Turns Out The Emperor's Laugh In The Rise Of Skywalker Trailer Was Old Footage

Turns Out The Emperor's Laugh In The Rise Of Skywalker Trailer Was Old Footage

Last week, fans were finally treated to the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, and were clued into some exciting news – the return of Emperor Palpatine to the franchise. At the end of the teaser for the over-40-year saga's final film, titled The Rise of Skywalker, an iconic maniacal laugh flooded the convention room floor. Right after that, Darth Sidious himself, Ian McDiarmid, took the stage to confirm his involvement and say "roll it again" to the uproarious fans at the event and watching at home.

But apparently Emperor Palpatine’s grand re-entrance to Star Wars was not an exclusive bit he helped bring to life for the new trailer (and movie?). Check out what Ian McDiarmid recently said:

That particular laugh was not specially recorded. They found it somewhere, probably from one of the old movies or in a digital vault, or maybe George’s iPhone, I don’t know.

I don’t know about you, but this bit of information is conflicting to me. If Palpatine is in the movie, why would they dig up an old laugh track of the actor’s voice from George Lucas' movies? Was the inclusion of the moment purely to inject that nostalgia in our veins – wait, will Ian McDiarmid even be in Rise of Skywalker at all?

Once I give this a bit more thought, my guess is: Yes, Emperor Palpatine will be back. (How can he not after that teaser reveal?) But maybe the inclusion of that specific laugh was just a means of getting the fans to identify the character’s return. The recycled laugh could still be a component of the movie, or maybe Palpatine isn’t quite as chipper in the upcoming Star Wars installment. In fact we don’t even know if he’ll actually be alive or not in the film.

Empire Magazine writer James Dyer, who was at SWCC, did take to Twitter to seemingly confirm that Ian McDiarmid was physically on the set of Rise of Skywalker. He confirmed the return via an interview with director J.J. Abrams, per this post:

During Ian McDiarmid’s interview at the Star Wars Celebration Chicago, the actor discussed why he particularly loved the trailer he got to be part of revealing:

What I liked about it, though, that’s why I think it is a real tease. I mean, the new title The Rise of Skywalker is wonderful, and then from the past, maybe from Hell a laughter comes, which sort of implies 'yeah right.' So in other words, Skywalkers’ rising? I don’t think so.

Of course, Ian McDiarmid can’t say anything about his role in the trailer and movie and has to play a little dumb during an interview such as this one. He does perhaps reiterate how the heroes in the new film may have to face Palpatine and of course The Dark Side. Since Snoke was killed off in The Last Jedi, and Kylo Ren has been struggling with his place as either a hero with a redemption story or the new trilogy’s main villain, it makes sense for Palpatine’s comeback to take place in a big way. Although the Star Wars actor is playing a villain with a quote like this one:

The headline of that whole panel and the trailer is the word 'tease.' So don’t take it too seriously - in fact, have a laugh about it.

How dare you tell us to laugh, Ian McDiarmid! Star Wars is serious business and not at all for our entertainment! If you need a refresher on the villain, check out our guide to everything you need to know about him. Start the countdown, as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20, 2019.

Read More

Avengers: Endgame Has Locked Its Movie Edit, Here’s How The Russos Celebrated

Avengers: Endgame Has Locked Its Movie Edit, Here’s How The Russos Celebrated

This weekend marks the release of Captain Marvel, meaning that Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers is understandably and rightly going to be getting a lot of attention. That said, it won’t be too much longer of a wait for the movie following this 1990s-set origin story, as Avengers: Endgame arrives at the end of April. That said, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have officially crossed another item off their Endgame to-do list by locking in the movie edit, and they celebrated this by snacking on some sugary treats.

If you’re wondering what it means for Avengers: Endgame to have its edit locked, it's that the Russos and their editing team are done assembling everything together. There’s still some work to be done before the movie is officially finished, namely the VFX crew putting the final touches on certain shots, but there won’t be anymore scenes thrown in or taken out. What’s in Endgame currently is what moviegoers will see when it’s finally thrown up on the big screen, so in these remaining weeks, the other departments can go about perfecting the final product. Crossing such a milestone definitely warrants hitting up the sundae bar, as the Russos showed on Twitter, although I’ll advocate for that being appropriate for any major achievement. I also appreciate that Whoppers were being offered, as they’re one of the underrated topping options.

