We finally have some new info on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer! It’s going to release on ESPN during Monday Night Football, October 19. The game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles starts around 8PM-ish Eastern time so you’ll want to tune in if you’re not already a football fan, and wait for this trailer to debut. Once it does, we’re sure it will be all over the Internet too so if you happen to miss it, stop back by our site Monday evening and we’ll try to rustle up a copy for your viewing pleasure. We also have a big reveal of the trailer poster: Check out the new official poster! Tune in to @ESPN’s Monday Night Football for a new look at #TheForceAwakens. pic.twitter.com/NTRWLlVyID — Star Wars (@starwars) October 18, 2015 If it looks familiar, that might be because it was done by our favorite Star Wars illustrator, Drew…
Star Wars: Episode VII
Star Wars: Episode VIII Rumors: Two Female Leads Added
The speculation never ends with the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VIII. In the latest of rumors are some stories about film casting. There is supposedly a new female lead with a shortlist of actresses to include Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany, and Olivia Cooke. Rumors said this female casting was for a role with John Boyega. But now there is a new rumor that there is another female lead being cast and Gugu Mbathha-Raw has auditioned for the role. This would mean there is not just one but TWO substantial female leads in the new film. We also have no idea yet if these lead roles are as heroes or villains. As usual with rumors, know that they are not true until you see it in the movie and especially with a Star Wars flick, you can expect everyone to be very tight-lipped about what is actually going on. We follow the…
It’s “The Best Star Wars You’ve Ever Seen,” Says Episode 7 Artist
The veteran Star Wars poster artist, Drew Struzan, has not held back with his praises for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. He stated in a new interview with Movie-Weekly that based on his information and what he has witnessed, it’s going to blow fans away. “I got to read the script and subsequently I’ve seen half of it, and I can tell you and the fans this: honest to God, it is far and away probably going to be THE BEST Star Wars you’ve ever seen,” he said. The entire interview is a wonderful read for those who are fans of Struzan’s body of work. The interview delves deep into his inspiration, career, and more. You can read it here. At the D23 show, Struzan showed off his latest artwork. It was an impressive poster for The Force Awakens and it depicted the characters Han…
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Runtime Revealed by J.J. Abrams
If you’ve been following the updates and news for the new Star Wars film, you might already know that a runtime has been released. During Disney’s D23 Expo, director J.J. Abrams revealed the runtime for Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 2 hours and 4 minutes. That also happens to be the same runtime as the franchise’s most beloved film, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, the movie is still being edited so this runtime could change before the movie is actually set to release in the theater, December 2015. By movie standards, that’s a little long but certainly not unbearably or unusually long. Here’s how the runtime of The Force Awakens compares to the other films: Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace Runtime: 136 min Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones Runtime: 142 min Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith Runtime: 140 min Star…
Star Wars the force awakens confirmed at d23
The Disney D23 convention is not far away and we have learned that The Force Awakens is going to be part of the two-hour long presentation by Walt Disney Studios’ Chairman Alan Horn. Now that The Force Awakens is going to be part of the presentation, nobody is sure if Rogue One will be discussed at all. There is a slew of special guests that are supposed to appear. Maybe Andy Serkis and Lupita Nyong’o will actually appear, since they have yet to be at any conventions. However, it’s all a guessing game right now. Another huge event that is happening at D23 this year is Star Wars creator George Lucas will be honored. He will be given a Disney Legend Award, as well as six other Disney Legends. The award will be given during a presentation in the morning on Friday August 14th at 10:00am and it will be…
Who Will Billie Lourd Play in The Force Awakens?
