f13.net

Since we've got one for Marvel & DC I figured why not with today's announcements:
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-episode-viii-gets-release-date-spinoff-movie-called-rogue-one-1201451449/

* Episode VIII (8) release date will be May 26, 2017
 - Rian Johnson to write & direct

* The first Spin-off was given a title, "Rogue 1"  Release will be Dec 16th of next year.
 - Speculation was that this will focus on Wedge based on the name but as it stars Felicity Jones I doubt that. New speculation is it focuses on young Leia
 - Written by Chris Weitz who wrote Disney's live action Cinderella that starts tomorrow.

* Second spin-off is still under-wraps.

Also, for those who haven't followed, Asoka (Anakin's Padawan) made her appearance on Rogues' season finale. Son was thrilled, I less so, but they dropped Vader at the end so hopefully she dies.  :why_so_serious:

Aww I like Ahsoka.  As much as she was annoying at the beginning of Clone Wars they really fleshed her out more than anyone else.  Good to see she wasn't forgotten about, but now we know why she was absent from the last season.

Star Wars Celebration is being streamed this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZUUfW6FvE

So Rogue One will be set betweetn Ep 3 and 4 and be about the group of rebels trying to steal the Death Star plans. No word on whether Kyle Katarn will feature (but I'm guessing not).

Katarn is in the rubbish pile next to the rest of the EU unfortunately.

Not the rubbish pile, the "Legends" pile.

Now there's a change in "acceptable" behavior for Star Wars actors. Bai Ling's minor character was completely cut from the prequels because she had appeared in playboy. Felicity Jones has done nude scenes god knows how many times. Almost all of it 3.6 seconds after she turned 18.

Ahsoka even being in Rebels so she wasn't really expected the first season. I don't think it was until the end of the season people started doing voice analysis on the voice of "Fulcrum" and proved it was her. As far as why she wasn't in the last season of Clone Wars there was no mystery at all about that.

People want to see some sort of Ahsoka running into Darth Vader thing, but given what is actually canon after Rebels I doubt it would play out the way people want. I did think that Clone Wars was overall a great show, especially the way it portrayed Anakin willing to stretch things further and further to conceal his relationship with Padme as well as protect/rescue the people he felt he was responsible for protecting - Padme and Ahsoka. Especially when he started force-choking that one guy. Then the one time he decided to put his faith in the Jedi Council and wait to see what happens, his padawan gets framed for all sorts of shit and quits the Jedi. That's two out of the three people he seemed to care about leave or die because he failed to protect them. The series really helped to make the 3rd prequel feel a lot less full of retarded angsty choices. 

They really should have called it "Many Bothans Died".

Speaking of Rebels. There's a new trailer out and it features the return of an older Captain Rex!

If I was directing this movie, I would include a single scene where a bunch of random Bothans just get blow the fuck up for doing nothing but being bystanders, with no explanation at all.  Just to show that a lot of Bothans did, indeed, die.

If you directed that movie and included that scene, I would take to the forums in a massive nerd rage about how the stupid director doesn't know anything about Star Wars.

 :why_so_serious:

So word is there's going to be a young Han Solo movie (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/han-solo-star-wars-spinoff-807153), to be written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.

Given it'll be directed by the Lego Movie people, PRATT CONFIRMED.  :drill:

Oh hells yes.

I have just the actor for that role. He is loose, spontaneous, always willing to laugh at himself.

(http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BNTU2MzkxODM4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzk0NzQ5MQ@@._V1_UY317_CR1,0,214,317_AL_.jpg)

(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s18/claudius_bucket/darth-vader-no_zpsdeb6db1e.jpg)

As much as I'd like to see Pratt, I'd rather he ended up as Indy.  I actually wouldn't mind like Zachary Levi as a young Han.

Ford did both, why not Pratt? :D

Pratt is already in 3 franchises.  Not that I don't think he'd be awesome.. it's just finding time to do all of it.

They won't cast Pratt because it's not a reboot.  Pratt can do Indy because they will likely be completely redoing the originals but for the Solo movie they are trying to fit it in the existing movie canon.  This means that not only will they need to pick an actor a good bit younger than ford was in '79 but they are also going to have to find as much of a look-alike as they can and Pratt while awesome, doesn't look like Ford at all.

Does anyone else think this is an awful idea?

It's the kind of stuff that fans have always wanted though, and at least it's not some of the old EU nonsense.  Hell, if that Boba Fett movie ever gets made, that shit will draw fanboys like no other. 

Only because it'll make Han too Disney-fied. It'll be Han shoots second dialed-up to 11.

Right Here.

I'm with this guy (as usual). If they did something Dark Knight-ish there could be possibilities for fun, but no chance they will risk the franchise. It will be soulless and awful.

