Episode IX: Spoilers and Rumors

@SoloSideCousin I'm looking at their facebook page and it seems that they are working. They cite The Promise (Oscar isaac/Christian Bale movie) and that was filmed in 2016 so 2 years after the Government takeover.

https://www.facebook.com/MaltaFilmStudios/

So yeah, it's a too specific info to be just a random FAF. Especially since FAF don't have that pattern of operating. They would use studio info to boost credibility for plot-based FAF but they rarely if ever FAF info such as location, studio, etc.

Now, because the studio is most known for large water tank, it doesn't necessarily mean they are filming "underwater world". That could be just leaker's guess/FAF based on the water tank. Or it could be legit.

AhsokaTano wrote:@ Night Huntress
Yeah it prob is faf ( as it’s 4 chan) but they were right about Malta which just looked up - lucky guess or maybe they know about filming :

https://www.visitmalta.com/en/a-brief-history-of-filming

@AhsokaTano
Underwater makes me think of Gunga City/Naboo or possibly the other city/space port Leia visited in Bloodline??

Not a spoiler but, for what it's worth, concept art for IX is finished:

[Phil Saunders] I just finished working on Star Wars Episode 9, and that was a truly humbling experience. The level of work produced by people like Ryan Church, Eric Tiemens and Doug Chiang is both inspiring and intimidating. But this is the only way you grow as an artist, by working alongside artists who’s work you’re in awe of. You never learn anything by being the most talented guy in the room.

https://magazine.artstation.com/2018/04/saunders/

Ok this may be me getting excited as usual with these leaks( which may or may not be true) but when various of you started mentioning “ greater threat to galaxy “ , maybe the underwater filming is indicative of an underwater amphibian species , the fangirl in me started to squeal and think “ Rakata prime “ which has been made canon - it’s in the atlas . Ok calming down now in case this means nothing and it’s all faf! Lol!

AhsokaTano wrote:Ok this may be me getting excited as usual with these leaks( which may or may not be true) but when various of you started mentioning “ greater threat to galaxy “ , maybe the underwater filming is indicative of an underwater amphibian species , the fangirl in me started to squeal and think “ Rakata prime “ which has been made canon - it’s in the atlas . Ok calming down now in case this means nothing and it’s all faf! Lol!

@AhsokaTano

that seriously takes credibility off that leak. cause leaks that may use something already existing as a reference are less likely to be real. I know nothing about Rakata prime except that it's a Sith planet or something, so underwater world seemed novel to me, Gungun city notwithstanding. But now I'm super skeptical cause it does seem to pray on Rakata prime classification to hype fans.

@ vaderito
Yeah you’re probably right lol! Ah well here’s to the next year and half of speculation and dodgy leaks

Sent from Topic'it App
Anyway this is info on Rakata Prime :
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakata_Prime

AhsokaTano wrote:@ vaderito
Yeah you’re probably right lol! Ah well here’s to the next year and half of speculation and dodgy leaks

Sent from Topic'it App
Anyway this is info on Rakata Prime :
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakata_Prime

@AhsokaTano

we'll see cause Malta Studio name drop is unusual for FAFs. So he either knows something (but likely embellishes the rest) or the whole thing is fake. Cause when you think about it, he knows stuff from too many departments - secret casting, foreign studio, actors contracts, concept art or brief description of the plot. usually when people have an actual leak, it's only one thing, not so many different things.

SoloSideCousin wrote:

vaderito wrote:

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:5 year old caucasian boy? How can I get my kid an audition for this possibly FAF role?

I'm assuming it's for little Ben, but will we get more Ben backstory in IX? I'm hoping.

@Cowgirlsamurai

No, the leaker says Caucasian toddler. No sex specified nor the age. Toddler = much younger than 5

Lucasfilm is currently underway casting a character so secret that they aren’t even doing it under their own name. The listing is calling for a Caucasian child not much older than a toddler.

