Star Wars Bits: Mark Hamill Opens Up, 'Solo' Moves Ever Closer, And EA Apologizes For Battlefront II

In this edition of Star Wars Bits:

  • Mark Hamill shares a lot of feelings about a lot of things
  • Ron Howard wants people to know the truth about Alden Ehrenreich and and Han Solo
  • Return of the Battlefront II loot box Saga
  • Rumors abound about the fate of Yoda in Episode IX
  • And much more...
  • Check out Val, Therm Scissorpunch, and Moloch! #soloastarwarsstory #starwars

    A post shared by Jason Ward (@makingstarwars) on Apr 2, 2018 at 11:24am PDT

    Therm Scissorpunch has already become a fan fave Star Wars character just because of his ridiculous name, and it was all thanks to Denny's new Solo: A Star Wars Story trading cards. They also give us a look at Han, crew member Val and potential adversary Moloch!

    Star Wars Galaxy's Edge imagesDisney Parks have been doing a great job of filling the numerous locations with all kinds of Star Wars attractions in the lead-up to the new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land, and now Disney World is bringing back the popular Galactic Nights events to celebrate the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story! The after dark event will include the new Chewbacca himself, Joonas Suotamo, as well as new footage from Solo: A Star Wars Story and a whole bunch of other space-smuggler themed excitement!Princess Leia Visual Effects in Rogue One

    With the recent reveal that Lucasfilm digitally scans all of their cast members' faces, there's a lot of talk about just how comfortable people are with that. Well, there's one person who's one hundred percent okay with it: Luke Skywalker himself! Yup, during a recent interview with the Radio Times, Mark Hamill shared his enthusiasm for the idea. "Well already I told my family 'Absolutely – thumbs up!' But it is a question of propriety really. I'm sure they had to go to the Cushing estate and get their permission," Hamill said.

    Ever since the untimely passing of the wonderful Carrie Fisher, there's been much speculation about the future of the iconic character she created in Princess Leia. As we move ever closer to Episode IX, more and more rumors have popped up about the potential recasting of the Alderaanian Princess. But in this recent interview with Collider, her on screen brother and IRL lifelong friend Mark Hamill let his feelings be known about the potential for Leia's future in the franchise.

    As Rey wrangles with one of the Pretorian Guard, eagle-eyed fans noticed that there was something strange about this interaction, and one put a clip on Twitter to showcase just what he saw as a fatal flaw in the epic fight.

    Ever wanted to see a Swingers/Star Wars mashup? Well now you can thanks to the guys at Funny or Die who've imagined the future of Favreau's live action Star Wars series, and according to them the future is "Money Baby!"

    Solo: A Star Wars Story - Alden Ehrenreich

    Lucasfilm surprised everyone recently by announcing that Solo: A Star Wars Story will be premiering at Cannes Film Festival ten days before its international release. The last Star Wars film to premiere at Cannes was Revenge of the Sith in 2005. Now thanks to the famous fest's official site, we now know that the runtime for Solo: A Star Wars Story will be a rather slim (for 2018) 2 hours 15 minutes!

    ?Whoa. A "reel" piece of Star Wars history! I'm blown away. ?#starwars

    A post shared by Matt Martin (@matthewcmartin) on Apr 12, 2018 at 6:10pm PDT

    An incredible Star Wars secret was revealed on Instagram this month, as Matthew C Martin shared a film reel from American Graffiti, which gave fans a sneak peek into the origin of one of our favorite droid's names! How often do you get to do droid-moniker etymology? Truly a lovely little bit of Star Wars trivia.

    Star Wars The Last Jedi

    *Rumor Alert* A source at the New York Daily news has been teasing that one of the more universally loved moments from The Last Jedi might be repeated in JJ Abrams' Episode IX! The source stated that "the success of the scenes featuring Yoda in 'The Last Jedi' were huge. Yoda will again appear as a ghost as he acknowledges Rey's success and growth as a Jedi. The scenes are due to be put together later this year." We can't confirm or deny this, but we'd definitely be very excited if it's true...

    Star Wars The Last Jedi - Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker

    Mark Hamill has been sharing a lot of feelings recently, and during an interview with GamesRadar he shared his shock at some fans disappointment in Snoke's death at the hands of Kylo Ren! "I was surprised everyone was so upset that they got rid of Snoke. From Rian's point of view, it was a big favourite for [Episode] 9 because he's not important. It clears the deck to have the conflict between Kylo and Rey without him getting in the way and having to explain if he's a clone or if he's related to Palpatine... all that stuff."

    As Solo: A Star Wars Story moves ever closer, fans are doing their best to decipher everything they can from the few scraps that Lucasfilm has thrown out to us. This observant Twitter user discovered a confirmation of a popular fan theory – that Solo villain Enfys Nest is actually a woman.

    The release of Star Wars Battlefront II was dogged with issues and is widely seen as one of the biggest recent flops in gaming memory, not least in part because of the loot box scandal that drove many fans away from the franchise. In a recent interview with The Verge, EA's Patrick Soderlund apologized to fans for the monetization drama that surrounded the game: "We have taken significant steps as a company to review and understand the mechanics around monetization, loot boxes, and other things in our games before they go to market. For games that come next, for Battlefield or for Anthem, [players have] made it very clear that we can't afford to make similar mistakes. And we won't."

    Solo: A Star Wars Story Trailer Breakdown

    Recasting a character as iconic as Han Solo was always going to be tricky, and for many fans Alden Ehrenreich was a wildcard choice. But in a new interview with Empire Magazine, director Ron Howard attempted to assuage those fears by letting fans know what Ehrenreich's take was really about."It was always clear from the beginning, before I was involved, that it was not going to be an impression of Harrison. No one wanted that. Part of Han Solo's character is sort of a vibe and a feel and a body language."