One of the big questions that’s been asked about Avengers: Endgame over the last year is how long it will be. Back in November, Joe Russo said that the running time stood at three hours, and then in late December, he said there was a “high probability” it would clock in around that same period since, as he later put it, there’s a lot of “real estate.” Endgame’s runtime hasn’t been officially confirmed yet by Marvel, but whatever it is, it’s now set in proverbial stone. Endgame is not only the final Phase 3 installment, but also the end of this iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it began with 2008’s Iron Man, so it’s safe to assume that it will cover a lot of ground to give fans a proper conclusion of sorts.

With less than two months to go until Avengers: Endgame, presumably more advertising will be shown. That said, so far only one trailer and a Super Bowl TV spot have been released, and they provided barely any plot details. If Marvel is wanting to keep this secrecy train going, that’s going to make it hard to kick marketing to the next level, but considering how popular the MCU has grown over the last decade, it’s not like Marvel Studios has to worry about a low turnout for Endgame. Given how Avengers: Infinity War ended, you can be sure most, if not all the people who saw that movie will want to see how the conflict with Thanos is resolved.

Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters on April 26, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. For information about what else is coming down the MCU pipeline, look through our comprehensive Phase 4 guide.

Read More

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run Isn't Like Normal Theme Park Rides And That's An Issue

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run Isn't Like Normal Theme Park Rides And That's An Issue

The certerpiece of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is a full size recreation of the Millennium Falcon that sits at the heart of Black Spire Outpost. Next door to that you'll find the land's single (for the moment) E-ticket attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run. It promised to let guests pilot the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy themselves, and in that it delivers, but in a way that I'm not sure is going to appeal to every guest in the same way. It's more video game than theme park attraction.

The attraction's story set-up sees Hondo Ohnaka, of Star Wars: The Clone Wars fame, having made a deal with Chewbacca to borrow the Millennium Falcon. Ohnaka uses the ship for smuggling, but along with his own goods, he includes some for the Resistance, helping out Chewbacca as a form of payment. The guests are freelance smugglers looking for work at Black Spire Outpost.

We see all of this explained to us in the form of an Ohnaka animatronic character who speaks with Chewbacca on a screen. After that, guests are ushered down a corridor where they're met by a cast member who assigns flight roles in groups of six: two pilots, two gunners and two engineers. From there, you head down to the Falcon's galley where you can sit at the famous holo-chess table or otherwise wander around the most perfect recreation of the inside of the Falcon you could imagine. The room itself is a highlight of the entire attraction if you're a Star Wars fan.

When your crew is called, you make your way into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and the experience begins. In the most interesting decision, flight controls have been split in half between the two pilots. The left hand pilot controls the ship's horizontal movement, while the co-pilot controls the vertical. Gunners control a set of guns on the left and right side of the ship, which can be set to automatic to make targeting easier or manual to make things more of a challenge. Engineers handle deployment of a tow cable and also repair any damage done by collisions or blaster fire.

Without going into the specifics of the story (no need to spoil anything there), the pilots fly the ship, avoiding obstacles and getting gunners and engineers in position to do their jobs. There's plenty for everybody to do, especially if the pilots tend to crash into things, making more work for the engineers.

This is somewhat likely considering that flight is broken in half. Even if one pilot is a pro, if the other is not, you're going to be colliding with things a lot. On the one hand, it's understandable why they would split up control of the ship. It allows two people to feel like they are pilots rather than just one. Of course, it's not exactly efficient from an actual flight perspective. It's one of the few decisions made in all of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge that feels like a "theme park decision" rather than an "immersion" decision.

This level of interaction for a Disney Parks attraction is unparalleled; there's never been an experience that guests have had such control over and it really does make you feel like you're inside the Millennium Falcon. At the same time, that's not entirely a good thing. The interaction requires a lot more of the guest than previous attractions.

