Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[makkuwata]

Love it. Sort of a Samurai Vader.

[Jug McKenzie]

Love it. Sort of a Samurai Vader.

Someone over at theforce.net also just pointed out the similarity with early Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Darth Vader:

I love it too!

[makkuwata]

Nice.

It just occured to me to do a google image search for Samurai Vader. The people want this it seems.

[Professor Puzzles]

Vader looks like a samurai anyway.

[makkuwata]

Granted. Samuraier.

[Commander Jameson]

One last trailer remake:

Bonus Star Wars on-set pictures from continuity and script supervisor, Ann Skinner:

http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2014/12/29/7461615/star-wars-new-hope-polaroids-set-photos

[Fury4k]

That smiling Tarkin photo is great. Reminiscent of some of those candid Nazi photographs.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

There's a new piece of ship concept/promo art doing the rounds (afraid I've lost the link) but while the ship in it is nothing special (a reworking of the TIE Bomber with shuttle elements), there's a more innocuous detail in the picture that overshadows it a bit...

..chiefly the presence of the Emperor's Royal Guards. Is the great man in this as well? Be a shame if he was as while I love the guy, the character served his purpose there's really no need to drag him out of the grave.

[TehStu]

Perhaps they weren't given their P45.

[JohnC]

There's a new piece of ship concept/promo art doing the rounds (afraid I've lost the link) but while the ship in it is nothing special (a reworking of the TIE Bomber with shuttle elements), there's a more innocuous detail in the picture that overshadows it a bit...

..chiefly the presence of the Emperor's Royal Guards. Is the great man in this as well? Be a shame if he was as while I love the guy, the character served his purpose there's really no need to drag him out of the grave.

Presumably if the Empire is still clinging on, there has to be an Emperor, even if it isn't the same one.

[Timbuktu]

Hmm... Could be an interesting piece of casting:

Twitch is reporting that three of the main actors from Gareth Evans The Raid and The Raid 2 have roles in J.J. Abrams Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The actors in question are the lead actor Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian (who played Mad Dog and Prakoso in the films) and Cecep Arif Rahman, who played The Assassin and fought in the kitchen finale of the sequel (seen above right, with Uwais).http://www.slashfilm.com/the-raid-star-wars-force-awakens/

Sith, Jedi or bounty hunters?

[Mr. Gerbik]

Now I'll be disappointed if

Mad Darth

doesn't win the entire film

[Jumble Jumble]

He'd be renamed Darth Insanius, of course.

[makkuwata]

A new Star Wars movie with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford is coming out this year you guys.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I'd rather have the hoverboard I was promised.

[makkuwata]

Nah, they're fun yet disposable movies. I'll take badass Harrison Ford in an inevitable brown trenchcoat and a bearded Hamill/Obi-Wan figure.

[Vulgar Monkey]

This thing?

http://www.blastr.com/2015-1-4/leaked-concept-art-could-reveal-new-uber-tie-fighter-star-wars-force-awakens

Looks awright. I like the royal colour scheme, and it fits with the other ships we've seen in that it's a believable refit of existing older designs.

Seems a bit shitty if it's filling in for the emperors royal transport though. Kinda like replacing the queens Rolls with a Ford Focus. Fits with the established lore though if everyone has built up a war deficit.

[Professor Puzzles]

Ooh, I like that thing, it reminds me of some of the funkier TIE Fighters in that game with the TIE Fighters in. Can't remember the title, something to do with TIE Fighters.

I actually prefer the old TIE Fighter game to any of the Star Wars movies for some reason.

[Vulgar Monkey]

X-Wing Alliance?

[Wiper]

TIE Fighter is the reason that my favourite Star Wars spacecraft is the definitely-not-in-the-movies tri-wing TIE Defender. Monster of a ship.

[TehStu]

Problem with the TIE Defender is there's no practical way to land it. The pilot has to jog alongside the assembly line and jump into the cockpit, Dukes of Hazzard style, as the thing is flung into space at the end.

Brave, are TIE boys.

[glb]

Couldn't the TIE Defender dock on some kind of space hook... in space... on the outside of a spacestation... with gravity locks or some stuff?

No, no, you're quite right, I have no idea what I am talking about. Still, ship looks cool, which is nice.

[Sponge]

I don't get it, why can't they land? It would just be the same as a regular TIE?

[TehStu]

At the risk of metaphorically discussing if the plane would take off, I seem to recall TIEs are generally grabbed with arms from above, by the "wing" connectors, and just sort of dropped into space. Think that was from the Force Unleashed. If you look at a TIE Defender, the top wing doesn't really allow that. It'd need to land on wheels with 20 foot stalks.

[Vulgar Monkey]

Because the empire got a bit too used to tie pilots being expendable units with a 5 minute lifespan and forgot that some of them might last long enough that they want to stretch their legs or take a piss from time to time.

But yeah, given the layout you'd think arms grabbing from the front/rear would work better.

[Sponge]

Oh I thought they just landed on their wing tips. So no variation of TIE can land anywhere other than a TIE dock? That's a bit shit.

[TehStu]

As a result of this discussion, I actually searched for "TIE fighter landing gear." That's one for the hall of shame in my Google search history.

[Jumble Jumble]

I'd love it if it was just, like, the landing gear from a Hercules appears out of the bottom.

[jonamok]

Oh I thought they just landed on their wing tips. So no variation of TIE can land anywhere other than a TIE dock? That's a bit shit.

Pretty sure they do land and take off from wing edges in SW: Rebels. And that baby is canon.

[Mr Cochese]

Star Wars fans are so much cooler than Trekkies.