Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Things continue to be slow…
→ The rumor/spoiler parade just doesn’t end at Making Star Wars: Do Han and Chewie go on a mission? Does a hero dress like a stormtrooper? And did a set spy get a picture of one of the new kinds of stormtroopers?
→ #Beardwatch! Mark Hamill still has his. Plus a doggy! Also on Instagram, John Boyega works out with buzzwords.
UPDATE: Del Rey is shooting this down. Maybe the listing is actually Golden’s Ventress book? (But how the hell did Stover get on there?) New edition of his Revenge of the Sith novelization, maybe?
Now, the last time we heard anything at all about Stover and Star Wars it was 2012, and it was a rumor that he was going to continue/finish the Imperial Commando series. Nothing was ever confirmed, and just over a month later Episode VII and the sale to Disney were announced, putting much of the Expanded Universe in a holding pattern.
We never had any official confirmation that Stover was or had been working on another Star Wars book after 2008’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. But if he had been under contract or working on something with Lucasfilm, it’s entirely possible that he may have been set to write something else in the new line of canon novels, just like Paul S. Kemp, Christie Golden and Kevin Hearne.
The publisher, Century, rereleases the Del Rey Star Wars books in the U.K. (They even seem to be keeping close to the U.S. release dates now – Tarkin is out only two later.) Of course, it is an Amazon listing, but the hardcover status makes it hard to write this off as a reprint of one of his older books. (And it seems unlikely the rumored Comando book would have been hardcover, if it somehow made it into the database regardless.) A June release date makes it unlikely this is the Episode VII novelization, alas, but who knows?
Well, I’m curious… And I hope this doesn’t turn out to be some sort of mistake, or some sort of special edition of his Revenge of the Sith novelization. (Admittedly, it’s excellent, just not new.) Fingers crossed!
→ Abu Dhabi nabbed Star Wars from Jordan at the very last minute, according to a new article in The Hollywood Reporter.
→ Harrison Ford is flying around England, while John Boyega and Lupita Nyong’o are either hanging out with his likeness or they both have the same one. Mystery!
→ And finally, in the possible spoiler department, Making Star Wars describes a ship that is either very Falcon-like or an alternate Falcon model. Jason has also seen two more alphabet fighters and X-wing concepts. And then he heard from someone who witnessed some filming at Pinewood.
I suppose it was only a matter of time.
Several pieces of supposed Episode VII concept art were posted overnight – some of which you may recognize from previous image leaks and/or the Making Star Wars descriptions (two new ones from the past day or so: a new alphabet ship, which I can’t spot in the new leaks, and a crashed fighter, which is.) There’s also a hefty chunk of stuff featuring the Millennium Falcon. They’re at Imageshack, at least at the moment.
Please keep in mind this is concept art, which means it may or may not have any relation to what actually shows up in the film.
If you don’t want to see any of this, stay off the hashtags on social media sites, because folks are being pretty indiscriminate.
→ Even more concept art rumors/spoilers from Making Star Wars! There’s the ‘Muppet babies’, some new aliens, and even some supposed storyboards.
→ Meanwhile, for our non-spoiler reading friends, Carrie Fisher talks about ‘learning’ her lines.
→ Yet more supposed concept art descriptions from Making Star Wars, including one that may be related to the big rumor/spoiler, the Greenham Common ‘extras’ and the turkey/goat looking dude from the first Force for Change video. They also note that casting for future projects is starting to heat up.
→ Latino Review’s Friday Star Wars column notes some Jedi theories that have been floating around.
→ Joel Edgerton reads Variety. Shocking!
With the rumor floating around about an Obi-wan movie (or movies,) it certainly didn’t take long for someone (Coming Soon) to ask Joel Edgerton if he’d be willing to take on the role of Owen Lars again.
Has anybody contacted you about possibly reprising Uncle Owen?
Joel Edgerton: The first I heard about it was today. When did that happen?
CS: A week or two ago it started to percolate.
Edgerton: So who would play Obi-Wan?
CS: Ideally Ewan, most likely in the period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Edgerton: Well then I definitely have to be there, right? Or they’re gonna get someone else? Am I too old for that now?
Well, Lucasfilm has 20 years to play with and the convenient excuse that folks age more rapidly on Tatooine, so…
Edgerton, who will next be seen in Exodus: Gods and Kings with Christian Bale, also has some nice things to say about being in Star Wars and his own ideas about Owen’s past.
Meanwhile, Bonnie Piesse (AOTC’s Beru) says it “would be pretty cool!”
→There’s another concept art description from Making Star Wars today, perhaps one from the same sequence as the battle art we saw a few weeks ago.
→ Actor Pip Anderson was at the Imaginarium. Make of that what you will.
→ A report from a talk with editor Mary Jo Markey. She doesn’t talk about Episode VII, but you don’t really expect her to, do you?
→ New Tosche Station staffer Shoshana writes about diversity, race and Episode VII.
We’ve already heard once that a standalone Obi-wan Kenobi film may be in the works, but now the ante has been upped: There could be three, reports Cinelinx. Not a formal trilogy, but three different stories that all happen to feature Obi-wan in the 20 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Their source claims there’ll be flashbacks to the Clone Wars (and even The Clone Wars,) Qui-gon Jinn and, naturally, Owen Lars. (Assuming Joel Edgerton doesn’t price himself out anytime soon… But hey, if they can get Liam Neeson again, the sky’s the limit.)
Cinelinx’s Jordan Maison wonders if these are just various pitches, or if they’ll wait to see how an Obi-wan film does before they okay more. But one thing is for sure: There’s a lot of enthusiasm out there for more Obi-wan.
→ Making Star Wars has dropped some more concept art descriptions. Today, Han Solo’s outfit(s) and a ‘main’ hanger.
→ Frank Marshall tweeted a picture from Pinewood… Of the Loose Lips Bring Down Starships poster by Cliff Chiang, which dates back to the Star Wars Galaxy 5 trading cards.
→ We already flashed back to crazy 80’s rumors/speculation not so long ago, but with io9 bringing them up – and our latest batch of Episode VII stuff – it seems more than appropriate to revisit.
→ More on the big ‘I am your father’ rumor/megaspoiler, aside from the Full of Sith special we linked earlier. Indie Revolver (who’ve been behind a lot of the image leaks) is skeptical, while Making Star Wars digs up some old stuff that may (or may not) support it.
→ Robert Downey Jr. shoots down what I’m going to call swoop gang rumor. Because I can. (via)
→ And in case you missed it earlier, John Williams will be starting on the film soon.