The Rise of Skywalker General Star Wars Episode IX News/Speculation Thread - Part 1

[tanita_mors]

Yeah, I'm not familiar with the animated stuff so I'm not sure what is canon and what isn't and the timelines in there.

 

[sueb1863]

Next year at this time we'll be drowning in Episode IX hype. Since it's the last of the Skywalker saga films, I'm sure they'll go all out. Should be interesting...

 

[Gothamsknight]

What does everybody make of that site Express reporting that the first teaser will drop with the superbowl?

 

[Brother Jack]

What does everybody make of that site Express reporting that the first teaser will drop with the superbowl?

Seems pretty late. Considering there won't be any SW content coming for the rest of the year I would expect it to come in December.

 

[Gothamsknight]

^^ True! I kind of hope they do release something in december. I've kind of dropped out of star wars after the toxic nature of the the last jedi division, but I know I'm gonna be super pumped for this film once i see the first trailer. Force Awakens is one of the greatest theater experiences ever and I trust he can close out this saga properly.

 

[Marvolo]

The teaser for Episode 7 and Episode 8 were released in April. Dont count the TFA announcement teaser in November 2014. That was always intended to be a special thing Kennedy wanted to announce and as a treat for the fans. Abrams didnt want that released and is unlikely to go for it again. So we will probably get the first footage sometime between February and April 2019.

We went through this with TLJ. People argued that the TFA announcement wasnt a special one time thing. They let their anticipations and expectations build sure that we'd get a teaser in December 2016. And we didnt. We got our first TLJ teaser in April. Then people were sure we'd get a full trailer in Summer 2017. And we didnt. We got the first full trailer in October 2017. Do we really have to go through this again? Just accept that we'll get a teaser in February or March or April 2019 and we'll get the first full trailer in October 2019. We might get a production video in Summer 2019. Might as well settle in and be patient. Itll save everyone a lot of frustration.

 

[scarlet-witch]

I'm honestly not expecting anything before they can slap it on the front of Avengers 4.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

There will be a trailer at Celebration in April. Just like they did for TFA and TLJ.

 

[Aximili86]

Sounds like we might be potentially going back to Jedha, given those recent set pics and where they were filmed (exact same part of Jordan as Rogue One).

We've obviously had a lot of desert planets, but they do make an effort to differentiate the terrain a little and shoot them in different parts of the world. Jakku would make way more sense here of course, but I don't know why they'd mix up the shooting location. Jedha's got that rocky outcrop look to it that Jakku didn't, too, though I guess it could just be a different part of the planet.

Pretty sure Jedha's featured in a bunch of the supplementary material since Rogue One too, so hard to say, they might be making a bigger deal of the place overall.

 

[MOVIELORD101]

My ideal climax for Episode IX: I just want Rey to go full Walter Sobchak on Ben/Kylo's ass and just call him out on all his bull****, telling him just how in the wrong WRONG he is and how he's avoided redemption and responsibility for his actions. I'd post an example clip of Walter to show my point, but given how he swears a lot, i'd rather not get into trouble on here.

 

[TheVileOne]

Sounds like we might be potentially going back to Jedha, given those recent set pics and where they were filmed (exact same part of Jordan as Rogue One).

We've obviously had a lot of desert planets, but they do make an effort to differentiate the terrain a little and shoot them in different parts of the world. Jakku would make way more sense here of course, but I don't know why they'd mix up the shooting location. Jedha's got that rocky outcrop look to it that Jakku didn't, too, though I guess it could just be a different part of the planet.

Pretty sure Jedha's featured in a bunch of the supplementary material since Rogue One too, so hard to say, they might be making a bigger deal of the place overall.

What would actually be left there?

 

[Aximili86]

Yeah, no idea. All I'm going on is that it's a little odd they'd go to this same part of Jordan to shoot a different planet entirely, rather than just return to where TFA was shot. And Jedha does seem like it's a place they want to make a big deal of in-universe (though to be fair so does Jakku, that's in a bunch of the novels, Palpatine's been scoping it out for decades pre-ROTJ). I dunno. Luke went to Jedha though in the new canon, post Rogue One, and given it's established as a sort of Force/religious Mecca...

Look, it's probably Jakku. Just seems a little odd they'd go back not to just Jordan, but the identical area they used for the Rogue One desert environments, rather than where they went for Jakku (UAE from memory?).

