Star Wars Bits: 'Last Jedi' Costumes, Han Solo Characters, Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson & More

In today's edition of Star Wars Bits, we take a look at new images showing off Rey and Kylo Ren's costumes from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, video footage from the largest gathering of Star Wars droids that I've ever seen, the names of two major characters from Han Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rian Johnson talks about the pressures of following up Force Awakens and his approach to The Last Jedi, a closer look at Johnson's Millennium Falcon graffiti, how Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy discovered Star Wars in film school, A new theory which suggests that Rey's parents were shown in Star Wars: The Force Awakens but are no one you might suspect, get a first look at the blockbuster Star Wars comics crossover with Doctor Aphra in Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel, Kathleen Kennedy talks about the progress of future Star Wars spin-offs, a new video explains how Grand Admiral Thrawn was able to rise to one of the most powerful positions in the Galactic Empire despite being a nonhuman in an alien-hating military, Han Solo is shooting for a few weeks on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura but what planet is it? Hit the jump to hyperspace.

One of the many things we missed at Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017, was a gathering of the droids. Michael McMaster posted the above video on facebook, and I don't think I've seen that many R2 units in one place before. Well done droid builders!

At /Film, we love film theories and speculation. A new theory suggests that Rey's parents were in The Force Awakens. The video above suggests Rey's parents were never supposed to be Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi or any other character we currently know in the Star Wars universe. The YouTube video creator theorizes that Rey's complete backstory is tied to Luke's old blue lightsaber, that originally belonged to Anakin Skywalker used in the Clone Wars.

"I strongly believe that one or both of Rey's parents were Luke's Jedi apprentices and that they're among the bodies we see in front of the Knights of Ren. An alternate way to interpret this is that Luke ends up giving the lightsaber to Rey's father or mother, believing them to be the rightful heir to the Jedi and angering Ben Solo because Luke doesn't trust him to carry on the legacy. This would be huge for a villain who's been set up to revere his grandfather. Luke might even suspect Ben is slowly being seduced to the Dark Side by Snoke as he picks his successor."

I reccomend you watch the whole video above to hear the whole thing, which is much too long and involved to go into here.

Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy recently gave a speech to the Archer Film Festival where she revealed she had not seen Star Wars until film school.

"I know J.J. (Abrams) was here last year. He gets to say that he was 7 when he saw Star Wars. I wasn't. My introduction to Star Wars was a little different. Ironically, I was in film school ... so it was a meaningful introduction. What I realized when I stepped into this role was that it was important to people. Recognizing that it was this modern mythology that had formed a lot of the culture of filmmaking for so many people, it carried with it a huge responsibility. I was stepping into something that wasn't mine. It was George Lucas', who created the whole thing. But then it belonged to the fans. That is what I had to recognize and learn about so I could carry that on and meet those expectations."

She has a bunch of other great quotes, which you can read here, especially talking about how she is a big fan of 70's films and filmmakers.

Spanish outlet eCartelera (via: SWNN) has a quote from Kathleen Kennedy from Celebration, talking about the development of Star Wars spin-offs beyond Episode IX. When asked about these spin-offs – with the rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi movie being specifically mentioned by the reporter, she gave the following answer (note: rough translation):

"To be honest, we are beginning to talk about [the spin-offs] right now. We have four or five weeks immersed in the film 'Han Solo' and we are about to read the script of Colin Trevorrow's Episode IX directed, so we have a lot of work at the moment. In the next six or eight months we will have some meetings about the stories that we will develop here. After 40 years of adventures, fans have so much information and so many theories about the way that can take these stories and theories that emerge are sometimes new ideas for us that we hear, read and pay attention to everything what is said. It is clear that the franchise is owned by the as much by the fans as it's owned by [the people at Lucasfilm]."

SWNN reports that the filming for the Han Solo film will take place over the course of three weeks on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, specifically around Cofete and La Pared, a beach on the island. They are looking for some people who live on the island to appear as paid extras and/or support staff. Some are speculating that the beach could be a representation of Corellia or that maybe they are using some northern inland areas to replicate Tatooine.