Emperor Palpatine Might Not Be The Only Surprise Star Wars Character Returning For The Rise Of Skywalker

Emperor Palpatine Might Not Be The Only Surprise Star Wars Character Returning For The Rise Of Skywalker

Up until a little over a week ago, the biggest Star Wars alumnus who was set to return to a galaxy far far away through Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was Billy Dee Williams, playing Lando Calrissian for the third time on the big screen. Then the first Rise of Skywalker trailer capped off with Emperor Palpatine’s sinister laugh, and it was confirmed soon after that Ian McDiarmid is reprising the hooded Sith Lord.

You’d think that nothing could surpass the man also known as Darth Sidious somehow being thrown into the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker mix, but a new rumor is out claiming that there’s an even bigger character return on the horizon. Just to be safe, those of you who don’t want to be potentially spoiled heavily on Episode IX might want to turn back now. I’ll give you a moment…

Are the rest you settled in? Okay, supposedly Harrison Ford is back as Han Solo, who we last saw being killed by his own son, Ben Solo, a.k.a. Kylo Ren, in The Force Awakens.

Making Star Wars claims to have heard from multiple sources that Han Solo will have a role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although it’s difficult to 100% piece together how he’ll be used. According to the outlet, Han will appear in a sequence with his Kylo Ren in what is described as a “surprise intervention of sorts.”

Remember in The Force Awakens when Kylo Ren was talking to the charred Darth Vader helmet? This sequence between Han Solo and Kylo Ren might take place when the latter is conversing with his grandfather’s helmet again. But here’s where things get extra weird. Luke Skywalker is said to be the “twist” of this encounter, and rather than being a traditional Force ghost, Han is part of a “vision” or “dream” type moment that Luke brings forth.

The report also notes that the sequence has a “tone of forgiveness and understanding to it,” with Han solo telling his son that “it isn’t too late.” Whether this is really Han speaking from the great beyond or just a simulation that the also-deceased Luke has conjured, it fits that he’d be wanting to draw his son back to the light since that’s what he died doing in The Force Awakens.

Needless to say that the above information is anything but official, so for now, take it with a grain of salt. However, assuming all of this is true, it also remains to be seen if Kylo Ren will cross back to the light side or if he’ll ignore Han and Luke, and continue being an agent of the dark side.

Before The Force Awakens came out, Harrison Ford hadn’t been shy taking about how he’d wanted Han Solo to die in Return of the Jedi, and over 30 years later, he got his wish and the beloved smuggler finally bit the dust. While Alden Ehrenreich did play a younger Han in Solo: A Star Wars Story, most have logically assumed that The Force Awakens would be the last time we’d ever see Ford in the role. But if this new rumor proves legitimate, then fingers crossed that Ford’s true last performance as Han is a worthy and emotional inclusion for the last chapter of the Skywalker Saga.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more coverage about it. For now, you can learn what this year’s other big movies are arriving by looking through our 2019 release schedule.

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New Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Trailer Has Bruce Lee, Playboy Bunnies and More

New Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Trailer Has Bruce Lee, Playboy Bunnies and More

With Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood debuting today at the Cannes Film Festival, there’s a new call from the director himself not to spoil the picture for the public who have yet to see the film. As if to shower the general public who have yet to see the film with some more love, Sony has released a new trailer for the long anticipated 9th film of Tarantino’s 10 film limit. The results are as hilarious and nutty as you could expect, and you can see them for yourself below:

The story of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood shows Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Rick Dalton, starting to slip into a professional slump. With his worries of being a has-been in full gear, it’s up to his stunt double Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, to try and lift his spirits. Though the friends look to have trouble headed their way, as Sharon Tate, Bruce Lee, and The Manson Family are all about to make their lives a lot more complicated.

Interestingly enough, this second look at Once Upon A Time In Hollywood shows us more glimpses of Margot Robbie’s performance as Sharon Tate, the actress whom the Manson Family would claim as a victim in the true history that this film seems to be playing around with. But as we all know, and have been reminded by Quentin Tarantino’s sly Inglorious Basterds nod through Rick Dalton’s film career, history is something he loves to mess around with.

Between the theories that Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will actually prevent this infamous murder from happening, plus the chairman of Sony Tom Rothman talking up the spoilerific ending that the film needs preserved, we’re inclined to believe that this ninth film is going to be as bonkers as the eight that came before it. And that’s meant as high praise.