Even though they're both broadly "desert planets" they both have a pretty different look, too, the topography's not the same, the coloring of the environments are different. But guess we could just be seeing a different part of Jakku, less "Sahara-looking", easily explained away. Just thought the location chosen for shooting was interesting and worth mentioning.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah, no idea. All I'm going on is that it's a little odd they'd go to this same part of Jordan to shoot a different planet entirely, rather than just return to where TFA was shot. And Jedha does seem like it's a place they want to make a big deal of in-universe (though to be fair so does Jakku, that's in a bunch of the novels, Palpatine's been scoping it out for decades pre-ROTJ). I dunno. Luke went to Jedha though in the new canon, post Rogue One, and given it's established as a sort of Force/religious Mecca...

Look, it's probably Jakku. Just seems a little odd they'd go back not to just Jordan, but the identical area they used for the Rogue One desert environments, rather than where they went for Jakku (UAE from memory?).

Even though they're both broadly "desert planets" they both have a pretty different look, too, the topography's not the same, the coloring of the environments are different. But guess we could just be seeing a different part of Jakku, less "Sahara-looking", easily explained away. Just thought the location chosen for shooting was interesting and worth mentioning.

Except the city and all the ruins there have been annihilated.

 

[Aximili86]

Right. Planet's still there though, no reason to think they'd be filming for the city again. Just the natural locations, could still be something important still there on the planet.

Again, odds are it's Jakku though. Just weird they'd shoot Jakku in not just a different part of the world, but the same location they shot for Jedha. You wouldn't think you'd save significant money shooting in Jordan over the UAE, and they're both relatively safe by mid-east standards.

 

[Marvolo]

Except the city and all the ruins there have been annihilated.

This is Jedha after Rogue One:

In spite of that there were people still living on the surface after the death star obliterated part of the planet. A group of insurectionists led by Benthic... this guy:

fought the Empire snafu-ing the Empire's plans to obtain what remained of the Kyber crystals. The group wasnt part of the Alliance so Luke, Leia, and Han went there to try to convince the group to rejoin the Alliance.

A sort of cult was also on the planet living at the crater in a hellish environment. Luke got involved with them. Hijinks and trouble ensued.They mention that the planet only had a few years left. Whether it's still around and occupied during the time of the Sequel Trilogy is up in the air, afaik.

The story is told in the main Star Wars comic. The story is called "The Ashes of Jedha" and it is in Issues 38 - 43.

It's possible Rey or someone could be going to Jedha for a Kyber crystal(s) or there may be allies on Jedha or potential allies. Or the First Order could be using slaves and prisoners to mine the Kyber Crystals.

 

[TheVileOne]

I mean if it had a few years left, then there's no way it would still be around by that point. And it wouldn't look current day Jordan.

 

[Aximili86]

Yeah, saw the Jedha pic a few days ago - not so sure that's much to take as gospel being from a comic, even with the new Story Group and attempt to keep the cross-media continuity. Just seems a little much given what we see in Rogue One, the planet cleaved apart to that extent. Even if it is, it'd make for a pretty cool & unique visual in the GFFA, the type of thing we haven't seen before, but I sort of doubt a live-action representation of it would be quite that level of core damage. More just like this gigantic friggin' crater the size of Antarctica or whatever, but planet still basically intact.

And the OT characters went there post-Rogue One according to the new canon, so guess it's still "inhabitable" to a certain degree.

But yeah, this is all totally spitballing on the filming location here. Hell, for all we know it could be frickin' Tatooine, not even one of these two.

 

[Marvolo]

I mean if it had a few years left, then there's no way it would still be around by that point. And it wouldn't look current day Jordan.

The issue is whether the group was guessing, assuming, or just plain wrong about how long Jedha had left. It could still be habitable. But even if its atmosphere is gone it could be visited by people with breathing apparatus and space suits.

As for Jordan, it could serve as Jedha if the characters stay on the far side of the planet that wasnt hit by the death star later. The far side of the planet is still desert and has crazy sandstorms. But I'd be upset if they take the character back to Jedha and they just remain in an area that looks like a normal earth desert. Jedha in the comics after Rogue One is visually pretty interesting. What with the core being exposed and nearly half the planet being obliterated.

Yeah, saw the Jedha pic a few days ago - not so sure that's much to take as gospel being from a comic, even with the new Story Group and attempt to keep the cross-media continuity. Just seems a little much given what we see in Rogue One, the planet cleaved apart to that extent. Even if it is, it'd make for a pretty cool & unique visual in the GFFA, the type of thing we haven't seen before, but I sort of doubt a live-action representation of it would be quite that level of core damage. More just like this gigantic friggin' crater the size of Antarctica or whatever, but planet still basically intact.

