Rogue One Bits: Another Preview On The Way, A Closer Look At The TIE Striker, And Donnie Yen's Son Dressed As Chirrut Îmwe

In this edition of Rogue One Bits:

  • ABC will air a new sneak peak of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story later this month.
  • Felicity Jones hopes Jyn Erso can be a hero for young female viewers.
  • Rogue One graces the cover of D23 magazine.
  • Diego Luna discusses his on-set injuries.
  • An update on whether or not Rogue One will have an opening crawl.
  • Donnie Yen's son dresses as Chirrut Îmwe for Halloween.
  • Take a closer look at the TIE Striker.
  • Gillette releases a new Rogue One-themed ad.
  • How does ABC get you, the discerning Star Wars fan, to watch their Disney Holiday Celebration television special on November 24, 2016? Simple: you just let it be known in the advertisements that a special look at Rogue One will air at some point during the special. Whether this will be something that's actually unique or a regurgitated trailer remains to be seen.

    rogue one D23 cover

    Meanwhile, the next issue of the D23 magazine (an exclusive for Gold Members of the Disney Fan Club) will dedicate its cover story to Rogue One and other Star Wars related stories:

    The winter issue, exclusively for Gold Members of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club, also includes a look at the 30th anniversary of Disney Parks' Star Tours, with detailed concept artwork and in-depth interviews. And Tudyk, who gives voice to droid K-2SO in Rogue One, talks about being a "lucky charm" for Walt Disney Animation Studios, having provided his vocal talents for such films as Big Hero 6, Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, and this month's Moana.

    You can find more details at the link above.

    star wars rogue one opening crawl

    Will Rogue One follow in the tradition of past Star Wars movies and utilize an opening crawl in its opening moments? Lucaslfilm president Kathleen Kennedy suggested a few months ago that it would probably forego that tradition to help establish that the spin-offs are not part of the main saga:

    We talk about that all the time. It's something that we're right in the midst of discussing even now, so I don't want to say definitively what we're doing. The crawl and some of those elements live so specifically within the 'saga' films that we are having a lot of discussion about what will define the [stand-alone] Star Wars Stories separate and apart from the saga films. So we're right in the middle of talking about that.

    And now, Star Wars News Net has something new to add the picture. While they cannot confirm that the film eschews a classic opening crawl, one of their sources claims that film opens in a "different" way:

    A few days ago, we happened to have a conversation with someone in the know about certain aspects of Rogue One. While we were talking about the typical Star Wars opening crawls, the source (whom we consider to be extremely credible) revealed to us that Rogue One actually opens in a way "different than the classic Star Wars films."

    For the record, our own Peter Sciretta has made a passionate case for why Rogue One should stick with tradition and maintain the opening crawl.

    Entertainment Weekly has posted a new video diving into the TIE Striker, the new Imperial ship that will make its debut in Rogue One. Although similar to the regular TIE Fighter, this ship is intended to be flown within a planet's atmosphere, where its traditional wings serve a real purpose. As EW notes, they will play a major role in film's climax, which is set on the Imperial construction yards at Scarif:

    Although old-school TIEs definitely can fly within planetary atmospheres, they're not ideal for that purpose. The mythological tech of Star Wars suggests those vertical, solar array wings are great for space, but the flat, pointed wings of Strikers are specially designed for screaming through environments of denser air and clouds.

    The Striker also has a larger central pod, which is useful for shuttling materials as well as personnel. That's why we'll see these vehicles in action primarily on Scarif, the tropical world used by the Empire as a base of operations for the construction of the Death Star.

    And if you're wondering why these ships never show up in the original trilogy (which takes place directly after Rogue One), there's an oh-so-convenient explanation: there simply aren't that many planetary dogfights in the first films.

    Like Star Wars? Need to shave? Gillette would like your business, thank you very much. This new cross-promotional ad is admittedly pretty cool.

    Felicity Jones - Rogue One Reshoots

    Felicity Jones was named the Artist of the Year at the Britannia Awards and Vanity Fair spoke to her about the honor...while also managing to squeeze out some Rogue One quotes. The best of them involves Jones' hope that her character, Jyn Erso, can be a hero to the young girls who aren't interested in Disney Princesses:

    I just hope that girls like the movie and can invest in Jyn's story and care about her. It is quite nice now that instead of a fish's tail, girls can see a cool female character who's got a blaster and can run really fast.

    Of course, being an action star means getting thrown around a lot and limping home with the corresponding injuries:

    I loved it because I got to kick some ass. I loved the physical side of making these larger films. I worked closely with the stunt teams and got to learn a new skill. I mean, you do go home covered in bruises, but it's worth it.

    Rogue One Star Wars diego luna

    Speaking of Rogue One beating the crap out of its actors, Diego Luna also suffered his fair share of beatings in the name of space operatics. In fact, a take of him suffering an eye injury will be in the final film:

    I took a lot of injuries. My chest still hurts a lot. There are some accidents that will actually end up in the final cut of the film. In a scene where we were running against a strong wind I badly hurt my cornea while trying to remove some debris from my eye. I used a patch during the last days of filming.

    Between this and Harrison Ford's infamous foot injury, it's starting to look like no one should set foot on a Star Wars set without a will in place.

    Mads Mikkelsen has been making the press rounds for Doctor Strange, which means all of his interviews eventually swerve into Rogue One territory. Which brings us to this interview with Games Radar (via Star Wars News Net), where Mikkelsen explains that Rogue One won't be overly reliant on computer effects:

    Also, the film is going a little back to the beginning in a sense of that we got CGI but it's not used in an extended, excessive way. It's back to the storytelling, back to the characters.

    This is what everyone said about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a move that managed to blend the practical and the digital in a generally satisfying way. So...more of that, please. And yes, Mikkelsen did confirm what we've always suspected – it's weird to make a Star Wars movie:

    Passing a table with 100 Stormtrooper helmets on the way to lunch and you go Oh! I'm in that film. It's surreal.

    rogue one k-2so

    Speaking of blending practical effects and CGI, creature designer and visual effects supervisor Neal Scanlan spoke with CNET about his work on Rogue One:

    Something deep inside us knows when something is real. It may not be as mind-blowing [as CGI], but we accept it in our heart and soul. A combination of practical and CGI effects gives the best of both worlds. We're at the point where we can find a middle ground we haven't fully explored yet. It's a great place to be.

    This is perhaps best exemplified by by K-2SO, the reprogramed security droid played by Alan Tudyk in a motion capture performance. While the character is ultimately a digital creation, Tudyk provided the framework for the character on set, wearing leg extensions that let him loom over the other actors. This, Scanlan says, allowed him to be "the first droid with athletic prowess."

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    A photo posted by ??? Cissy Wang (@sweetcil) on

    When your father plays a lead character in a Star Wars movie, why would you not choose to dress as him as Halloween? As seen in the Instagram post above, Donnie Yen's son dressed up as the blind warrior Chirrut Îmwe while his daughter wears the armor of First Order Stormtrooper.