Yeah, those leaks about Finn and Poe going off on an unrelated subplot are bloody bs. It’s A. too early for leaks with the filming timeline and B. John and Daisy already confirmed they’d be shooting together, and that will talks that John and Adam were sword training together and that Gleeson said he had been filming with Adam so far, I think it’s safe to say that any leaks of separation are Reylow propaganda.
Reysky stans reaction to the leak about Rey fixing Anakin’s old lightsaber display in glaring light why I don’t trust the ones who profess to care about Finn. Because not a single one of the raised any objection to the selfsame leak shoving Finn into a side plot, that the whole plot of IX is supposed to be about building a conflict between Kylo and Rey and that the final battle are between these two as well.
They were all too busy flipping out over the “confirmation” that Rey fixing the lightsaber means JJ is changing her background and making her a Skywalker.
So no, I do not trust reysky stans post TLJ, no matter how much the profess to love Finn. Because they’ll throw him and his character under the bus at the first hint that white girl is special, celebrating all the while.
If that’s the actual plot they can count me out. It sounds boring as shit.
About 90% if you ask me. I’m not even worried about that. I know things like Finnrey, Reysky and ForceFinn are gonna happen. Now how JJ works it all together and world builds is my concern.
I certainly hope so. If J.J. wants to blow up my heart he can give us Force-immune/Force Void Finn.
Now I’m not for a Kylo redemption personally. I’m more in the let him rot away in jail cut away from the force like Ozai or have him on the run as a wanted fugitive. Nevertheless, one thing I’ll never understand is why does everyone put Reylow and Kylo redemption in the same spot? cousins, siblings, former classmates, or party members in a Fortnite match, nothing is going to change the fact that Kylo and Rey aren’t friends or even close. At this point its clear as day that Finn and Rey are in love with each other and they’re both going to be fighting against Kylo.
Regardless of if Kylo lives, dies, goes into exile or prison, Kylo and Rey will never be anything other than enemies.
God tier is if Finn does turn out to be a Force Void, and after Rey distracts Ren by fighting him to a standstill Finn and Ghost Luke move in to cut Kylo’s ties to the Force, giving him an Ozai ending of powerlessness and jail. If Finn can invert his Force Void and project it on others he would have the raw power to neutralize Kylo’s threat permanently. Luke, who did it to himself in life, has the experience to guide Finn.
Afterward Kylo tries to throw his Force powers around like he’s used to, and imagine how ridiculous he would look–he reaches out at Finn to strangle him and nothing happens. He tries to snatch Rey’s lightsaber and it doesn’t even rattle. He tries to mind-trick the Poe, and at Poe’s order the Resistance tackle the Supreme Leader, cuffing him. (Bonus points if they can work in Leia watching sadly but impassively, maybe by screen.) Ren has an epic meltdown as he’s arrested and we all see him for the ridiculous manchild he is without making him some tragic martyr figure, in-universe or in the real world.
Finn going from unconsciously defending himself with his Force immunity to projecting it outward, btw, would also be a neat parallel to his character arc from being focused on protecting himself and those in his immediate sphere to making changes in the universe at large. If he is a Force Void it’s likely to be his innate powers responding to trauma and danger, so of course its first application would be to shield and defend himself. As he realizes he cannot be free without others and his sphere of protection expands, so the Force Void itself would turn outward and would ultimately reach the level of actively taking out threats.
So basically Rey is Zuko in this scenario who was tortured and mindfucked by Ozai before she defies and leaves him, but refuses to kill him despite having a clear chance because she sees it’s not her path. Ghost Luke is the Lion Turtle, a supernatural font of ancient lost wisdom who knows the source of all power and knows how to cut it off. Finn is Aang, brought up to be an emotionless fighting machine before he runs away, bearer of a unique power that earned him the Big Bad’s undying enmity before he learns the ancient knowledge and neuters the villain without killing him. It would be like the Avatar finale except better foreshadowed and more organically intertwined in the protagonist’s arc.
(And then we end IX with a great big Zukaang kiss, hopefully.)
“Rian Johnson wasn’t hired to do Episode IX because he’s too busy! JJ was available and doing nothing!”
