Star Wars Celebration concluded its stay at the ExCel Center outside of London with a massive Future Filmmakers Panel, where we, learned who'd be playing young Han Solo in a spinoff movie (hey there, Alden Ehrenreich) but did not learn the official title of "Star Wars: Episode VIII." This, despite the fact that director Rian Johnson was present at the panel, and was nice enough to drop a few tasty nuggets — like the fact that his movie really will begin minutes after "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" ended (with the above scene of Daisy Ridley's Rey handing a familiar lightsaber back to Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker).
That doesn't mean that we walked out of Star Wars Celebration completely empty handed with regards to "Star Wars: Episode VIII" (the as-yet-untitled sequel). Without any footage to show fans, Rian Johnson instead shared a series of behind-the-scenes, making of images, and used them to talk about the process of making "Episode VIII." I'm going to share them with you below, and talk about what he said is important about the image.
The Cast
As expected, Star Wars: Episode VIII will bring back a mixture of the old and the new. The Force Awakens cast members Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac will reprise their roles, and they'll join Original Trilogy all-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (pictured below). But in leading off with this image, Rian Johnson spoke admirably about the countless extras and crew that toiled in the backgrounds to get Episode VIII off he ground and keep it there. In this photo you can see some of the costuming, props and sets that are on display in the film. The crew seems to be having a good time.
But not as much fun as these two, on stage at Star Wars Celebration ...
The Practical Effects
In showing this model creation of a ship (which Rian Johnson confirmed contains Billie Lourd, daughter of one Carrie Fisher), the director went on to emphasize the amount of set design, prop construction and practical effects that went into "Star Wars: Episode VIII.” Green screen is unavoidable in a film of this scale. But Johnson raved about his carpenters, the set designers who went the extra mile to build him practical locations, and the prop wizards who helped bring this movie to life.
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