Disney & Lucasfilm to bring back ‘Star Wars’ Force Friday this September

It might be many months away but Disney and Lucasfilm want to confirm that Star Wars Force Friday II is happening. This global event celebrates the launch of new products that are inspired by the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi film. The packaging of the products will include leading heroes: Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron. The sale of these toys, collectibles, apparel, books, etc. will start at 12:01 a.m. on September 1^st and will have stores around the world have weekend-long celebrations for all things Star Wars.

Back in 2015, fans all over the world welcomed Force Friday and toys from the new line, including the Sphero BB-8, were revealed via an international livestream unboxing event, which happened over 18 hours, 15 cities, and 12 countries. Details about Force Friday II will be released as the events draw closer so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Here’s your first look at the cast of the standalone Han Solo film

From left to right: Woody Harrelson, Chris Miller (director), Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Joonas Suotamo (as Chewbacca), Phil Lord (director), & Donald Glover

We’ve been hearing about it for months but now we get a closer look at some of the cast and crew of the upcoming Han Solo movie. The untitled film started shooting yesterday at Pinewood Studios in London. The story will supposedly “explore the duo’s [ Han and Chewbacca] adventures before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, including their early encounters with that other card-playing rogue from a galaxy far, far away, Lando Calrissian." As we know, Calrissian will be played by Donald Glover. The titular character will be played by Alden Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo will play Chewbacca.

Disney and Lucasfilm haven’t confirmed the roles of the others in the photo above, namely Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Emilia Clarke. Not included in the photo is Thandie Newton, who has been confirmed to be part of the film as well. It’s been rumoured that Harrelson will be playing Han’s mentor and Waller-Bridge will be a droid in a CGI-driven performance. This Han Solo film is expected to hit cinemas in May 25, 2018.

Source: IGN

This is how ILM created one of the epic battle scenes in ‘Rogue One’

Industrial Light and Magic have created amazing effects throughout the years and those they did for Rogue One are extra special, too. It comes as no surprise the film earns an Oscar nomination for its visual effects. A new clip from ILM shows us how they manage to mix practical and digital effects to bring to life the epic space battle in the final act of the movie. You can see they’ve used wireframe models, realistic-looking ships, and even giant LED arrays to give the actors in the cockpits look of what’s happening as well as a more realistic lighting.  There are even physical models of Star Destroyers that were laser scanned and used as models for the digital counterparts.

Source: The Verge

‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ is about The Last Jedi

We no longer have to refer to the next Star Wars film as Episode VIII. It now gets its official title: Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It’s easy to think of who that can be. This latest installment, which is directed by Rian Johnson, picks up the story from The Force Awakens, when Rey (Daisy Ridley) was handing Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) his old lightsaber. From there, you can speculate that the story will revolve a lot around Luke. But we know nothing is quite what it seems in the Star Wars universe. For now, we get the title. Later this year, on December 15^th to be exact, we’ll be getting the movie. Are you excited?

Source: The Verge