Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Today was a good day for Anthology rumors. First up, apparently director Michelle MacLaren took a meeting on the second spin-off. MacLaren was most recently in the news for departing the Wonder Woman film, but her directing credits include episodes of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.
As for Rogue One, JoBlo has a few bullet points, most of which we’ve already been told or can guess at, but consider it a double-down on a few things.
Will we see the Skellig Michael location in Episode VIII? The Irish Times says a production team visited the island recently. At least two actors were present for the Episode VII filming there last July, and if one believes the plot rumors it seems likely that the location could reoccur. (Or there’s always Rogue One, I suppose.)
Meanwhile, Jedi News is saying that The Force Awakens also filmed in Scotland, though not with actors.
→ Also appearing in the latest issue of Interview magazine (Domhnall Gleeson is one of the cover models) is Billie Lourd, who denies that she’s playing Leia’s daughter, not that that was ever rumored, but hey, it’s not like we get a ton of denials these days.
It’s Boba Fett rumor time again! Well, sort of.
This one originates from Schmoes Know, who we first heard from saying that Episode VII was going to be about Jacen and Jaina Solo, so you know the drill. Today, they’re saying that directors Jon Favreau and Matthew Vaughn are “circling the project” recently vacated by Josh Trank.
The film itself? Of course it involves both Boba Fett and Han Solo, because rumors!
Also revived here? Yoda! He might be the third Anthology movie, the Schmoes say.
I say, take none of this particularly seriously – all this, right down to the directors, has been floating around for ages now.
UPDATE: Now they’re talking about Obi-Wan. Honestly, if you’re going to drop this much ‘news’ out of nowhere, I am not going to buy it.
Journey to The Force Awakens: Revealed at BookCon this weekend, thanks to via The Wookiee Gunner: Shattered Empire will be bi-weekly – two comics in September, two in November.
The first issue will be out September 2, and the trade paperback collection on November 17 – at least at the moment. (I doubt they’ll deviate much, but they are comics and September is a long way off.)
→ The Force Awakens is FINALLY on the cover of Star Wars Insider.
→ Word on the street (aka Scoring Sessions) says that John Williams has started scoring. Just as rumored!
→ Making Star Wars has a small grab-bag of rumors from the licensees, though the two main ones actually seem a little more relevant to Episode VIII than The Force Awakens. (Also, one of them made me SUPER EXCITED. But, uh, possible spoilers!)
StarWars.com has an interview with Annie Leibovitz today about her Star Wars work for Vanity Fair. There’s a photo of Andy Serkis in mo-cap gear, and the reveal that his character is Supreme Leader Snoke.
Snoke! Granted, it’s no Sheev, but aren’t we glad I didn’t do the Twitter roundup last night?
→ The first actual The Force Awakens action figures have been spotted – on eBay, naturally. It’s a stormtrooper.
→ Spoiler corner: Finn and his hot new accessory.
Simon Pegg lets leak who Daniel Craig is playing in The Force Awakens. There have been multiple rumors that Craig will have a cameo in the film. UPDATE: Now Pegg says he was just repeating the rumors. Shrug.
→ Star Wars Weekends are revving up at Disney World in Orlando, and there’s an Episode VII tee on sale there that actually features the new stormtrooper. It comes in men’s, women’s and kid’s sizes.
→ Rumor corner: What is the green planet? (I have some doubts, due mainly to a certain actor’s flippancy with something else that recently came up, but spoilers. Sigh.) On that note, it appears that TFA’s water scenes may have been filmed in England’s Lake District National Park.
→ Lucasfilm movies will be featured at D23 Expo this year. This obviously isn’t a surprise, and clearly The Force Awakens will be the priority, but it may be the first chance for something to go wide on Rogue One – though D23 is only two weeks after Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation drops on July 31, which could still be cutting it a bit close.
Variety is reporting that Diego Luna has landed a role in Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One, the first Star Wars Anthology film.
Luna will play a Rebel soldier, Variety says. We know the film is an ensemble about Rebels stealing the Death Star plans shortly before A New Hope. The film’s only confirmed cast member remains Felicity Jones, but Riz Ahmed and Ben Mendelsohn have also been subjects of rumors from the trades.
Luna’s previous credits include Elysium, Milk and the animated The Book of Life.
Rumor: A look at Maz Kanata? Indie Revolver has concept art of what they claim is Lupita Nyong’o’s character in The Force Awakens. Per usual (especially with concept art) it’s a big maybe, and may not be exact, particularly if one believes that Maz is the person handing over the lightsaber in the second trailer.
Today, in sequel trilogy ‘news’ that really isn’t… Oscar Isaac expressed an opinion on what planet he would like Poe Dameron to be from, which some news sites immediately took as fact. Nope! Just wishful thinking on Isaac’s part – really, if it was true, or if his homeworld was actually something that came up in the film, would he just up and tell the AP like that? Logic! It’s a hell of thing.
Isaac was also asked if he was related to Jimmy Smits’ Bail Organa, to which he (rightfully) replied “there’s room in the Galaxy for more than one Latin family.”
And then the Joss Whedon thing has reared up again, because of course it has. Quite frankly, after comments he’s made recent about how exhausting Avengers: Age of Ultron was, I can’t see him signing up for another big franchise movie for a while. And by ‘a while’ I mean ‘not this trilogy.’ Let the guy have a break.