Star Wars

For franchise movie fans, nothing grates on the nerves quite like the lull between the day production wraps on a new movie and the day the first teaser drops. Production has been finished on Star Wars: The Last Jedi for a few months now, and since we’re not quite sure when Disney will be releasing the first trailer for the film, we’re latching onto any piece of information we can get about the new film or any new Star Wars content, period. In short, we’re in the business of reading too much into Mark Hamill’s Twitter account.

The final few moments of Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One are jam-packed with surprises. First Darth Vader storms onto the scene wielding his red lightsaber, which the director revealed was a last-minute addition. Then Princess Leia suddenly appears to acquire the Death Star plans. Not everyone was a fan of the CGI-created Leia – some of us here at ScreenCrush found the visual effects to be a but creepy – but most importantly, Carrie Fisher gave the scene her blessing.

When all was said and done, the biggest movie of 2016 in the United States was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the only film of last year to gross more than $500 million domestically. Director Gareth Edwards managed to do something not even George Lucas had accomplished: Make a well-liked Star Wars prequel.

If you thought things around Star Wars would get less secretive now that the notoriously unforthcoming J.J. Abrams wasn’t directing things, think again. Even knowing what we know about Star Wars: The Last Jedi based on the events of Abrams’ The Force Awakens, there might be even more uncertainly around Rian Johnson’s eighth episode in the Star Wars saga.

Although pre-production on Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s young Han Solo spinoff has been underway for some time now (operating under the clever codename “Red Cup”), today marks the full, official start of production. To celebrate, Lucasfilm has debuted the first photo of the cast and their directors, crammed together inside the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon as if posing for a very cheerful (if a bit tardy) holiday greeting card.

It’s been a big week for Star Wars droid news. Yesterday we learned the Star Wars universe might get its first female droid in the Han Solo spinoff, a character who might be voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Fleabag. And today the new R2-D2 has been announced.

The Star Wars universe has always been a pretty great place for women (unless you’re a director, that is), so why is it that we haven’t yet seen a female droid in as significant a capacity as C-3P0 or R2-D2, or scene-stealer BB-8? There have been female droids in the canon, but usually that’s not revealed until after the fact, and no woman has ever voiced a major speaking role for a robot. With the new Han Solo prequel/spinoff, that’s about to change.

In the world of Star Wars fandom, the simplest, smallest things can have major implications, inspiring exhaustive speculation over their potential meaning — like, for instance, Lucasfilm’s recent updates to Kylo Ren and Rey’s official character bios. Those pages were quietly updated sometime in the last few months to include phrases that convey a direct connection between the two characters; one that seemingly goes beyond their on-screen encounters in The Force Awakens. But what does it all mean?

Unless you binge-watched the heck out of Fleabag on Amazon recently (you should), then you may not be particularly familiar with the name Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the brilliant creator and star of the fierce British miniseries. But that’s beginning to change, as Waller-Bridge’s talents have become increasingly notable — enough to catch the attention of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, as the filmmaking duo are currently eyeing the actress for a “key role” in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars spinoff.

You know that James Earl Jones provided the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. But did you know when Star Wars was first released in 1977, Jones was not listed in the closing credits? Over the years he’s claimed that the reason for the omission was his belief that he hadn’t done enough work to deserve billing, and later confessed that he worried that if he was credited he would be typecast as a bad guy for the rest of his career. Jones’ name was added to the credits of the film when it was released in 1997 in its “Special Edition.” That’s just one of the Star Wars Special Edition facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

In the tradition of ScreenCrush series like You Think You Know Movies and You Think You Know TV comes a new YouTube series: Top Five! Every two weeks (or so; we’ve got a lot of other stuff going on), ScreenCrush editor and critic Matt Singer will count down a particular topic from the world of movies (and probably write these introductory posts in the third person).

Just a couple of weeks back we learned that Woody Harrelson was in talks to join the young Han Solo movie, the next spinoff under the Star Wars Story banner. Today, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller officially confirmed the actor’s casting via Lucasfilm with a statement in which they praised Harrelson’s talents — both in front of the camera and behind a ping pong table. Hopefully those skills come in handy for the role of Han Solo’s mentor.