Leonardo DiCaprio looks like he’s having the time of his life in this movie, and pairing him with Brad Pitt is one of those historical events that you wish would have happened a whole lot sooner. But no matter how long we had to wait for it, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actually went and did it, and history is presumably all the better for it.

With a colorful cast that includes Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Timothy Olyphant, and the late Luke Perry, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood has a lot of promise in what we’ve seen so far, but promises a lot more once audiences unwrap the experience for themselves. So be sure to uphold that spoiler ban, you viewers at Cannes!

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood kicks its way into theaters on July 26th.

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Why DC Is Making An Aquaman Spinoff About The Trench, According To The Producer

Why DC Is Making An Aquaman Spinoff About The Trench, According To The Producer

DC's live-action universe has had plenty of peaks and valleys, although the massive property seems to be on the upswing lately. Warner Bros. is currently surfing on the massive success of James Wan's Aquaman, which cleaned up at the box office, on top of being a critical success. We'll have to wait a few years for the film's sequel to arrive in 2022, but there's another underwater adventure in development by the studio: the spinoff The Trench.

The Trench sequence was one of the most visually fascinating aspects of Aquaman, as James Wan's horror roots briefly reached the surface of the aquatic blockbuster. So fans were delightfully surprised when Warner Bros. green-lit a spinoff for the dark sea setting. Producer Peter Safran recently spoke to the decision to dive deeper into into The Trench with a spinoff, revealing:

We always, even from the early concept art days, loved the idea of a Trench movie. Then, when audiences embraced it in the movie itself the way they did, particularly that ant farm shot where the camera follows the Trench [creatures] following Arthur and Mera down into the deep, we just knew that we had something very special there and we knew what that movie should be. And consequently, I suspect that that’s one that will come out significantly before Aquaman 2.

Audiences may have been surprised, but it seems like the the groundwork for The Trench movie was being laid during the release of Aquaman. It ended up being audience engagement that made the spinoff truly become a reality. And as a reward to the fandom, they'll get another movie set in Aquaman's world before the film's actual sequel arrives in theaters.

Peter Safran's comments to THR illuminate the thought process going on at Warner Bros. regarding the future of the DC live-action universe. DC seems to be taking a much different approach than the competition over at Marvel Studios. Rather than revealing entire slates of movie scheduling, Warner Bros. can adjust its programming based on fan reception and box office performance. It feels like there's an exciting momentum in the shared universe, in stark juxtaposition to its state after the disappointing performance of Justice League.

The Trench is a mysterious part of the lore established in Aquaman. They're amphibious monsters who separated from the Atlantean Kingdom years ago. They attacked Mera and Arthur on their journey, before eventually joining their cause in an epic underwater battle against King Orm. It should be interesting to see how The Trench is expanded, and where in the overall timeline the spinoff will be set.

But perhaps the most important question is whether or not the great Julie Andrews will be back to play Karathen in either The Trench or Aquaman 2. Her inclusion in the first film was a delightful surprise, and she brought a ton of power to the behemoth creature.

Aquaman is available for digital download now, and you can purchase a physical copy on March 26th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Captain Marvel Really Fumbled Two Important Characters And We Don't Get Why

Captain Marvel Really Fumbled Two Important Characters And We Don't Get Why

Warning: SPOILERS are ahead!

Just because Captain Marvel is set in 1995, 13 years before the modern events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolded, doesn’t mean that the movie didn’t have ties to other corners of this superhero franchise. Unquestionably the biggest example of this was pairing Nick Fury with Carol Danvers and showing how the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent learned about superheroes and aliens, as well as how he lost his 20/20 vision. But he wasn’t the only familiar face who appeared in Captain Marvel: Guardians of the Galaxy villains Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer also popped in during Carol’s origin story. The movie could have been a platform to make both of those characters more interesting, but unfortunately, it failed to accomplish this.

It’s been nearly five full years since we first met Lee Pace’s Ronan and Djimon Honsou’s Korath, with Guardians of the Galaxy showing the latter serving the former in his quest to wipe out Xandar. Since Korath was Guardians of the Galaxy’s tertiary antagonist, it was hardly surprising that he wasn’t fleshed out during the movie, but even though we knew about Ronan’s radicalism and his disgust with the Kree empire signing a peace treaty with Xandar, he failed to come off as a fascinating villain. Ultimately both those characters were killed by the Guardians, and so naturally it was assumed for years that’s the first and only time we’d ever see them in the MCU.

