Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The futboldroid's head unit could detach and slide into an armored slot on a starfighter, switch to a new body, make repairs easier. Heck, you could powerdown the head and sneak it into top secret areas in a backpack. That could explain the lack of visible astromechs on the X-wings.

A seperate control unit from a utility body makes a lot of sense. In a world with artificial gravity and repulsors, we'd be doing it too.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the balldroid is actually yet another McQuarrie concept tribute...

From an old Star Wars Insider (lifted from AICN)

Its 30 years on, chance are the X-Wing will have had multiple improved versions released since the original films. Chances are at some point the astromech droid was replaced with something else.

Let's be honest, the need for a separate droid to act as navigator was a pretty big design flaw. Especially as its head was extremely vulnerable.

 LuciusAR wrote:
Its 30 years on, chance are the X-Wing will have had multiple improved versions released since the original films. Chances are at some point the astromech droid was replaced with something else.

Let's be honest, the need for a separate droid to act as navigator was a pretty big design flaw. Especially as its head was extremely vulnerable.

Which is why the A-Wing and B-Wing didn't have them. On that note, I wonder if we'll get to see some of the other classic ships like the Y-Wing, B-Wing, and A-Wing. There were a lot of B-Wing sequences cut from RotJ. It would be cool to finally see them in action a bit more.

Thoughts on the rumors going around that Revan is going to be the big bad? Seems like wishful thinking reading too much into the "awakening" and description of the main villain as masked.

Revan inspired perhaps, but I highly doubt it's actually Revan.

Yeah.....No.
As much as I would nerdgasm over that, No.
Why? Well its because he is an EU villain, and those who are going to see this, know little to nothing of EU.
Maybe it is starkiller?

So it couldn't be Revan because he's EU but it could be Starkiller?

Checks out.

I'm hopeful it's not Revan or any other EU character.

I'm convinced the awakening is either Luke being active or the twins powers starting to manifest.

Im kidding.
Star killer is dead.

He might as well be. I doubt there's ever going to be a Force Unleashed 3 game. Revan is presumably dead too, given that, what, 4000 years have passed since he was floating about?

It might be an ancient Sith presence. Certainly when the Emperor is destroyed in Jedi we see that weird reaction. Almost ethereal. It might just be his energy dissipating but it always reminds me of the soul scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. If Jedi can make themselves manifest posthumously then surely the Sith can too.




Perhaps the Emperor's spirit is manifesting but is stuck without a physical form. I think the Emperor returning would be better than any EU villain. Preferably it'd be someone new though.

I still think it relates to Luke and Han/Leia's kids rather than being caused by an enemy.

Will have to wait for a proper trailer. God knows when that will be.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I think the Emperor returning would be better than any EU villain.

A resurrected/cloned Emperor was the villain in half the EU.

 trexmeyer wrote:


Thoughts on the rumors going around that Revan is going to be the big bad? Seems like wishful thinking reading too much into the "awakening" and description of the main villain as masked.

I will say that mask looks a lot like Revan's.

I prefer the idea of a an ancient Sith returning from hibernation or exile, some mysterious figure that maybe even the Emperor didn't know about who has decided to return and intervene in the galaxy when the Emperor's death caused a disturbance in the force and got his attention blah blah blah. Basically, the Emperor was not the last Sith - there was at least one more Sith out there, lurking at the edge of the galaxy.

Or maybe the Emperor himself was not THE Master, but just another apprentice, a pawn of an even more powerful Sith.

They did this in the Old Republic when it was revealed that Darth Revan fell to the dark side to find a way to protect the galaxy and save it from the "True Sith" who were lurking at the edge of the galaxy planning to invade and destroy the republic.


As for the plot, maybe this new Sith will be seeking to recruit one of the kids as an apprentice and protege, like the Emperor did with Anakin and Luke. That'll make for an interesting story if siblings are played off against each other. One sibling is corrupted by the Sith, and falls to the dark side. The other sibling seeks out his/her uncle Luke Skywalker for help. The Sith and Luke are like chess players, using the kids like pawns.

