It was Mark Hamill’s turn on Good Morning America today, where he says his most important line in The Last Jedi is “This is not going to go the way you think.” Plus, a cameo from Sebastian Stan!
Coming up Friday night, Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Gwen Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson and director Rian Johnson – will all be on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The big feature today was Rolling Stone’s cover story, which talks to a good chunk of the cast and reveals some shocking facts – like Adam Driver not knowing what emo is, which is a shame. It also gives us this priceless quote from Daisy Ridley:
“It’s somewhat a reflection of society,” acknowledges the saga’s new star, Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, and who has gone from unknown London actress to full-blown movie star nearly as fast as her character went from desert scavenger to budding Jedi. “But also it is escapism, because there are creatures and there are people running around with fucking lasers and shit. So, I think, a wonderful mix of both.”
Fucking lasers and shit. Star Wars! For a less sweary take on the subject, Rian Johnson:
“That’s one thing I hope people will be surprised about with the movie,” Johnson says. “I think it’s very funny. The trailers have been kind of dark – the movie has that, but I also made a real conscious effort for it to be a riot. I want it to have all the things tonally that I associate with Star Wars, which is not just the Wagner of it. It’s also the Flash Gordon.”
There’s plenty more – consider this one a must-read.
It was John Boyega’s turn on the publicity rounds today, as he stopped by Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Ryan. And Kelly Marie Tran is on The Star Wars Show. I believe this is the first we’ve heard that she’s narrating the Cobalt Squad audiobook?
Daisy Ridley was on The Tonight Show last night, where she talked about Barbra Streisand, Carrie Fisher, bartending the wrap party, and took the whisper challenge.
Her Universe’s new collections have launched at Torrid and Hot Topic, with many items inspired by The Last Jedi. They’re both beginning with some very different selections, but we have reason to believe (hope!) that all items will eventually span both stores. (I am really loving the Kylo Ren dress and the Leia cape sweatshirt.)
“His training of Kylo Ren is not yielding what he wants,” Serkis says. “Therefore his anger towards Kylo Ren is intensified because he can’t bear weakness in others. Part of the manipulation is goading him with Hux and playing them off against each other.”
They’re not promising all the answers on Snoke – Johnson compares him to the Emperor in the original trilogy and says “a story is not a Wikipedia page,” but there’s a lot more here than I expected. And sometimes? A bare outline is enough.
Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican gets a little overwrought writing about Luke and Leia and if they’ll reunite in The Last Jedi. The article doesn’t say, but why even tease it in your big Lucasfilm-participating cover story if they won’t?
More intriguingly, the article also explores a bit of Luke’s mindset:
“Luke longs to have that extended family that he established in the original trilogies, but now he’s at a place in his life and in his history where he’s shunned all of that,” Mark Hamill says. “The big question is why didn’t he respond to Leia during [The Force Awakens]? There’s a lot of things you can’t answer until you see this movie.”
“No, and I don’t want fans to get their hopes up. He’s not in the film and it was never really something that came up. I mean, I loved that character. It would have been fun to see him, but it’s just not something that ever really had a place in the story.”
Maybe Lando went fully respectable in his old age? In any case, we’re not finding out just yet. We’ll see a young Lando, played by Donald Glover, in next year’s Solo.
“I think it’s beautifully subversive,” Dern says of Holdo’s military glamour. “From the director to the producers, everyone was painstaking about not only the look, but even the exact color of hair, what it should be and trying different versions. And all I know is I think it’s so cool. I love the way she looks. I want to be Holdo for Halloween.”
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.”