Everything We Learned about Star Wars at D23

While Yoda told us the future has always been in motion, the future of The Force Awakens is shockingly close to being the present (we are officially less than four months out! [hyperventilates]), and while plot details are being kept in a highly secure holocron, a few officially sanctioned tidbits have started to leak out. Over the weekend, Disney’s big D23 conference revealed not only details about The Force Awakens, but the other forthcoming episodes in the new trilogy, the spin-off films, and more! Here’s everything our Bothan spies have been able to track down (mostly via reading Twitter or Entertainment Weekly…nobody said Bothan spies were geniuses).
A stormtrooper will wield a lightsaber in The Force Awakens 
Before last weekend, all the photos, sketches, trailers, and press materials we’ve seen only featured one lightsaber: Kylo Ren’s immediately iconic red cross-guard blade—good-guy-blue blades were nowhere to be found. Until now! In what has been described as a “commemorative poster” (i.e. not the one we’ll see in theaters), Finn (John Boyega), who we spotted in the first teaser trailer wearing stormtrooper armor, is heroically holding a blue-bladed lightsaber. It’s hilt? Looks exactly like the one created by Anakin Skywalker, and later inherited by Luke, and which Luke presumably lost in the bowels of Cloud CIty when Vader sliced off his hand. While this doesn’t totally confirm that Finn and Rey have indeed located the legendary laser sword, it seems unlikely that poster artist Drew Struzan would be given false information!
Director J.J. Abrams swears The Force Awakens is not a “greatest hits” collection
While reticent to reveal plot details, believing fans deserve to be surprised, J.J. Abrams is adamant that he (and everyone involved) did not want Episode VII to be a collection of callbacks to familiar Star Wars moments. While certain lunatics (me) are piecing together what we think the plot might be, this latest interview seems to indicate there might be even more surprises in store. For months we’ve been asking ourselves the big questions: Will Lando show up? Maybe the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Anakin Skywalker? What about Yoda? Hmmm…that sounds like a greatest hits collection to me.
Rogue One is now a “Star Wars Story,” and will be all about Felicity Jones
That first photo of the cast of Rogue One—the first of the standalone Star Wars films—makes it very clear that Felicity Jones is the star. We know the plot concerns an operation to steal the plans of the first Death Star (space heist!), and it’s already shaping up to be darker and grittier than anything we’ve seen in this universe. Previously branded as part of an “Anthology” series, each of the standalone movies (including the one about Han Solo) is now being referred as a “Star Wars Story.”
Episode IX—the last of the new trilogy—will be directed by Jurassic World‘s Colin Trevorrow
J.J. Abrams will officially not direct the final installment of the new trilogy. Instead, the conclusion of whatever is set in motion by The Force Awakens (and continued by Looper mastermind Rian Johnson in Episode VIII) will be coming to us via Colin Trevorrow, now world famous for the monstrously successful Jurassic World. Because Trevorrow’s debut—Safety Not Guaranteed—featured time travel, and his last stars dinosaurs, certain people (me again) think this means there could be both dinosaurs and time travel in Star Wars Episode IX.
If it sounds like a game of movie musical chairs to you, relax: there’s a precedent. The original Star Wars trilogy also had three directors: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, and Richard Marquand.
We’re going to Disney World…as soon as they build that Star Wars theme park
The space simulator Star Tours has been a staple for franchise fans visiting the Disney theme parks for decades, but soon-ish, there will be a full-on Star Wars land, complete with a Jedi Academy, and, if we’re lucky, a full recreation of Dexter Jexter’s diner from Attack of the Clones. (Kidding.) There’s no word on when the park will be open for business, but just in case, fans have already started lining up in front of every construction site in central Florida in hopes of getting a sneak peek.
Who’s ready to time travel to 2019 for a screening of Episode IX?