Cantina Talk: A Firehose of Clues From the Last Jedi Cast

March 20, 2019 | Story | No Comments

Beginning to think that, post-D23 and San Diego Comic-Con, we wouldn't get any new information about Star Wars: The Last Jedi until it hits theaters this December? Then you hadn't considered the importance of publishing realities, with Entertainment Weekly dropping all kinds of fact bombs about the next installment of the saga from a galaxy far, far away. Meanwhile, Lando Calrissian is causing trouble, and the backstory of Rogue One turns out to raise an ethical conundrum that few people had really thought about before. Thank you for tuning into the latest update on the HoloNet, and please remember to tip your Bothan.

Never Meet Your Heroes

The Source: Entertainment Weekly's massive Last Jedi preview

Probability of Accuracy: Consider this one more of an intentionally vague teaser than an accurate piece of information. But what a tease…!

The Real Deal: For those expecting the Rey/Luke meeting in Star Wars: The Last Jedi to be a reprise of Luke's meeting with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, then prepare to be disappointed. An Entertainment Weekly story—one of many this time around, considering they had a lot of spoiler-filled previews for the new movie—revealed that Rey finds Luke when his faith in the Force is at the lowest anyone has ever seen. Daisy Ridley described her character's response as, "Oh my God, this other man that I lost within a couple days was somewhat of a father figure. Now he’s gone, and instead I’m with this grumpy guy on an island who doesn’t want me here."

As for Mark Hamill, he seems as if he's trying to come to terms with what's happened himself. "The fact that Luke says, 'I only know one truth. It’s time for the Jedi to end…'" he said. "I mean, that’s a pretty amazing statement for someone who was the symbol of hope and optimism in the original films. When I first read it, my jaw dropped. What would make someone that alienated from his original convictions?"

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

The Source: Again, Entertainment Weekly's preview of the next movie

Probability of Accuracy: Pretty accurate, because who knows better how uncool a character is than the actor that plays them?

The Real Deal: Wondering what role newcomer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) will play in the next Star Wars installment? If Tran's interview with EW is anything to go by, she might just be enough of a fan to help remind the good guys what they're supposed to be doing in the first place. "Poe Dameron is super cool. Finn’s super cool. Even though [Rose] is good at what she does, she’s not known… She’s not cool. She’s this nobody, this background player, which is what makes her interesting. She’s not the best. She’s not royalty. She’s someone who is just like everyone else," Tran said.

Rose she comes into Finn's life at a point where he's questioning whether or not he wants to stay with the Resistance—and according to John Boyega, her influence helps him come to a decision. "It’s now an opportunity for him to be the best he can be. He has to make a decision, and Rose is there to help him make that choice," he teased. Is this some kind of meta-clue to tell us that it's okay to be fans as long as we keep inspiring our heroes to do the right thing? If so, I am here for this.

Take Care Not To Hurt Yourself

The Source: Making it a hat trick, Entertainment Weekly's Last Jedi preview

Probability of Accuracy: The information comes from director Ryan Johnson, so we should all hope it's accurate.

The Real Deal: Turns out that the Porgs aren't going to be the only aliens that Luke Skywalker is sharing the island of Ahch-To with; Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson told EW that he's also going to be dealing with another race called the Caretakers. "They’re kind of these sort of fish-bird type aliens who live on the island," he said. "They’ve been there for thousands of years, and they essentially keep up the structures on the island… They’re all female, and I wanted them to feel like a remote sort of little nunnery." What do they take care of, you might ask? Well, they just might have something to do with the structures on the island, which—if speculation is to be believed—might mean that they have some connection with the Force that we haven't quite seen yet.

Snoke Gets In Your Eyes

The Source: For the fourth and final time, the Last Jedi preview from Entertainment Weekly

Probability of Accuracy: As with almost all things Snoke, this one is entirely open to interpretation…

The Real Deal: With all kinds of speculation abounding about the leader of the First Order, EW added some fuel to the fire by asking The Last Jedi director to talk about what role he does—and doesn't—play in the new movie. "Similar to Rey’s parentage, Snoke is here to serve a function in the story. And a story is not a Wikipedia page," Rian Johnson told the magazine. "For example, in the original trilogy, we didn’t know anything about the Emperor except what Luke knew about him, that he’s the evil guy behind Vader. Then in the prequels, you knew everything about Palpatine because his rise to power was the story."

So, how much of Snoke's story will be revealed in the new movie? Johnson is playing coy, saying only that audiences will "learn exactly as much about Snoke as we need to." (One thing that he would reveal, is that while Andy Serkis' character will indeed be CGI, the actor's motion-capture performance was astonishing: "It’s one of those performances where after every line, I’d look over at whoever’s standing next to me with an expression on my face like, 'Oh, my God, we just got that.'")

Everything's Perfectly All Right Now On The Han Solo Movie. It's Fine.

The Source: Future Lando Mark 2 himself, Donald Glover

Probability of Accuracy: On the one hand, he's only talking about his personal feelings, so it's hard to say whether he's being accurate or not, or even if what he's saying translates to others in the cast. But on the other, this certainly contradicts the official line about how the production is faring…

The Real Deal: Turns out, the changeover between directors on the still-untitled Han Solo movie wasn't quite as smooth as the official party line would have it. In a Hollywood Reporter profile, Donald Glover, who plays Lando Calrissian in the movie, said that Ron Howard replacing original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller has shaken his confidence. "Ron is such a legend, and he knows exactly what the vision for what he is doing is … [but Phil and Chris] hired us, so you sort of feel like, 'I know I'm not your first choice …' And you worry about that," Glover says. "I feel like I was the baby in the divorce, or the youngest child. The oldest child is like, 'We know what's happening, but we are keeping you out of it.' And I'm just like, [Glover's voice rises several octaves] 'Was that scene good? How did you feel?'" The question is, will anyone be able to tell the difference between performances in the finished movie, which is still targeted at a May 2018 release?

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Cassian Andor: Not a Big Fan of Consent, Apparently

The Source: Marvel's Rogue One spin-off comic

Probability of Accuracy: It was part of a canonical comic book story, so it's 100% accurate.

The Real Deal: The secret origins of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's K-2SO were revealed in a Marvel comic book this past week, and the tale might have raised some unexpected issues. According to the Star Wars: Rogue One—Cassian & K-2SO Special, Cassian Andor reprogrammed the Imperial droid against its will in an attempt to avoid arrest during a mission, prompting at least one website to question whether or not there's an unpleasant rape analogy hiding just under the surface and waiting to be discovered. Well, Rogue One was always intended to be the morally murky installment in the series….