We are just about one month away. By tomorrow at 7pm we’ll be one month from the first showings of The Force Awakens. The news is coming fast and furious. It can be tough to keep up at times. That’s where your friends at Spoiled Blue Milk come in. We’re here today to review the past week’s news and leaks for Star Wars. Let’s begin:
1.) New TV Spot!
Looks like Carrie Fisher’s daughter’s in this screen cap of the Strategy Room.
@mazlow01: That’s her! The TIE escaping is really cool. I like than Han moment of handing Rey the blaster. I was hoping he was giving her his when I heard of the scene but still. I don’t think Rey and Finn are holding hand as much as they are trying to stay together, based on what we’ve seen so far they don’t even know each other’s names at this point
@davestrrr: Some great shots here. Finn and Rey holding hands? What does this say of a possible love story there? I love the TIE fighter being pulled by a cable, ultimately to be released. The physics there looks cool. This is certainly the moment when Finn and Poe escape. The shot of Han handing over the blaster to Rey is pretty cool, other than Rey’s expression. She looks kind of dazed. Can’t blame her from what she’s been through. Love the shot of Finn fighting that Stormtrooper with the lightsaber, more on that below.
2.) New UK TV Spot:
@mazlow01: Man I love all this new footage! Kylo deflecting shots looks like a mix of OT and PT styles of blade work. I think him reaching out is stealing the blaster from Rey using the force. Finn and Rey in the Falcon “Get ready!” “For what?” awesomeness. When the quadship blows up is obviously what forces them to the falcon The attack on Maz’s castle looks intense. And the best part is rumor has it the music is John Williams.
@davestrrr: Some good stuff here. The best is the shot of Maz’s castle, confirming the previous concept art that we’ve seen like this one:
That art has been around for a while and it looks spot-on. The music! Yes, it was confirmed that this is John Williams. The crashing TIE! Hey, I think they scene with Rey saying “Get ready!” and Finn saying “For what?” has got to be before the big loopdeloop that the Falcon does in the first teaser.
3.) A pretty cool new Verizon add featuring Chewie and BB-8
@mazlow01: Honestly that could almost be a scene from the movie. I am betting we are seeing how BB-8’s personality is. Chopper meets R2
@davestrrr: No doubt these are movie-props and costumes, and I would think that the set is also movie-quality too. Excellent shots there. The puppetry of BB-8 is great. Hopefully some of this will shine through in the movie.
4.) New Disney XD UK Featurette:
Also, StarWarsNewsNet did a nice report on it.
@mazlow01: Nothing breaking here but still cool to see a few new angles on shots.
@davestrrr: Not much too new here, a few of the behind the scenes shots are new. Among the new stuff is a shot of General Hux saying “Fire!”, and he says it with such character. He says it like a greasy villain and almost spits out the word with disdain. The shot of Han and Chew saying “We’re home!” is a different version from what we’ve seen, this time with a bigger, goofier smile. I wonder which version will make the final cut.
5.) New interview with Andy Serkis dicussing Snoke. From the article we have the following quotes about Snoke:
He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design – you couldn’t have gotten there with prosthetics. It’s too extreme. Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure and facial structure. You could never have done it [in real life.]
@mazlow01: I’m guessing based on the size comments and the facial structure comments that Snoke will end up looking very similar to the original Emperor Designs
@davestrrr: This is pretty exciting. Justin Bolger (@theApexFan) was on Collider Jedi Council recently, and those guys are pretty convinced this means a certain Muun. Muuns are really large and can have a narrow body structure, impossible to be created with prosthetics. Sure, countless other alien species are the same way, but one can’t help but wonder…
6.) Looks like a StormTrooper with an Electrostaff/baton! Although this was part of the TV spot, it might be worth mentioning because it could say something about the weapons of the First Order in The Force Awakens:
@mazlow01: It definitely implies they received some training related to lightsabers. Whether it was defending against them or actually using them its pretty cool.
@davestrrr: This is pretty interesting. The weapon that the StormTrooper has is a type of “riot baton” that is electrified. You can see it in this toy pic here. So this raises the question “Why would the Storm Troopers have a lightsaber-proof riot baton? Why would they add that functionality unless they were expecting it?” Makes you wonder if lightsabers have become more common.
7.) Larry Kasdan is retiring after the Han Solo Anthology film (source The Hollywood Reporter)
@mazlow01: Honestly I’m ok with this. Its great he’s going out on Star Wars
@davestrrr: Larry Kasdan has probably had one of the biggest impacts on Star Wars, next to Lucas. The good news is we still have two forthcoming movies written by him, and he will get to go on and do other things that he wants to do after this, and enjoy a well-deserved break. That is, unless he goes straight back into directing after this.
8.) Darth Vader Sculptor working on Rouge One.
@mazlow01: Vader in Rouge One has been mentioned about a million times this seems like confirmation to me!
@davestrrr: I hope this means that we do see Vader in Rogue One. It would make sense given the time frame. This would be the key time to have a young-ish Vader in the suit, doing a lot of badass Sith fighting. I can only imagine they will jump to that opportunity.
9.) Gina Rodrguez cast for Episode 8
@mazlow01: This is pretty thin.. and I wonder what her role will be? Pilot? Jedi in training?
@davestrrr: I guess this is worth reporting, but way to early to say anything about it. I think it’s great that they are expanding an already diverse cast and continuing to bring in diverse talent.
10.) A Slew of interviews from EW.com
@mazlow01: There wasn’t much in the way of news in these articles but they did provide great insight into the actors.
@davestrrr: The key new piece of info there was Maz Kanata being over 1000 years old. This makes her character quite intriguing. Looking forward for more info there.