In episode 12 of Children of the Force, we discuss the news that dropped over the last week or so, including all the goodies in Entertainment Weekly and everything that came out of the Disney convention, D23.

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First up, and I think possibly the biggest news out of the convention, is that Colin Trevorrow is directing Episode VIII. We discuss what that might mean for Rey’s ovaries. OK, not really. But considering Jurassic World, it wouldn’t surprise me.

At any rate, I go on to discuss a thought I had about the sequel trilogy directors and how they remind me of the original trilogy. It goes like this:

J.J. Abrams is to A New Hope as
Rian Johnson is to The Empire Strikes Back as
Colin Trevorrow is to Return of the Jedi

J.J. Abrams: Old meets new and awesome (Star Trek, Super 8). He’s got that sort of old Hollywood meets new tech vibe, which A New Hope has, as well.

Rian Johnson: Moody, edgy, sad endings (Looper, Brick). His movies are great, but ultimately, they’re downers. The Empire Strikes Back is awesome, fun, but ultimately, sort of depressing.

Colin Trevorrow: Blockbuster / give ’em what they want (Jurassic World). If Jurassic World is any indication, he’s got the sort of whiz-bang mentality and blockbuster acumen that harkens back to the rollicking fun of Return of the Jedi.

These aren’t perfect comparisons, of course, and who knows what the directors will do with these sequel movies. But it’s something fun to think about.

Next, I reveal that sweet Drew Struzan poster to the kids and they freak out.

We talk about basically everything that this slashfilm article points out …. but before I ever read that article. Great Star Wars minds think alike, they say.

Liam notices that Luke is nowhere to be seen on this poster. He’s having a hard time coming to terms with the idea that Luke Skywalker is not the main character of The Force Awakens. To which Anna replies,

“Liam, the original trilogy is over. A new trilogy has started.”

And as if that wasn’t enough, we also got this stunning Rogue One image.

The kids like this, but they don’t think it looks all that much like Star Wars.

I remind them that Rogue One won’t have any Jedi, to which Liam responds:

“I can’t stand a Star Wars movie without Jedi.”

Related to our discussion last week, we discuss how we Rogue One will be like the prequels: we know how it’s going to end. How does it get there? That will be the fun part.

And how about this Kathleen Kennedy quote from D23?

“It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective….”

Ground war, huh? So …. no Rogue Squadron? This isn’t a movie about X-Wing pilots? Calling the movie Rogue One was actually an epic trolling of fandom? All right, then.

So that was D23. Or at least some highlights. Then we move on to discussing all the information out of Entertainment Weekly.

Click this link to see all those sweet photos we talk about. 

This photo of Finn running away from a crashed TIE made Liam think that someone else could be in there. Which ties nicely into these photos:

That’s a two-seater TIE Fighter. Thanks to this image, we know that the TIE we see shooting up the place in the second TFA teaser is facing away from the camera. So what we’re seeing is the back. And it’s gunnin’. Hence, rear gunner.

I am the temporary captain of this ship that George built. -J.J. Abrams

In response to that quote, I wax all philosophical-like about how glad I am that Abrams said it, but that soon it won’t be all that true. I use a quote about a broom from the Dr. Who episode, Deep Breath. It’s a variation of Theseus’ paradox, which is basically the same thing, but with a ship instead of a broom. To wit, if you start with a thing and replace every part of the thing over time, is that thing still the thing you started with?

What I hope happens is that George’s ship is slowly and carefully turned into Lucasfilm’s ship and that the change is so gradual and well-done and it continues to sail so true that we won’t even really notice the change.

I’m skipping over a lot of what we talk about in this episode. There’s just so much news. But one more thing.

On EW.com it’s revealed that Kylo Ren is not the name that Kylo Ren was born with. He came to it later when he joined a group called The Knights of Ren. Liam postulates that the Knights of Ren are actually a good group of people and that Kylo Ren betrays them. This fits with a theory that Liam and I stumbled upon when we looked at this image of a Kylo Ren costume:

Liam thought he was looking at Barriss Offee:

To which I replied: Huh. Could the Knights of Ren be a group Offee started? We don’t know her fate after The Clone Wars. Could she have escaped the Empire and started a new order of Jedi? One that didn’t call themselves Jedi? Could Kylo Ren’s parents have sent him there to learn the ways of the Force? Could he have betrayed the Knights of Ren once he learned what he needed to know?

Speculating is fun!

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