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Rumor: The Force Awakens to tease Rogue One… In the end credits?

rogue-one-detail1I’ve resisted writing about this ‘rumor’ because it’s from a source I don’t trust much (at all,) but what the hell, it’s Saturday.

Schmoes Know claim that The Force Awakens end credits will contain “a small clip and teaser” for Rogue One. And to their credit, even they seem a bit doubtful.

Now, obviously, it’s not out of the question that The Force Awakens will carry a Rogue One teaser at all – hell, it’d be foolish if it didn’t. But in the end credits? That seems like a bad idea to me, period. You don’t want to distract the audience fresh off the first real Star Wars film in a decade – all those potential buyers of books and soundtracks and action figures – with a sideline movie that’s set on the other end of the timeline.

Do you give us a Rogue One teaser? Yes, of course. But you do it before the film, as is traditional.

The bantha in the room here is Marvel, who’ve undoubtedly made the credit scenes an expected thing. And I’m not against an end- or mid- credit scene for Star Wars at all – just that it needs to be relevant to both films in question. (Something regarding Episode VIII? Sure.) I find it probable that they may break tradition somehow, but a TFA/RO matchup simply doesn’t pass the smell test.

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Star Wars Land construction to begin in 2016

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Disney COO Tom Staggs said in a talk today that construction will begin on the new Star Wars-themed areas in Orlando and Anaheim next year, per The Hollywood Reporter. Opening dates for the expansions in Disneyland and at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios have not yet been announced, but fans estimate 2020 at the very earliest.

Both parks, in addition to incorporating the existing Star Tours ride, will have a Millennium Falcon attraction and a cantina, Disney said last month.

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‘Bring Back Legends’ devotees upgraded to actual harassment at DragonCon

dragonconIn addition to the nuttery going on with Aftermath and the ever-present comment hijacking on official Facebook pages, it appears that a faction of the ‘Bring Back Legends‘ crew was actually harassing VIPs and fans at DragonCon last weekend, Brian at Tosche Station reports:

One panelist and moderator was stalked to a restroom by someone from Bring Back Legends. Another panelist was halted in the Marriott atrium and, again, was talked at and had a set of flyers pushed off on them even though the panelist said they didn’t want one. The Bring Back Legends folks at Dragon Con had become general nuisances, but more than once it went beyond that. I spoke with several fans and panelists who confided that they were made extremely uncomfortable by the advances of the individuals from Bring Back Legends. Others corroborated my story, that they were cornered after panels and had a difficult time escaping their speeches and questioning. The combination of forced interaction and awareness of what the general behavior of these people online proved to be an unsettling experience every time we were approached. We knew they weren’t interested in talking to us, they wanted to talk at us and recruit us to their cause.

And those are far from the only incidents he experienced or heard about – there are more at the link.

The Legends folks were, from reports, fairly courteous at SDCC – and I don’t recall any stories from Celebration at all. Did DragonCon just luck into a particularly obnoxious contingent? Did the more fan-run nature of the con make people think they could get away with this sort of thing more easily? Or are we just dealing with a few individuals who don’t understand basic social cues? In any case, this is not how you get folks on your side.

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Skellig Michael is in for Episode VIII

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We’ve been hearing for quite a while now that a return to Ireland’s Skellig Michael was in the cards for very soon now, and now Lucasfilm themselves have confirmed (to Entertainment Weekly) that Star Wars will be shooting on the island this month for Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII.

J.J. Abrams and at least two actors filmed for three days on Skellig Michael in July 2014.

EW also reports that some reshoots for The Force Awakens have already occurred, including some around the time of D23.

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The Aftermath aftermath, or, what’s up with all those crazy Amazon reviews?

aftermath-ours2With Aftermath, the first canon Star Wars novel to tread where only Legends had been before, it’s only natural that some controversy would erupt.

Now, some of it has been people who just plain don’t like Chuck Wendig’s writing style and/or the book itself. I didn’t find the style bothersome and liked the book, but both are perfectly valid complaints.

And then, there are the… Others. Our old friends (‘friends’) the folks who are still bent out of shape that the old Expanded Universe has been decanonized. And, of course, the folks who are mad that some of Wendig’s characters happen to be gay.

Needless to say, neither group is particularly sympathetic. The Legends folks might have a case, if they weren’t so plain-out obnoxious, but if there’s a moderate part of this supremely ineffectual ‘movement’ they’re being drowned out.

Together, some outspoken members of those three groups all got the idea to… Leave a whole bunch of very quick, very many one-star reviews on Amazon. Jim C. Hines and Michael Patrick Hicks have some nice breakdowns of that. Of course, there’s also a wonderful irony here. Per Wendig himself:

…A passel of negative reviews actually elevates the book’s overall sales ranking. Which in turn garners it more sales. Amazon reps have been clear with me on this point: buyers buy books with reviews, period. Not good reviews, not bad reviews. But rather: quantity of reviews impress buyers to make purchases. So, leaving a ton of bad reviews actually increases the book’s sales. Ironic, and not likely what anyone supporting such a campaign intends.

His response to the objections regarding the gay characters needs to be read in full, though.

I’m not here to tell you how to feel about anything Star Wars. We are all adults here (or so I am going to assume for my own mental health,) and I can’t believe I have to keep saying this, but: Not everything in Star Wars is going to work for everyone, and that’s fine. Feel however you like about whatever, it’s no skin off my back. But that doesn’t give you the right to be a dick, and there’s far too much of that going around. Or, to throw it to Wendig again:

Loving something is fandom. Hate isn’t, or shouldn’t be, part of it. Fandom is about sharing awesome things with like-minded people. It isn’t about spreading hate and forming spiteful tribes. That’s heinous fuckery. Do not partake in heinous fuckery.

Amen.

And to end this on a high note, check out DragonCon’s Wendig panel with Tosche Station and the latest Full of Sith.