Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens

[Agent Gibbs]

See there were rumours about Hayden Christensen having a fitting for the Vader suit....and some had thought this might be part of Force Awakens awhile back...that obviously came to nothing so perhaps this is it? I mean I've nothing against him being in the suit but as long as we don't have to see him with helmet off or if we do it's brief. I mean most Chewie in Force Awakens was not Peter Mayhew as he can barely walk.

 

 

I'd forgotten about that rumour

Well maybe Hayden might do better with a different director? He did improve from Aotc to Rots, but my expectations are low so it would be hard to not exceed them

[somme]

I'd rather see Hayden as a force ghost at some point.

 

But if they take Vader's helmet off and they've put sufficient makeup on him to scar him, bald him and make him look like the Vader in RotJ, then I don't mind. I've seen him act in other things and he wasn't bad, so yeah, I blame the direction more than him.

[Phube]

Also not even a rumour, but surely Ewan McGregor could conceivably be in it too, being the right kind of age to play Desert Ben (maybe even him having a female hook up to tease the Rey/Obi Wan GD theories!?!).

[somme]

He could be but I see that as less likely. I always assumed he stayed on Tatooine to watch over Luke.

[Cube]

He could be but I see that as less likely. I always assumed he stayed on Tatooine to watch over Luke.

 

Plus he clearly hadn't been doing anything for the Republic for a while. The end of Rogue One will probably be mere hours before the start of ANH.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I can't tell what you're complaining about anymore...

Sorry, I thought somme was just repeating Cube's point when he said:

Well you didn't really need these extra tidbits for the story to make sense they just fill it out a bit if you care enough to read/watch other stuff from the universe.

With regards to the other-media stuff that I read (Force Droid) compared to the stuff he had read which actually flips the concept the movies portray:

Stormtrooper Massive goes down to a planet.

Stormtrooper Massive starts shooting shit up.

Random Stormtrooper dies.

Random Stormtrooper wipes blood on Random Stormtrooper 2.

Random Stormtrooper 2 develops conscience and does nothing for rest of the mission.

Random Stormtrooper 2 turns out to be Finn.

Finn admits Jakku was his first mission.

Finn confesses to being a janitor.

 

It gives the message that Finn is a pure freshman coward who hasn't been involved in any combat situation, and has been cleaning toilets etc. Especially when he starts blowing his load every time he shoots something in the Falcon/TIE Fighter*.

 

However it has been revealed that he is a trained and highly commended killing machine (even if it's just "simulation only") who suddenly grew an anti-establishment conscience when his bestie died. Which (I don't know about you) has changed my perspective of the character completely. I think even less of him picking and choosing when he has morals because it's fine shooting other random Stormtroopers now it seems, some may even be his friends.

 

 

*POINT OF DISCUSSION

Dual cockpit TIE Fighter, with the shooter facing backwards - the fuck?! (not the one which has two of those things next to each other before someone starts :P) TIE Fighters back in the day had one man doing it all (The Death Star trench run shows this) now you've got someone facing the completely opposite direction manning your weapon. It's like having someone looking out the rear window and doing your headlights/indicators while you drive. It serves no purpose but to force feed you some bromance between Finn and Poe.

 

See there were rumours about Hayden Christensen having a fitting for the Vader suit....and some had thought this might be part of Force Awakens awhile back...

How much did those guys thing he had grown since his Revenge of The Sith suit? It's only been a decade. I'm sure he's maintained a similar mass.

Please let Finn's Dad be Lando. Please.

Edited January 6, 2016 by EEVILMURRAY

[Agent Gibbs]

 

*POINT OF DISCUSSION

Dual cockpit TIE Fighter, with the shooter facing backwards - the fuck?! (not the one which has two of those things next to each other before someone starts :P) TIE Fighters back in the day had one man doing it all (The Death Star trench run shows this) now you've got someone facing the completely opposite direction manning your weapon. It's like having someone looking out the rear window and doing your headlights/indicators while you drive. It serves no purpose but to force feed you some bromance between Finn and Poe.

 

 

How much did those guys thing he had grown since his Revenge of The Sith suit? It's only been a decade. I'm sure he's maintained a similar mass.

Please let Finn's Dad be Lando. Please.