JJ Abrams is probably one of the most sought after directors in the business right now and talk whatever crap you want about him, his name right now is attached to some of the critical acclaimed things that it would take longer to list than it would be to list the almost laughable resume Rian Johnson has.
Disney and Lucasfilm had to do freaking backflips and jump threw fire hoops just to get JJ Abrams from Paramount. Disney and Lucasfilm had to pay to hire JJ Abrams, just so they could pay him again, just so he legally could work on IX.
Put that into perspective. Disney and Lucasfilm would have rather spent millions to get JJ Abrams back, then give Johnson Episode IX and watch him completely destroy the franchise beyond repair that even Sony’s Amazing Spider-Man 2 would blush at how bad he fucked up a franchise.
JJ Abrams was hired to come back to direct IX because Rian Johnson was poison and everyone knows it. IMO, Johnson’s trilogy officially died the same day Bob Iger apologized for letting Lucasfilm be ran so ass backwards and then killed off any spinoff movies till only Qui-Gon Jin knows when.
If anyone is expecting to get more of TLJ is IX, I hate to break it to you, Disney and Lucasfilm want IX to be nothing like that hot piece of trash. They can’t publicly bash it or disown it due to that would make them look bad, but be assure that they Rian Johnson screwed up. If they didn’t think that, Johnson would be the one directing IX, not JJ. If anyone, including Johnson says otherwise, they don’t understand filmmaker, in denial, or a damn liar.
Seriously, if they wanted a repeat or direct continuation of TLJ why wouldn’t they just use RJ who would’ve been way easier and cheaper to get?
It would be disturbingly cheaper. Just comparing JJ’s IMDb page to Johnson’s is laughable. The only other big films Johnson has done besides TLJ, was The Brothers Bloom (2008) and Looper (2012). Both of which are now forgotten. Meanwhile if you blink, JJ Abrams has already sneaked into your home and uploaded a copy of his new Cloverfiled movie that is just a 2 and half teaser for IX.
The lengths some people go to in order to worship RJ makes me laugh. Honestly he is the worst. He caused a bitter split in the Star Wars fandom and screwed up a 40 year old franchise. Give me JJ over RJ any day.
Do you have links for the Bob Iger apology and the official cancellation of RJ’s trilogy? I would love to read them if you do!
@skywalkerrains Here is the interview The Hollywood Reporter did with Iger a couple months ago where he basically admitted that he made a mistake in pumping out so much so soon:
As far as I’m aware (someone correct me if I’m wrong), RJ’s trilogy hasn’t been officially cancelled or anything, but many people think it is because in recent interviews with higher ups, such as this one, they haven’t mentioned the trilogy when talking about future projects and I haven’t heard any news about the trilogy in months. I personally don’t think it will happen, but that there won’t be any official announcement since that might look bad. I think they would just bank on most people forgetting that it was ever a thing.
@awesomeswimmer21 Thank you so much! I hope like crazy RJ’s trilogy gets offically cancelled.
That would be a glorious day indeed : D
IMO I doubt it’ll happen. Johnson’s trilogy will just get locked in “development” for years until its’ eventually canceled due to schedule conflicts. If Johnson was actually going to be making a new trilogy, do you think he would have started working on his busted ass new film “Knives Out” or been working with Lucasfilm to start production on his new set? The fact that Lucasfilm hasn’t mentioned a word about this says something loud.
The last news including facts about this trilogy was RJ saying it was so hard to write bc it didn’t include the Skywalkers. We all know he couldn’t write shit even WITH the Skywalkers. I would bet that there isn’t even a half solid outline for this trilogy out there…
Who knew that handing a multimillion dollar movie to a director with zero blockbuster experience and very little cred in even indie productions wouldn’t turn out well? The outcome was impossible to predict! ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The most satisfying one for me personally would be a Stormtrooper uprising because it engages the most with Finn’s background and the moral dilemma he represents. Force sensitive Finn for me is just established canon whether IX chooses to show it or not, and the only thing that keeps audiences in denial is racism (which is why it’s a good idea for IX to make it explicit, of course). What I find REALLY interesting Force-wise, personally, is not even so much Force sensitive Finn as Force immune Finn, leader of the uprising, having a showdown with Kylo Ren. But if I can’t have that I see an uprising without explicit Force sensitivity to be the next best thing.
