May the 4th be with You

What a great weekend!  Free Comic Book Day on Saturday and Star Wars Day on Bank Holiday Monday!

I must admit I was expecting something from The Force Awakens to drop today but until they revealed the cover last night I definitely wasn't expecting a full Vanity Fair photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz!

To be honest I am slightly disappointed.  I was really hoping for them to give us our first real look at Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.  Part of this is purely because Luke is my favourite character and the suspense is killing me, but the other part is purely pragmatic.  September 4th has been announced as "Force Friday" when all of The Force Awakens merchandise will arrive in stores.  Four months from today everything from action figures to LEGO, t-shirts to kitchen utensils, and even Del Rey's prequel novel Aftermath will be in our stores.  And it's already been strongly hinted that we'll be seeing the first of Hasbro's The Force Awakens products revealed at this summer's San Diego Comic Con which is only a little over 2 months away (and before Ant-Man which is probably the most likely film for the next trailer).  I really don't want my first look at Episode VII's Luke Skywalker to be an action figure or merchandising artwork and May the 4th seemed, to me, like the best time to make that reveal.  That said, I trust the team behind this film, they obviously have a plan in place and from the massive amount of hype this film is generating it's clearly working.  I'm sure they'll make the Luke and Leia reveal when the time is right.  As Yoda would say, I must have patience.

And what was revealed is pretty awesome!  There's a few potential spoilers, given all of this has been officially released I'm guessing it's pretty safe but still, if you're trying to avoid everything then best stop reading now.



John Boyega, Daisy Ridely, Peter Mayhew and Harrison Ford with BB-8, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

How amazing is that cover?  Han and Chewie are home in the Falcon along with new heroes Rey and Finn and the little droid I'm almost certain is going to steal the show, BB-8.  It's so great to see Han and Chewie again this soon after the teaser and this image offers us a slightly clearer look at Han Solo's new outfit (and Chewie who doesn't seem to have aged a day!)

Not one, not two, but three articles on Vanity Fair!  The first features an interview with director J. J. Abrams (where he discusses killing Jar Jar Binks and the "wonderful preposterousness" of old-school effects) along with a photo gallery of 6 new images from the production of The Force Awakens and the second looks at those photos in a bit more detail whilst the third reveals the secrets of the chrome armoured Stormtrooper.

The first photo confirms what has long been suspected - Adam Driver is the one behind Kylo Ren's fearsome mask.

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren along with Snowtroopers of The First Order, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

For some reason I'm surprised his face is normal under that mask.  I don't know why but I'd imagined he'd be scarred or disfigured in some way under the hood.  Snowtroopers look pretty cool too.  The Vanity Fair article says that The First Order's secret base is in the frozen plains of the planet pictured above.  That definitely seems to match up with the image in the last teaser with all the Stormtroopers in front of the red First Order banner with snowy mountains in the background.

The article also reveals that Lupita Nyong'o will be playing the pirate Maz Kanata (who will be a CGI character) who has a castle filled with the classic assortment of scum and villainy;

Lupita Nyong'o in the motion capture outfit required to create Maz Kanata, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

The Scum and Villainy of Maz Katana's Castle, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Of course, Star Wars wouldn't be Star Wars without heroes and Vanity Fair offers up a new look at The Force Awakens' Rey and Poe Dameron.

Daisy Ridley as Rey with Director J. J. Abrams, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Oscaar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Finally, a third article brought one last reveal.  Confirming that it's  Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie in the awesome looking chrome Stormtrooper armour.  And that she has a name.  Captain Phasma.

Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

And if that's not enough there's a behind the scenes video as well;

And if that's still not enough then Vanity Fair have promised another character portrait will be sent out tomorrow to everyone that signs up to their newsletter by 8pm EST today.  Originally I thought this would be the image of Captain Phasma as she wasn't included in the initial photo set and a leaked scan of the magazine revealed the image before the third article was posted.  With that picture now revealed I'm not sure who we can expect to see tomorrow.  Maybe a new image of John Boyega's Finn or a full body shot of Han Solo and Chewbacca?  I know who I'm hoping for but I'm not expecting that anymore!

Pretty awesome Star Wars Day, huh?