Then it was announced around this time last year that younger versions of Ronan and Korath would appear in Captain Marvel, which made sense given that like her comic book counterpart, Brie Larson’s Carol’s origins are tied to the Kree. Since Captain Marvel takes place a little over two decades before Guardians of the Galaxy, that’s enough time for these two to be portrayed at least slightly differently than they were before. More importantly, Captain Marvel could foreshadow how these two are put on the path that ends with them being Kree outcasts set on destroying an entire planet.

So what does the movie do with Ronan and Korath? Well, Korath is a member of Starforce alongside Carol, Yon-Rogg, Minn-Erva, Att-Lass and Bron-Char. Outside Korath talking about his experience with facing down a Skrull and the other members joking at the beginning of Captain Marvel about how he’s humorless, which Korath strongly denies (he laughs, just on the inside), he doesn’t get any focus. He’s with the other Starforce operatives as they carry out their missions on Torfa and Earth (the latter including Mar-Vell’s base in orbit), but there’s nothing that particularly highlights him compared to his Kree partners other than Yon-Rogg. Minn-Erva arguably stands out more because at least she was gunned down by Maria Rambeau while chasing after Carol.

As for Ronan, we find out why he’s called the Accuser: because he was part of the of the same-named division of the Kree military, which would see him ordering warheads to be dropped on planets to wipe out the enemy Skrulls. Although there’s a official still of Ronan in the same room as the Starforce, in the final Captain Marvel cut, he never had any direct face time with them. Instead, he communicated with the team over hologram, first blaming Yon-Rogg for their failure on Torfa and then arriving to Earth after Yon-Rogg contacted him about eliminating Talos and the other Skrulls. Still a dutiful servant of the Kree empire at this stage of his life, Yon-Rogg ordered that Earth be bombed, but the fully-powered Carol Danvers destroyed the warheads and one of his ships, prompting him to order a retreat and declare that he would return to capture Carol and use her as a weapon.

Given how things turned out for Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy and that Carol Danvers is alive and well in the present day, obviously he didn’t fulfill this promise, but that’s beside the point. The point is that Captain Marvel failed to effectively use Ronan and Korath. Obviously these two were never going to be the most important players in this movie, but it’s a problem when you could replace either of them with other characters, be they also from the Marvel Comics pages or original creations, and the story wouldn’t be any different. There was nothing about these younger depictions of Ronan and Korath that made them more compelling.

Ronan in particular suffers as a result. Xandar doesn’t factor into Captain Marvel whatsoever, but it still would have been great if something laid the groundwork for Ronan to become the zealot we met in Guardians of the Galaxy. Maybe something could have happened during his mission on Earth that made him realize the Kree empire, more specifically the Supreme Intelligence, is not infallible. Instead, he’s just as loyal to his Kree superiors at the end of the movie, and now we’ve been teased about a goal of his that we probably won’t ever see. Although a hypothetical Captain Marvel 2 could take a page from Wonder Woman 1984’s book and be set in the interim decades between when she left with the Skrulls and when she returned post-Decimation, but that hasn’t even been rumored yet.

In Korath’s case, it would have been nice to learn how he became affiliated with Ronan, because while the two of them do technically share screen time since Korath is near Yon-Rogg as the Starforce leader talking with Ronan over hologram, Korath and Ronan never actually interact with one another. Korath presumably already knew about Ronan by reputation, but we get no sense in Captain Marvel in why Korath would be willing to abandon the Kree empire to serve Ronan years later. Maybe Starforce’s failure to eliminate the Skrulls and bring back Carol Danvers resulted in Korath, Yon-Rogg and the surviving members being demoted, which could lead to Korath’s own disillusionment, but there’s absolutely no hint of that by the time the credits roll.

Captain Marvel did a good job of telling Carol Danvers’ origin story, revealing how Nick Fury started to become the badass spymaster we know best, and delivering a welcome twist by not depicting the Skrulls as pure evil. Unfortunately for Ronan and Korath, they were underserved in the story, and their actions here don’t do anything to improve how they were shown in Guardians of the Galaxy. It was definitely a wasted opportunity.

Let us know what you thought of how Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer were used in Captain Marvel below. While it remains to if we’ll ever see these incarnations of the characters ever again, Carol Danvers will be back for Avengers: Endgame on April 26.

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The Classic Men In Black Prop That Plays A Big Role In The Reboot

The Classic Men In Black Prop That Plays A Big Role In The Reboot

Sing it with us: “Here come the Men In Black… again!” It has been seven years since the black-suited galaxy protectors at the Men In Black graced our movie screens, and Sony plans to bring the outfit out of mothballs for this summer’s Men In Black International. There will be some major changes. Gone are Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, staples of the series through the first three films. In their place are new agents played by Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, each eager to take on a globe-trotting adventure.

