Ultimate Collectors' Forums

Teaser is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg

Love this shot

I'm excited for this, and I think the trailer looks really good. Somehow, this teaser did more to invoke nostalgia in me for Star Wars than the entirety of Force Awakens as a movie.

It struck me as looking like a fan-made film, in a good way. I'm really stoked for this one.

I just hope it's good. I'm pretty excited for it now after seeing that teaser. I'm so glad the cinematography looks as beautiful as it was in TFA.

I wasn't excited about it before, but my feelings have changed. Still not really enthused with the idea of a Han Solo stand alone movie though, and the same goes for the Boba Fett movie.

I'm really glad they got the actress who portrayed Mon Mothma in Revenge of The Sith to return. Hoping we'll see Bail Organna too.

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about the Solo or Fett movies either, despite all the fan love for the latter character. I would much prefer something more in tune with Rogue One, with unknown characters and giving us another new tale from a corner of the SW universe. This Hollywood love affair with giving us the adventures of younger versions of established heroes and villains is tired and unexciting.

Considering my yawn reaction to the premise of this movie (OK, we know how this ends!), I'm kind of excited. The trailer looked good.

A friend pointed out we see an Imperial officer in a white uniform. That's something we've never seen before. In the Zahn books, only Grand Admirals had white uniforms. So is this guy going to be a Grand Admiral? If so, they are bringing an element of the Expanded Universe (the old one, that is) into canon.

I'm really hopeful that now that Disney has Lucasfilm and the success of Marvel's universe, we see the Star Wars universe expand. The more distance we put between the audience and the Skywalker clan, the happier I'll be...

But yes, Fett and Solo movies are very dull. I'm all set with prequels that we definitively know the results of. Rogue One's a little different in that it's much more intimate. We'll have new characters and we'll be concerned with THEIR fates rather than the galaxy.

White (or cream) Imperial Officer uniforms have been seen before, albeit very briefly. They denote members of the Imperial Security Bureau. If you Google screenshots, you can catch a rare glimpse or two. There's at least one in the meeting room in the Death Star with Vader and Tarkin, and several others are seen later. I believe Rogue One might be following this established convention rather than Zahn's fictional creation, but we'll see.

In the meantime, check out this article speculating on the identity of that white-uniformed officer from the first movie: https://imperialtalker.wordpress.com/20 ... -mustache/

I think the uniform and rank badge indicated he's an admiral. Some have speculated he may be a grand admiral.

There's also so speculation/rumours that he's a re-interpretation of the character of Thrawn.

What I find more intriguing though, is who is the person in the hood bowing before the tank being protected by imperial guards?

It can't be Vader, because the hood isn't wide enough and the Emperor wouldn't bow to anyone.

Admirals in the SW canon wear grey, not white. This has been established in the movies. The depictions of Thrawn typically have him wearing gold epaulets on his shoulders, like real-life admirals. To call the new guy a re-imagined Thrawn is a stretch at best and fan-boyism dreaming at worst. I suppose we'll find out soon enough though.

Next you'll be telling me the kneeling figure is Mara Jade.

Disney is free to include any elements they want from the expanded universe, because they own it. However, they are much more likely to have new characters as that would help them sell new tie-in books.

I saw one clip online where someone was speculating who the new character was. They imposed the words "Please be Thrawn" multiple times on the screen. But I don't think the character is Thrawn. Thrawn would have to have blue skin and red eyes. The new character could easily be a rip-off of Thrawn, however.

Another clip speculated on the kneeling figure, hoping it would be Vader, or more accurately, hoping the teaser would have shown Vader. My reaction was, why? The prequels RUINED Vader as a character. I don't care if we ever see him again.

Valkrist wrote:
Next you'll be telling me the kneeling figure is Mara Jade.

Ha ha, that's another piece of speculation making the rounds on the internet Also speculation that Mara Jade is Rey's mother.

After going out of their way to forge new ground and disavow all the old books, it would make zero sense to start introducing Zahn's characters now, especially in a movie so far removed from the time and circumstances in which they originally appeared. I affirm again that that imperial officer is not Thrawn; it's just that some folks have a way of turning wishful thinking into an obsession.