I really find the wall behind Vic here interesting. Lets see what I can make out.
A picture of someone dressed as Vader in a pink fur coat. (Where can I get a copy, it’s hilarious.)
A print out of part of the opening scroll for TFA.
A paraphrased quote by Sufi mystic Rumi, which is about how rigid adherence to religious doctrine is as bad as no belief at all.
A picture of a young woman looking like a wild west gunslinger.
Several of what I suppose tumblr would call mood boards. One that look FO inspired and one with a desert mountain and a jungle on it among other things.
Someone, possible a young woman you can only see the very bottom of the person’s face, with a bouquet of flowers.
Someone sitting cross legged in a white, futuristic looking room.
A picture of several hot air balloons.
A bird of some sort in flight.
A multitude of animal masks.
Furthermore:
A protection amulet against the evil eye?
Wonder if that is JJ’s or Vic’s? Don’t know Vic well enough to say, but I could definitely see JJ having one. Or more. But on the other hand, this is Vic’s office. Unless it’s an open, shared office. Idk
A book by Gordon Parks, a Black movie director, titled “A Poet and his Camera.” It’s on the table
If you can make out anything more than that please add.
Addition;
So the person in the Vader mask and pink fur coat is Vic.
Can I just declare my undying love for her already?
I’m going to assume you meant “Jedha scenes” and not “Jedi scenes” (damn you autocorrect). If not please elaborate because then I have no idea what you’re referring to.
Truth be told I don’t think the chance is very great. In fact of all the pre-existing locations Jedha is probably the least likely. Not that it wouldn’t be a great place to revisit and I really hope Jedha would take a bigger and more significant place in canon given it past, but the climate of Jedha post- Death Star attack is not one that lends itself to extended outdoor location shooting.
Even though people kept living on Jedha for years after the Death Star’s attack it was a frigid hellscape plagued by constant dust storms, which required breathing masks to move about outside even then. And it was clear that it would only get worse from then on. So 34 years plus whatever timeskip there is between TLJ and IX, after it would likely take environmental suits or something to move about outside. And even if it didn’t take that much, creating extended dust storms in an outdoor location seems more bother than it’s worth.
As per the Roya News article posted yesterday the shooting at Wadi Rum took about three weeks, which is the same amount of time as the Jakku shooting in Saudia Arabia did for TFA. So we can expect something of the same length as the Jakku sequence in IX at wherever Wadi Rum is supposed to be.
Technically speaking if they were to recreate Jedha and have that long a sequence there, cgi, set pieces and green screen would to me make for a more logical choice things being what they are.
Plus Wadi Rum is basically big movie’s go to location for “rocky desert scenery” to the extend that Jordan have an industry catering exclusively to big movie companies that come there to shoot. So for any rocky desert location that JJ had in mind shooting at Wadi Rum would be a perfectly logical choice.
So yeah, I do think Jedha unlikely as much as I want to see the place again. If I were to place a bet on where Wadi Rum is my money would be on either Jakku doue to its significance for both Finn and Rey, and the fact that in early new canon it was being set up as a place of significance for the story, or somewhere new we’ve never heard of before.
~Mod Mara
Yeah I meant Jedha shots sorry for the confusion 😂 I agree Jedha isn’t very likely, I just wish they’d revisit its significance in some way if not the location since this is a trilogy purportedly about the meaning of the Force.
I’d be very excited if IX revisited Jakku especially if they deal with Finn and Rey’s history with the place. Maybe they’ll even use some of the EU plot threads, who knows.
Let’s see… The movie would open with Finn in the cockpit of the Falcon, which is being piloted by Chewbacca and copiloted by Poe. They’re on a recruitment mission with Rose. Finn is arguing that the remaining FO Stormtroopers are on the verge of mass defection because Phasma is no longer there to keep them in line, and Kylo Ren’s leadership is decimating the troops. Poe is skeptical. He doesn’t trust anyone involved with the FO and considers Finn an anomaly.
