Han spoils first: Highlights of the #TwitterAwakens Q&A

J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, and several of The Force Awakens’ stars were on hand today for #TwitterAwakens, a live Q&A via the @starwars Twitter. It was a crazy whirlwind, and yes, Harrison Ford dropped what may be a major spoiler – if you haven’t been paying attention. (It’s the spoiler – it’s not about Luke or anyone’s parentage, though he did spell Kylo as ‘Kilo,’ which is hilarious.)

Also, Mark Hamill trolled, and Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac sang a (brief) duet.

I’ve collected most of the tweets, but to see the actual questions you have to read it on Twitter. If you want to avoid Harrison’s spoiler, skim over everything from the Lupita picture (or Carrie’s “Good, I was jealous.”) until you see Harrison’s own mug (above center.)

Roundup: Did Gina Rodriguez get cast in Episode VIII? Does Finn have a last name after all?

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There’s a rumor that Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) got one of those (rumored) Episode VIII roles, but it’s based on Rian Johnson and John Boyega following her on Twitter, which, okay. To be fair, plenty of us read a random Rian Johnson tweet as a hint towards Gugu Mbatha-Raw, so maybe there’s something to it after all. Verdict: Maybe!

There’s another rumor going around regarding Finn’s last name. I won’t even link anyone who’s running it because it’s based on an unofficial description from a third-party Amazon listing, and shockingly, that is nowhere near a sound source. Verdict: Ha ha, no.

Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are adorable for ASOS; On Entertainment Tonight, Boyega geeks out of John Williams and getting to hear his own theme.

→ Also: An interview with Kathleen Kennedy, and a short Millennium Falcon-centric write-up of an article that appears in the members-only Disney 23 magazine. And hey, Domhnall Gleeson!

Kathleen Kennedy: “We will eventually hire a woman who directs a Star Wars movie.”

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Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was among those who spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today, where she addressed the number of women at Lucasfilm (particularly on the Story Group) and said that she’s confident that there will be a woman directing a Star Wars film one day.

“I have a huge number of men who call me,” she says. “And tell me how much of a Star Wars fan they are, how much they want to get involved in anything to do with Star Wars. I don’t have a lot of women who call.”

It’s a strong parallel to points made in an essay by actress Jennifer Lawrence that came out today, about getting paid less than her male co-stars.

Kathleen Kennedy: Saga focuses on Skywalkers, spinoffs to explore “a variety of genres”

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In an article in, of all things, The CostCo Connection, Kathleen Kennedy maintains that “the saga films focus on the Skywalker family saga,” while the Anthology spin-offs “offer opportunities to explore fresh characters, new storylines and a variety of genres inside the Star Wars universe.”

None of that is exactly new, but it’s certainly nice to have some clear lines drawn in the sand.

How old will Han Solo be in his Anthology movie?

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Han’s prequel won’t go back quite as far into his past as The Phantom Menace did with Anakin Skywalker. Han will “definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s,” Kathleen Kennedy told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.” She also hints as to the tone of the film, but as for plot? What should remain a mystery?

“Those are exactly the questions we’re asking,” Kennedy says. “There’s got to be a reason for [the stand-alone film] to be. And obviously the thing that Star Wars has always done so well is it doesn’t spend a lot of time [explaining] the stories that have come before. We don’t want to do that either. We don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.”

The film was one of several ideas floating around, and it appealed to was Lawrence Kasdan:

“They said, ‘Here are the things that we’d like to make movies about,’ and I said, ‘Oh, well, Han Solo. I would write a movie about Han Solo. He’s always been my favorite.’ And that’s the job that I took,” Kasdan says.

As for the now-third Anthology movie, the one developed by Simon Kinberg, it’s still in the mix. (And rumored to be about Boba Fett, but isn’t everything?) They haven’t hired a new director to replace Josh Trank yet, but it will likely come out in 2020.

And there’ll be yet more Star Wars out of EW tomorrow…

The Force Awakens at SDCC: Princess Leia, General Hux and Harrison Ford


Sure enough, there was no trailer for The Force Awakens at SDCC, but we did get this sweet behind-the-scenes video, which includes our first look at Carrie Fisher as Leia.

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The panel consisted of J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Lawrence Kasdan, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and even Harrison Ford, who joked about his leg.

We got new pictures of Kylo Ren (Driver) and Captain Phasma (Christie,) but the big reveal was General Hux, Gleeson’s character. “He’s British, so yeah,” Gleeson said when asked how evil his character was. (Driver was far more shady about it.) Gleeson also let slip that the First Order has a ‘Starkiller Base.’ Oh, and the turkey-thing from the first Force for Change video showed up, and his name is Bobbajo. (The spelling is straight from Pablo!)

Ford was the final guest to come out, sounding happy and proud about the film. Harrison Ford! Happy! (Hitfix has the quotes!)

Oh and, hey, let’s see how long this stays up:


All the folks in Hall H were treated to a free concert featuring music from the films and a fireworks finale. I’m not even jealous, because the video is so amazing and the first thing about this movie that has made me cry. I am a Star War, too.

Tweets from the panel!

SDCC: The Force Awakens panel to dominate Friday evening

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We’ve know that Lucasfilm would have a Friday Hall H panel for The Force Awakens at San Diego Comic-Con for some weeks now, but now we have a time: 5:30pm PDT, aka 8:30pm EDT. The panel description is exactly the same, teasing Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and “special guests.”

We’re expecting a big splash – one doesn’t take their franchise to Hall H after this many years without bothering to do that much, particularly when one’s parent company has their own con* a month later, and the sibling is sitting it out…

* Yes, we’re expecting TFA stuff at D23 too, but that’s also the first con after the Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation release that’s keeping LFL quiet on the Rogue One front, so that seems like it may get a big splash.