Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Well, there’s a movie out this week. Whether you see it first thing Thursday night or wait for the weekend, know one thing: The Rogue One books are out on Friday. Namely, the novelization by Alexander Freed (eBook only,) the Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo and The Art of Rogue One. I haven’t seen any of them yet, but based on prior experience I say get the Visual Guide first.
For those looking for a different sort of prequel, there’s Poe Dameron #9 on Wednesday.
Yes, I’m a bit behind on this one, but sometimes 10 inches of snow happens and you have to shovel it. Twice. And then, uh, go to a thing in-between. Which brings us to the real reason for this item: To remind you that reviews for Rogue One come off embargo at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) tomorrow. Consider yourself warned!
→ Entertainment Weekly has a gallery of the new aliens and droids we’ll see in Rogue One. That’s Beezer Fortuna on the right, and as Pablo points out, he seems to be inspired by an old Bib Fortuna maquette.
→ Bob Iger does the CEO thing and plays it safe re: that one boycott. “Frankly, this is a film that the world should enjoy. It is not a film that is, in any way, a political film. There are no political statements in it, at all.” This film? Maybe. The franchise? Well…
→ The cast was on Jimmy Kimmel on Friday. Watch all the videos at Jedi News or just skip straight to the clip.
→ Another new clip, plus featurettes on Scarif and the Maldives and Alan Tudyk and K-2SO from the red carpet livestream. (You can watch the red carpet interviews and other features individually thanks to Disney’and Experience.)
→ Of course there’s an Uber tie-in.
Straight from Hollywood!
Entertainment Weekly brought us our first listen of Michael Giacchino’s Rogue One score. I’m not really much of a score junkie, but it sounds good! If you want to dig a little deeper, the full track listing has been spotted. There are few intriguing things there, so take it as you will.
→ Chatting about Columbia’s Rogue One jackets with the brand’s director of apparel design, Debra Criss. These are really some of the most impressive clothing tie-ins we’ve seen with this film, so it’s nice to learn more.
→ There’s been some pretty ridiculous stuff running around Twitter regarding an “anti-Trump” message being inserted into Rogue One at the last minute. While Star Wars has never shied away from some pointed commentary, the timeline alone here makes that deeply unrealistic. And in any case, certain themes have been baked in since the start. I expect this boycott will bear about as much fruit as the last one did.
→ The interviews: Gareth Edwards on diversity, reshoots and the “team sport” method of Star Wars (and/or filmmaking in general.) Riz Ahmed raps. The Wrap calls Donnie Yen “the perfect breakout star for 2017” and he tells Mashable “Give me a lightsaber, you wouldn’t have two hours of storytelling.”
→ A quick guide to the Star Wars books, films and TV you may want to catch up on before Rogue One.
Making Star Wars today claims they have the technical scoop on Supreme Leader Snoke in Episode VIII. There’s a tiny bit of timeline detail, but nothing we can’t already assume already.
There’s been a lot of great interviews and insight to come out of the Rogue One junket, but this is by far my favorite.
The cast was on The Star Wars Show! And here’s even more interviews: Gareth Edwards on how they filmed the X-wing battle. John Knoll is also talking space battles and the full-size X-wings and the (not so full-sized) Star Destroyer models. Ben Mendelsohn on where Krennic ranks on the Star Wars villain scale and addresses his relationship with Tarkin. And finally, Mads Mikkelsen on fighting Darth Vader.
→ Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican on the origins of K-2SO. Speaking of the Brez, check out his interview on the latest Steele Wars, a must-listen for anyone curious about Star Wars journalism.
→ The film has a release date in China: January 6, 2017.
→ More takes on the Rogue One press event from /Film and Fangirl Blog.
→ Shockingly, Reddit Neo-Nazis are pissed about Rogue One. More seats for us, dude.
I’ve seen a few people hoping that we’ll get an Episode VIII trailer with Rogue One. And while I’m as eager to see something new from VIII as anyone else, I don’t see it happening. At all. (And technically didn’t we already get a teaser?)
Here’s the thing: If they drop us something substantial for Episode VII, it will absolutely dominate the Star Wars news cycle for days, if not weeks. In other words: If they drop an Episode VIII teaser in the next 9 days, it takes attention away Rogue One. A lot of attention.
Lucasfilm doesn’t want to distract from Rogue One, and they don’t want to confuse people. I suspect we’ve all heard from (or of) people who are confused about Rogue One. Maybe they think it’s VIII; Maybe they don’t get it, period. It’s new territory, after all. Throwing brand-new Episode VIII footage around is only going to muddy those waters.
That doesn’t apply to all of us. Some of us multitask our fandom. We live and breathe Star Wars. But not every fan does. Not every fan is glued to social media, collecting every crumb. Not every fan needs that. And hell, maybe they’re healthier for it. (I won’t presume.)
We’re long past comparing the run up to VIII to that for The Force Awakens: Episode VII was the first live-action Star Wars movie in ten years, at the helm of a re-purposed franchise. Of course, we got the first teaser a year ahead of time. Of course, the timeline was different. From the initial announcement until it showed up on Blu-ray, it was the focal point of a $4B franchise. Right now? That focal point is Rogue One. And with Star Wars films coming every year, this is our new baseline.
No one is ignoring VIII, and certainly not the press – actors will talk, questions will be asked. Some of them may get (very vague) answers that turn into dozens of headlines. But we’re not going to get anything huge from the official sources.
There’s plenty of time for Episode VIII in 2017. It will absolutely have a huge presence in Orlando next April. (Maybe we get a teaser – or a title – before Celebration in Orlando, but remember Rogue One‘s first teaser? April.) But through at least January, Lucasfilm needs to sell Rogue One. And only Rogue One.
The Han Solo movie has had some very interesting casting calls recently, Making Star Wars reports.
Twitter had a nice freak-out this afternoon as a ship resembling the Ghost from the Star Wars Rebels cartoon was spotted in a new TV commercial. (There’s more evidence on the Tumblr.) Easter egg? Cameo? Only time will tell.
And that was only one of several new commercials dropped today. Here’s one, and here’s one and here’s one that’s actually on the official site and in high res! Of course it’s the one with the least new footage.
Speaking of new footage, there are two new scenes as well: One with Orson Krennic and Galen Erso (which seems to answer a question I asked in my Catalyst review) and another from the call sign scene. There’s also a new Chinese trailer, introduced by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen.
→ So many more interviews today! John Knoll on how they approached the film and changes to Darth Vader’s costume. Gareth Edwards addresses the reshoots and George Lucas’ review. Riz Ahmed on being an ‘average Joe’ in the GFFA. And finally, Diego Luna on his research into being a soldier and why Cassian isn’t a typical hero. He’s really happy to be here, you guys.
→ Could something in the background of the recent creature featurette have given us a hint at that mysterious kneeling scene from the very first teaser?
→ Thanks to both The Force Awakens and Rogue One, Star Wars was Twitter’s top trending movie topic of 2016.
→ Here’s Epcot’s Spaceship Earth being transformed into the Death Star.
→ A new Rogue One collection launched at Hot Topic and Torrid today. I’m not sure this one really translates…
→ Rogue One emojjis are now in the Star Wars app!