I got to sit in the co-pilot seat and actually help fly the Falcon when I visited the new land last week. As a longtime video game player, the experience feels largely like a "rail shooter." The Falcon's general course is set, you can't even control speed and you just have a basic ability to direct the Falcon up or down and left or right from within that set course.

In one moment, I saw an obstacle coming up, and it appeared that I would have the ability to fly over or under it. However, as the ship approached the obstacle, it came in low, meaning that I didn't actually have the ability to go over the object as I had planned, and it was too late to get low enough in time, resulting in a collision.

This was one of the major moments where I felt that I wasn't so much experiencing a theme park attraction as I was playing a video game. The ride even gives a score at the end based on how successful you were with your mission and how much damage you took. Gunners shooting at TIE Fighters certainly have a similar experience.

As a lifelong video game player, I'm not necessarily against this idea, but thinking about it in broader terms, I found the whole thing limiting. For every person who wants to ride Smuggler's Run several times to try and get the best score, there's going to be somebody who just wants to sit back and enjoy the ride. That doesn't appear to be an option; you can't have the ride do your job on its own.

Even while I was engaged in my responsibilities, I felt like I was missing something. I was so focused on looking for where I was supposed to fly next that there were things on the screen I didn't really get to look at. Being able to pay less attention and feel the attraction rather than direct it might have been nice.

What's more, you're relying on other people a lot. Few of us probably go to Disneyland in a group of six people, which means you're likely to find yourself paired with strangers. If those strangers are not as good at their job as you are with yours, it's going to impact the experience that everybody has. If you've played through a multiplayer game where your team has a weak link, you know this frustration.

Other Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions allow for different levels of interaction. Something like Toy Story Midway Mania lets you play carnival games for points, and while you're competing against others for the high score, your experience is still largely the same if you score high or low.

Epcot's Mission: Space gives guests different roles to play and buttons to press the same way Smuggler's Run does, but if you don't press them yourself, they go off automatically and the experience progresses exactly the same. That's not the case here.

While it's impossible to "fail" your Smuggler's Run mission entirely, you can perform better or worse depending on your skills at various video game style mechanics. Lots of people will have these skills, as many more people plays video games today than did in years past, but there will still be a lot more people who would much rather sit back and experience a ride rather than a video game.

I look forward to flying the Millennium Falcon many more times. I was a much better pilot by the end of my first run than at the beginning and I want to try every job from every position. Having said that, I will be approaching my future flights in a very different way than I do my other favorite theme park attractions.

Read More

The Rise Of Skywalker Trailer Has Been Watched A Record-Breaking Number Of Times

The Rise Of Skywalker Trailer Has Been Watched A Record-Breaking Number Of Times

For months Star Wars fans waited for the first footage from what we then simply knew as Episode IX to drop, and on Friday, April 12, their wish was finally granted. The teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premiered at Star Wars Celebration and was made available to the public immediately after. Nearly two weeks later, word’s come in that this trailer collected more views in its first 24 hours than The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi’s first trailers did.

In its first day of availability, the first Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer was watched more than 111 million times. That’s 20 million more views than what The Last Jedi’s teaser trailer and more than double the views that The Force Awakens’ teaser trailer got in its first 24 hours back in late November of 2014.

Now if you look at some other recent trailers for blockbusters that also hail from Disney, like last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, this weekend’s Avengers: Endgame and this summer’s The Lion King, that 111 million views doesn’t look all that impressive. But it’s important to remember that this year, Star Wars Celebration streamed its Episode IX panel live to the world, which included showing the teaser at the very end. This is in contrast to Marvel’s traditional method of dropping a trailer ‘cold,’ i.e. not during a live-streamed event.

In terms of how the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer has been faring overall since it premiered, it received 87 million views through YouTube views alone from various channels, which outpaces Rogue One’s 87 million, but still lags behind The Force Awakens’ 103 million and The Last Jedi’s 119 million. There isn’t any data on how it’s done on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram views, but Deadline’s report also mentions that even if you just look at the YouTube performance, the preview is going viral “like crazy.”