Re: Malta. 4chan poster dug up this info about the studios. Apparently, huge legal trouble, he questions the credibility of the leak:

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/41469/appeals_court_upholds_eviction_of_mediterranean_film_studios#.WunYJy7wa70

https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20180206/local/one-bid-for-film-studio-but-it-was-non-compliant.669910

@vaderito

The Malta thing is a weird detail though. No average non-film person would know about that, unless the original poster lives in Malta or went on holiday there. I am still open to the possibility of it having a little truth in there. Disney is going to be all of these boards monitoring everything. Also, I don't have time to read the whole article right now, but is the studio closed for business during this government takeover. I would think that they would still want it open for the money.

@SoloSideCousin

FWIW, Rian said on one of the podcasts when he was talking about TLJ that Disney/LF have a department just for monitoring fake leaks. It's how he was notified of fake script leaks/titles etc. He even gave an example of one, but I can't remember the name right now.

“And it felt so right to me that I was constantly petrified that it was either going to leak online or somebody was going to guess it because I actually thought it was a pretty obvious title so, here’s a secret. There’s like somebody at Disney and Lucasfilm who like monitors for leaks or potential leaks online so anytime an email would pop up with someone from that department I would hold my breath and click it and just ‘please don’t have guessed the title, don’t know the title’ and then [sighs with relief] thank god.”

Also, on the leak including a title, I find that really questionable. In the Director and the Jedi, Rian only notified Hamill of the title during filming (not sure what stage it was exactly but near the end I think). Just when he's about to tell him, he says that he can't tell his wife or anybody, its just him and Mark, because only a couple of people know.  So they keep it pretty closely guarded and if they notified Hamill that late, especially considering the title specifically pertained to him, then they probably told the other actors afterwards so I think very few people must know of it right now.

There's Mon Cala as well. But I honestly don't think we're going to see any familiar planets from canon or Legends in the ST - unless the Mustafar rumours of yore turn out to be true. They haven't even been using familiar alien species. (They're really trying to make Abednedos (sp?) happen...)

If there's an underwater world, I'd guess it's something completely new.

Also, wouldn't an underwater world be mostly, if not entirely CGI? Large water tank reminds me of a large body of water where the action would be at least for the most part on the water.

Darth Dingbat wrote:There's Mon Cala as well. But I honestly don't think we're going to see any familiar planets from canon or Legends in the ST - unless the Mustafar rumours of yore turn out to be true. They haven't even been using familiar alien species. (They're really trying to make Abednedos (sp?) happen...)

If there's an underwater world, I'd guess it's something completely new.

Also, wouldn't an underwater world be mostly, if not entirely CGI? Large water tank reminds me of a large body of water where the action would be at least for the most part on the water.

@Darth Dingbat

yep so something doesn't compute. We'll see. Like I said, he "knows" disconnected "super secret" stuff which means he is highly placed and those types never leak anything, duh.

vaderito wrote:

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:5 year old caucasian boy? How can I get my kid an audition for this possibly FAF role?

I'm assuming it's for little Ben, but will we get more Ben backstory in IX? I'm hoping.

@Cowgirlsamurai

No, the leaker says Caucasian toddler. No sex specified nor the age. Toddler = much younger than 5

Lucasfilm is currently underway casting a character so secret that they aren’t even doing it under their own name. The listing is calling for a Caucasian child not much older than a toddler.

Re: Malta. 4chan poster dug up this info about the studios. Apparently, huge legal trouble, he questions the credibility of the leak:

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/41469/appeals_court_upholds_eviction_of_mediterranean_film_studios#.WunYJy7wa70

https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20180206/local/one-bid-for-film-studio-but-it-was-non-compliant.669910

@vaderito

Oops! I think I saw the five years thing and mixed up the info. Not much older than a toddler would probably mean a 3 year old. I have one of those too! But she probably wouldn't pass for caucasian, and definitely not a little Rey. I wonder what other parts it could be for... Probably not broombois/girlz because they looked like 6-7.

the more I think about it, the more it's "I know all the top secrets, except what the movie's about." heh.

I'm just glad the "spoilers" have started. It's always fun to speculate on and analyze these things, even if they are FAF.  I was just thinking today that this 1.5 years is going to be a really long slog, especially since we know from TLJ that Disney/LF can keep secrets like no one's business.