A lot of people were excited when we found out that Billie Lourd, the 22-year-old daughter of Carrie Fisher, would be in The Force Awakens. There have been a few rumors about her role, but we still don’t know a whole lot about what she’ll be doing. One of the first rumors was that she would play a young Princess Leia in a flashback scene, but that was debunked in an interview in May. Then there was some hearsay that she’d be playing Leia’s daughter, but she stated in a recent interview that this was wrong, too. Her statement that “[she] can’t tell you about [her] character, or lack of character” has some people wondering if her role will be a minor one, more of a cameo or even a role behind a mask. Considering that this will be her first professional acting role, this seems like a safe bet. But I’m…
A Surprising Episode VII Cameo Revealed
Now that the actors playing most of the main characters in The Force Awakens have been revealed, we’re starting to get a little more information on the more minor players that we’ll get to see this Christmas. Don’t want to know who might be showing up in The Force Awakens? Read no further! Last year, there were rumors that Daniel Craig would show up somewhere in the movie, and The Daily Mail has quoted Simon Pegg as saying that Craig will play a stormtrooper. They also quote “an insider” who stated that “Fans will love trying to work out which covered up character is him”—though a cameo in a mask isn’t much of a cameo. Whether he’ll be a stormtrooper of any consequence or if we’ll see his face for a moment wasn’t discussed, but the fact that James Bond will be wearing the white armor is pretty cool! Although…
Designer Makes His Own BB-8 Star Wars Droid
You know how we love to bring you cool stuff made by fans. Here is a very talented designer who has created an awesome little BB-8 Star Wars droid. We had to share this with you because not only is it awesome, he tells you how to make it for yourself. Christian Poulsen is currently in the process of finishing his degree in Industrial Design at Brigham Young University and not only has created this cool little project, but is also telling us how to do it. And if you want to do it for yourself, he even posted it to MakeZine.com with full instructions so you too can have your own BB-8 Star Wars Droid. He’s an industrial designer who has taken his love of Star Wars and combined it with his talent to create something pretty awesome. Here he explains why he did it: As an industrial designer, I’ve been…
Some Character Speculation for The Force Awakens
The rumors surrounding The Force Awakens are absolutely crazy. There are new ones every day; some of them are very clearly made up, others seem like they could be legitimate, and a select few get confirmed (or at least corroborated). I’ve sifted through quite a few of these rumors, and here are some of the most interesting things that I’ve heard so far. Warning: character-related and minor plot-related spoilers. The “main villain,” as reported by MovieWeb, is a cyborg Inquisitor who holds ties to the Sith. He’s reported to have red eyes to match his red lightsaber, and has machine parts throughout his body, similar to Vader, but with no mask (this is likely to be the cyborg-looking guy we saw in some earlier concept art). This could give us some interesting insights into the plot; although the Empire has taken a serious hit, the Sith seem to be fine ….
The Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Books Available for Pre-Order
We were pretty excited to hear that there were going to be at least 20 new Star Wars books, ranging from novels to sticker books, coming out this fall. And now they’re here—the first pre-orders are available! Not all of the books have been announced yet, but it’s clear that Disney is placing a heavy emphasis on filling fans in on what happened between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. In addition to the Marvel comic series we discussed earlier, Shattered Empire, we can now see a few more titles. Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath presents an intriguing cover, with “The war is not over” emblazoned on the cover. Looks like Disney’s rewriting the canon quite a bit (we had some idea that this was the case when we saw Stormtroopers in the trailer, but this lends even more credence to the idea). The book’s description also contains the line “And while the Rebel Alliance engages the fractured…
Want to See Another Star Wars Trailer?
Then go see the new Avengers movie! We’ve seen one trailer for The Force Awakens, and we’ll be seeing a new one soon—in front of Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s been rumored for a while, and with multiple sources reporting this release for the next trailer, it seems very likely. Age of Ultron comes out on May 1st in North America, but has release dates around the world starting on April 22nd, so you can bet that we’ll see some bootleg cell phone recordings of the trailer hitting YouTube before that. The trailer will also be shown at the Star Wars Celebration convention, which runs from April 16th to 19th. After JJ Abrams’ crackdown on leaks coming off of the set, it seems likely that Lucasfilm could try to stay one step ahead of bootleggers and just put the trailer out on the internet after the convention, before anyone has a chance to put up…
Pencak Silat to Appear in The Force Awakens?
If you’ve seen The Raid, The Raid 2, or Merantau Warrior, you’ve seen Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian display their impressive martial arts skills. And while there’s been a lot of noise around the fact that Simon Pegg could show up in The Force Awakens, not nearly enough people are excited about Uwais and Ruhian. Along with Cecep Arif Rahman, another practitioner of the Indonesian martial art known as Pencak Silat, these two have been announced as “performing fight work” in the upcoming installation of Star Wars. Exactly what this means isn’t clear—whether they’ll actually be featured in the film, if they’ll be serving as stunt performers, or if they’ll be involved in fight choreography (Uwais was the lead fight choreographer behind the amazing fight scenes in The Raid 2) is unknown. No matter how they’re involved, it seems likely that the influence of Silat could be seen in the fight scenes of The Force Awakens. While Merantau Warrior didn’t get…
Will Star Wars: Episode 7 be the first $3bn movie?
