Star Wars Bits: Rogue One X-Wings, Journey To Force Awakens Excerpts, Grand Moff Tarkin And More
A Jedi Knight? Jeez, I’m out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of Star Wars Bits. This edition of news from a galaxy far, far away includes:
Header image: Artwork from Deviant artistornicar
Production onStar Wars: Rogue Oneis under way across the pond, and some spy photos have revealed temple walls resembling those on Yavin IV inStar Wars: A New Hopeas well as a shrouded X-Wing. However, this isn’t one of the newer X-Wings fromThe Force Awakens, but rather the classic design from the original trilogy, which only makes sense considering this takes place beforeA New Hope. If you want to see the photos, head over toMakingStarWars.net right here.
Above is a piece of fanmade artwork that appears in a coolStar Warsround-up of pieces designed byStar Warsfans. There’s some other cool pieces feature Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Stormtrooper in the middle of a big battle, and much more. Check out the rest of the artwork atForeverGeek.com right here.
Some new excerpts for books that will be part ofThe Journey to The Force Awakenshave popped up online since they novels are now available for pre-order on iTunes and Google Play with a sneak preview of the pages inside. If you head on over, you can take a look at pages fromLost Starsby Claudia Gray,Smuggler’s Runby Greg Rucka,Moving Targetby Cecil Castelluci, andThe Weapon of a Jediby Jason Fry. The above image comes from one of the books geared towards kids. (via:MakingStarWars.net)
Even thoughStar Wars: Episode VIIIis still two years away, rumors are already swirling about the lead character in the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, which will be directed byLooperhelmer Rian Johnson.GeekNationis saying Disney and Lucasfilm are on the hunt for an actress to play a strong, young female character.
That’s not exactly a big revelation, but the rumor also says that this character would be Han Solo’s daughter, which raises a whole bunch of questions as to whether or not Rey (Daisy Ridley) is actually a Solo child inThe Force Awakenshas been rumored. This seems a little fishy and too early for this kind of detail to leak, so take it with a grain of salt for now.
Some new paperback covers for a few of the forthcomingJourney to Star Wars: The Force Awakensnovels have popped up online atMakingStarWars. Unfortunately, as you can see, they’re just stylish text and don’t offer any new imagery for us to sink our teeth into just yet. Though the unifying theme among the books' cover design is rather appealing.
It appearsStar Warsfans are really pushing their love of the sci-fi saga onto their kids asMashablehas pointed out that theofficial Social Security Administration listof the most popular baby names in America in 2014 has the name “Anakin” landing at 957 on the list of the 1,000 most popular baby names.
Honestly, that’s not too high, which likely means some parents don’t want their kid to be inundated with questions about whether or not they likeStar Wars. In fact, I feel sorry for the kid with that name who just may not end up likingStar Warssimply because he is named Anakin.
Finally, there’s a rumor going around fromThe Daily MailthatGrand Moff Tarkinwill be appearing inStar Wars: Rogue One. However, rather than having a new actor play the character in the movie, Lucasfilm may use visual effects to recreate the image ofPeter Cushing, who played the character originally inStar Wars: A New Hope.
Reportedly the special effects team is going through hours and hours of old footage from Cushing’s career in order to accurately recreate his entire face and body, including the way he walks and moves.
This seems wholly unnecessary and expensive, especially since the green screen heavyRevenge of the Sithdidn’t even use visual effects in order to bring Grand Moff Tarkin back to the big screen. They just made up actorWayne Pigramto look like Peter Cushing. Of course, he had no lines, which made things infinitely easier, but there’s no reason that an actor just can’t inherit this role instead of spending what will likely be hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of dollars on visual effects.
That’s all for Star Wars Bits for now. Stay tuned for more soon.
