John Boyega: Finn is a ‘big deal’ in The Last Jedi

Via Ew.com:
Finn: I’m a big deal in the Resistance. Which puts a real target on my back…

Han Solo: Listen, “Big Deal.” You got another problem. Women always figure out the truth. Always.

In The Last Jedi, John Boyega’s Stormtrooper-with-a-conscience no longer has to fake his status in the Resistance. The actor tells EW that after helping take down the First Order’s Starkiller Base and being gravely wounded in combat with Kylo Ren, he’s finally the thing he always wanted to be:

A big deal. For real.

“The funny thing is, between VII and VIII, Finn’s now a big deal! He is now a big deal. Imagine that – you get taken down by Kylo Ren,” Boyega told us at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida. “Think about what the gossip’s going to be like in the Resistance. ‘Oh, that’s the guy that got slashed down by Kylo?’”

Boyega breaks into a grinning stride, winking and waving at imaginary Resistance fighters. “‘How you doing, guys? How you doing?’” he says. “‘Yeah, I was there. Then the Falcon picked me up… Oh yeah, I knew Han Solo by the way. We were pretty close.’ All that kind of stuff. They have a fan moment when they see him.”

Boyega can’t resist saying it again: “Finn’s a big deal.”

So, Han Solo’s prophecy came true. All of it.

Boyega jokes about trolling fans. “I told them Finn’s asleep the whole time, or just shows up at the end. Just gives a wink or has a hood he takes off, like Luke,” the actor says.

But the truth is, the character takes a while to get back on his feet.

“Finn’s in a bad way at the end of VII. He has a lot of issues. He got slashed with a saber, and that took him down real hard, so he’s in a coma,” the actor says. “That suit, that whole thing helps him to recover. But we’re not sure whether that means he’ll wake up.”

Spoiler: He wakes up. But he’s not exactly good as new.

“There’s some additional few things that need to be done to make him mobile. He’s definitely in a place where he needs some help,” Boyega says.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Preview

Via Vanityfair.com:

Star Wars devotees who can’t wait for December need look no further. With exclusive access to writer-director Rian Johnson, plus interviews with Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and others, V.F. presents the ultimate sneak peek at The Last Jedi—and Carrie Fisher’s lasting legacy.

The first trip to Skellig Michael was wondrous: an hour-long boat ride to a craggy, green island off the coast of Ireland’s County Kerry, and then a hike up hundreds of stone steps to a scenic cliff where, a thousand years earlier, medieval Christian monks had paced and prayed. This is where Mark Hamill reprised his role as Luke Skywalker for the first time since 1983, standing opposite Daisy Ridley, whose character, Rey, was the protagonist of The Force Awakens, J. J. Abrams’s resumption of George Lucas’s Star Wars movie saga. The opening sentence of the film’s scrolling-text “crawl,” a hallmark of the series, was “Luke Skywalker has vanished.” Atop Skellig Michael, at the picture’s very end, after an arduous journey by Rey, came the big payoff: a cloaked, solitary figure unhooding himself to reveal an older, bearded Luke, who wordlessly, inscrutably regarded the tremulous Rey as she presented to him the lightsaber he had lost (along with his right hand) in a long-ago duel with Darth Vader, his father turned adversary. It was movie magic: a scene that, though filmed in 2014 and presented in theaters in 2015, is already etched in cinematic history.

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Four Exclusive Vanity Fair Covers

Via Vanityfair.com:

As the Star Wars franchise prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary this week, the next chapter in its saga will be very much front and center, thanks to a bountiful new shoot from the set of Episode VIII, The Last Jedi, by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. The relationship between Vanity Fair and Star Wars stretches back long ago and far, far away to when Leibovitz captured the cast of The Phantom Menace for the series’s return in 1999. The magazine has gone on to document each of the subsequent Star Wars episodes, including 2015’s blockbuster The Force Awakens.

Today, Vanity Fair debuts the cast of its follow-up, The Last Jedi, on four different covers, marking the first time we’ve released alternate Star Wars covers. Leibovitz’s full portfolio will be online Wednesday, along with our story on the making of the new film, written by David Kamp. The Summer issue of Vanity Fair will be on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on May 31, and nationally on June 6. Readers in search of the full Vanity Fair-Star Wars experience, including all four covers, a commemorative poster, and early access, on May 24, to our digital editions, with lightsaber effects by Industrial Light & Magic, can purchase here.

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The Last Jedi Director Asked For A Droid Swap In The Force Awakens

Via Ew.com:
The Force Awakens was wrapping up production, and its sequel, The Last Jedi, was just getting underway. J.J. Abrams had not only resurrected the Star Wars universe, but he had introduced entirely new characters to the galaxy to carry the narrative forward.

But as one film prepared to hand off the story to the next, The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson had a major favor to ask: Would Abrams mind changing the ending of his film?

Just a little.

let’s finally solve this mystery: What was Rian Johnson’s big ask? (We also got him to discuss why Luke Skywalker fled into exile rather than stay and fight the First Order.)

Obviously, slight spoilers ahead …

Johnson already had a to-do list for the Force once it awakened, and he was involved early enough to know exactly where Abrams and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan were taking things. But when he saw the planned ending — that silent scene of Rey returning an exiled Luke Skywalker’s first lightsaber to him — he had a concern about who was accompanying her on that journey.