Ahtman wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I think the Emperor returning would be better than any EU villain.

A resurrected/cloned Emperor was the villain in half the EU.

I think you underestimate the size of the EU.

 Goliath wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:
Also the rollerdroid is moronic.

More or less moronic than a droid attempting to cross the desert on three fairly small legs?

I don't get what your point is. R2s are astromechs, they're not designed to operate in deserts they're designed to operate in ships and starports, but if your escape pod lands on a desert planet it lands on a desert planet. The design language of the rollerdroid is clearly meant to indicate it's the "new" version of R2(domed head, central "eye", paneling etc), meaning it's also likely supposed to be an astromech, so why the hell would its creators design it specifically to operate best on shifting, loosely-packed granular material like sand rather than on the solid surfaces which it will spend the vast majority of its time using?

People ignore and dismiss that kind of careful thought about the designs of things in fictional worlds, they think it's unimportant, but it's not, it's like the musical score - while you're watching the film you shouldn't be consciously aware of it, it should just exist as part of the experience subtly helping to draw you into the world, the role it played only becoming obvious in hindsight. If it's done badly or not at all, it either leads to annoying realisations of Fridge Logic after you stop watching and have a chance to think, or worse jars you out of the experience while you're watching.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:

See though, that's the issue I have with the saber - it's cool, really cool, it evokes that instant "oh em gee AWESUM!" reaction...for about five seconds before it collapses under the weight of its own Fridge Logic. It can't work as a crossguard or be used to trap an opponent's blade because the physical projectors extend out from the side of the hilt and the other lightsaber would just cut through those, ...

Cortosis was a thing in the EU. And while the EU was thrown out, it is not too far fetched to think that there is some sort of material that can be impervious to a lightsaber, however rare or extraordinarily expensive it might be to produce. Still a bit of a stretch, but since when has Star Wars ever really been about what is logical?

But if you can make the projectors for energy-quillions out of a material resistant to a lightsaber blade, why not just make the whole crossguard out of that material and gain the benefit of being able to trap an opponent's blade and guard your hands from strikes that slide down your own without limiting your own possible movements for fear of chopping your own bloody arms off if you angle the energy-quillions wrong? Either the material exists in the new movies and so makes the energy-quillions redundant, or it doesn't and it makes them useless - either way it's a daft idea that they evidently didn't put any thought into beyond "Hey brah, you know what would be like mega-kewl? A LIGHTSABER BROADSWORD DUDE! Yeeaaaaaaaaah! *sunglasses*".

 ProtoClone wrote:
I'm wondering what function would the ball-droid have?
Is it like an R2 unit? Or does it just look like one?

For some reason it strikes me as smaller than an R2 unit.

wait, it isnt FIFA product placement?

Yodhrin, maybe it's a modified Astromech droid, rebuilt and adapted to Tatooines terrain.

If it belongs to the girl in the trailer who's speculated to be a scrap collector, and if she's the daughter of Han and leia, and if she's even half the mechanic that her grandfather Anakin Skywalker was, then it would be easy for her. Maybe she built the droid as a kid from scavenged droid parts and its been her lifelong side kick and friend.

I'm getting a Tom boyish wizkid droid building young Anakin Skywalker vibe off that girl.

Have you considered that?

Just for giggles:

Help a clueless person out and tell me what is considered canon.

At the very least it's the current 6 movies and the animated Clone Wars series. I'm not sure about anything else.

 Yodhrin wrote:
... so why the hell would its creators design it specifically to operate best on shifting, loosely-packed granular material like sand rather than on the solid surfaces which it will spend the vast majority of its time using?

It wouldn't be designed specifically for sand. It would be designed to be zippy on a range of different surfaces. See the pic I posted earlier with the excerpt from Ralph McQuarrie.

...either way it's a daft idea that they evidently didn't put any thought into beyond "Hey brah, you know what would be like mega-kewl? A LIGHTSABER BROADSWORD DUDE! Yeeaaaaaaaaah! *sunglasses*".

Looking badass is half of what Sith are all about.

Relapse wrote:
Help a clueless person out and tell me what is considered canon.