With the movie’s release date on the horizon, CinemaBlend ventured to London to spend time on the set of director F. Gary Gray’s sequel and learn about how Men In Black International planned to move the story forward, while also leaning on the franchise’s past. There will be nods to the existing Men In Black movies – heck, Emma Thompson reprises her role as Agent O, proving this story takes place in the same continuity as the Smith and Jones adventures. And one prop, in particular, will play more of a central role in this movie’s narrative.

Producer Walter Parkes opened up about the development of the story for Men In Black International, saying that Chris Hemsworth’s character, Agent H, is well-known for defeating a villain known as The Hive. Only, maybe he didn’t… and his memory is affected by the infamous neuralyzer that’s always used in the MiB series. Parkes told CinemaBlend:

Rafe [Spall] plays Agent C, who’s Chris’s rival. The Hive is the villainous force that Liam [Neeson] and Chris defeated four years before all of this. And our story deals with a sort of repeating history. The Hive have come back, and we discover that the circumstances of the great moment that made Chris’s character a hero may not have been true. So it’s interesting. … You know the thing about the neuralyzer, it’s a very interesting prop in the Men in Black universe, and the idea of taking people’s memories away and putting in false memories, which we’ve used but sort of around the kind of periphery of our plots, might have a little more central role in this one.

That’s an interesting approach. Is it possible that Chris Hemsworth’s Agent H was neuralyzed by his own people into believing he did some heroic deeds? In the initial trailer for Men In Black International, Hemsworth was playing his character as someone who is a little aloof and above the action, perhaps seeing himself as too good to worry about alien creatures and otherworldly messes. Maybe it’s because his memory has been altered? We’ll know soon enough.

Tessa Thompson, meanwhile, fits into the narrative as a New York-based fan of the MiB who discovers the secret agency, then talks Emma Thompson’s supervisor into letting her into the organization. Tessa will join Hemsworth on his missions, and probably prove herself to be more adept at alien busting than the burly Aussie is.

See their chemistry on display in that full Men In Black International trailer:

It’s cool that the new story is making good use of props from the original series, and evening finding important ways to potentially use them and add fresh angles to the Men In Black narrative. The use of the neuralyzer is a signature move for MiB, and I’m curious about how using it on an agent like H will impact the story.

Find out when Men In Black International arrives in theaters on June 14. And stay on CinemaBlend for a lot more coverage from our visit to the set of F. Gary Gray’s upcoming sequel.

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Miss Klaus? See The Originals' Joseph Morgan At His New Movie's Screening

Miss Klaus? See The Originals' Joseph Morgan At His New Movie's Screening

Klaus Mikaelson is gone but not forgotten to fans of The Originals and The Vampire Diaries. Klaus is regularly name-dropped on The CW's current spinoff series Legacies, keeping him fresh in fans' minds. It happened again this week in a big Klaroline way, leading many fans to wistfully wonder what actor Joseph Morgan is up to.

Well, if you'll be in the Southern California area in early April, you may be able to see for yourself. His short film Carousel is working the film festival circuit, and the actor himself teased the the next screening would be April 3 in Beverly Hills:

Joseph Morgan tweeted out a link to the Beverly Hills Film Festival, hoping to see fans there. Morgan directed Carousel, which he also co-wrote and co-starred in alongside Persia White. The two stars are also married, after meeting on the set of The Vampire Diaries, where she played the recurring role of Abby Bennett Wilson.

Here's the film description on the Night Owl Productions site:

Carousel is a story of love, loss and the hope for redemption when a criminal escapes death and gets a second chance at life in more than one way. As we delve into an emotional journey that beckons us to consider how the consequences of our past actions, like a carousel, keep returning to us again, and again, until time runs out.

Check out the trailer:

Carousel has traveled to many film festivals since October 2018, and you can check the site to see if it will be playing anywhere near you, or if it might become available to watch in other ways.

Persia White and Joseph Morgan also produced the comedy Juice Truck, which is listed as playing at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival in March 2019.

The Originals Season 5 finale, also the series finale, aired August 1, 2018. So it hasn't even been a full year since the first Vampire Diaries spinoff went off the air. Still, there had been hope that we'd see Joseph Morgan back on screen with the Gone Baby Gone series. He had the role of Patrick Kenzie, the same role Casey Affleck had in the 2007 movie. But in May 2018, Deadline revealed that Fox had passed on the Gone Baby Gone pilot.

