With just a few months until the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and a couple of weeks until the debut of The Mandalorian on Disney+, there has clearly been an awakening in the Force. Have you felt it? Even Marvel boss Kevin Feige is getting in on the action and working on his own Star Wars film. If you’ve been wondering what’s been happening in terms of Star Wars news over the past couple of weeks, the answer is, “a lot.” Don’t believe us? Read on, young Padawans.
Don’t Expect Too Many Spoilers From the Merch
The Source: Executives from Hasbro and Lucasfilm
Probability of Accuracy: For good reasons, this one is on target.
The Real Deal: Triple Force Friday happened just last week, with merchandise for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandolorian, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order hitting shelves in one massive, expensive drop. But if the livestreamed product reveal and amount of merch in stores seems somewhat underwhelming, there’s a reason for that. Mike Ballog, head of global marketing at Hasbro, told CinemaBlend, “We have clear conversations about what can come out when, and what needs to stay under wraps. We work around things with that in mind. At least from a Hasbro stand point, the product on display is maybe 30 to 35 percent of our full line.” Hasbro isn’t alone in this, with Lucasfilm’s head of merchandise, Paul Southern, adding, “The key thing here is when we release products a couple months in advance of the film, we are focusing on a very select group. There are products that you’re not seeing, that you won’t see until after the film comes out. Even the characters that we are releasing, we’re not really giving you much narrative for them.” Short version? Don’t go looking for spoilers from the toys just yet. That’s our job.
Rise Won’t Rewrite the Last Movie
The Source: Director J .J. Abrams himself
Probability of Accuracy: Assuming he’s not trying to mislead fans, his logic is sound…
The Real Deal: For those wondering if Rise of Skywalker writer/director J.J. Abrams is retconning any of the big moments from The Last Jedi away, breathe easy: He’s looking at the project more as a cinematic relay race than a chance to restore his original vision. “I never found myself trying to repair anything,” Abrams told Empire. “If I had done VIII, I would have done things differently, just as Rian would have done things differently if he had done VII. But having worked on television series, I was accustomed to creating stories and characters that then were run by other people. If you’re willing to walk away from the thing that you created and you believe it’s in trustworthy hands, you have to accept that some of the decisions being made are not gonna be the same that you would make. And if you come back into it, you have to honor what’s been done.” He is, however, repairing at least one thing—Kylo Ren’s helmet, with a visible crack inspired by Japanese pottery to signify his emotional journey, he revealed. Oh, and he also talked about bringing Palpatine back for the final movie, as well. “I don’t know many books where the last few chapters have nothing to do with what came before,” he reasoned.
The Mandalorian Is a Star Wars Lead Unlike Any Other
The Source: Director Dave Filoni
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