It’s Star Wars Day! May the fourth (be with you) sees fans around the world pay tribute to the all-conquering franchise. Special events are now underway in Disney’s parks, deals are on for all manner of merch, and Carrie Fisher is finally getting a much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (though not without some controversy).
Meanwhile, the incredible second season of Star Wars Visions is now available to stream on Disney Plus, with the cherry on top a fun new The Simpsons short “Maggie Simpson in Rogue Not Quite One. We also suspect the many Star Wars movies on Disney Plus will be seeing a rewatch today and we’re hoping we can find the time to squeeze in one more viewing of A New Hope just to remember how it all began.
Beyond all that, we now have a tantalizing glimpse at a Star Wars movie that will never be, courtesy of Damon Lindelof’s rejected pitch.
Damon Lindelof’s ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ sequel would have ruffled some feathers
Last year, reports emerged that Lost and Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof and screenwriter Justin Britt-Gibson had been tapped to deliver a sequel to The Rise of Skywalker. The pair promptly set to work and turned in a draft, only for Lucasfilm to almost immediately reject it. Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight was promptly recruited, leaving fans wondering just what it was about Lindelof’s project that Lucasfilm found so objectionable.
Well, now we may know. On The Hot Mic Podcast industry insider Jeff Sneider claims that this story would have been set 60 years after the events of the sequel trilogy and featured a much older version of Rey training two Jedi. As Sneider put it:
“It was supposed to be an older Rey training two Jedi, right? A man and a woman, who I think both would’ve been of color. Now, they didn’t go out to this actress, this was not offered, but she was the comp, she was the person when they put together the casting list it’s like, ‘Oh, ideally this is who we want.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean that the prototype person is the person that [gets the role].”
And that “prototype person”?
“Basically, the older Rey, they were thinking of Helen Mirren.”
On one hand, we would have been extremely interested to see Mirren as an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure passing on her knowledge to two younger characters, and the giant leap forward in time would have let this story stand apart from the Skywalker Saga. On the other, we can see why Lucasfilm turned this down so quickly, as we doubt fans would have been happy at recasting Daisy Ridley and skipping over so many years of Star Wars adventures.
Felicity Jones talks Jyn Erso in ‘Andor’ season two
Andor was one of the best things to happen to Star Wars in a very long time and we’re eagerly awaiting season two next year. The next batch of episodes will be set over four years of Cassian Andor’s life, with each year of his life being shown in three-episode mini-arcs taking us right up until we first met him in 2016’s Rogue One.
Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso met Cassian for the first time in that movie, though many have been wondering whether she’ll reprise the character for Andor. We know Saw Gerrera is back for season two and Jyn Erso has close links to him. But, sadly, it seems as if it’s not to be. Speaking with the BBC’s The One Show she was asked if she was in Andor and had a very conclusive answer:
“I’m afraid to say I won’t be, but I still have hope for Jyn Erso at some point to make a comeback. But no, sadly I won’t be.”
Options for Jyn Erso ever making a comeback are limited given that we all saw her die in the closing moments of Rogue One, but Jones is still holding out some faint hope. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2020 she said:
“I just keep saying that reincarnation is totally possible in the Star Wars universe [laughs]. So, I feel there’s unfinished business for Jyn, for sure… I think it would be fascinating to see her getting older and wiser and fighting the dark forces in the universe with which there are many it seems.”
Let’s face it, Erso definitely didn’t survive the Death Star laser blast on Scarif, but given that she had numerous exciting pre-Rogue One adventures in various books and comics, they may one day make it to live-action. Everyone loves Andor, so why not follow that up with Erso?
Carrie Fisher’s Walk of Fame ceremony marred by family squabbles
It’s about damn time Carrie Fisher got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fisher is obviously most famous for playing Leia in the original and sequel trilogies, though also contributed to a huge number of major movies as a script doctor, and was an incredibly talented writer.
Her star was unveiled today, though her brother Todd and half-sister Joely didn’t get invited and they aren’t happy. Todd Fisher has made his unhappiness quite clear in an interview with TMZ:
“It’s heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie.”
He went on to claim that he kick-started the process to get her a star, and has found his omission from the guest list very depressing, saying that it’s “extremely hurtful and distressing as I was always a big part of everything my sister and mother did historically over their lifetimes.”
Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, is a fellow Star Wars alumnus and played Lieutenant Connix in the sequel trilogy (as well as providing the Leia performance in the Jedi training flashback in The Rise of Skywalker). She provided her own take on the unveiling drama to The Hollywood Reporter, taking responsibility for them not being invited and criticizing Todd and Joely for being quick to “capitalize on my mother’s death”. Lourd concluded:
“Though I recognize they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way.”
Here’s hoping this bad blood eventually passes, though we’re just happy to see Fisher being honored by the industry she gave so much to.
Have a great Star Wars day, everyone!