THE FORCE AWAKENS - The First Order Hates Luke Skywalker, New Character Details Revealed
Thanks to EW we have a ton of new information regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Some of this info might be considered SPOILERS, so you might want to tread lightly. My outlook on it is if Lucasfilm allowed it to be released then it’s official information.
There was a decent amount of Star Wars news that was released yesterday. Just in case you missed out on any of that, click here. Below you will find some intriguing points of interest regarding certain characters and story points thanks to the cast and crew who worked on making the highly anticipated film.
Two things that were mentioned that I wanted to highlight are that Princess Leia is no longer referred to as a Princess. She's now General Leia. Then there's The First Order, who teach soldiers raised from childhood that Luke Skywalker is a villain. You can read all of the information provided by EW below:
Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher):
“She’s referred to as General,” director and co-writer J.J. Abrams tells the site. “But … there’s a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her ‘Princess.’…The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there’s not much goofing around where Leia’s concerned, but it felt historic to have her, especially with Harrison, back in scenes together. I can only imagine the baggage that they bring to it, I’m just a fan who loves this stuff, but they’ve been living with it — and living in it — since ’77.”
Rey (Daisy Ridley):
Rey was ditched on Jakku by her family when she was a child and has no idea why — or why they never returned. “She’s been alone for a long time,” Ridley says. "When something occurs when you’re 5, you know what went on but you don’t understand the reasoning. She's hopeful for what lies ahead, whether that involves the past or not." So why hasn’t abandonment made her bitter, angry, and… prone to the Dark Side? “Hope makes people good, a lot of the time,” Ridley says. “You hope for a brighter future, and resentment is outweighed.”
"Rey, Finn, and Kylo, they all start off in a place where they have been led to feel like they’re wanting," says Daisy Ridley. In this sequence, first seen in the Oct. 19 trailer, she is spelunking through the heart of a long-dead Star Destroyer. "She’s never sat around a table and had a meal with someone else. She works to feed herself, and she goes to sleep, and she gets up again. It is a sad life," Ridley adds. "The film, for Rey, is a journey of finding out that no one is no one."
Finn (John Boyega):
“It’s about looking for a greater purpose, rather than thinking, ‘This is the only thing I can do,’” Boyega says of his runaway stormtrooper. “He wants to change. He wants to make a difference. He’s trying to find some kind of moral dignity in this war.”
Han Solo (Harrison Ford):
Portrait of a smuggler as an older man. There's a lot more gray, but the same swagger. "It could have felt silly, but it didn’t," Harrison Ford says of getting back into Han Solo's familiar holster. Today, EW shares our sit-down interview with Ford at his hangar in Santa Monica, where he talks about why he's now glad no one listened to him about killing off the character. "Well, he’s been living with me. Out back, in the shack," Ford says with a laugh. "[Thirty-two] years is going to put some rings on the tree, some experience in the bank, and that’s really all I needed."
The First Order soldiers are raised to hate Luke Skywalker:
Boyega says soldiers raised from childhood to serve this remnant of the scattered Imperial forces are fed propaganda about the heroes of the Rebellion. Unlike Rey, he has learned a lot about Luke Skywalker — but he has been taught he was a villain who destroyed the benevolent Empire.
Kylo Ren (Adam Driver):
Adam Driver says every villain has an internal battle. “When you break all of those things down, really it’s just because someone wasn’t loved enough or felt betrayed,” he says. “That’s what makes those movies so universal. I think they can get in your mind in big and sweeping ways.”
Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie):
“I wish I could say to you, 'Oh, but of course, the entire thing was designed specifically for me,'” says Gwendoline Christie. “If only that were true — if only!” It turns out, Captain Phasma was tailored just for her. The chrome-plated trooper originated as a design for Kylo Ren, but then J.J. Abrams was inspired to create a new character. “I just thought it would be really cool if we could find someone to play the part who was female, and I’m a fan of Game of Thrones; Gwendoline is in that show, [The Force Awakens casting director] Nina Gold casts it, she knew Gwendoline, obviously," he says. "We were very lucky to get to have her in the movie. She’s not in many scenes, but her presence is powerfully felt when she’s there.”
Female Stormtroopers:
Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma wasn't the only female in armor. "We had women in stormtrooper costumes in the movie," Abrams says, so audiences will be seeing a mixed gender fighting force from The First Order whether they realize it or not. (The armor isn't form-fitting, of course.)
Millennium Falcon:
The Millennium Falcon has gone through its share of maintenance over 30-plus years. The major alteration is obvious. “We decided to go with a rectangular radar dish instead of a circular one because it got knocked off at the end of Jedi,” says Gary Tomkins, senior art director for vehicles and spaceships (coolest job title ever.) "So we liked to imagine they replaced it with a more up-to-date one.”
There are so many other things that were talked about that I didn’t post. To read even more about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, click here.