Star Wars: The Last Jedi…. so what do we know so far?

 
Today I was greeted by the news that both Rian Johnson and Mark Hamill (that’s the Episode 8 director and the obvious dude who played the titular farm-boy character in the original Trilogy for the uninitiated) want the fans to completely avoid any marketing activities and merchandises for the TLJ movie if they wanna keep clear off subtle spoilers and such.
 
Oh come on. Is that even possible? Whatever happened to the joy of grabbing every single Star Wars merch off the shelves before the movie opens at the big screen? Me avoiding Star Wars merchandises is like a cat deliberately avoiding a bag full of catnips. Anyway, the fans can’t possibly be blamed if subtle spoilers are indeed being leaked through these merchandises and marketing materials. That’s a tell-tale sign that some people (or a whole department for that matter!) over at Disney should get the boot… innit?
 

I haven’t picked up the new Entertainment Weekly Star Wars; The Last Jedi Special Edition Double Sized Issue either but thanks to the power of social media, we can now safely say that most of the contents in that issue can be found splattered all over the internet. There are a number of images off EW that seemed to have rocked everyone’s world right now but that’s not what really intriguing me for the moment.
 

Sure, some new faces/characters were introduced. That supposedly cute Porg creature is now being feared by many fans to be a repeat of Jar Jar Binks but to be fair let us watch the film first and judge later (although I also suspect that this could be a clever ploy by Disney to sell plushies of the characters to the kids). Honestly Jar Jar didn’t bother me that much. He was a comic relief and that’s that. I loved how the Ewoks turned out too in ROTJ. Haters please reserve your comments…..hahahah.
 

My favorite thus far has got to be those Praetorian Guards. I’m pretty sure many would be very impressed with their armor design and not to forget that these guys are probably the kick-ass successors to the Imperial Red Royal Guards that Palpatine once had flanking him. Unlike the Royal Guards who looked more like ceremonial figures, these Praetorian dudes actually look like they're ready to pounce if Snoke ever gets threatened. I bet Luke and Rey's gonna have some fun going through these Praetorians to get to Snoke!
 
 
So what really intrigued me?
 
The endless previews of TLJ merchandises have inadvertently/intentionally revealed so many hints/spoiler bits off the movie itself. A printed advertisement (can’t recall if it was a brochure or otherwise) shows Snoke having a ‘Death Star’ base?  While many weeks ago we were also treated to the leaked images of the 3.75” action figure line which also revealed lack of new characters in TLJ. Let’s not forget that long before the official blue-eyed image of Supreme Leader Snoke was revealed, LEGO had the pleasure of being the first to show Snoke in a Jedi-like robe with the confirmation that the dude was almost certainly a human/humanoid rather than an alien that resembles a human being.
 
My money is on the fact that Disney had intentionally asked their marketing team to fire all cylinders and kick off every single promotional merchandises and whatnots to fully capitalize on the franchise’s popularity to recover the huge sums of moolah they paid to bring TLJ into fruition as fast as possible. It’s all about Return on Investment (ROI)….whay can’t the fans simply understand that…sheesh (*sarcasm at its best*. It’s funny how both Johnson and Hamill are now playing the role of the good guys and basically telling everyone that they aren’t able to stop Disney’s barrage of marketing attacks. So if you wanna keep the info safely intact till you see the movie in December ’17, you gotta lock yourselves in a cave with no internet connection whatsoever and please stop buying the gosh-darn magazines too!
 
Anyway, the real question now is whether Rian Johnson can pull off something cooler than JJ’s film or are we gonna see another rehash ala A New Hope/The Force Awakens? I hope not. I sure ain’t gonna avoid any TLJ merchandises till the movie premiers in December too. Personally I think that it’s absolutely great to get bits of information and leaks prior to the movie itself. Apart from fueling endless fan theories those could also be a source of great relief if they are proven to be otherwise (red herring!) when we finally get to see the movie 4-months from now.

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