· Carrie Fisher Completed Work on ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Before Her Death. Star Wars: General Hux Actor Gleeson on Abrams Replacing Trevorrow for Episode IX Comments. September 17, 2017. Carrie Fisher's Star Wars Scripts To Be Sold at Auction. HOLY SITH When is Star Wars: The Last Jedi released in cinemas and who’s in the Episode 8 cast with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley?
All the Details and Secrets We Spotted in the Latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi Footage. D2. 3 is upon us this weekend, and with it, a new behind- the- scenes glimpse at the next chapter in the Star Wars saga. But although the movie didn’t offer us a full trailer, what we did get was still jam- packed with little hints and clues as to what’s to come for Luke, Leia, Rey, Finn, and Poe. The opening salvo of the reel gives us a few intriguing shots of sets, locations, and characters. There’s a great big rocky set—which we’ll see later is actually home to a massive pool of water—the bridge of a Star Destroyer under construction, huts on Luke’s new home of Ahch- To, and rather spectacularly, Chewbacca getting his hair done. Some very slick looking speeders blanketed by the sun. Judging by some of the things we see later on in this reel, these appear to be for the glitzy streets of Canto Bight, a casino world that both Finn (John Boyega) and new character Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) venture to at some point in the movie. A poor camera man gets doused in red soil—meaning that this is presumably Crait, the mineral planet from the first trailer and seemingly the site of a really major battle at some point in the film, judging by some of the character’s we’ll later see filming stuff on this new planet. Rey (Daisy Ridley) pops up from behind a camera, giving us a good look at the hairstyle so secret it somehowbecame a months- long Star Wars rumor. Night on Ahch- To.. Luke would maybe invite Chewie to stay in his home, but apparently not, as the Wookiee goes solo camping with the Falcon. When he’s not stealing Poe’s clothes, Finn seems like at some point he’ll be donning a Resistance pilot flight suit. It’s not the orange of Poe and his fellow X- Wing pilots, so maybe Finn suits up to use one of those big gunships we saw in the first trailer’s space battle. One of the most mysterious, intriguing shots of the whole reel is this one we see of General Leia (the late, ever- great Carrie Fisher). She’s not on a bridge of a Resistance ship as we’ve seen repeatedly already, but instead looking distraught on the grey, cracked surface of a planet. It doesn’t quite look like Crait, and it doesn’t look like what we’ve seen of Ahch- To either, so could it be a new world altogether? Our first look at a pivotal scene that’s presumably from the earliest moments of the film, knowing that it picks up immediately after the end of The Force Awakens: Rey returns the Skywalker family lightsaber to its former owner, Luke (Mark Hamill). Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) goes business formal, keeping the helmet but ditching his pleated robes for a First Order officer’s tunic and a new, totally- trying- to- be- grandpa cloak. In fact, there’s been a rumor that it might literally be Vader’s cloak, so there’s a possibility that poor Ben has gone full cosplay. The location he’s on looks very Death Star, but it’s likely Supreme Leader Snoke’s grand Star Destroyer—referred to in reports as a Mega Destroyer—which we’ve heard is a pivotal location in the film. Here’s a look at what Kylo’s staring at in the above shot—which definitely looks like a big- ass throne for Snoke to sit in, seemingly confirming this is the Mega Destroyer the First Order’s leader calls home. A reverse look at that big explosion we see Poe (Oscar Isaac) and BB- 8 run to in the first trailer—one that gives us our first really good look at the A- Wings, making their return to the franchise in both original red and Resistance White/Blue flavors. Look at these adorable little space heroes! Sure, it’s an isolated behind- the- scenes shot, but could it imply that all four of our young heroes will be meeting up in the film at some point? We know at the very least a few will, thanks to some later shots in the reel. Our first look at a nasty- looking new weapon for the Stormtroopers (or at least a special version of them, given the new black shoulder pads). Previous reports described this clawed battlestaff as also being electrified, because the big spikey claws didn’t quite look sinister enough as is. This gorgeous animatronic creature looks a little more The Last Guardian than The Last Jedi. The environment seems to match set pictures from filming for Canto Bight, some of the first pictures ever seen from filming— and the gated, horse- esque creature could be from a stable we recently heard of in a set report that Finn and Rose duck into during an elaborate chase sequence that ends up with them riding this creature, allegedly called a Falthier. Look, I don’t have anything to add here other than HOW COOL DOES THIS ICY WOLF LOOK!? A very tiny Casino staff member on