entirely upon context.)

I’m no linguist, but I do tend to side-eye most pre-release fan theories in any context, so take it as you will. In any case, as The Mary Sue’s Dan Van Winkle reminds us: “we don’t know who made these decisions,” and after almost 34 years it’s still possible to debate whether the Jedi in Return of the Jedi (singular, in translation) is Luke or Anakin. I may not be inclined to set any flags down just yet, but you can’t deny that it’s a nice piece of evidence for those who do.

Force Friday annoucement, reveal gives us our first look at Rey in The Last Jedi

StarWars.com has officially annouced that Force Friday II is set for September 1, but more importantly (for our purposes) they’ve also given us our first look at Rey, Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi. Rey is not only front and center with a lightsaber, but she’s sporting a new hairstyle! Finn has a new shirt! Poe looks… Pretty much the same!

Head below the cut for the full packaging. Continue reading “Force Friday annoucement, reveal gives us our first look at Rey in The Last Jedi”

Celebration’s The Last Jedi panel will be Friday, April 14

To the surprise of no one, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director Rian Johnson will be on a Celebration Orlando panel on Friday, April 14. The Last Jedi panel is expected debut the film’s first trailer, or at the very least a behind-the-scenes feature, as the con is expected to launch the movie’s first wave of publicity. Expect some other “special guests” to appear as well.

For the past few Celebrations, the first big movie panel has featured the upcoming release, while a second on Sunday focuses on the other upcoming films.

The new Star Wars Show also features more Rogue One behind-the-scenes and a visit to Sideshow.


UPDATE: Johnson took the occasion to post a new behind-the-scenes shot on Tumblr:

http://rcjohnso.tumblr.com/post/157290828820/were-coming-to-orlando-for-a-star

Rumor: A new planet for The Last Jedi?

In today’s rumor, Making Star Wars reports on a new planet it seems we’ll see in The Last Jedi and who likely resides there. (It might be connected to another recent rumor.)

→ Some areas of the fandom ::coughReylocough:: have noted that the certain StarWars.com Databank entries for have been updated to reference a “mysterious” and “strange” connection between Kylo Ren and Rey. Is it love? Is it their genes? Is it the Force? All three? Take it as you will.

→ It’s official: Jimmy Vee is playing R2-D2 in The Last Jedi, per both his agency, Oh So Small and Lucasfilm themselves, via Mashable. He takes over from Kenny Baker, who died last year.

→ And to round things out, here’s a quick reminder that any rumor sourced from Reddit or 4chan should be considered extremely dubious. (Which is why I don’t bother to report them myself anymore.) That’s one reason why it’s important to note the original source of an item! Also be on watch for the term ‘speculation.’ There’s a lot of fan speculation out there, but that doesn’t make it news.

A Legends-to-new-canon cheat sheet

io9 rounds up some (most?) of the new canon’s Legends imports, or at least those that came up since the old Expanded Universe actually became Legends. I can’t really tell if this is complete, since most of them are fairly minor.

I would say Thrawn is about the most major, since the concepts of things like a “New Republic” and “Leia and Han’s kid going dark” are fairly broad. And in any case, this list is likely to grow with Aftermath: Empire’s End coming out in a matter of weeks.