Hello and welcome to the first edition of the weekly recap at Spoiled Blue Milk. Let’s get straight to business. As usual, spoilers are the default here (heck, it’s in our title), so please turn back now if you don’t want to be spoiled!
For the sequel trilogy, we got a ton of news this past week for The Force Awakens.
Sequel Trilogy:
It all got started with Entertainment Weekly publishing a series of articles and interviews with a ton of photos.
For the source of the first set of photos, check out EW here. The accompanying articles didn’t have spoilers except for hints that confirm Luke has very little screen time. And of course the Knights of Ren which we discussed here
We next got a photo from starwars7news.com. The photo is of old Luke, presumably from TFA, but the photo was taken down from its original location here.
The fact that it was taken down, certainly suggests it was probably legit. The photo isn’t too far off from what you might expect—Luke with a beard in Jedi robes. The color scheme, being lighter in tone, definitely suggested a light-side Jedi, rather than a dark Jedi character as some had speculated. At the end of RotJ, it seems that Luke was approaching the edge of the dark side to an extent, and the color choice of his dark robe in that movie hinted at this too. It seems in TFA, Luke has traded his dark robe for something that looks light gray light tan. However, I guess at this point this could still just be a costume check, and not the final look for the movie. That said, would they have taken it down if it wasn’t final?
One notable thing is that his robe doesn’t seem to have sleeves, like traditional Jedi Robes. This would be more similar to Luke’s robe in RotJ in that it is just a hood, like a poncho, with no separate sleeves coming out the sides. It appeared to be taken at a 3D rendering studio also. Perhaps our first view of Old Luke will be via hologram? (you might still be able to find the photo in various Star Wars forums…)
Next, we have a photo of possibly Maz Kanata. You can see the photo at the bottom of a thank you message posted here at Indie Revolver.
We also have to remember that some of the early discussion of Maz spoke of an elder and a younger of that species, for example here at makingstarwars.net. Given the level of wrinkles, this looks like the older, however, at this point we can’t say for certain that those two characters weren’t merged into one for this late version of the story.
It’s notable that earlier rumors described this character has wearing kimono robes, but in this image it certainly looks like a traditional Jedi tunic. Assuming this photo is real, in my mind, this lends great support to the idea that Maz is some kind of a Jedi. Was she trained by Luke or is she a Jedi that somehow survived Order 66 like those from the Rebels TV series? Also there seems to be a crystal floating in front of Maz. Is this a lightsaber crystal and could it be from the lightsaber Finn is carrying? What role does this crystal play in conjuring the flashback?
We also have some more concept art from Indie Revolver here.
The suggestion is that these are pieces of concept art depicting the Knights of Ren. However, it is very likely that these are early concepts for Kylo Ren, or the character that would become Kylo Ren. That said, even if that were true, they could still be recycled for other members of the Knights of Ren and made it into the final film. All of them seem to have helmets or some sort of face plating. Not sure if this is because they are all emulating Vader and are Vader-obsessive in the way Kylo Ren is, but masks seem to be the norm.
We stated in a recent post that the Knights of Ren might be one and the same as the Clan of the Seven, discussed by MakingStarWars.net here.
This definitely seems like a likely scenario, and starts to make a few details fall into place and start to make sense. If the Knights of Ren were responsible for destroying the Jedi Academy set up by Luke, one might begin to speculate about the possibility that a young Kylo was a member of those Jedi, only to be taken away to join the Knights of Ren. If Kylo is indeed the offspring of Han Solo and Leia Organa, then you have to wonder what chain of events would set Kylo down the dark path and running around with this bunch of knights. This is one scenario that just might make some sense.
We also have a TFA poster made exclusively for D23. You can view a hi-res version here.
Many people on the interwebs have speculated that there is a hidden meaning to the fact that all the weapons in the image are parallel. Finn, Rey, Kylo Ren and Han all have weapons pointing in the same direction. Is there a deeper connection between these key players in the movie? We do know that the main action of the film will revolve around these three, but is there something more? Time will tell. Its been suggested that Han is putting his weapon down and that explains his somewhat unusual pose. Could this be related to the rumored Kylo Ren confrontation?
Toys: Lots and lots of toy leaks however not much new. A few new cool vehicles and one character that we know nothing about Constable Zuvio. Though the back of his card says he is stationed at a trading post leading me to believe he is on Jakku in the town where we see Rey and Finn running for their lives. Here is an image of all the new figures. Constable Zuvio is in the lower left.
Episode VIII:
In Episode VIII, it looks like the rumors of Benicio del Toro playing a villain are at least making a bit of sense. Benicio recently stated that he thinks the role might happen.
Benicio del Toro: https://starwarsalways.wordpress.com/2015/08/15/benicio-del-toro-confirms-episode-viii-role-might-happen/
What kind of character might he play, only time will tell. Many fans will remember that del Toro was originally considered to play the role of Darth Maul, but as the lines of that character got more and more refined, del Toro backed out and Ray Park, then the stuntman, stepped in. The rest is history. However, the connection makes one wonder if Benicio is playing a villain in the same vein as Darth Maul, but with more meaty dialogue.
Episode IX:
Disney also confirmed that Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow will be directing. This story was broken by MakingStarWars.net over a month ago.
Anthology Films:
Rogue One
We got our first official photo of the cast for Rogue One.
Definitely has a dieselpunk mixed with OT vibe to it. This photo does confirm a lot of the other rumored characters to be in the film. Check the official site for more info.
Of note here is that the title seems to have dropped the “Anthology” branding. It now just says “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. Not sure of the reason for the change, other than maybe it would be easier to understand by the casual movie goer?
Han Solo Anthology Film:
We got some validation of Han Solo’s age. Entertainment Weekly reports:
“He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s,” Kennedy says. “We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”
Check the whole article here.
Boba Fett Anthology Film:
Finally, we have news from Kathy Kennedy that there is a good chance to get the move that Trank left (rumored to be Boba Fett) in 2020.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/13/star-wars-anthology-young-han-solo/3
Let’s see. Why do we think that Trank was doing Boba Fett? Well, EW and others had also reported a while back that the next anthology film would be Boba Fett. If true, that pretty much maps out the trajectory until 2020:
Episode VII – Dec 18th 2015
Rogue One – May 2016
Episode VIII – 2017
Han Solo Anthology Film – 2018
Episode IX – 2019
Boba Fett Anthology Film – 2020
Have a great week!