There has been an awakening—have you felt it? In case the Force is not strong with you, here's the skinny: The first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is coming. Soon. Probably. The latest rumors stipulate it's about two months away. But again, those are rumors. Nothing official. Unofficially, though, everyone is already hyped for the follow-up to The Force Awakens, as you're about to discover. Folks are even getting so excited they're starting to care about what characters are wearing in particular scenes. Yes, dear Padawans: This is the highlight reel of Star Wars news and rumors for the last two weeks.
Source: Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, and then the internet
Probability of Accuracy: It depends which aspect you're talking about. Part of it is entirely genuine—and then there's the rest.
The Real Deal: Announcing that he'd be showing up at Star Wars Celebration in April, Rian Johnson tweeted a behind-the-scenes photo of the stormtroopers from the new movie:
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Fans immediately wondered if something was going on with those troopers, and Johnson was only too glad to set the record straight:
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But it wasn't just the trooper redesign that people were thinking about; that one taking his helmet off in the back seemed a little familiar, as well…
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Well, we'd already heard that Tom Hardy would be in the movie, so...
Source: A combination of anonymous sources online and Lucasfilm
Probability of Accuracy: Take this one with a grain of salt.
The Real Deal: The April 14 Celebration panel for Star Wars: The Last Jedi that Johnson was announcing has convinced people that a trailer for the movie will surface that day, which makes a lot of sense—the first trailer for Rogue One came out April 7 last year, after all—but, for those who can't wait until then, there's an impressively detailed description of what might be in the trailer doing the rounds online. No spoilers here, but it's interesting to see Captain Phasma apparently getting a lot of attention in this teaser, considering her highly promoted appearance in The Force Awakens that ended up translating into very little screen time in the actual movie.
Source: Reports from behind the scenes of Last Jedi
Probability of Accuracy: Who can tell, at this point?
The Real Deal: Meanwhile, rumors are beginning to emerge regarding the costuming choices on The Last Jedi. Specifically, tongues are wagging about the possibility that Finn will spend part of the movie undercover as a First Order officer on board a Super Star Destroyer. (The report suggests that he's there to try to destroy the thing, but it's hard to tell if that's his primary objective.) This rumor seems plausible simply because going undercover on a bad guy ship is a Star Wars tradition. But an undercover hero who actually used to be a bad guy? That's new.
Source: Official publicity for a spending bonanza
Probability of Accuracy: Completely accurate.
The Real Deal: For those wondering just when they'll be able to buy all the latest Last Jedi merchandise, some good news; Force Friday II—an orchestrated launch for merch for the new movie, following up on a similar event for The Force Awakens—is happening September 1, with a promotional image for the event offering a look at Rey, Finn, and Poe from the new movie. No specific spoilers can really be read from the image, aside from the fact that Rey's let her hair down (note: no Padawan braid), and Finn has woken up from his coma, but that was no big surprise, surely. (See above.)
Source: Lucasfilm and Marvel themselves
Probability of Accuracy: On target.
The Real Deal: Meanwhile, Marvel has revealed a second Star Wars comic book crossover, as the main Star Wars comic will join the Star Wars: Doctor Aphra series for a five-issue run called Star Wars: Screaming Citadel, which will see Luke, Aphra, and others have to deal with… a haunted mansion? "Star Wars is a genre mash," co-writer Kieron Gillen explained. "It takes from a load of sources and you can see what they’re doing, and the whole entire point is having that integrate. The trick is, we're going to do this quite-hard twist, as in we're going to lean very much to this particular genre that we haven't seen in Star Wars before, and that's a big part of the appeal. 'Let's do a horror story, and let's do a horror story with this level of gothic fantasy to it.'" The storyline starts in May with a one-off Star Wars: Screaming Citadel issue, before continuing through two issues each of the Star Wars and Doctor Aphra series.