Resigned, Finn goes to the cabin to find Rey pacing the floor, book in hand, C3PO tottering beside her. She’s upset. She doesn’t understand the passage she’s reading. To his focused mind, the passage relates to the trooper uprising somehow. Rey says no, this book is about the events of the past. 3PO makes a comment that if it was actually about future events, it would explain other passages. Rey is stunned that she may be holding an actual book of prophesies and, frightened, puts it down.
Finn picks up the book and starts reading it with C3PO. It’s very cryptic, but he starts to put it together. Suddenly, he puts the book down and returns to the cockpit. They need to change course.
*
Basically, I would do three things: Center on Finn (and the Finn and Rey dynamic) again, put Finn in the Jedi storyline and have him lead the Stormtrooper uprising. I think the two latter things will have to overlap if they’re both going to happen.
Of course, the plot will involve Naomie Ackiee’s character. I’d like to see Ackiee as the current leader of a political organization that evolved off of Enfys Nest’s group, but had been separate from the Resistance. Convincing her to join the new rebellion will be a challenge. Members of her group, who are also skeptical, include alien characters played by Dom Monaghan (the film’s comic relief along with 3PO) and Matt Smith. They’ll come around, of course.
Lando, it turns out, is on the planet of the Enfys Nest group, and is stunned to see the Falcon. He knows Han is dead and thinks it’s been stolen – until he sees Chewbacca. He joins them without hesitation, ready to avenge his friend.
Lando will have Luke’s green saber somehow. He keeps it a secret until Finn shares with him that the famous saber was predicted to restore balance when it’s weilders (plural) use it in a battle to end the FO.
The FO plot is important to the uprising arc. I’d put Keri Russel in this arc. If I had full control, the Kylo Ren “angry white man” neonazi allegory would be even more clear. It would pick up what TLJ put down basically, no backtracking.
The FO will lose. Kylo Ren won’t have a happy ending, Rey and Finn will be the hope of the future, two new Jedi leading free ex Stormtroopers and the formerly enslaved from across the Galaxy.
Rey has reason to be upset about prophecies, too, given how she & Luke both made big mistakes by relying too much on their visions of the future. I hope during the time gap Rey & Finn help each other come to grips with the events of TLJ, what Kylo’s manipulation did to her, what being forced and blackmailed to stay with the Resistance and subsequently being willing to sacrifice himself did to him, and how what they each went through affects the other.
I think it’s possible. With JJ at the wheel, I don’t think either Finn or Rey will have an endgame romance with anyone else, but I think it’s possible that it ends like the first Pacific Rim, where Mako and Raleigh were together, but there’s no kiss or overt proof of romance.
I hated the ambiguity of Mako/Raleigh in PR, because it called to mind the ‘90s Hollywood movies starring Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li, where they could be heroes, but they couldn’t kiss the girl (not just the white girl – Jet Li’s kiss with Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die was cut because it made test audiences uncomfortable. Romeo Must Die was a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but test audience didn’t like the idea of a Chinese Romeo and a Black Juliet kissing). Or, more directly, Will Smith iRobot and I am Legend.
I think it’s more likely that Finn and Rey get a “safe” ambiguous ending together than an ending that shoots down Finnrey completely. I do think that would be cowardly. I don’t think it’s something JJ is afraid of – he unapologetically brought Spuhura to the screen even though it was an unpopular move with fans, including a huge number of passionate Spirk shippers. But, of course, JJ won’t have the last word.
The first two trilogies ended with hope for the future far more than romance. Both ended with Luke and Leia, and I think Luke and Leia will have a place in the ending of ix. The hope for the future, though, is Finn and Rey. It’s more important to me that Finn’s importance is made clear than anything else.
I’m rooting for an onscreen kiss but if they go with a strong and intimate friendship I won’t be broken up about it, just annoyed that Lucasfilm are being cowards in 20fucking19. I’ll just take John’s going to bat for Finnrey as canon confirmation, another reason I doubt Finnrose or Damerey would happen even if explicit Finnrey doesn’t. Daisy also shot down Damerey almost as hard as Reylow anyway. It would be even better if we get post-IX materials mentioning/featuring a Finnrey romance and children, since the franchise seems less gun-shy away from the big screen.
L.J.'s Obsessions 