Canto Bight prepares his space- gambling table. The design is very reminiscent of Colonel Gascon from Clone Wars, who was from a diminutive race called the Zilkin. Our best look yet at Laura Dern’s mysterious new character—Resistance Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo. She might be sharing a warm greeting with General Organa here, but we’ve heard quite a few reports that she ends up playing a more antagonistic role despite being on the hero’s side. The internet’s boyfriend Poe Dameron takes his seat in a cockpit—one that appears to be a cockpit of one of the Resistance Skimmers we saw gorgeously gliding across Crait’s salted surface in the first trailer. This seemingly innocuous shot of Chewie might come during a jokey sequence from John Boyega mocking director Rian Johnson, but note the environment: he’s on the Resistance ship bridge set we’ve seen Poe, Leia, and Finn all on as well. Given it doesn’t appear that he instantly returns to the Resistance after dropping Rey on Ahch- To, could he have come back with a few more passengers in tow when he eventually does? We saw the very close- up version of this in the trailer itself, but this wider shot gives us a better look at the fact that Rey is seemingly charging into battle on Ahch- To. There’s been a report floating around forever about a major duel on the planet featuring Rey, Luke, Kylo Ren, and the Knights of Ren themselves—could those be the opponents she’s running to meet here? Here’s a really good look at the full extent of the scar Rey gave Kylo Ren during their Force Awakens duel. You’ll note, as we previously reported, Kylo’s scar has moved a couple inches to the side compared to where Rey actually slashed him—a continuity- bending choice by Rian Johnson because he thought the first scar placement looked goofy. Luke stands tall on Ahch- To, but he’s had a change of clothes from his white robes. We got a brief glimpse of this look at Star Wars Celebration a few months ago, but this our best full look at it. This shot was heavily obscured in the initial trailer, but if you didn’t notice, here’s confirmation that Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and a bunch of Stormtroopers are responsible for that massive explosion aboard the Resistance ship Poe is on. Note the unfortunate tattered ruins of Black Leader’s X- Wing in the foreground. Speaking of Black Leader, here’s Poe sliding into a trench on what appears to be Crait—could this be earlier in the same sequence we saw at the very start of the reel? Rose, with a different hairstyle, sits on the landing bay of the Millennium Falcon. You can just make out that she’s been crying, so something pretty bad’s probably happened.. But first, a very quick look at another mysterious new addition to the Star Wars galaxy, played by Benicio Del Toro. We know nothing about this character other than the fact that he was referred to on set as “DJ”. You can just about glimpse BB- 8 in this shot too. A Resistance Gunner takes her place in the nose turret of one of the bombers we saw in the space battle of the first trailer—but not just any gunner. Rian Johnson has confirmed that this is, in fact, Paige Tico (Veronica Ngo), Rose’s sister. Beloved family member in a precarious combat position? Well, maybe something happens to her and that’s why Rose looked so upset. Adam Driver gets some saber practice in, but look at the weapons of his foes—they’re not lightsabers, but long staves, indicating that this might not be a fight between him, Rey and Luke. Training with his fellow knights of Ren perhaps? A very fancy, almost Batmobile- esque speeder is brought to a stop by the crew. Looks like this is more stuff from Canto Bight. And now it’s Daisy Ridley’s turn for some training—against three opponents, making this at least seem like it’s practice for that rumored skirmish between her and the Knights of Ren on Ahch- To. Say hello to your new favorite reaction gif. This little cutie is apparently called a Porg, a creature native to Ahch- To that Chewbacca encounters, and will no doubt become some seriously sought after merchandise this Christmas. Finn and Rose in a very First Order- looking prison.. Another intriguing moment for the two, immediately after: Rose and Finn disguised as First Order officers. We’ve heard details that this is part of the duo infiltrating a Star Destroyer during the climax of the film, perhaps even Snoke’s Mega Destroyer. Also, bizarrely, we’ve heard this sequence will include a cameo from Tom Hardy, dressed up as a Stormtrooper who slaps Finn on the butt as congratulations for his promotion into the officer ranks. Yes, really! Kylo Ren’s mask in various stages of destruction. We knew this was coming thanks to the first trailer, but look at that one in the middle—maybe it’s just a trick of the lights, but it appears that the metallic plating around it is gold rather than silver. Maybe Kylo destroys his mask in a fit of rage, and gets a fancier one built to replace it? A poor Resistance A- Wing pilot gets cooked inside her cockpit. This is presumably part of Phasma’s assault on the hangar we saw earlier, given all the pilots seem to be desperately scrambling to their ships. In fact, it’s not looking good for Resistance pilots all around—here’s one tumbling from their position into what looks like a rack of bombs (is this inside one of the bomber ships?). The History of the Gray Force in Star Wars. On April 1. 