Olorin, no acknowledgment of the fact officers in white uniforms have in fact appeared in the movies before?

Valkrist wrote:Olorin, no acknowledgment of the fact officers in white uniforms have in fact appeared in the movies before?

I didn't recall it but I'm not disputing it. Like you said, there weren't very many, which is undoubtedly why I don't remember.

Olorin wrote:

Valkrist wrote:Olorin, no acknowledgment of the fact officers in white uniforms have in fact appeared in the movies before?

I didn't recall it but I'm not disputing it. Like you said, there weren't very many, which is undoubtedly why I don't remember.

Oh I wasn't saying that with the intent of seeing if you would dispute it. After all, the images speak for themselves. It was more to see if you had any theories regarding those old appearances versus the new guy once your memory was jogged.

Valkrist wrote:

Olorin wrote:

Valkrist wrote:Olorin, no acknowledgment of the fact officers in white uniforms have in fact appeared in the movies before?

I didn't recall it but I'm not disputing it. Like you said, there weren't very many, which is undoubtedly why I don't remember.

Oh I wasn't saying that with the intent of seeing if you would dispute it. After all, the images speak for themselves. It was more to see if you had any theories regarding those old appearances versus the new guy once your memory was jogged.

Nah, these days I'm much more interested in whether Jon Snow is really dead.

Well, it's official: an actor has been cast in the role of Darth Vader for Rogue One. Thankfully, he will still be voiced by James Earl Jones.

I guess it was a no-brainer given the time setting of this movie, but like Olorin said, ol' Vader has pretty much been ruined and overexposed to death so any menace and mystery he once brought to the screen with his presence has faded long ago. I hope his part in the movie is tangential at best, like a cameo.

I read that too. I figured it would be a small cameo, enough for some James Earl Jones voice nostalgia, heck it could be an ending scene tying this movie to ANH.

The identity of that mysterious imperial officer in the white uniform has been revealed with the release of the Official Visual Story Guide, and thankfully it is not Thrawn or in any way associated with him. He is Krennic, Director of the Imperial Military.

You can read the article here as well as get a glimpse at some of the pages of the book: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/43071/ ... s-revealed

Ugh. The House of Mouse can't help but intefere....

http://www.avclub.com/article/heres-wha ... ots-237571

Yep, I'd heard about the rather large reshoots and the rumours that the tone of the movie was not light enough for their liking.

Great... more Star Wars for kiddies coming your way.

From what I understand, the movie being completely redone at the request of studio executives is all rubbish. The reshoots were scheduled before filming actually started and its only four weeks of extra filming. It's totally normal for a movie to have reshoots. There were reshoots for The Force Awakens last year that no one reported much on.

I think it could be somewhat true that they're toning some scenes down. I've read rumours that a Darth Vader scene is one in particular that they're reshooting. I think, again, it's normal for directors to go overboard when filming scenes for evil characters. Look at the Scabior and Hermione "rapey" scenes in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. That had to be cut because they took it to far. I think it's a similar scenario here. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Let's hope you're right!

As Lindir said, there's a fairly standard practice of scheduling reshoots for any movie. When you get to the editing process, I'm sure there are a lot of "You know what would be cool..." or "None of the takes we have are really what I'm looking for..."

Disney has not let me down with their Marvel buying and they haven't let me down with Lucasfilm yet, so even IF there's a shred of proof that this is a result of studio executive requesting changes, I'm going to have faith that if they're trying to fix something, it's genuinely something that needs fixing. Even dark films need moments of levity. Maybe the moments they have right now are more akin to Anakin/Obi-wan banter or, Please-Dear-Lord-No a Jar-Jar type character.

You also have the potential, with a film like this, to have reshoots to film key scenes away from prying eyes. When Principle Photography wraps up, the press and fans drift away for a bit. Reshoots could mean secrecy for certain scenes.

http://youtu.be/frdj1zb9sMY

Looks great! Of course, the trailers for The Force Awakens looked great too.

I think the trailer looks fantastic and I and liking how the technology "matches." One of my gripes in the prequel trilogy was all the ships, etc looked "newer" and more sleek than the ones in the original trilogy.