 

I assumed it was like the Snowspeeder and the Pilot opperated the twin forward turbo lasers and the other was a rear gunner

 

It would be cool for Lando to be his dad, and Finn was taken as an infant when the first order sacked Cloud City

 

Did see a comic on those lines the other day (bad grammar on it too) but the gist was

Lando:Finn i am your father

Finn: What?

Han:Who's the Mother

Lando:You remember when your were getting frozen in Carbonite and told me yo look after Leia?

*Zooms in on Lando's grin*

Han:Noooooooooo

 

(obvious time difference makes it impossible but i loved the imagery)

 

As a wild card i'd love for Mace Windu to have survived that force push out the window and hid in shame and he turns out to be his Father or Grandfather

[EEVILMURRAY]

As a wild card i'd love for Mace Windu to have survived that force push out the window and hid in shame and he turns out to be his Father or Grandfather

WINDU! I knew there was another black person in the universe I'd forgotten about.

[Cube]

The speeders in Empire Strikes Back also had a guy facing backwards who controlled all the guns.

[Phube]

Imagine if vehicles changed in 40 years!?!

[somme]

If a tie fighter pilot and gunner both faced the same way, the person behind would either be facing the back of someones head or would have to be elevated, which would mean the fighter would have to increase in size, which may not make it as quick and/or other issues.

 

Also, even when Finn was in the Falcon, shooting at ties that he could actually see, he relied very heavily on the targeting computer. In space, when you're flapping about everywhere trying to work out what's what, a targeting computer would be much more important than actually seeing anything with your eyes.

 

Also the windows in tie fighters don't make for good viewing.

 

And facing behind would mean you could see if there's anything behind you. Or just use the computer.

[Goafer]

Also, it's a movie. Sometimes things just happen because it's more interesting than doing things the sensible way.

[EEVILMURRAY]

If a tie fighter pilot and gunner both faced the same way

Or they could be the same person like they use to be.

And facing behind would mean you could see if there's anything behind you. Or just use the computer.

Or (whatever passes for) radar/sensors in the future.

[Cube]

Imagine if vehicles changed in 40 years!?!

 

To be fair, technology in the Star Wars universe has barely changed over the last 5,000 years.

[Agent Gibbs]

To be fair, technology in the Star Wars universe has barely changed over the last 5,000 years.

 

Nope it could have change dramatically, they could have all left Earth on 13 colony ships for all we know now since KOTOR is now non cannon and all the prehistory it established

I think we can only rely on a couple of tit bits that mention when the republic was formed, when hyperdrive was invented and distributed etc

 

stupid Disney Kotor was excellent

 

As for the Tie, my mate watched this again last night and has the cross section book of the ships, he says:

the Pilot has the customary pilot seat and has controls for the forward twin turbolasers

The gunner seated with his back to him controls a movable turret on the tie's base, Finn was seen in this seat firing at the turbolaser turrets in the film, which were located in front of him (Poe wanted to concentrate on flying so left it to him), which includes turbo lasers and apparently a missile launcher

 

the new Tie also has atmospheric generation, gravity and a hyperdrve

 

confusingly its refered to as a special forces tie fighter so perhaps the old non hyperdrive, no atmosphere one seater tie is an option

[bob]

I see no problem with them designing two versions of a tie fighter?

[Cube]

Nope it could have change dramatically, they could have all left Earth on 13 colony ships for all we know now since KOTOR is now non cannon and all the prehistory it established

I think we can only rely on a couple of tit bits that mention when the republic was formed, when hyperdrive was invented and distributed etc

 

Here are a few tid bits in current canon:

 

- The Old Republic fell over 1,000 years before Phantom Menace

- Darth Bane created the Rule of Two over 1,000 years before Phantom Menace.

- Mandalorians stole an artefact (called a Darksaber) during the fall of the Old Republic.

- Many years before that, there was a large war between the Mandalorians and the Jedi/Republic (referencing the war before KOTOR).

- Kylo Ren's lightsaber design was in use thousands of years ago, at the time of the Great Scourge of Malachor (referencing KOTOR 2).

- A ship called the Crucible has been transporting younglings between Coruscant and Ilum for around 2,000 years so they can gather

kyber crystal.

[Agent Gibbs]

Here are a few tid bits in current canon:

 

- The Old Republic fell over 1,000 years before Phantom Menace

- Darth Bane created the Rule of Two over 1,000 years before Phantom Menace.