And the OT characters went there post-Rogue One according to the new canon, so guess it's still "inhabitable" to a certain degree.

But yeah, this is all totally spitballing on the filming location here. Hell, for all we know it could be frickin' Tatooine, not even one of these two.

Its canon. All the comics are canon.

The reason the planet is in such bad shape is the death star laser punched a hole to the core and the shockwave peeled off a huge chunk of the mantle which we saw in Rogue One. After that happened the remains of the mantle and the planet as a whole lost its integrity and began to break apart more. The loss of mass also ****s with gravity which further destabilizes and weakens the planet's integrity so that's also not helping matters.

 

[Aximili86]

Yeah, obviously it's canon in a strict sense, but there seem to sort of be degrees of that even within the new canon. I guess what I'm getting at is that seeing Jedha in live-action might not necessarily be depicted in such a catastrophic giant-wedge-taken-out-of-the-whole-planet fashion.

Like, look at Mustafar in EpIII and then Rogue One for example. Same environment, same concept, though it's a good deal reigned-in and "tangible" in R1 as opposed to the all-out-crazy fantasy environment from III. I could sort of see a similar thing might be the case here, like Jedha's seriously damaged, but it's more surface-level giant cratering rather than the whole planet being unviable and about to collapse.

Keep in mind, as depicted in R1, Jedha didn't really seem like a fatal hit planet-wide. Krennic wants to blow the whole thing to hell Alderaan style, and Tarkin comes back with a "no, just the city" response. The hit we actually see is more like this huge spreading blast-wave carrying a ****load of debris, we really have no sense on-screen of how deep that all went, whether it crippled the entire atmosphere and turned the whole thing into some sort of slowly-dying asteroid. It's in the book, yeah, and it's canon, I just sort of figure there's wiggle-room there. Like if it was something Abrams wanted to do, it's not like Kennedy's going to stop him over a contrary depiction in a comic that like 5-10% of the Star Wars viewers have even read.

 

[Marvolo]

The reason mustafar looks different in Rogue One is because it's a different part of the planet. That portion of the planet isnt as volatile and has fewer lava rivers and volcanos. It's more of a plane.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm fine if they return to Jedha, but there has to be good justification for it IMO.

 

[Aximili86]

It may be a different part of the planet, Marvolo, but that's not why it looks different, at all. The ILM guys are on record saying they intentionally switched up the tone/feel of the thing - same idea conceptually, but they were specifically trying to tailor it to more of an OT grounded/gritty feel. The lava streams being less crazy, the lighting more restrained, all of that.

That'll be the case if we see any more prequel planets (mostly from AotC & RotS, given tPM was a bit more grounded in look anyway) going forward in the Disney era too. You're not going to get Kashyyk or Felucia looking the way they do in RotS if we see them again (unlikely as the latter is to make another appearance) in live action.

But yeah, the discrepancy of the Mustafar vibes is definitely something they made a point of, there are interviews on it from the ILM guys. You're right that it's probably a whole different area of the planet, but that's not why it's more tangible & believable looking, they were going for that by design as as to fit in with the tone of Rogue One more.

 

[TheVileOne]

My main problem with Mustafar in Rogue One is every other planet they have a subtitle for and then they just abandon that for Mustafar.

You can't just do that in a movie where you establish, "OK we are doing location subtitles" and then just not do it for Mustafar. All I ask for is consistency.

My basic problem, there's no way to know it's Mustafar other than writers and producers saying it on social media. It's never said to be Mustafar in the actual film. No one says "Go see Vader on Mustafar."

 

[Aximili86]

I'm with you on the subtitle thing, but to be fair to Edwards he said there was a reason for it, and it's a pretty good one. As a first-time viewer you don't really realize it's Mustafar for a good couple of seconds at first, and if they just flash "Mustafar" up on-screen from the first frame of the scene you're going to know Vader's coming. It was a sort of "keep the mystery" thing so the viewer takes a moment of two to click where they are.

There's not really any familiar stuff to hide in the other cases. It does feel a little weird being the only location without a subtitle, but makes total sense why they made the choice.

 

[TheVileOne]

What does everybody make of that site Express reporting that the first teaser will drop with the superbowl?

I doubt the credibility of any news coming from Express.