I dunno, I thought a lot of the prequel ships looked appropriately clunkier/retro, like the Star Destroyers.

There's been quite a few discussions about this. I believe someone within Lucasfilm explained it as the vehicles in the prequels (and costumes too) were more refined because the story in the prequels was mostly set within the core worlds, which is where all the wealth is.

Whereas Rogue One, the original trilogy and The Force Awakens are set on the outskirts of the galaxy, heading into the unknown regions. That being said, in The Force Awakens you see the refinery of the core worlds when we see Hosnian Prime. I imagine that the republic ships were far more advanced than the x-wings and the ships the resistance had.

So, I have seen it and liked it very much, much more than The Force Awakens. I think Rogue One is the best Star Wars since the original trilogy.

And it had some utterly eyepoppingly gorgeous visuals in it, like the Death Star rising over the limb of a planet, among many other things. It was truly epic-looking.

I won't say much more about it now till others have seen it.

Other than that I now know who was in the bacta tank!

I have only seen the original three (when they first came out), and whatever forgettable one it was that had Jar-Jar Binks in it (cue vomiting smiley).

Can this latest one be followed with only the background info I have, or do I need to watch other episodes (if so, which ones?) to be able to appreciate, or even just understand this episode?

[Note: if this question looks familiar, I posted it over at FoU as well]

I saw it today and I think I'm having the same reaction you guys had to TFA. I enjoyed it in part, it was incredibly beautiful and it had great cinematography but I didn't care about the characters. Vader was... I dunno, he just didn't seem right and he was also in it a lot less than I thought he would be.

Krennic was cool but he was a villain that I feared he would be. He was there and he was evil but he wasn't given much substance, though I enjoyed seeing an imperial who put his ambitions above everything else.

I know you guys thought TFA was a retread and I would agree as far as the story goes, but I just found the characters in TFA far more compelling than in this one and the characters for me are the most important aspect of Star Wars.

It's still a fun movie but it's not my favourite Star Wars movie.

Deimos you should be alright watching it, there is one prequel character in the movie but I don't recall him being mentioned by name, but he isnt one of the lead characters so it's not gonna detract from your experience

Lindir wrote:I saw it today and I think I'm having the same reaction you guys had to TFA. I enjoyed it in part, it was incredibly beautiful and it had great cinematography but I didn't care about the characters. Vader was... I dunno, he just didn't seem right and he was also in it a lot less than I thought he would be.

Krennic was cool but he was a villain that I feared he would be. He was there and he was evil but he wasn't given much substance, though I enjoyed seeing an imperial who put his ambitions above everything else.

I know you guys thought TFA was a retread and I would agree as far as the story goes, but I just found the characters in TFA far more compelling than in this one and the characters for me are the most important aspect of Star Wars.

It's still a fun movie but it's not my favourite Star Wars movie.

Deimos you should be alright watching it, there is one prequel character in the movie but I don't recall him being mentioned by name, but he isnt one of the lead characters so it's not gonna detract from your experience

I hesitated to bring this up, mainly because it was "hear-say", in that I read it in some reviews, but here it is:
Lindir, you are one of the few people that identified what others have considered as the main flaw in this movie, to wit, the lack of character development.
You [unknowingly ] almost quoted one of them when you said: "...t was incredibly beautiful and it had great cinematography but I didn't care about the characters."

Very brave of you to do that .

But, it still does have a lot to commend it --and I do appreciate great cinematography, regardless of story or character development (or lack thereof) -- so I plan to see it....

Thanks for the advice that the "continuity" aspect will be OK, without having seen other episodes.

It's a great fun movie regardless of the lack of character development. I've slept on it and had time to think about it and aside from the issues I mentioned in my previous post I enjoyed it. I'm sure a lot of people are going to enjoy it too, it adds a considerable amount to the Star Wars universe. There's so many new and varied locations, great mix of different ethnic human characters too.

Let us know what you think of it once/if you do see it Deimos

I found this in my news feed today:
http://www.scified.com/news/george-luca ... one-sequel

LOL that's pretty clever!