John Williams, Kathleen Kennedy, Lawrence Kasdan and J. J. Abrams, Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Free Comic Book Day

Well it's Free Comic Book Day 2015 and for the first time since FCBD began I actually can't make it to a comic shop! Luckily my local store is saving me a copy of DC's Divergence and IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so I have plenty to look forward to next week.

Still getting in the mood though as I'll be watching The Dark Knight Rises with dad later.  He swears he hasn't seen it even though I remember watching it with him!  So I've brought Man of Steel and Guardians of the Galaxy as well, just in case we get halfway through and he remembers :)

Have a great bank holiday weekend!

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 to Premiere June 20th

StarWars.com announced today that Star Wars Rebels is set to return with a special one hour movie event, The Siege of Lothal, on Saturday June 20th at 9pm on Disney XD!

The first season of Rebels was great.  It really managed to capture that classic Star Wars vibe and with so many classic characters returning next season I can't wait to see where they go with it!  Here's the trailer from last month's Star Wars Celebration just to get you pumped up for it!

I'm really hoping that the UK gets it within a few days like we did last time otherwise it's a long wait until Fall.

Meet Casey Jones

Producer Michael Bay today gave us our first official look at Arrow's Stephen Amell as Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 when he posted the above picture on Twitter.

Honestly, I'm a little torn.  I love Amell in Arrow and I know he's gonna be a kick ass Casey Jones but I just can't help but feel something's missing.  Call me a traditionalist but I think Casey needs his long hair.  It offsets the size of the mask a bit and it just looks cool.  But I guess I've got time to get used to the new look and I'd much rather have an actor I like in the role than the hair so I can definitely live with it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 opens 3rd June 2016 and I'm hoping for a big improvement on last year's reboot.  Amell's casting was a big step in the right direction so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this.

Star Wars Comes to Disney Infinity!

This August Disney Infinity will take its first step into a larger world with the launch of Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars Edition and I can't wait!!

Surprisingly the news didn't come from Disney Interactive but from a German retailer as ComicBook.com reported that the retailer was listing the 3.0 Starter Pack for pre-order on PS4, X-Box One, Wii U, PS3 and X-Box 360 with a release date of 20th August.  The listing has since been taken down and Disney have made no official announcement, but Disney Infinity did tweet "Patience, you must have" in German shortly after the initial leak.

As you can see from the image above the Starter Pack appears to come with a ROTS Anakin Skywalker and a CW Ahsoka Tano along with a Prequel Trilogy/Clone Wars era playset.  It's actually a little less than previous editions have come with as the original starter pack came with 3 figures and 3 playsets whilst last year's Marvel Super Heroes Edition came with 3 figures and 1 playset.  But it's always possible that the playset piece may include multiple playsets so we'll have to wait and see what the official announcement brings.

If you've never played a Disney Infinity they have two main modes of play.  The first is the playsets.  These are set story adventures where you can only use characters relevant to that playset (so basically no bringing Darth Vader into the Clone Wars).  The playsets are generally fun to play but the main draw of Disney Infinity is the Toybox.  This is where you can let your imagination run wild and bring all your favourite franchises together.  Generally, if you can imagine it then you can do it.  Want to team Mickey Mouse up with Darth Vader?  The Toybox is where you can make that happen.

If Disney Interactive follow a similar pattern to previous editions then I'd expect the August 20th launch to consist of the Starter Pack pictured above, 1 or 2 Playset packs (each featuring 2 new characters and an additional playset) along with a wave of 10-15 additional figures and the first wave of blind bagged Power Discs (which offer everything for alternate costumes to power ups, vehicles to environment textures).  Then subsequent waves would bring more figures, Power Discs and hopefully another playset or two and mix in some Disney Originals content as well.

The box art hints at plenty of characters to come, including ANH Princess Leia, R2 & 3PO, Darth Vader, Yoda, ROTS Obi-Wan and I'd put good money on at least an Original Trilogy playset pack being available at launch, maybe a Rebels set as well.  Beyond that, well there's a certain movie called The Force Awakens coming out in December so you can bet there will be no shortage of content on the horizon!

I've loved the first two Disney Infinity games and can't wait to create my own Star Wars adventures in the Toybox!