Weekly Star Wars Recap #169: Dec 24th, 2018

Posted on by davestrrr

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Star Wars fans! Episode IX is now officially less than a year away, and we still haven’t seen a teaser. We should be patient, though as it may come sooner than we think. Despite no trailer, there is a lot going on in Star Wars news, so let’s get right to it! As usual, potential spoilers below.

John Boyega confirms Episode IX is one year after The Last Jedi

In a recent issue of Empire Magazine (via redditor RR-RR), John Boyega has confirmed the time jump between Episode IX and The Last Jedi. In fact, he is specific enough to tell us that it is one year. That being said, he also stated on twitter that he doesn’t even remember the interview! Filming can be exhausting, and he may have let it slip without realizing it. Is this a major revelation? Not huge, but it does give some context for how much time the Resistance and the First Order have had to regroup after the events of the first two films of the trilogy.

Natalie Portman Denies Involvement in Episode IX

I want to be careful how I state this. While it doesn’t flat-out reject the possibility, it at least states that she doesn’t know of anything official. Based on her exact phrasing, it is certainly possible that she could end up being seen in the film, but the contracts haven’t been finalized yet. Time will tell, but for now it seems less likely.

ABC Confirms Galaxy’s Edge New Coming on Christmas

ABC news has confirmed that we should see something soon on December 25th regarding Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. I’ll stay tuned at check this out, or at least check it out on youtube after, but would have loved to see a trailer for Episode IX instead.

While were on the subject, check out this fly-over footage of the park attraction.

The Mandalorian Updates

There are a couple of new details on the upcoming series The Mandalorian. First, Making Star Wars has leaked some news about Nick Nolte’s role. Nolte will be playing an ugnaught character in the film! This is a bit surprising considering I’ve never heard one of those pig-like aliens speaking clearly. Why would they need a famous actor to play him? This ugnaught may be different. We reported a while back on new CGI tech being developed by Lucasfilm, but more for Episode IX. And this tech is supposed to enable better CGI faces and lip syncing, which sounds a lot like what they could be using for Nolte. The tech may enable live feedback for actors by seeing the performance on set, so I’m excited to see how much better this will make the CGI characters!

In other news, Ludwig Göransson has been confirmed to be composing for The Mandalorian. This guy has done some great work in the past for such films as Creed and Black Panther. He also seems to be a modest and level-headed man. Check out his quote from the official site:

“Words fail to express how surreal and humbling it feels to be invited into the Star Wars universe,” Göransson said. “I am deeply grateful to Jon Favreau and Disney for this opportunity and to John Williams for raising the bar so high with his iconic, intrepid scores — they will never be matched. In these next months I hope to honor the tradition of Star Wars’ musical landscape while propelling The Mandalorian into new and unchartered territory. And I will try to remember that there is no try.”

There is another detail worth mentioning. There was a Sabine Wren-style helmet observed on set. That said, the same style of helmet has been seen on other female Mandalorians. Could mean something, could mean nothing. With Dave Filoni involved in the show, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see a connection to his past characters, though.

Stay tuned to Spoiled Blue Milk for the best of Star Wars!