Hi everyone, it’s Monday again, so here’s your weekly recap of Movie related news and spoilers.
Episode VII
1. First off on The Force Awakens, there is news from MSW and others that there will be 7pm shows on December 17th.
davestrrr: Yeah, it does sound like they are going for the older audience here. The fans of the original trilogy are now in their 50s, and the youngsters that went to the midnight showing of TPM are now married with children. This is a smart move to expand out the opening day window. The press from opening day sales is crucial for a movie, so movie execs have kept trying to find ways to expand it ever since the first midnight showing. “Special showings” like this are more of this type of strategy. Is it good? Well, people that have to be the first person to see it will go to the 7pm showing somewhere. Fans that love the thrill of midnight showing will go for that. Heck, I’m sure a lot of fans will go to both.
Mazlow01: Well its a toss up for me. Either the all day event or this. I’m getting old so midnight showings aren’t my favorite but I’m a fan so an all day would be cool… Eh who am I kidding I’ll do the 7 pm showing AND a midnight showing.
2. Next we have a slew of new toy package drawings of some of the new characters reported on SW7N. We have a drawing of Tasu Leech that we had before and also some characters that I don’t think we’ve seen before, such as Goss Toowers here:
davestrrr: I’m happy to see Goss. Maybe he’s been seen before, but I didn’t know about it. These other images are very cool. Very Star Wars, but also seems new. They really nailed it it seems.
Mazlow01: Cool stuff here just confirming more of what we have seen. I do like that once again our good guys are all sorts of aliens.
3. We also have a bit of confirmation from MSW that there will be no ewoks. There was some evidence before that they would be seen in a flashback.:
davestrrr: I’m not sure what changed, or if they were every really going to be considered, but I don’t really care either way. There was this new news about “green” ewok or something recently, and we had this old post from early June. Frankly, I could do without the Ewoks, and would rather see some cool new alien characters of a new species. I want to see the movie sprinkled with species we’ve seen to give a point of reference, but I like the new designs too.
Mazlow01: Honestly this is disappointing. Like them or not they were key to the Rebels win in RotJ and should be around in some scene even if its just as a background character. I like the new aliens but give me more of the old too.
4. Was Han in Maz’s castle? There is an image from Smuggler’s Run going around. For example, Reddit user DarthPlagueis_ posted a thread with an image (and some good comments) from the junior novel. Here is the image:
So, we see on the right side the same image from Maz’s castle and on the left what looks like the same robot immediately to the right of Han. This begs the question as to whether or not Han is visiting Maz’s castle and possibly knows her, or whether this kind of robot is just everywhere around the galaxy. If indeed this is Maz’s castle, we have another clue from the book. The book gives the name of the pub as Serendipity, as seen in this image posted by the same user. Other people have pointed out that Serendipity moves from place to place.
davestrrr: Since other people have posted that Serendipity moves I guess that means that this isn’t likely Maz’s castle. I could believe that this type of droid is common in the galaxy at pubs, but who knows. Maybe there is a chance that Han knows Maz and this is why he takes our crew to her. In fact, I recall reading that somewhere.
Mazlow01: I think Maz might have taken that over the pub or at the least the droid. I do think its the same droid no matter what.
Episode VIII
5. For Episode VIII we have some news from MSW that Daisy Ridley was missing from Skellig Michael. However, we have some conflicting news from SW7N that Daisy was in fact spotted on Skellig Michael. The second article mentions that there were fight scenes etc.
davestrrr: Hey I guess it all comes down to what you think of SW7N’s image. Certainly from that distance it is hard to tell if that is Daisy or her stunt double. Given the quoted tweet in the first article from Chloe Bruce, the stunt double, I tend to interpret that she was there, and misses the crew.
Mazlow01: Not a surprise she was there and she was fighting or learning to fight. This is her Yoda/Luke moment.
6. Whoa, if you blinked you missed it. Just as news that Skellig Michael was getting going with filming, we already have news that it is a wrap there.
davestrrr: That was fast. I must say that Mark looks even thinner than he did before. I’m guessing that he has continued losing weight, trying to be in absolute peak physical condition for his key part on the ST. No doubt he had a much smaller role in TFA, so why not keep working out to be in absolute prime for your prime time. If so, good on him. That is an amazing transformation and he looks fantastic. Mark looks younger than he did a couple years ago.
Mazlow01: Mark Shaved! Now will he be clean shaaven for the movie or was he wrapped and he shaved. He’s known to not like the beard and he has a role on CW’s Flash that is recurring and he’s clean shaven for.
7. We have some rumors and some photos suggesting that shooting has begun in Greenham Commons. Looks like they are ramping up for something.
davestrrr: Looks like they are ramping up for something indeed.
Mazlow01: This isn’t unexpected. If we’re getting new trilogy movies every two years they will be on a tight schedule.
8. Mark Hammil debunks injury ruomors: http://www.starwars7news.com/2015/09/mark-hamill-debunks-the-reports-that-he-had-an-accident-during-the-filming-on-skellig-michael-last-year.html
davestrrr: I must say, as I said in the last recap, I didn’t believe those rumors in the first place because they were kind of inconsistent.
Rogue One
9. We have some new set photos of Rogue One. This was reported by SW7N and MSW.
davestrrr: It is a bit of what we’ve seen, but further confirmation of the tropical or beach setting. This does look like it could be consistent with Yavin, which would be very interesting.
Mazlow01: More of the same nothing earth shattering however I like the feel we’re getting from this movie.