The Star Wars Celebration event took place today (Friday, July 15), and highlight of the day was the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel, which featured brand-new footage from the film. There was also a Vader moment.
We were there, of course, and here are the 11 essential things we learned.
1. Captain Phasma is an excellent panel host
Gwendoline Christie absolutely nailed hosting duties at her first Star Wars Celebration. She had enthusiasm, humour, nerd knowledge and, when paying tribute to the victims of the horrific events in Nice, grace. She guided the conversation brilliantly, and honed focus when needed. And, considering how little dialogue she had in The Force Awakens, it was great to hear her actually talk. More please.
2. We now understand what "A Star Wars Story" means
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We finally got a decent explanation of the "A Star Wars Story" branding, thanks to Kathleen Kennedy's succinct explanation during the panel. "We have this amazing opportunity to tell stories inside this incredible universe. In the past, all the Star Wars movies have been made as either sequels or prequels.
"Now we can have these standalone movies that can explore different characters from different places and different planets… Different experiences all the way around, and I think that's something all of us are extremely excited about."
3. Mark Hamill visited the set of Rogue One in a Godzilla T-shirt
Because of course he did. According to Gareth Edwards: "As we were talking, I was thinking please Lord let someone be taking a picture of this, no-one's going to believe I met Luke Skywalker."
Thankfully, as you can see above, someone did.
4. Rogue One was initially conceived as a TV episode
According to visual effects supremo John Knoll: "This started about 13 years ago when we were shooting Episode III in Sydney and I heard that George and Rick were developing this TV series, and I got thinking about what sort of fun stories you might be able to tell in that episodic format. I started playing around with this idea, drawn from the opening crawl of A New Hope, of this kind of Mission: Impossible-style mission to steal the Death Star plans."
5. There'll be a new planet in Rogue One, called Scarif
Future tourists to the Maldives will be able to pretend they're on a Star Wars set, thanks to Gareth Edwards taking his cast and crew on their holidays there (to shoot a key sequence). "We were creating this paradise world, so we had to go to paradise to film it. It was a nightmare."
Scarif, which also appears on the new poster revealed during the panel, is the location of a key battle in the film, the place where we saw Stormtroopers wading through the sea during the footage, like they're about to take part in Ex On The Beach.
6. Ben Mendelsohn will be a terrifying villain
One of the coolest moments of the panel involved Ben Mendelsohn walking out in full costume as Director Krennic, complete with Death Troopers in tow. If his presence in the film is half as intense as his presence at the panel, he'll be as terrifying as Vader.
7. Warwick Davis will be in Rogue One
"It's about the humanity of it, which must make the whole thing so real." With those words, we got confirmation of Warwick Davis's presence in Rogue One - alongside some instant goosebumps. It's great to see him back in a Star Wars movie, especially as his role in this looks slightly more significant than his cameo in The Force Awakens.
8. Jyn Erso is partly inspired by Han Solo
"She's got a pretty cool Han Solo gun belt, inspired by Han Solo," Felicity Jones told the audience while cradling her action figure. We're pretty sure this cocky, sarcastic, super-cool rebel is inspired by Solo in more ways than just her outfit.
9. Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is Jyn's first ally
"He works for the rebellion in intelligence, and the team starts as just the two of them, Jyn and Andor, but the team grows. And as with any team, there's friction, there's issues and it's Cassian who has to keep them together," Luna told us.
10. The droid K-2SO has a close relationship to Andor
Imperial Droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) might seem tough on the outside (mainly because he's metal) but we got brand-new information on him during Celebration, and it's actually incredibly sweet. "K-2SO is probably the best friend Cassian has in the rebellion. The only one,"Luna told the panel audience. All together now, awwwww.
11. James Earl Jones gave Gareth Edwards a nerdgasm
"We're doing voice recording with a gentleman named James Earl Jones. I can't tell you what role he plays in the film, because I don't want to give it away," Edwards said with a smile on his face. It's okay Gareth, we won't spoil it. Possibly the giddiest moment of the panel came when Edwards revealed he had a nerdgasm on hearing Jones say the word 'Power'. Oh, to be a Probe Droid on the wall that day…
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Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
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In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
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