- Mandalorians stole an artefact (called a Darksaber) during the fall of the Old Republic.

- Many years before that, there was a large war between the Mandalorians and the Jedi/Republic (referencing the war before KOTOR).

- Kylo Ren's lightsaber design was in use thousands of years ago, at the time of the Great Scourge of Malachor (referencing KOTOR 2).

- A ship called the Crucible has been transporting younglings between Coruscant and Ilum for around 2,000 years so they can gather

kyber crystal.

 

Wait so they said Kotor is non canon but then kept what is effectively a TL: DR version of kotor in the canon?

I'd be annoyed but i love Kotor so its a good thing

maybe we'll get a Kotor reboot at some point

[flameboy]

stupid Disney Kotor was excellent

 

I'm replaying it at the moment and yes it really is. Shame it isn't canon when it could still have been.

[Cube]

Wait so they said Kotor is non canon but then kept what is effectively a TL: DR version of kotor in the canon?

I'd be annoyed but i love Kotor so its a good thing

maybe we'll get a Kotor reboot at some point

 

Pretty much. A few bits were from The Clone Wars, so it was before Disney (they published the Darth Bane one, though), but others are from places like the visual dictionary for TFA, which also has a map of planets and has Rakata Prime on it for no reason.

[flameboy]

Been crawling through more stuff about Rogue One after our discussion two tidbits I found from this article;

 

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/rogue-one/38438/star-wars-rogue-one-what-we-know-so-far

 

Sort of lends cred to Vader and Tarkin both appearing in the film;

 

Rogue One's setting shortly before the events of A New Hope might suggest that someone would bump into Darth Vader or the fusty Grand Moff Tarkin at some point, and rumours suggest that this is indeed the case.

One of the more curious stories to emerge from the production is that recreating Peter Cushing's likeness using computer imagery has grown into "one of the most complex and costly CGI re-creations ever," according to a Daily Mail source. The problem, apparently, is in getting the CG Tarkin to move with Cushing's distinctive gait.

 

"They are going through hours and hours of old footage from the horror movies to recreate his legs and feet to produce realistic movements," the source continued. "It is eerie to see someone who has been dead for so long come to life on a screen."

 

While this all sounds very far-fetched to us, it certainly makes sense that the commander of the first Death Star would make at least a brief appearance in Rogue One. There were suggestions that Ben Mendelsohn might be playing Moff Tarkin at one point, but employing such a great actor to essentially do a Peter Cushing impression seems like a disappointing waste of talent.

 

Could the truth of who is playing Moff Tarkin be hidden elsewhere;

 

Then there's Alan Tudyk, who's officially confirmed by Lucasfilm to be playing a "performance-capture character" in the movie.

 

Does seem odd but he is good at voices...I think it unlikely but you never know.

[Emasher]

Regarding the whole gunner facing backwards in the tie fighters, keep in mind, this is the view the gunner has in an Apache Attack Helicopter:

 

 

This is an aircraft primarily designed to attack ground targets, so the gunner obviously isn't going to be looking out the window much during combat.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Sort of lends cred to Vader and Tarkin both appearing in the film;

I don't get why they're doing that. They're doing research on how Cushing walks, not Tarkin. He could walk with a limp and it wouldn't matter, regardless of the "distinguishing gait", I'm sure there is someone who could pull it off without fisting the CG angle.

 

They could use the guy they used for the end of Revenge of The Sith, they didn't seem to mind how he walked back then.

[Mr-Paul]

Episode VIII delayed to December 2017

 

Today, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that Star Wars: Episode VIII, originally scheduled for release in summer 2017, will now debut on December 15, 2017.

 

The move follows the extraordinary success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was the first Star Wars movie to premiere outside the traditional summer blockbuster window and smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic second and third weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over $861.3 million and the third biggest global release ever with $1,886.7 billion.

 

Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Star Wars: Episode VIII is currently in preproduction and will begin principal photography in London next month. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman will produce and J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski will executive produce. Stay tuned for exciting updates in the coming weeks.

 

A good decision, considering its release was probably a bit too close to Rogue One next December, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is out in May 2017 too, so Disney don't want their two space movies up against each other. I like that Star Wars will be a 'Christmas movie', but man, I don't want to wait that long to find out what happens next

[bob]

I think every two years is reasonable for such a huge film. I don't mind waiting.