Let’s not kid ourselves, Star Wars is still an incredibly lucrative and popular franchise, so it was expected that a lot of people would check out the first trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, not the least of which is because this preview is where the movie’s title was finally revealed. Still, it’s intriguing to hear that this teaser trailer has outperformed its predecessors. I imagine word of mouth factored heavily into its success, particularly for that surprise Emperor Palpatine reveal.

Aside from being the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga and taking place approximately a year after The Last Jedi, no specific plot details for The Rise of Skywalker have been revealed yet. Along with familiar faces like Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Ian McDiarmid all returning to a galaxy far, far away, new faces like Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant and Dominic Monaghan have also been brought aboard.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, look through our 2019 release schedule to lear what other major motion pictures are coming out this year.

Read More

Dark Phoenix’s Alexandra Shipp Doesn’t Want A Storm And Black Panther Romance In The MCU

Dark Phoenix’s Alexandra Shipp Doesn’t Want A Storm And Black Panther Romance In The MCU

Since the Disney-Fox merger finally became official as of a couple weeks ago, the mutants of X-Men could join the ranks of the MCU someday. Among the many potential pairings that have been suggested among fans between Avengers and X-Men is the striking romance between Black Panther and Storm but according to Dark Phoenix’s Storm actress, Alexandra Shipp, just because Disney can now make this happen, it doesn’t mean they should. In her words:

No! No, I don’t think Storm needs T’Challa, and I think she needs her own movie! It doesn’t have to be me, it just needs to be made. A woman does not need a man in order to give her validity and she has also been around longer than him.

Looks like Chadwick Boseman T’Challa is getting the cold shoulder from the X-Men actress, but for a valid, industry-forward reason. During a roundtable interview at WonderCon (via LRM Online,) Alexandra Shipp showed her distaste with her character’s future plotline to revolve around a romance between Storm and Black Panther because she thinks the weather-controlling hero needs her own movie. Though it should be noted that Black Panther has been around since 1966, and Storm debuted on the printed page nine years later.

It’s a tiresome plotline for the women of Marvel Comics to be consistently defined as the men in their lives, one that Captain Marvel recently made a conscience effort to steer away from. Alexandra Shipp previously echoed this statement last year when asked about her ideas for a spinoff for the powerful mutant character with these comments:

I just want there to be a message of ‘this woman doesn’t need a man.’ Just one movie where a woman doesn’t need a man, really.

However, with a the addition of the X-Men to the MCU imminent, T’Challa and Ororo’s romance would be an intriguing way for the two teams to intersect and form an alliance. In the comic books, the two meet as children when Storm flees Cairo following her parents’ deaths and comes across Wakanda. Storm rescues T’Challa from being kidnapped and a love story ignites. When they are older, the pair get married with both the X-Men and Avengers in attendance though it’s a short-lived union.

Six years into it, they were put at odds for the Avengers vs. X-Men event. When her team of mutants do damage to Wakanda, Black Panther blames her for it and they get a divorce. Seeing some of this drama play out would certainly be interesting as the hero becomes more prevalent in the MCU and the possibility of the addition of X-Men in the MCU will likely be tinkered with.

Us’ Evan Alex even recently volunteered himself up to play the son of Black Panther and Ororo in a Black Panther sequel to Vulture after playing the son to Black Panther’s M’Baku, Winston Duke, in the Jordan Peele horror film. To Alexandra Shipp, Storm’s addition to the MCU would just place her even farther into the background then she already is in the current X-Men franchise. Here’s what she said:

I would and I wouldn’t (like it), because Storm barely has anything to say as it is. I don’t know about you all (other actors) but like we never talk. So it would be really nice if we weren’t piled into yet another jam packed cast, in which you only see me in the back of the shot like fucking sasquatch.

The actress certainly isn’t afraid to tell it like it is but she’s right. As is, the upcoming Avengers: Endgame film looks so packed with characters that some will likely have one or two lines. Add in a crew of mutants and there would be so many heroes on the big screen that there just wouldn’t be a way to do each of the characters justice.

