Warning: There’s a giant spoiler for “Star Wars: Episode VII” below. (But you’ve seen “The Force Awakens” by now, right?)
Diehard fans would give anything to know what's coming in the next "Star Wars" movies.
Though we've seen a few leaks on character names, set images, and the likely return of an iconic character, you'll be pretty hard-pressed to find too many details about the forthcoming "Star Wars" spinoff, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", and next year's "Episode VIII."
However, there are a few people in Rhode Island who have the privilege of knowing exactly what characters will be in the next "Star Wars" movie and what will take place.
Among them is Hasbro's production design manager Bill Rawley who oversees a lot of the "Star Wars" toys that you see hit shelves ranging from lightsabers to that viral Chewbacca mask.
He's currently overseeing and working on products for Lucasfilm's next two "Star Wars" movies.
"We have another movie coming out this December, 'Rogue One.' And then, next year, there’s 'Episode VIII. So, we’re actually working on 'Episode VIII' stuff right now," Rawley told Tech Insider. "We’re excited about some of the newness we’re bringing into the products of that. It’s going to be fun."
Rawley couldn't tell us about anything specific he's currently working on — he's been sworn to secrecy. That's not a surprise knowing the precautions Disney took to prevent spoilers around "The Force Awakens." (Actor Oscar Isaac said he had to read his script in a room with cameras.)
But Rawley did give us an idea of what it was like keeping secrets for "Episode VII." He says he knew about the big Han Solo twist in "The Force Awakens" two years before the movie came out.
"For example, and spoiler alert if you didn’t see 'Episode VII,' Han Solo’s death, I knew that for two years and I couldn’t tell anyone, not even my wife," Rawley explained.
To give you some perspective, "The Force Awakens" started production in May 2014. The movie itself was on such heavy lockdown that film critics didn't even see the movie until a few days ahead of the movie's release December 18, 2015. It's one thing keeping a secret like that for a few days, but imagine keeping Han Solo's death quiet for two years.
"When that scene happened in the movie theater with my wife she just turned and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.' I was kind of in trouble," he joked. "It was the third time I’d seen the movie, the first time I saw it with my wife. So, I didn’t even watch the scene. I just turned and looked at her instead because I wanted to see her expression."
Though Rawley tells us he knows a lot about "Episode VIII," it's not like everyone at Hasbro knows what's going on in the upcoming "Star Wars" films. It's a very select group of people who are in the know.
"We do get information really early and we’ll send team members out to Disney to do script reads so that we understand stories so that we can put our toys in context with the story and we cannot share any of that information with anyone," Rawley explains. " Even internally in the building, designers and people on other groups, we can’t really talk to them about it. It’s on a need-to-know [basis]. If they’re working on products that are influenced by the story, we’ll let them know some story elements but a lot of times we don’t even share the full story with the rest of the teams because they don’t need to know that Han Solo doesn’t make it through the movie."
We'll have to wait until the fall to see Hasbro's new line of "Star Wars" toys. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" will be in theaters December 16, 2016.
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