Episode 8 Bits: Rumored Story Points, Updates From Mark Hamill, And Cool Fan Art

In this edition of Episode 8 Bits:

BREAKING: Star Wars: Episode 8 to feature an elaborate special effects sequence! No other details available! Mark Hamill teases this development (special effects in a Star Wars movie?!) at the Salt Lake City Comic-Con, where he talked about balancing his return as Luke Skywalker with other projects:

But I came home and I realized, 'oh my gosh, they have an interview for me tomorrow afternoon. I haven't watched [The Killing Joke], and the day after I start on a sequence, an elaborate special effects sequence where I'm not going to be able to do anything. I have to focus specifically on the Episode VIII scene I'm doing.

Honestly, this scene could be pretty much anything. Just about every frame of Episode 8 is going to have something done to it with computers after the fact, so place your bets. I'll just go ahead and put the loose change in my pocket on it being a scene where Luke displays the power of the Force to Rey in a "Yoda lifting the X-Wing out of the swamp" kind of way.

If you have 50 minutes to spare and want to watch Mark Hamill's entire appearance at the Salt Lake Comic-Con, footage of the entire panel is online for your viewing pleasure.

A few months ago, descriptions of new costumes worn by Luke and Rey arrived online. Now an artist has recreated those descriptions, giving us a hint of what these outfits may actually look like in the finished film. For a refresher, here's how Rey's new costume was described:

Rey's costume is very much what we saw in The Force Awakens at the very end of the film. She has the grey capri-length pants with boots as well as the arm wraps. But her vest from the end of the film is gone and she's only wearing the off-white-colored tunic beneath, giving the costume a Luke Skywalker vibe. Her hair is also worn down now. She still wears the gun at her hip she received from Han Solo in The Force Awakens. I think that might be telling about where Rey is at in terms of her training and state.

And here's what Luke will be reportedly wearing:

Luke Skywalker wears a darker costume compared to what we saw in The Force Awakens. This costume is more evocative of his Return of the Jedi clothes in cut and color. His undertunic reminds me of Count Dooku but his very dark grey cape drops over the top of his shoulders and chest like a shawl. This leaves his right arm free but half of his chest covered by the cape. It's almost similar to the asymmetrical cut of Captain Phasma's cape, but more like a shawl in the way it cover his chest.

While we're on the subject of Luke and Rey, a report from Star Wars Union (via Star Wars News Net) claims to have a few details about what was shot around those "beehive" buildings that were constructed in Malin Head, Ireland. According to the father of a contractor who worked on the sets (in other words – grain of salt), a major scene was filmed there:

The bee hive huts were made of fitting foam, which Thomas was able to find on site as well.

They filmed fighting scenes and Chewbacca participated in those fights.

It appears that the Knights of Ren disturbed Rey's Jedi training.

The filming took place till dusk and buildings could be seen from houses in that area that were 2-3km (2 miles) away.

We know from other set pictures that there is a key sequence where Luke and Rey battle the Knights of Ren on a cliff overlooking the ocean, so this does make sense. It just seems that the fight begins somewhere else before it reaches a more dramatic location. However, the involvement of Chewbacca in the brawl is a fun detail. I would love to watch that Wookiee crack some more skulls.

Making Star Wars has shared some rumored story points from Episode 8 and while they're very minor, those who want to know nothing shouldn't read beyond this sentence.

Still here? Okay, so the site (who has broken their fair share of accurate Star Wars news in the past) says that Rey's flashbacks will continue in Episode 8, with her actually witnessing the massacre of Luke Skywalker's students at the hands of Kylo Ren and his acolytes:

After digging around it seems we may delve deeper into Luke Skywalker's backstory first glimpsed in Rey's vision at Maz's Castle. Some documents also appear to reveal late adolescent kids that seem to have been brought back to play the dead padawans of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order. The language used makes it sound like it is the before-and-after sequence of when Luke Skywalker puts his hand on Artoo, effectively saying goodbye to the little droid.

As we have heard the rumor, a sequence appears to involve Rey, Luke Skywalker, Artoo, Kylo Ren, and dead bodies of youthful characters. An inactive adult Rey at the scene makes us think this is probably a continuation of the flashback sequence Rey began on Takodana. Rey appears to be a bystander, making us think this is her vision of the past seen from her perspective.

When it comes to Star Wars rumors, I like to think that we, as a collective whole, have gotten a lot better about giving certain stories a sniff test. If it smells fishy, if it smells a little off or a little rotten, it probably is. And the video above smells like it's been left in the hot Mexican sun for a week or so. However, since this story has been making the rounds, we should address it. I don't believe this is true in the slightest, but consider this your spoiler warning, just in case.

Anyway, this video details a "script leak" that finds Luke Skywalker confronting Supreme Leader Snoke, the mysterious figure pulling the strings of the First Order, and it climaxes with the villain saying something that may reveal his identity:

Of course. After all, what father doesn't see his own creation.

So that's the rumor: that Snoke is Anakin Skywalker's father, making him Luke and Leia's grandfather and Ben Solo's great grandfather. As you may remember, Anakin was apparently born from the Force and never had a father (that he knew of), so this doesn't fly completely against established canon. However, it does sounds painfully stupid and only further constricts the Star Wars universe around the Skywalker name, something that The Force Awakens and Rogue One have been attempting to break from. More damning is the actual "leaked script" the narrator in the video is reading. Anyone who has even glanced at a screenplay know that is not how screenplays read. If it is real (and I don't think for a moment that it is), it's probably an excerpt from an upcoming Star Wars novel...a very poorly written one.

While we're on the topic of rumors that are a little stinky, there's this story from a Reddit user (via Star Wars News Net), who claims to have encountered proof on the Star Wars Celebration convention floor that Yoda will be returning for Star Wars: Episode 8:

One of the many stalls featured at the convention was Saving Yoda, ran by one of the original team operating Yoda in ESB. While waiting to have my photo taken with the Yoda puppet, the dude running it was talking to another guy. The random guy asked which Yoda puppet was currently on display. In response, we were all told that the one on display was puppet 2 (I think, I can't quite remember exactly). He looked at both of us, and said that members of the original Yoda team have been called in to work on episode 8, using the Yoda 8 puppet, as they'd all recently been talking about it. He'd have no reason to lie.

A good rule of thumb when writing about movies of any kind is to take stories that originate at Reddit with a dump trunk full of the finest salt you can find. For every shred of truth that emerges from there, there's a hundred lies and half-truths and misunderstandings. It has been rumored for some time that Yoda will appear in Episode 8, presumably as a Force ghost who chats with Luke, but the thought that someone working at a convention booth would so casually drop news like this in front of other people sounds...well, pretty unlikely.