SoloSideCousin wrote:I'm just glad the "spoilers" have started. It's always fun to speculate on and analyze these things, even if they are FAF.  I was just thinking today that this 1.5 years is going to be a really long slog, especially since we know from TLJ that Disney/LF can keep secrets like no one's business.

@SoloSideCousin

we'll receive real mixed with FAF. use common sense. some things make sense right away like Bothan Spy. if the leak doesn't exhibit the usual red flags of FAF it could be considered as a potential real.

Oh fake spoilers and BTS intel about Trevorrow getting fired/his saltiness are pretty damn entertaining. Doesn't matter whether there's any real information to be found in them, they're completely entertaining topics on their own to discuss.

I don't think the time jump can be too long because we have Supreme Leader Kylo Ren facing problems within the FO's ranks

* What happened in the Throne Room ain't gonna stay in the Throne Room and he betrayed the leader of the FO for 100% personal reasons (power and protecting the woman he's in love with).

* Also going to look very suspicious that Rey escaped afterwards, for a 2nd time no less. That's going to appear like the two of them are in a plan to take down the FO. Also LBR, he was thinking about taking out Snoke b/c Han's warning came true and he realized that he'd killed him for nothing other than more humiliation, goal post moving, further loss (ordering him to kill Rey), and his own life being in danger. But the real motivation and opportunity was because of her. He fully expected that she'd go along with his idea and it'd be the two of them together ruling the galaxy. Being Supreme Leader is his Plan B/fallback school and it's not going well for him at the close of TLJ

* Hux has managed to kill every single person, including his father, who got in the way of his ambitions. And there's only so many times Force Choking is going to work to keep him heeled. Especially when he and Kylo hate each other.

* Fry novel uses Snoke's PoV to show that the FO only made it this far because of his connections/machinations because surviving leadership was too busy turning on each other in power plays. Without Snoke capping that pressure, it's going to resume.

* Fry novel also uses Peavey's PoV to show that Imperial old timers dislike Hux and the rest of the "Empire needs children" recruits (turns out that plan didn't account for actually mentoring/training them, which is one of TLJ's themes). So there's no love/loyalty there either and it hints at Peavey thinking about how they'll need to take out Hux.

I vaguely remember now too that KK said on The Star Wars Show last year they wanted to explore these characters further. So, a five year time gap would actually be very beneficial to making this happen and we could have a standalone trilogy about the timeframe between The Last Jedi and Episode IX. This also gives time to dream of hopefully finding a way to have Mama Leia confront Ben and that could be the turning point of what pushed him more towards being Benperor and creating more juicy bits with Hux! So many possibilities. Plus there's John saying, “ I can’t wait to start shooting the next and final leg of the [Star Wars] franchise. The first step is growing out my hair, so you can wait for the trailer to see why". So, he did hint at there being a timegap.

@snufkin

Yes! Hux's death stare at the end of TLJ implies (to me) that he's going to take action against Kylo pretty quickly. Not five years from now. He also has to know that something's going on with "the girl" and that Snoke's death didn't go down the way Kylo says it did.

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:@snufkin

Yes! Hux's death stare at the end of TLJ implies (to me) that he's going to take action against Kylo pretty quickly. Not five years from now. He also has to know that something's going on with "the girl" and that Snoke's death didn't go down the way Kylo says it did.

@Cowgirlsamurai

I agree. If they wait too long to have Hux try and take out Kylo, they might mess up their momentum.

@Cowgirlsamurai @rawpowah - I'd guess that's one of Rian's arguments in favor of Renperor. Get Snoke out of the way because he's been the tap on the internal pressure/friction among FO leadership, primarily between Hux and Snoke. And DG has said that both times Hux comes upon Kylo knocked on his a** thanks to Rey, that he wants to kill him but circumstances intervene. He's not blabbing anything that's top secret to IX, but that's just an opportunity I'd go for if I were writing the script.

4chan leaks were right about absolutely nothing in TLJ. 4chan has leaks every blue moon but it's usually around the time when they're showing screenings of a movie. This ain't real.