If you're looking for other stars of The Originals, Riley Voelkel (Freya Mikaelson) joined The CW's Roswell, New Mexico, which also co-stars Vampire Diaries alum Michael Trevino. And Charles Michael Davis (Marcel Gerard) is a new addition to For the People Season 2 on ABC. Of course, Joseph Morgan's on-screen daughter Danielle Rose Russell (Hope Mikaelson) is now the star of the spinoff Legacies, which just saw the return of another supporting character from The Originals this past week.

Earlier in Legacies Season 1, we got an update on what happened to Klaus in the afterlife. Unfortunately, The Originals finale pretty much ruled out Joseph Morgan's return to the show, unless they want to do the vision/spirit thing.

The Vampire Diaries ended a full two years ago, as of this past March 10, and those stars have also been keeping busy on TV and in some films through 2019. Keep up with everything headed to the big screen this year with our 2019 movie release schedule.

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Christopher McQuarrie Admits He’s ‘Freaked Out’ About Directing Two More Mission: Impossible Movies

Christopher McQuarrie Admits He’s ‘Freaked Out’ About Directing Two More Mission: Impossible Movies

If there’s a word that describes the direction that the Mission: Impossible franchise has taken in its most recent years, it’s “escalation.” Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has been working on the franchise since his uncredited work on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol brought him to the table, with Rogue Nation marking his directing debut in the series. And now, with Mission: Impossible – Fallout driving the stakes even higher, and two more films on the franchise slate, McQuarrie is unsurprisingly freaked out about making the next two entries in the series.

With three films under his belt, and the pair known as Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 in his cart for the foreseeable future, Christopher McQuarrie talked about the way he landed himself into this proverbial mess. McQuarrie’s summation of the situation was as follows:

I pitched the idea of making two movies, and now I have to justify why it’s two movies. You’ve got to earn that. You’ve got to make something that swallows the last three movies whole. I’m freaked out now. We’ve talked ourselves into something. Holy shit.

The first nugget to unpack from Christopher McQuarrie’s comments on the next two Mission: Impossible films is the fact that he’s planning something so big, it needed two films to tell. Right there, any sane director who isn’t named Joe or Anthony Russo would be shaking more than a little bit, as making two back-to-back films as big in scope and budget as Mission: Impossible is a prospect.

Then comes the fact that while Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 are continuing the franchise, judging by Christopher McQuarrie’s comments above, it sounds like these twin amazements are going to bring a new level of story continuity to the franchise. While previous history had the series operating on a "mission of the movie" strategy, the films have slowly been morphing into something akin to James Bond's continuing war with SPECTRE.

It increasingly sounds like these two films, opening just a little over a year apart from each other, are going to operate on the same sort of schedule, and some information already available would support that theory. Previous stories have reported that Mission: Impossible 7 would not only see the confirmed return of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, but there was also a potential for the return of Henry Cavill’s August Walker and Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley, both of whom perished in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Coupled with the seventh film being close in release, and continuity, to Mission: Impossible 8, we can pretty much assume that the story of the IMF versus The Syndicate isn’t over just yet.

Still, as McQuarrie told Empire Online, the prospect of making two more Mission: Impossible movies would be intimidating at face value. This story that Christopher McQuarrie has expanded the series lore with has grown more exciting, and more elaborate, with each passing film. If there’s anything that’s gotten bigger than the story these movies have to tell, it’s the impressive stunts and action sequences, which see Tom Cruise pushing himself into harder edged practical thrills each time out.

Perhaps the best way to sum up the supposed problem Christopher McQuarrie has with his continuation of the Mission: Impossible series is summed up in a further comment he offered in this same interview:

Here’s the problem with going to the moon: how do you fall from the moon?

While we don’t know how one is supposed to fall from the moon, we certainly hope Tom Cruise hasn’t read that and started drawing plans for a lunar freefall in his head. That particular feat seems too impossible, but what isn’t outside of the realm of possibility is the fact that Cruise and McQuarrie can definitely work out something so impressive that the next two Mission: Impossible films will be something to behold. After all, this franchise isn’t Mission: Play It Safe, it’s Mission: Impossible.

Mission: Impossible 7 is slated for release on July 23, 2021, with Mission: Impossible 8 having an August 5, 2022 debut penciled into its schedule. But if you want to see something in your local theater in a more recent context, check out our 2019 release schedule for an up-to-date roster of this year’s major releases.

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