Rumors floating around Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) .  http://hollywoodlife.com/2015/07/08/aaron-paul-hans-solo-star-wars-new-movie-cast/ (http://hollywoodlife.com/2015/07/08/aaron-paul-hans-solo-star-wars-new-movie-cast/)  I don't buy it or like it.

This feels like one of those roles where they need to find an unknown.

Who is Aaron Paul?

Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad. He plays a moron rather well. I can't see him playing Han.

No, that would be a horrible casting decision.  What the fuck.

Someone on grantland put it well; the only good thing Lucas did in the prequels was not involve Han.

He arrives as a fully formed character in Sw IV, peeking behind that curtain will just be crap.

Frankly same goes for the Bobba Fett

Yeah, this. I'd rather they go with Chris Pratt than Aaron Paul, and I really like Aaron Paul. Unless the plan is to have Han Solo be 16 and really stupid, Paul just doesn't have the look. And he's well past 16.

Of course, a prequel Han Solo movie would have to go into his time as an Imperial Academy student? Or is it just roguish Han doing Han shit?

Not that I knew him, but that was kind of a joke on finding an unknown if he's only been in one show.

Is him being an Imperial Academy student part of canon, or is that EU stuff?  Personally I'd like to see him up and coming, him saving Chewy and getting a hold of the Falcon, and working for Jabba or something.

Also, this isn't Lucas anymore.  If it was I'd think these movies would all be terrible ideas.

But wait, those books were actually ok.  So filming that shit would be a bit redundant, no ?

Other than .001% of film goers have probably read or heard about them.

Yeah, but fuck those guys, right ?   :grin:

Imp Academy is part of EU, even though the Han books are from the 80s and not the trash-cannon of the 90s. It's out unless it's brought back in at this point. So they can go ANYWHERE with Han's story as long as he winds-up a smuggler partnered with Chewie. Yet another reason it'll be Disneyfied because now Han's the magical hero boy with his own hero's journey. The dark turn to cynisim erased into a facade to do business.

Current Canon is only:
The Movies - Episodes I-VI
Animated Clone Wars (CGI only)
Star Wars Rebels

Which is amusing because it wipes-out Mandalorians as a gung-ho he-man race of space killers and makes them Pacifists on a radioactive desert planet.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/New_Mandalorians

They should retcon Han and recast as a woman. Marvel and DC are doing it with superheroes. The media will love it and it will increase the brand appeal to women!

Pure genius.  Christina Hendricks as Hannah Solo.

Oh, they can always show his wife before Leia in the new movie too.

(https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3753416/IMG_0807.0.jpg)

Were there no throwaway lines in the original trilogy about Han being a former Imperial officer, or at least a cadet?  We know they gave him rank in RotJ (which they would only do if he had previous experience as an officer, presumably).  I'd wager they would continue with this angle, whether it was explicit or implied from canon. 

They gave Luke rank and he was just a moisture farmer.   :awesome_for_real:

The entirety of Hans backstory hinges on a single line of dialogue in Empire, AFAIK. 

When they are clinging to the Star Destroyer and he talks about Imperial procedure. This was interpreted to mean he's been trained, because how else would you learn about that. This was a reasonable assumption in the 80s when the Internet and databreaches weren't a thing, but ignores that Han was a criminal and the syndicate he ran for would have had an interest in learning those procedures to smuggle better.

Some also argue his ability to know the at-at communications control and what frequency to call the shield bunker on. That's a really weak argument though since they were in the middle of a fight and would have been communicating and communications devices aren't typically rocket science to use. Plus, Chewie drove the damn thing. Does that mean he was an Imperial too?  No, of course not.

No. They gave him a rank because, presumably, as well as helping to rescue Leia, retrieve the Death Star plans and destroy the Death Star, he proved his usefulness in the time between ANH and ESB - indicated by the throwaway line in ESB is when General Riekaan says "You're a good fighter , Solo, I hate to lose you."  More of an oddity is why they promoted Lando to General.

I also find the whole "Oh noes, he's going to be Disneyfied!" worries amusing given that we're talking about the same studio who has recently made quite a bit of money out of making or distributing films that feature lovable rogues.

They promoted Lando because he dressed in Hans clothes at the end of TESB and the guy in charge of the promotions got confused.

Simples.

Either that or someone must have told them about his little maneuver at the battle of Tanaab.

I always thought it was odd that they all got promoted to the same rank.  I mean, how many Generals do you need?

Given that, win or lose, this was the last battle the rebels were ever going to have against the Empire, they probably just said "Right, who wants to be a General? In fact, fuck it, everyone can be a General! We'll probably all be dead tomorrow anyway."


The Clone Wars cartoon is part of the new canon so the Mandalorian history is still fully intact - including the bit where the New Mandalorians got taken over by the Death Watch (ex Mandalorians who didn't agree with being pacifists) led by none other than Darth Maul.

It also means Darth Maul's resurrection is still canon. As is the fact that he was captured by the Emperor so could yet still appear in Rebels.  :grin:

New canon - even more fucked up than EU canon.