With many of the original actors and the return of the original Chewbacca, R2D2, and C3PO, it’s no wonder that Star Wars fans are psyched about the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII film. Earlier last year, The Wrap had reported that some analysts are saying they think Episode VII will reach $2 billion at the worldwide box office. The only others who have reached this staggering number are James Cameron’s Titanic and Avatar. We think that reaching this amazing height is extremely possible as long as Abrams gets the mix of the old and the new right. In order for Episode VII to reach these heights, it would need to surpass Avatar’s $2.78 billion haul, and then it would likely become the world’s first $3 billion movie. In 1977, the first Star Wars film was released and only a few thousand people were familiar with Star Wars. However, the news…
Will Luke Finally Turn to the Dark Side in The Force Awakens?
Plot rumors about The Force Awakens are a dime a dozen, and they continue to come fast and furious, despite J.J. Abrams’ and Lucasfilm’s attempts to stifle leaks. One of the interesting potential plot points that people have been mulling over lately is Luke’s ultimate fate: will he remain a force of good? Or will he follow in Anakin’s footsteps and succumb to the lure of the Dark side? Mark Hamill has stated that he thought Luke would be headed down a Darker path at the end of the original trilogy, but that didn’t play out. Some people think that we could see it this December, but there isn’t much evidence for that. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Disney try to shatter a few people’s expectations for a typical Star Wars movie, but going as far as turning Luke to the Dark side seems a bit unlikely. The tension between…
Star Wars Ep. VII Rumor Crackdown
We’ve been posting some of the most interesting rumors about The Force Awakens over the past few months, but it looks like that news may be slowing down in the near future. J.J. Abrams has expressed his frustration with the number of leaks coming from the Star Wars set, and it’s a safe bet that he’ll be taking a harder line with anyone who appears to be releasing information. It’s not just Abrams that’s been going after the sources of those leaks—Lucasfilm has recently started to crack down as well. A subpoena was issued by a court requiring a user called Darth_Simi to remove some images from Episode VII that he had posted on ImageShack. This is the first legal action that Lucasfilm has taken, and it looks like they’re trying to set a precedent for punishing leakers. Interestingly, there are reports that Abrams has also petitioned Disney to push up the…
Mel Brooks confirms he wants to make “Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money”!
Remember the hilarious classic parody of Star Wars, Spaceballs? After nearly thirty years since its debut, Mel Brooks has said that he is interested in making a sequel called, Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money. While Star Wars fans all over the world are excited and constantly hearing new rumors about the new Star Wars movie, Mr. Brooks recently said that he would like to create the sequel after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mel Brooks was recently on a podcast with Adam Carolla, called Take a Knee, and this is when he said what the title would be and his wishes are to use as many of the same cast members as possible. This won’t be an easy task since some of the major characters have passed away. Another problem that Mr. Brooks might encounter is that of hiring Rick Moranis to play his original…
Some Interesting Theories on Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber
Since we first saw the trailer, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber has drawn a lot of criticism. People have said that it’s weird, complained about it, even started a hilarious meme based on it (my favorite is the Swiss army lightsaber). But a few others have given it more thought. For example, FastCo posted a great defense of the saber in which they pointed out that Luke lost a hand, Vader lost a hand twice, and Count Dooku lost both hands—all because they didn’t have a crossguard. They also have a few interesting ideas about what it says about Ren. One of the most interesting ideas that’s surfaced is that this isn’t a lightsaber at all, but a Forcesaber (an example of which is pictured above), an extremely ancient weapon that channels dark Force energy through crystals to form a blade. According to some Expanded Universe sources, the Je’daii order was split over whether or not…
Patton Oswalt: Racist ‘Star Wars’ backlash is ‘depressing’
After the release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, Star Wars fans were in awe and thrilled about the upcoming blockbuster hit. However, racism started buzzing about the British actor John Boyega, who they featured quite a bit in the clip. Mr. Boyega is a down to earth dude and stated that the racist fans would have to “get used to it.” Some fans just didn’t like the idea of a black stormtrooper, but comedian Patton Oswalt told Vulture that this kind of hatred is ridiculous. “Oh, that’s depressing, Jesus Christ. ‘Star Wars,’ half the movie is aliens and robots, and a black guy is what set people off? I love how they’re reacting as if this is a classic novel that’s being cast — ‘I can’t believe they booked James Earl Jones to play Holden Caulfield.’ But this is a script that no one has read, so…
Will Vader Be Returning in Episode VII?
