It’s The Last Jedi week, with the first screenings hitting the night of Thursday, December 14 in the U.S. (International dates may vary, but the bulk are this week.)
In the modern age of Star Wars, that also means that we’re getting the bulk of the film’s tie-ins on Friday, December 15.
The crystal fox we see on Crait in The Last Jedi trailer is a vulptex; A pack of them would be vulptices, and the name was developed by Pablo Hidalgo. Detailed today in Entertainment Weekly, the creatures will be both animatronic puppets and digital creations.
“They live within the burrows and within the tunnels beneath the planet,” [Creature shop head Neal] Scanlan says. “So there is a time where their ability to shine within the darkness, should provide a guiding light to our heroes.”
There’s plenty of X-wing action in Star Wars Rebels’ fall finale, ‘Rebel Assault’. Andi Gutierrez talks to Henry Gilroy, Dave Filoni, Pablo Hidalgo, Joel Aron, Keith Kellogg and Vanessa Marshall. And Pablo answers questions about stormtroopers, the Death Star and Ezra’s skills.
Yavin IV, Saw Saw Gerrera and lots of Rogue One tie-ins come in with ‘In the Name of the Rebellion.’ Andi Gutierrez talks to Dave Filoni, Pablo Hidalgo, Steve Blum, Vanessa Marshall, Taylor Gray, Amy Beth Christenson, Joel Aron and Caroline Robinson Kermel. Pablo also answers questions about armor and holograms.
Rebels Recon returns along with ‘Heroes of Mandalore.’ Andi Gutierrez talks to Tiya Sircar, Caroline Robinson Kermel, Keith Kellogg, Henry Gilroy, Joel Aron, Amy Beth Christenson, Kilian Plunkett, and Pablo Hidalgo.
The special New York Comic Con panel about the Star Wars 40th Anniversary anthology features several of the book’s 40-something writers, including moderator Pablo Hidalgo, Claudia Gray, Delilah Dawson, Jason Fry, E.K. Johnston and more.
A whole heap of Star Wars book news has come out of San Diego Comic-Con, some expected, some not. (This is all in addition to what we heard the other day!) Most are, naturally, tie-ins to The Last Jedi. We learned that longtime Star Wars writer Jason Fry is writing the Del Rey novelization of the film. Franchise newcomer Elizabeth Wein is writing Cobalt Squadron, “the harrowing story of the courageous bomber pilots and technicians of Cobalt Squadron.” The novel for young readers will feature Rose and Paige Tico.
StarWars.com is confirming that the penguin/puffin creatures we saw in The Last Jedi behind-the-scenes feature are indeed called porgs.
Pablo Hidalgo sheds a little bit of light on the species – they are native to Ahch-To, can fly, and the babies are called porglets. We can only hope that a nature documentary makes it onto the Blu-ray.
We first heard the term from Making Star Wars back in April. The concept art may also confirm that some of the porgs have orange coloring – though we can’t be sure until we see them on screen.
Pablo Hidalgo’s been at Comic Con Chile this weekend, and it seems that some of his statements have been lost in translation/misquoted/overstated, particularly something about the status of a Luke and Leia reunion. io9 reached out and got him to clarify. (Mind, he’s not saying it doesn’t happen, just that they were speaking of the Vanity Fair photos.)
→ And finally, in spoiler corner, some Lego sets have leaked. They feature at least one newish vehicle, minifigs of Supreme Leader Snoke (which may confirm his new look,) Vice Admiral Holdo, a new(ish) variation of droid and a rank change for Poe. The images aren’t long for this world, but they are up at Imgur for the moment. (via)