4, the first teaser for Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi was released. In the trailer, Rey says she sees “light,” “darkness,” and “a balance.” While this is par for the course in a galaxy far, far away (a Jedi’s oft- stated purpose is to maintain the balance of the Force), what threw most audiences for a loop is Luke’s final words in the trailer, that he only knows “one truth. It’s time for the Jedi to end.”While that sounds like the end of the Jedi in a sinister way, it could simply mean a change in philosophy from the rather strict view of Force of the Jedi to an idea called the Gray Force. Here’s what that is and why people think that’s a direction that The Last Jedi is taking.[Note: The concepts of the Gray Force, Gray Jedi, and grayness as a whole are a complicated subject that pops up multiple times and are interpreted by multiple authors throughout the now non- canon Star Wars: Legends universe. As a result, all of the accounts of grayness in Star Wars may not be consistent with each other nor are they strictly canon these days. But the point of this article is to explain the lineage of this tradition in Star Wars and explain what this could mean for The Last Jedi.]What does it mean to be “Gray”? Being “Gray” is, at its core, to have different view on the Force. While the Jedi and the Sith both believe that there is a dark and light side to the Force, and that certain attitudes and Force powers fall somewhere along that spectrum, someone with belief in the Gray Force sees no sides to the Force at all, only the Force itself as a fundamental part of the universe. Thus, Gray Force users (you’ll see the term “Gray Jedi” a fair bit if you go back into the research) are anyone who transcends the dark/light binary in their practice of the Force. This can mean those who have practiced both sides of the Force, Jedi who do not align themselves with the Jedi council, those who use what are considered to be dark side Force powers but are not aligned with the Sith, and those who take have an altogether different conception of the Force than has ever been portrayed in any of the films thus far. Are there any Gray Force users I might know? If you’ve only seen the movies, probably not. The only character who could even be considered Gray in any Star Wars films released so far is Qui- Gon Jinn, and this was during in an era of the Galactic Republic where the term was thrown around much more than it is in almost any other time in the entirety of the franchise. As mentioned above, Gray could be a term to describe members of the Jedi who disagreed with the council. The Jedi Council of the prequels is repeatedly shown to value orthodoxy over nearly anything else, and in the Legends universe, at that time, the term was used against anyone who disagreed with them. Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s apprentice during the Clone Wars who broke from the Jedi Council, and a few minor characters from the Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows—such as the Nightsisters, the Father, and the Bendu—could be considered Gray, however. Who is Gray, then? The idea of grayness has existed at different times throughout the Star Wars universe. Below, I’ve outlined each time a significant Gray Force user or group appears in chronological order. The Original Gray Jedi. The first recorded instance of the Gray Force was the break of the Gray Jedi from the Jedi Order of the Original Galactic Republic (also known as the Old Republic). In the year 4. 00. BBY (BBY being the Star Wars equivalent of “BCE” except it means “Before the Battle of Yavin,” i. Episode IV), the Jedi were more of a loose confederacy of individuals rather than the Order we remember from the prequel films, but after being subject to a purge similar to the one in Revenge of the Sith, they decided to band together and codify the Jedi Code. Some didn’t like the Order’s banning of so- called dark side Force abilities or their insistence that Jedi not have families. Those that broke with the Jedi Order were considered to be Gray Jedi. There were two notable Gray Jedi from this time. The first was Jolee Bindo, a character from Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic video game. A powerful Jedi warrior whose wife fell to the dark side, and killed many fellow Jedi before her death, Bindo said that he could only see the Force as Gray, and chose to separate himself from the Jedi for the rest of his life after his wife’s betrayal. The other Gray Jedi was Knights of the Old Republic’s player character, Revan, who—in a very complicated history that spanned several of Bioware’s Star Wars games, including the online game The Old Republic—was at times a Jedi, at times a Sith, and at times, even split into both a good and evil personality. Eventually, he reconciled both of these competing philosophies into one unaligned view of