Star Wars Bits: The Real Anakin Skywalker, New ‘LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Footage,’ And The Strangest ‘Star Wars’ Shoes Ever
By Jacob Hall/June 3, 2016 11:30 am EST
Star Wars News Net recently chatted with Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi and various other background roles throughout the Star Wars saga (he’s also one of the stage hosts at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration in London). The interview is mostly puffy, with Davis answering questions like whether he prefers the older or newer films:
However, he does have this cute little anecdote about driving his daughter to the set after she was cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and hoping he would be able to land a part himself:
Davis ultimately played Wollivan, one of at the aliens hanging out in Maz Kanata’s tavern.
It was a great honor, I was thrilled actually. But initially I wasn’t asked to go back, my daughter Annabelle who is an actor, she got the part in it (Episode VII) before I did. I used to take her to Pinewood Studios and drop her off in the morning and I would kinda hang around a little hoping that they would notice me and say Warwick come and be in Star Wars again. Eventually they did ring up my agent and say can we get Warwick in — we would love to put him in the film.
Reddit user isaac_2 decided to answer a question that has been probably plaguing dozens (dozens!) of Star Wars fans the world over: what would a middle-aged Anakin Skywalker actually look like if he wasn’t a mutilated cyborg wearing a black mask? I kid, because his work is actually pretty impressive. He took an image of Hayden Christensen and Sebastian Shaw (who played the unmasked Darth Vader and his force ghost in Return of the Jedi before he was replaced by Christensen in future editions) and… well, here’s him explaining it:
You can see a cool gif of his process right over here, but here’s how the whole thing turned out:
I wanted to see what a middle-aged, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker wouldve looked like, so I facemorphed Hayden Christensen and Sebastian Shaw, polished it up, added a beard, etc. Just something I did in my spare time over a few days. Pretty happy with how it turned out!
Cass R. Sunstein, the author of The World According to Star Wars, has written a fascinating post at The Washington Post examining how the turmoil of the prequel trilogy reflects America’s current political climate. Here’s a brief taste:
A prominent voice, Anakin Skywalker, insisted, “We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problem, agree what’s in the interest of all the people, and then do it.” And if they didn’t, “they should be made to.”
Eventually, something far worse happened. The legislature voted to give “emergency powers” — essentially unlimited authority — to the chief executive. An astute observer, Padme Amidala, noted, “So this is how liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause.”
The whole thing is very much worth a read.
Creative Screenwriting has posted a good interview with producer and writer Simon Kinberg, a key player in both the Star Wars and X-Men movie franchises. When asked about the similarities and differences between movie series, Kinberg spoke about the Lucasfilm story group:
If you already own a couple dozen Star Wars t-shirts, why not accentuate your wardrobe with some Star Wars shoes? And if you love gaudy, strange, and often hideously ugly shoes and also have a couple hundred bucks to burn, you have plenty of options. The shoes in the gallery above are just the tip of the iceberg. Follow that link if you want to scorch your retinas by staring into the sparkly abyss that this is footwear line-up. The cheapest pair will cost you $128, with one of them running $399.
We’ve already seen LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens character trailers for Poe Dameron and Finn, but now 30 seconds of BB-8 centric footage have arrived for your viewing pleasure. Yep, this looks like another LEGO video game and you probably know if this is your cup of tea by now.
Chewbacca Mom’s 15 minutes of fame are still going. Now she’s making Walt Disney World promos and helping sell the parks’ Star Wars-related shows and attractions. It’s hard to begrudge anyone from indulging in their internet celebrity (you know her entire family got a free vacation out of this, and they’ve even been offered a full ride to college), but this is a meme that prrrobably needs to retire before we all grow to dislike it.