At WonderCon, 20 minutes of X-Men: Dark Phoenix footage was also showcased ahead of the film’s release on June 7. What do you think about Alexandra Shipp’s comments? Would you like to see a Storm solo flick or her romance with T’Challa on screen? What about how the Avengers and X-Men could share the big screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Read More

J.K. Rowling Always Knew Nagini Used To Be Human In Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling Always Knew Nagini Used To Be Human In Harry Potter

For serious fans of the Harry Potter franchise, the Fantastic Beasts movies have been a welcome addition to the canon. They have filled in a lot of backstory for different characters and events only referenced in the original novels. However, one character who has become surprisingly important in the prequel films is Nagini, a character we knew only as a snake from the main series, but we learned was actually human in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. While this revelation was a surprise to many, J.K. Rowling says it should not have been because the information was always there. According to the author...

These movies have given me the chance to tell a story that I knew all along about Nagini, who appears only as a snake in Potter. Now, there were always hints that she had been human. In her name — because the Naga are, in mythology, a race of snake beings. So the name was an allusion to the fact that she may herself once have been human.

The Naga is a mythological being that is actually half human and half cobra, not one that transforms between the two states as the character does in Fantastic Beasts, but the connection is still obvious. Nagini would be the feminine version of the word, telling us the gender of the snake that stayed by the side of Lord Voldemort.

J.K. Rowling has built a reputation over the past few years of dropping some interesting information about various characters in Harry Potter that is never stated in the text, but according to her has always been part of the official back story. This particular item, which was reveled in one of the Blu-ray extras attached to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (via the Insider) seems to be a little more on the level then some of the revelations we've been given.

The connection certainly makes sense. Anybody who was familiar with the etymology of the name Nagini could have potentially made the connection on their own, some probably did. While it doesn't guarantee that J.K. Rowling had always seen Nagini as formerly human, she even says herself that the allusion was meant to imply she "may" have been human, it certainly left the door open to the idea if the need for such a plot point were ever to surface.

Of course, now that we have met the human version of the character, we have a lot more questions. Nagini appears to be one of the good guys following the events of The Crimes of Grindelwald, certainly more so than some others who have aligned themselves with Johnny Depp's dark wizard character. However, we know where this character will ultimately end up, so quite a bit will be changing over the course of the planned three remaining movies.

Read More

Josh Brolin Preps For Dune Filming With Intense Shirtless Photo

Josh Brolin Preps For Dune Filming With Intense Shirtless Photo

Denis Villeneuve's 2020 Dune movie has officially started filming. Josh Brolin is one of the many, many -- seriously, so many -- major stars of the film adapting Frank Herbert's novel. Brolin plays Gurney Halleck, weapons master for House Atreides, who teaches young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Brolin got into battle mode with his usual intensity, staring into the camera for a photo he posted with a caption quoting the Dune author:

Fear is the mind-killer. It's clear Josh Brolin is not afraid to strip himself down to the basics and #cowboyup for his role. Since filming just started, it looks like Brolin is getting in on the early action, possibly for some training scenes with young Paul.

Patrick Stewart played Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's 1984 Dune. Denis Villeneuve has his own very different plans for the story, which is also meant to carry across more than one film. Just the physicality of Josh Brolin alone hints in a different direction, not that SirPatStew isn't boss in his own right.

Dune is filming on location in Budapest, Hungary, and Jordan, so those countries can look forward to seeing many famous faces in the next few months.

So far, Denis Villeneuve's Dune cast includes Rebecca Ferguson as Jessica Atreides; Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto; Zendaya as Chani; Javier Bardem as Stilgar; Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban; Stellan Skarsgård as Vladimir Harkonnen; Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohiam; Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho; David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries; and Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh.

No wonder Stellan Skarsgard compared that cast to the Avengers. Get more details on each star and character with our cast list.

Here's the film's official synopsis, from Warner Bros. and Legendary:

A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) is not only directing the film, he also co-wrote the screenplay (with Eric Roth and Jon Spaihts) and he's one of the film's producers. Dune is currently scheduled for worldwide release on November 20, 2020.

Meanwhile, Josh Brolin -- no stranger to major films, from Deadpool 2 to Avengers: Infinity War -- will soon be seen back in action as Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. That movie opens April 26, 2019 as one of the many films hitting the big screen this year.

Read More