the Force just before he died, becoming one with the mystical power he’d spent his life attempting to understand. The Voss. Speaking of Bioware’s games, the studio’s still- running Online RPG The Old Republic introduced the Voss, a race of Force- sensitive aliens who used the Force not as diametrically opposed religions of light and dark, but as a tool to predict the future. Over the course of the species’ story arc in the game both the ancient versions of the Empire and the Republic, thousands of years before the events of the movies, attempted to sway the Voss to their line of thinking to maintain a strategic alliance in the ongoing conflict between the two entities. However, the Voss refused Force training from either faction, but maintained embassies of the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire on their planet in an effort to keep both their political and spiritual alignment neutral. The Gray Jedi Order and Potentium. Gray Force users then disappear from the universe for over 3,0. The next time they crop up is 1. BBY, during a time of relative peace and prosperity called the Golden Age of the Old Republic. Around this time, two distinct groups broke off from the Jedi Order: The Gray Jedi Order and Potentium, confusingly led by two guys named Leor. Potentium was a cult within the Jedi started by Leor Hal, who believed the Force was neither good nor evil, only people who used it were. He and his followers wanted to test the boundaries of the Force, which the council believed would sway them to the dark side. They eventually sequestered themselves on a living planet called Zonama Sekot. The Gray Jedi, by contrast, were a group who believed, like the Jedi and Sith, that there were two sides to the Force, one good and one evil. Led by Leor Danal—a guy who looks so much like Yoda he was at times confused for him— they also believed that the way to balance the Force was to master all aspects of it. The Gray Jedi also fled to Zonama Sekot and established a temple in the mountains. Within 6. 0 years, the organization became incredibly byzantine, with six ranks to the Jedi’s three, four advanced sects emphasizing different aspects of the Force and an increased training regiment. They stayed away from galaxy affairs through the events of the Star Wars films, but were very active in later fights against the Sith, becoming a political force all their own and interacting with many Skywalker descendants. Gray Armies. After the formation of the Gray Jedi Order and Potentium, three minor Gray organizations popped up during the events of the films and afterward. The first was the Gray Paladins, they were an offshoot of the Teepo Paladins, who were basically Jedi who also wanted to use blasters and eventually thrown out of the Jedi as potential dark side Force users. The Gray Paladins were an extremist splinter group who believed the Force was secondary and would only use it to increase their speed, strength, and accuracy rather than use any of the cool magic powers the Force is known for on either the light or dark side. Both groups are slaughtered in the purge from Revenge of the Sith, and they’re pretty irrelevant, except for the fact that a Gray Paladin named Laranth Tarak appears in a Star Wars novel called The Last Jedi.. The next group is called the Jenserrai who originated as a Sith Cult during the Clone Wars, but after a Jedi strike team killed most of them, the survivors became unaffiliated Force- users. They tried to join the Empire, but were turned down, and went into hiding until after the events of Return of the Jedi and joined Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order. The final group is called the Imperial Knights, and they’re so far in the future it’s unlikely they’ll have any bearing on the new film, but we’re this far in, so why not? The Imperial Knights are a group of Force- users that serve the remnants of the Empire after it’s freed from Sith influence. The Imperial Knights were organized just like the Jedi, but served a monarch, Emperor Fel, until he fell to the dark side and eventually died. How is this connected to The Last Jedi? While these stories are no longer canon, Lucas. Books senior editor Jennifer Heddle has said the Star Wars: Legends universe is there as a resource to be drawn from for the movies. It’s my opinion that, at least to some in the galaxy, the Jedi might seem to want balance, but are really just as bad as the Sith in terms of orthodoxy. Their emphasis on order and monasticism over logic could be one reason why Anakin fell. To quote Jolee Bindo from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, “Love doesn’t lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled… but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love… that’s what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you… not condemn you.”What this might mean for The Last Jedi is that Luke is learning not only from his father’s mistakes, but the Old Republic Jedi’s as well. In the Legends universe, Luke starts a new Jedi Order much more similar to the Gray Jedi than the Jedi Council.
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