His request will end up returning a long-beloved Star Wars figure to the center of the action: R2-D2.

“Yes … The big [favor] was, I asked if R2 could come with Rey, and if BB-8 could stay behind with the Resistance,” Johnson says. “Originally it was BB-8 who went with Rey, which makes sense for the story in a way. But I asked, ‘Can you do me this solid and switch the droids?’”

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THE LAST JEDI OPENING CRAWL IS THREE PARAGRAPHS LONG

Via Mtvnews.com:

THE DIRECTOR TELLS MTV NEWS THE OPENING CRAWL WILL ADDRESS THE GROWING CHAOS ‘STAR WARS’ UNIVERSE

Ever since director Rian Johnson confirmed that Star Wars: The Last Jedi would indeed uphold the long-standing tradition of an opening crawl, fans have been left to wonder, what the hell is it going to say?

After all, The Last Jedi picks up immediately following the ending of JJ Abrams’s The Force Awakens — specifically with Rey handing Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber to a reclusive Luke Skywalker on the planet Ahch-To — so it’s unclear what the opening crawl will have to say. However, Johnson tells MTV News that there’s “still some stuff to set up” for the film.

“Even if it picks up right where the last one left off, there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about what the state of everything is,” he told MTV’s Josh Horowitz at Star Wars Celebration. “We were able to fill three paragraphs.”

It’s likely that the opening crawl will address the current state of the Republic, which lost a significant seat when the Starkiller Base destroyed the Hosnian system in The Force Awakens. In fact, the galaxy is in total “chaos” in The Last Jedi — and The First Order is using that to their advantage. There’s no doubt that by the start of Episode VIII, Supreme Leader Snoke already has another nefarious plan set in motion.

As for the film, The Last Jedi may not answer all of the lingering questions from The Force Awakens — according to Daisy Ridley, we know it will answer a few important ones — but Johnson hopes fans find it to be just as “emotionally satisfying.”

 

MTV News

 

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’: Laura Dern Won’t Talk About Her Role

Via Yahoo.com:

Two-time Oscar nominee Laura Dern is starring in two of this year’s hottest properties: the upcoming reboot of Twin Peaks and the highly-anticipated Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Is she part of the Resistance or has she been seduced by the dark side of the Force? Keep asking, because Dern won’t answer. Not even her son and daughter (ages 15 and 12, respectively) know anything, partly because mom doesn’t want them to stress out about keeping plot points a secret from their friends.

“It’s hard in our own house. ‘Mom, you can at least tell us who you play.’ I’d never put them in that position,” she says.

Dern’s involvement in Episode VIII of the Star Wars saga was announced last year as the Rian Johnson-directed sequel went into production, although no details have been revealed yet about who she’ll be playing. All we know so far is that The Last Jedi will pick up where 2015’s The Force Awakens left off, right as Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) meet. Is Dern’s role at least momentous enough to raise her credibility level at home? She just laughs. “I was hoping for a little more respect. I’m hoping when they see the movie, I’ll get a little more. A point,” says Dern.

She’s just as excited about the upcoming Twin Peaks, which is having a resurgence with the younger generation before its May premiere on Showtime. “Twin Peaks, all these teenagers I know are watching the first one to get ready. They heard it’s the most radical thing their parents and teachers had seen,” she says.

So between that and Star Wars, “I’m hoping, cumulatively, I get five points” of respect at home. The Last Jedi hits theaters on Dec. 17

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Luke’s First Words Revealed To Disney Shareholders

Via Latimes.com:

A bit of “Star Wars” news dropped Wednesday at Disney’s annual shareholders meeting in Denver: We’ve seen what happens after Rey (Daisy Ridley) visits Luke (Mark Hamill) at his secluded cliffside hangout.

Los Angeles Times reporter Daniel Miller was at the meeting and viewed the first clips from director Rian Johnson’s new film “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” But first, it all started off with a joke …

Click below if you want to read the details of what was shown.

Bob Iger, Walt Disney Co.’s chairman and chief executive, also took a moment to remember original “Star Wars” cast member Carrie Fisher, who died last year.

“Carrie Fisher has been an iconic part in this franchise from the very beginning,” he said. “We all miss her. She has great talent and wit. We’re proud that this movie coming up is part of her legacy.”

Iger described “The Last Jedi” as “a perfect chapter in the iconic Skywalker family drama.” So all you “Who’s Rey’s father?” conspiracy theorists, consider your flame officially fanned.

Rian Johnson Reveals New Image From The Set Of The Last Jedi

Via Gamespot.com:

It was revealed that Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson will appear at the annual Star Wars Celebration event in April. Johnson has now posted a new behind-the-scenes image from the upcoming movie on Tumblr–check it out below:

This year, Celebration will take place in Orlando, Florida. Johnson will appear on a Last Jedi panel alongside Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy on April 14 to talk about the movie.

A statement from Lucasfilm said that “the talk promises to feature a few surprises and special guests, kickstarting what is sure to be an exciting and memorable weekend.”

You can buy tickets to Star Wars Celebration and learn more about the event at its website here.

In related news, Disney CEO Bob Iger said recently that he’s seen a cut of The Last Jedi and says it’s “great.” Additionally, the new R2-D2 actor has been named.