Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Making Star Wars has a brief description of Finn’s first scene in Episode VIII. This is fairly mild as spoilers go, but consider yourself warned.
Coming out on Tuesday is Finn’s Story by Jesse J. Holland (a companion volume to Rey’s Story) that tells the tale of The Force Awakens from Finn’s perspective for younger readers. Wednesday brings The Force Awakens #4 from Marvel.
We have a few other things coming up later this month, so check out our book schedule.
With The Force Awakens releasing on digital tonight, we got a couple of new things today, not least of all two new still, above. (via.)
USA Today has an interview with and new video clip featuring John Boyega. He talks about training for the lightsaber fight on Starkiller Base and the hardest secret to keep. (Bonus: Sleeveless Adam Driver.)
At Fandango, Matthew Wood on the effect they were going for with the voice modulation on Kylo Rens helmet.
Expect plenty more to come, as the Blu-ray is out Tuesday the 5th. The Star Wars Facebook page is planning a live Q&A with Daisy Ridley for Monday, and you can submit questions now.
Finn/Poe may be the internet’s favorite The Force Awakens ‘ship, but it seems at least one of the actors involved isn’t quite on board. John Boyega told ShortList Magazine’s Chris Mandle that the (possible) romance is “all in Oscar’s head.”
Oscar Isaac admitted to “playing romance” on a pre-release interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, though he declined to specify with who. He earlier remarked about how his only romance in the film was with “those two little balls” – aka BB-8. (But who doesn’t the man have chemistry with?)
Mandle’s Boyega interview – and any additional context – will be published later this month. Mandle has a post up, including Boyega’s full comment, where he calls the relationship between Fin and Poe “a brotherly love, a bromance.”
But in any case, when does something like this actually stop the ‘shippers? Remember kids, it’s all for fun – no matter where the canon ends up.
StarWars.com has the details today on the baton-spinning First Order stormtrooper that the internet has adopted as one of The Force Awakens‘ most prevalent memes.
Though he’s been dubbed TR-8R, his real name (‘name’) is FN-2199, aka Nines. As often speculated, he’s one of Finn’s former squadmates, and we first met him in Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening, which details some of Finn’s pre-Jakku life and training.
The character was voiced by Skywalker Sound’s David Acord, and played by stunt performer Liang Yang.
What screenwriter Todd Alcott writes on movies and TV is always worth reading, and his pieces on The Force Awakens are no exception. Check out his thoughts on Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, and finally Poe Dameron and General Hux.
Here are a few other nice posts about various aspects of The Force Awakens. I also have a ton of meta queued up over at the Tumblr beginning Friday morning. (Currently binging on fan art.)
→ What to do when you’re not the hero any more, Laurie Penny’s look at how this year’s new movies (including The Force Awakens) and TV reflected a more diverse way of storytelling.
→ James Whitbrook on how Kylo Ren succeeds as a character where Anakin Skywalker failed. Or, there’s Bryan Young on ten times The Force Awakens nods to the prequels.
→ Two pieces for everyone sick of the ‘remake’ talk: Chris Taylor’s 5 questions and Joseph Scrimshaw’s how to talk to your family about The Force Awakens.
The numbers are in, and The Force Awakens made an astounding $529 million worldwide this weekend, $248 million of it domestically. That takes it past both Jurassic World’s key opening weekend records.
Jurassic World producer Frank Marshall (and husband of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy) tweeted the traditional congratulation ad, seen at right. Meanwhile the film also continued to rule on social media.
→ Want the nitty-gritty of what the actors made in The Force Awakens? Variety has a report, but beware of spoilers.
→ Video: Phil Tippett and his team on recreating the Millennium Falcon’s Dejarik holochess game.
→ The Force Awakens is among the ten films making the shortlist for the visual effects Oscar. Five will make the cut. Also on the shortlist are Mad Max: Fury Road, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Ex Machina, The Martian, The Revenant, Tomorrowland and The Walk.
→ Finn’s ID number is a particularly easy-to-miss Easter egg. Also on Buzzfeed: Finn/Poe shippers. Hey, at least it’s not Reylo.
→ Matt Patches did it. He stayed spoiler-free for The Force Awakens for three whole years. I think he’s nuts, but respect.
→ Also: Mike Ryan on the redemption of Han Solo, Hasbro’s first look at Leia and Maz Kanata figures in a new motion poster, and how will The Force Awakens influence fashion?
→ ESPN will air ‘The Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel’ on December 15th at 7 p.m.
→ “It’s like we’re collaborating over this vast public field,” Oscar Isaac says of his imagined backstory for Poe becoming canon.
→ Vulture runs through the Journey to The Force Awakens books and stories. Some minor errors (Poe is namedropped in Shattered Empire #2) but overall a decent roundup.
→ Spoiler corner, book edition: Jedi Bibliothek has screenshots of picture book leaks and the beginning of Finn’s tale in Before the Awakening.
→ Spoiler corner, Hasbro edition: A Rey action figure featuring her second outfit (which we first saw yesterday) has a pretty hefty spoiler on the packaging. (It’s not her last name.)
→ Also: A new BB-8 poster, a few of John Boyega’s impressions and Anthony Breznican on the Millennium Falcon.
There’s some new footage – including more Han and Rey – in a Verizon-exclusive clip that debuted today.
Along with two more below the cut!
Continue reading “More Rey, Han, Finn, and Leia in new The Force Awakens videos”