Bullshit.  As dumb as robo-chickenlegs Maul is, it's still way better than this guy:

Yep, fair enough. I don't think I really I meant it - I hated most of the EU but really quite like all the Clone Wars cartoons and comics. Haven't yet watched Rebels but they've just announced the DVD release for later this year so I'll be getting it.

Eh, the Mandalorian history is intact and it isn't. Given what is "True Canon" is only what's shown so far, we know the Mandalorians had a warrior history they were despised for. The part that pisses-off the old-school Fanbois is that this can be interpreted any number of ways, none of which will be exactly what was there before. Almost certainly none of the "Men only" nonsense, since it's 2015 and we've got a female Mandalorian in rainbow colors on Rebels.

It's like a new software release. The major features might still be there, only in a different area, and working a bit differently but it's still the same program.  How many people do you come across who are unreasonably pissed-off when this change happens?  Now add some imbalanced socially-awkward emotional investment to that mix.

Yeah.

As for fucked-up canon, yeah you covered that in part, but Rebels has kept things pretty even-keeled. (At least from what I expected you'd see from Disney.) I think they'd have dropped Clone Wars from the canon as well if it hasn't been active and in everyone's mind when the properties were acquired. They dropped Tartakovsky's Clone series, after all, and it was far better than the CGI one.

When were Mandalorians men only?

Everything I've ever read or scene about them says they gave exactly zero fucks about race or gender.

Colin Trevorrow announced as director for Episode IX, the final of the new trilogy.
http://www.starwars.com/news/colin-trevorrow-to-direct-star-wars-episode-ix

If you don't know the name, he was the director that did Jurassic World. Good choice, IMO.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1119880/


Was long ago, before I stopped reading the EU crap and so it seems that yes the lore evolved beyond that.

Oh good, there was already a Useless Star Wars thread.

I just had to remark on the fact that it is now canonically established that Siths all have red lightsabers not just because it looks cool, but because the Dark Side turns your lightsaber crystal red, and does so immediately once you've reached some specific threshold of Dark Midichlorians I guess.

They finally outdid George.

 :awesome_for_real:

Yeah, the Acolyte really did some weird fucking things that were all midichlorian level without actually saying midichlorians. Like, after weird pedo padawan said he had to take a blood sample, I was sure he was going to mention midichlorians. Then the whole "vergence" talk and creating life was just cringeworthy. Kind of sad that the only character I seemed to give a shit about was because I was hoping he'd toss a molotav cocktail while screaming BLAKE BORTLES!

So, I only made it through the first 1.5 episodes of Acolyte before I couldn’t take it anymore (and from all reactions to it, sounds like that was a very good choice), so I didn’t see the end, but it sounds like they showed her ‘bleeding’ the light saber.  If so, then in the series (very slight) defense, this is actually something that was established a few years back in the Darth Vader comic (I think, maybe it was even earlier).  So it sounds like they just made use of that pre-existing canon lore (yes, the Darth Vader comic is all officially cannon).  You can read about the whole thing here:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bleeding

If it wasn’t this, then fuck if I know what they were doing.

I guess that'd fit if it was established that was a thing, but based on what they showed I assumed that it was the lightsaber reacting to her evilness and being corrupted by her, rather than something she was doing deliberately to the lightsaber.  I don't think they ever established that she'd learned how to "bleed" a kyber crystal, or that she couldn't use a regular lightsaber because she was too evil (didn't stop Anakin from slaughtering younglings with his "good" saber, lolol).

So if anything, I think that explanation makes it even more stupid, which is very par for the course with Star Wars lore.   :awesome_for_real:

Heh, so I’m at a friends house and we went ahead and just watched the last episode (plus scenes from another episode because he thought the fight scenes were good, which they were).  Yeah, she was bleeding the saber.  I mean, I don’t think they really need to establish that she was taught how to do it.  All it involves is pouring your hatred into it.  She was holding it and became super mad and fell to the dark side (For the dumbest reason possible.  The Jedi were 100% right here, lol), so was pouring her anger and hatred into it, whether she realized it or not.  Seemed obvious that’s what the writers were showing if you know what bleeding is (which I’m sure 90% of viewers do not, so yeah, confusing for most), especially since the saber got damaged so you could see the crystal, and thus see the crystal getting changed.

Boy what a fucking stupid ending.  And show.  Jesus Christ.  

Edit to add:  Responding to you other point, its not that Sith or anybody else can’t use a normal light saber, its just “tradition” that they wield a light saber they’ve taken from a Jedi they’ve killed, then bleed it red.  

I thought the plot was good, and the fights were awesome and motherfucking Jason Mendoza from the Good Place as a bad ass Sith was unexpectedly amazing. A lot of the acting and dialogue were absolute crap though, but at this point this is as much a part of Star Wars as Jedis and fascist.