Up to the takeover by Disney, there were 3 'levels' of canon.

The first was the movies and the Clone Wars show - ie: the stuff that George was directly involved with. That was totally canon.

The second level was most of the EU - books, video games, RPG, etc, that were approved by Lucas's continuity editor. These were canon, but only so long as George decided to not contradict them. Anything that contradicted something in the movies was not canon.

The third level was the more obscure stuff, like the 80's-era Marvel comics, the Holiday Special, the Ewoks movies, and whatever else didn't fit into the two above categories. This stuff was mostly stuff that really didn't fit with the EU, and so was not canon. Although this started to get a little confused in later years when the EU started re-introducing some characters and backstories from the old Marvel comics.


When Disney took over, the whole EU was rebranded as 'Star Wars Legends' and is no longer canon. For the moment, the only canon material is the 6 movies, and the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons. Anything new that comes out from now is supposed to have been checked for consistency and so everything will be equally canon. Supposedly.

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/we-can-reveal-the-true-identity-of-the-mysterious-narrator-of-the-star-wars-trailer


claims it's Andy Serkis doing the voiceover.

Who says the new droid is meant to be a direct replacement for R2? It might just be Han's daughters companion that assists her on Tatooine. Maybe it' been with her as a child.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Just for giggles:

*snip*

I have a bad feeling about this...

 Medium of Death wrote:
Who says the new droid is meant to be a direct replacement for R2? It might just be Han's daughters companion that assists her on Tatooine. Maybe it' been with her as a child.

Beat you,to it.

I say she built it from scavenged droid parts and modified it to suit Tatooine's sandy terrain, not the smooth metal hallways of a star ship. Makes sense for her character if shes a scrap collector.

Also apparently the Inquisitors are being retconned into the OT and Rebels characters have a chance to appear in the films. So the inquisitor from Rebels may well be in a future movie. I've never watched it before but I assume he could easily be played by Charles Dance.

People on this thread are expecting ESB, but you're not getting that!

You're getting trade delegations, a modern day Jar Jar, a villain with breathing problems, and a lot of wooden acting.

Like I said, 12 months from now, the mods will be pushing carts around and shouting bring out your dead!

I hope I'm wrong, but this is Disney we're talking about. Maxim money = equals getting the whole family involved, which logically rules out a film along the lines of ESB

I hope I'm wrong, but JJ's Star Wreck escapades don't fill me with any hope.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
People on this thread are expecting ESB, but you're not getting that!

You're getting trade delegations, a modern day Jar Jar, a villain with breathing problems, and a lot of wooden acting.

Like I said, 12 months from now, the mods will be pushing carts around and shouting bring out your dead!

I hope I'm wrong, but this is Disney we're talking about. Maxim money = equals getting the whole family involved, which logically rules out a film along the lines of ESB

I hope I'm wrong, but JJ's Star Wreck escapades don't fill me with any hope.

You are remembering a very different ESB than I am. I would take my kids to see ESB.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
People on this thread are expecting ESB, but you're not getting that!

You're getting trade delegations, a modern day Jar Jar, a villain with breathing problems, and a lot of wooden acting.

Like I said, 12 months from now, the mods will be pushing carts around and shouting bring out your dead!

I hope I'm wrong, but this is Disney we're talking about. Maxim money = equals getting the whole family involved, which logically rules out a film along the lines of ESB

I hope I'm wrong, but JJ's Star Wreck escapades don't fill me with any hope.

You are remembering a very different ESB than I am. I would take my kids to see ESB.

Yeah, being a kids movie doesn't make it bad. Took my son to see Paddington today and chuckled all the way through it.

Since we only have a few seconds of footage, did it ever occur to any of you that the droid might just be something we see in a street scene? Further while Disney is in the money making business, I'd suggest the MCU being an example of them doing it at least mostly right.

Many of the Marvel series of Disney films are far from kid friendly, or comprehensible. Seeing Loki tear somebody's eye out is way more than most parents want their kid to see- or seeing people commit suicide by Infinity Stone and literally explode. Disney's core kids line is not their only approach to movie making anymore.