Movie News

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Disney has released even larger sized images of Supreme Commander Snoke and Maz from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

In addition, a Redditor has manipulated the color of the Snoke image, which offers an even closer look at the big bad’s features.

You can also check out video about the theory that Snoke may actually be Darth Plagueis.

And here are the official descriptions of the characters:

Supreme Leader Snoke

The Supreme Leader of the First Order, the mysterious Snoke has no permanent base of operations, preferring to contact his underlings from a mobile command post. Snoke is powerful with the dark side of the Force, and seduced Kylo Ren into abandoning the Jedi path to become his apprentice. But Snoke also commands General Hux and the technological war machine the First Order has engineered to destroy the New Republic and Leia Organa’s Resistance.

Maz Katana

Maz Kanata is more than a thousand years old, a diminutive being with vast experience at surviving in the underworld. From her castle on Takodana, Maz has seen galactic powers rise and fall and felt the Force ebb and flow, seeking an elusive balance between darkness and light. She has given many a young smuggler a start by offering credits, equipment or connections, and helped many an old friend rediscover a lost path. 

Click to enlarge:

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Is it safe to say that just about everything in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is borrowed from previous material? Which is actually cause for a lot of complaints…

Spoilers follow for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

We know that The Force Awakens is a big time homage to A New Hope, but now it’s also learned that the Han Solo death scene was actually first played out in a video game. Obviously the scenes aren’t exactly the same, but watch the Han Solo death scene from the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2—Battle of Endor video game below which sees Han take a lightsaber right in the chest — virtually the exact same spot of Kylo Ren’s own finishing blow (via CBR).

Maybe there is something to that George Lucas petition?

And here are the images to compare:

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It wasn’t Han Solo, or Chewy, or Luke, or Finn, Rey, Poe or BB-8 that stole the show in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — it was the bad arse Stormtrooper that yelled “Traitor!”

And now he has a name.

If you’ve been online, you certainly have seemed various memes and videos associated with the Stormtrooper (aka TR-8R), and now LucasFilm has revealed his name.

The Stormtrooper is known as FN-2199, but his friends call him “Nines,” and Nines is also a part of the Greg Rucka’s Star Wars book, Before the Awakening: 

Nines trained and served on a squad with Finn (then FN-2187) in the First Order (see image below). That explains why he seems just a little extra angry upon seeing Finn during the attack on Maz’s Castle.

The name of Nines’ mace is also revealed; it’s a Z6 Baton.

He’s riot control, and part of an elite squad that enforces order or squashes uprisings. While their weapons are non-lethal in theory, the Z6 can definitely cause harm or kill an opponent when used with brute force. 

Skywalker Sound sound editor David Acord provided the voice, and while Nines did get blasted by Han Solo, maybe we’ll see him again in a galaxy far, far away…

Update: Nines is played by Liang Yang, a veteran stunt performer.

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With the release of the recent high-res images of Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens came comments from Andy Serkis about just who the big bad really is.

There’s a theory that’s been going around online that Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord that trained the Emperor.

Serkis told EW.com the following about Snoke:

“Supreme Leader Snoke is quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful,” Serkis says. “Obviously he has a huge agenda. He has suffered a lot of damage. As I said, there is a strange vulnerability to him, which belies his true agenda, I suppose.”

The article goes on to state that Snoke isn’t Darth Plagueis, and while Serkis isn’t quoted directly as stating it, EW notes:

Although there was much speculation about who Snoke might turn out to be (one popular theory was that he’d turn out to be a Sith Lord known from the prequels as Darth Plagueis) he actually turns out to be … just Snoke.

Serkis said the character was aware of the events from the earlier films but was a new addition to the storyline.

There is just one problem in that it should be noted EW.com is using quotes from an older article from November. So what gives? Is EW just providing spin to steer people in the wrong direction?

Honestly, I’m still not sold on Snoke not being Darth Plagueis – as Serkis didn’t specifically deny or say it – but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In additon, the John Williams music scores match up, and reportedly, Disney told a movie podcast to scrap mention of Plagueis.

Another theory has aalso popped up online regarding the look of Snoke, is that he may be blind in one eye. A Redditor manipulated the image, which may hold some truth to it as Snoke’s left eye does look blind.

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