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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