One of the stranger rumors that’s been making its way around the internet lately is that Darth Vader will return—in some form or another—in Episode VII. While that may sound ridiculous at first, a few people have made some interesting arguments, and they could be supported by some evidence that we’ve seen. Let’s take a look. Some of the Vader-returning theories center on Kylo Ren, the Sith that we’ve seen in the trailer; he’s the one with the much-discussed red lightsaber (or at least that’s what we assume so far—we know he’s a villain). Some of the speculation of Vader’s return is almost certainly a result of Ren’s helmet, which bears an undeniable resemblance to the Dark Lord’s: This has led a few people on Reddit to speculate that Ren somehow personifies or channels Darth Vader; it’s also been suggested that this actually was Vader’s helmet, and that Ren has stolen…
Newest Rumors on the Han Solo / Boba Fett Movie
Over the past week, we’ve been seeing some very interesting reports on the upcoming spin-off movies. First of all, if you haven’t heard, there’s a rumor about that says that we won’t see just a Boba Fett or a Han Solo movie, but that the spin-off will feature both of the beloved characters (latino-review.com). Very interesting. This seems to agree with some of the other rumors that we’ve heard, such as the fact that bounty hunters will be important to the film—here’s hoping we get to see IG-88 in action! (makingstarwars.net) Another interesting fact we’ve picked up on is that some of the shooting for the first spin-off will take place in Mexico (makingstarwars.net). Of course, if you know much about Mexico, you know that it would be a great place to shoot for just about any Star Wars planet: could look like Tatooine, Geonosis, Utapau, or just about anywhere else. Does…
Did Disney Abandon George Lucas’s Ideas for The Force Awakens? Does It Matter?
A quote from George Lucas on his ideas for Episode VII has kicked off some interesting discussion online lately. The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens]. Lucas said that in an interview with Nick Romano of Cinemablend, and the article published by Romano goes into some speculation as to what that means. He brings up some footage from 1983 that he says could have hinted as Lucas’s plans for seventh installment, but that seems like pretty shaky material. Slashfilm engaged in some further speculation about the sequence of events, discussing writer Michael Arndt’s departure over his disagreements with JJ Abrams. According to the rumor mill—via Slashfilm—both Lucas and Arndt wanted to focus on younger characters, while…
Episode 7 Hype Escalating – Hasbro Reportedly Working on Line of Toys
As the release date of Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens (and of the new Battlefront title) approaches, everyone is looking to get in on the action. Toymaker Hasbro has apparently prepared an extensive line of Star Wars: The Force Awakens toys, which includes blasters, light sabers, action figures and remote controlled droids. The company hasn’t exactly been keen on making its efforts public, but fans have dug up a list of toys Hasbro are allegedly working on right now. The figurines will be mostly 3.75-inch ones, and there will be a special “Black Series” line of action figures too, aimed at collectors. Alleged photographs of some of the toys were leaked as well, although they’re of somewhat questionable quality, and some of the figurines featured (like that of Chewbacca) are apparently older releases from Hasbro. There are other inconsistencies with the Chewbacca toy featured in the photos: apparently, the…
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Six Inch Action Figures Leaked Photo
TheForce.net has come in possession of a leaked photo, of action figures for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The picture apparently originates in a Chinese forum and features four characters that was seen in the Star Wars trailer. Presumably the first figure is Kylo Ren. He looks pretty much like the Revan rumor image that surfaced a few month back. Finn is without his Storm trooper armor it appears, but he wouldn’t ware that forever anyways. I am not sure who the third person is, but the last two must be BB-8 and Chewie. What do you guys think?
Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ character names revealed
The names of the new characters that appear in the first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed trailer were revealed today in a very unique way. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy shared the names with Entertainment Weekly, which posted them in a gallery. But it wasn’t just any gallery. The images from the trailer were put in the format of Topps’ iconic original Star Wars trading cards. They are: BB-8, the rolling, R2-D2-esque robot. Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), who’s seen flying in an X-Wing in the teaser. Kylo Ren (actor unknown), the mysterious hooded figure with the Stephen Colbert-approved lightsaber. Rey (Daisy Ridley), seen riding a speeder across a desert. Finn (John Boyega), the nervous-looking, helmet-less Stormtrooper, described on his card as “on the run.” Now, we don’t yet know if these are the full names for each of these characters, or if any of these names might be aliases (this is…