ZioRen wrote:4chan leaks were right about absolutely nothing in TLJ. 4chan has leaks every blue moon but it's usually around the time when they're showing screenings of a movie. This ain't real.

@ZioRen

The only thing they get leaks of is the visual dictionary, which happened for both TLJ and TFA I think (I was following spoilers pre-TFA).

Anyway, yet more proof that everything surrounding Ben Solo is being kept on a tight leash. Daniel José Older, author of the Last Shot novel is doing an AMA on reddit and was asked this:

One of the biggest aspects I noticed that has been talked about from "Last Shot" is the presence of scenes featuring a young Ben Solo, and his presence in Han's life. Particularly, the one scene with the kitchen droid has caused a lot of discussion and stir online.

When asked about what he wasn't and was allowed to write for the "The Last Jedi" novelization, Jason Fry said that he worked with Rian Johnson on specific book scenes. Fry also mentioned that he had to be careful not to write too much of Kylo or Ben's POV in the book, because it went into "spoiler" territory.

My question is, did you approach writing Ben Solo's character in "Last Shot" similarly, and/or work more closely with others on it? Are there certain scenes in "Last Shot" that are particularly important or crucial, especially in relation to the sequel trilogy, or upcoming "Star Wars" content?

And what were some of the best, or most challenging, scenes or characters to write in "Last Shot"?

His reply:

ahhh great question but I'm not sure which parts I'm allowed to answer so i'm going to have to skip right to the end

That's two authors in a row now who basically have to shut up whenever Ben/Kylo is brought up. Even when you're writing a novel featuring a Baby Ben Solo.

@Kylo Rey Three counting Claudia Grey, who said she had to negotiate with the story group to include references to Ben (because c'mon, Leia has to think at least a little about her kid even if she dumped him on Luke) and post TLJ admitted that she'd read the script and knew what was going to happen as part of writing Bloodline.

snufkin wrote:@Kylo Rey Three counting Claudia Grey, who said she had to negotiate with the story group to include references to Ben (because c'mon, Leia has to think at least a little about her kid even if she dumped him on Luke) and post TLJ admitted that she'd read the script and knew what was going to happen as part of writing Bloodline.

@snufkin

With Claudia knowing what was going to happen in TLJ, it makes the following passage from Bloodline even more interesting in hindsight:

Kylo Rey wrote:

ZioRen wrote:4chan leaks were right about absolutely nothing in TLJ. 4chan has leaks every blue moon but it's usually around the time when they're showing screenings of a movie. This ain't real.

@ZioRen

The only thing they get leaks of is the visual dictionary, which happened for both TLJ and TFA I think (I was following spoilers pre-TFA).

Anyway, yet more proof that everything surrounding Ben Solo is being kept on a tight leash. Daniel José Older, author of the Last Shot novel is doing an AMA on reddit and was asked this:

One of the biggest aspects I noticed that has been talked about from "Last Shot" is the presence of scenes featuring a young Ben Solo, and his presence in Han's life. Particularly, the one scene with the kitchen droid has caused a lot of discussion and stir online.

When asked about what he wasn't and was allowed to write for the "The Last Jedi" novelization, Jason Fry said that he worked with Rian Johnson on specific book scenes. Fry also mentioned that he had to be careful not to write too much of Kylo or Ben's POV in the book, because it went into "spoiler" territory.

My question is, did you approach writing Ben Solo's character in "Last Shot" similarly, and/or work more closely with others on it? Are there certain scenes in "Last Shot" that are particularly important or crucial, especially in relation to the sequel trilogy, or upcoming "Star Wars" content?

And what were some of the best, or most challenging, scenes or characters to write in "Last Shot"?

His reply:

ahhh great question but I'm not sure which parts I'm allowed to answer so i'm going to have to skip right to the end

That's two authors in a row now who basically have to shut up whenever Ben/Kylo is brought up. Even when you're writing a novel featuring a Baby Ben Solo.

@Kylo Rey

Honestly, if he can't write much of Ben as a 2-year-old ... that really makes me think that there will be childhood flashbacks.

@ISeeAnIsland I wonder if maybe Ben as Supreme Leader might’ve learned a thing or two from his Unca Wanwo