The Wacky Theory About Daisy Ridley’s ‘Star Wars’ Character

ScreenCrush’s WookieeLeaks is a weekly roundup of everything ‘Star Wars!’ From ‘Star Wars: Episode 7,’ to the upcoming spinoffs and the TV shows, if it pertains to that long ago, far away galaxy, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, we dive into a weird theory about Daisy Ridley's character in ‘The Force Awakens,’ see which iconic character will appear in the next ‘Star Wars’ video game, and learn how much you have to spend to dress like an Imperial officer.

One Really Wacky ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Rumor (and Other Less Wacky Stuff)

Since last week saw the announcement of the title for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ it isn't surprising at all that this week was a little dead on the whole “full, official and confirmed news” front. But, this is the internet and if you're willing to a little digging, you'll always be able to find something worth talking about.

So let's take a look at one wacky idea dredged by a forum user at at StarWars7News.com. This should be taken with as much salt as you can find, but it's the kind of conspiracy theory we can get behind. It goes something like this:

The latest episode of ‘Star Wars Rebels’ featured a character intercepting an Imperial transmission, which was depicted in “Aurebesh,” the fictional language that you see pop up all of the ‘Star Wars’ universe. One fan (who apparently has a great deal of free time on his hands) decided to translate this message. The result was something fairly standard, but there were a handful of glaring typos. So this unusually intrepid fan wrote down the missing letters and found that they corresponded to a date, which just so happened to be the release date of an old issue of the ‘Star Wars: Legacy’ series (volume two, issue nine to be exact).

And here's what that issue is about:

A lot of the “Legacy” era has been about these larger-than-life Emperors and royalty—we’re taking this down to much more of a ground level. Ania Solo is somebody that is not a part of that world, and she doesn’t have a personal connection to it. She may have even turned her back on it.” […] “She’s living in a backwater, Outer Rim system. She runs a junkyard and she doesn’t have that many prospects, and that’s where we start things. Our story takes off there.”

That may already sound familiar, but there's more:

Solo was working as a junk dealer in the Carreras system, and she accidentally discovered the lightsaber of Imperial Knight Yalta Val after an Imperial communications droid containing the lightsaber turned up in her junkyard.

Yes, everything about the now non-canon character of Ania Solo corresponds to everything we know about Daisy Ridley's mystery character, from the whole “living and working in a junkyard” thing to the "discovering a lightsaber" thing. We're not going to say that Ridley is playing Ania Solo (or even a family member of any existing ‘Star Wars’ character), but we will say that it's entirely likely that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan plucked some of her traits out of the defunct extended universe. So take this however you want. Either Ridley may be playing a character named Ania Solo or she may be playing a character inspired by Ania Solo. Or this is all a bunch of random nonsense cooked up by people with way too much time on their hands. After all, what kind of crazy TV show would embed random clues about upcoming major motion pictures in their fictional language text?

And now, we journey from the exciting, dark and slightly sticky world of internet forum rumors to the tragically dull land of Bloomberg interviews with Disney's CEO, Bob Iger. If you're desperate for any kind of Star Wars news, he's got you covered, taking some time in between all of the business chat to explain how the title ‘The Force Awakens’ came into being:

It was a decision that was made by a few people involved in the process, Kathleen Kennedy who runs Lucas film for us, and J.J. Abrams who is directing The force Awakens… I was gonna say Star Wars VII but now there’s a new name.
We are involved in the decision. We feel great about the film. We can’t wait until it comes out. We are only one of many that can’t wait.
I love the franchise. I remember going to the first in 1977. it’s an experience i will never forget. That is exactly what we are hoping to do again when the force awakens in 2015.

Still awake? Okay. Good. Well, we have something slightly more exciting now. If you remember, there were rumors swirling about a few months back that Billie Lourd, the daughter of Carrie Fisher, was set to play a small role ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ and that all signs pointed to it being an appearance as the young Princess Leia in the saga's first flashback scene. Naturally, nothing was confirmed (this is an Abrams production, after all) but it looks like grandma may have taken care of that for us.

Debbie Reynolds, Fisher's mother and Lourd's grandmother, has spent the past week performing a series of farewell performances in Las Vegas and at the conclusion of her final show, her family members joined her on stage. And then this happened:

They were joined by Debbie’s son/Carrie’s brother Todd Fisher and Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd. Debbie mentioned that Carrie and Billie had been working on Star Wars: Episode VII–The Force Awakens with “Harrison Ford… and the other boychik.” It was probably the most tepid applause ever evoked by mention of a Star Wars movie—say that to a room of fanboys with Princess Leia right there and the howling might cause permanent hearing loss.

Since Reynolds has no reason to lie (and wasn't operating under the same cloak of secrecy as her daughter and grandkid), we can pretty much take this as confirmation that Lourd is in the film. But is she playing young Leia? That's still a secret.

Meanwhile, in news that will surprise no one, it was officially confirmed that ‘Star Wars: Episode 8’ will follow in its predecessor's shoes and film at the legendary Pinewood Studios in England. So start getting to know the layout of this studio, everyone! The folks at Making Star Wars have even made a little map that tells you what rumored scenes where filmed at which sound stages, so get studying. There will be a test.

The Folks Who Made 'Interstellar' Talk About 'Star Wars' For Some Reason

Since ‘Interstellar’ is a science-fiction movie and ‘Star Wars’ is kinda' science fiction and because film news people like to write headlines with ‘Star Wars’ in the headline (because like like clicking on 'em), director Christopher Nolan was asked all about ‘The Force Awakens’ while making the promotional rounds for his new movie. On the subject of whether or not he'd ever make a ‘Star Wars’ movie, Nolan was diplomatic:

I’m pretty excited to see what J.J. is going to do with that. I’m excited to see that he’s shooting on film and actually built the Millennium Falcon. As far as whether or not I would have ever done it, the truth is I think I’d be afraid to touch it! He’s boldly going where he went before in Star Trek, and it takes colossal balls.
I’m a lot more comfortable trying to do my own thing than carrying the weight and expectation of the entire world—particularly 40-somethings like me who live and die with each new bit of information about Star Wars. But I’m very excited to see what he does.

Nolan echoes the thoughts of many directors who were asked about working in the newly revived ‘Star Wars’ universe. It's all really cool, but no thank you! The chances of screwing up something so beloved are waaay too easy. It's scary stuff.

Meanwhile, 'Interstellar' star Matthew McConaughey made it clear that he ain't afraid of no ‘Star Wars’ and that ‘Star Wars’ has to be good enough for him if he's ever going to star in one:

Sure – there’s not anything that I’m not open to embracing. I want it to be a quality script, I want a quality character. I want to be a little scared of it. I want to have new challenges. I want to do something… find in a character where I can get to a point where I feel like nobody could be doing this but me. I’m going to have an original experience… an original take. That takes work to get to that point, but whatever the genre I’m wide open.

Someday, someone will cast Matthew McConaughey as a great space weirdo in ‘Star Wars: Episode 14’ or something.

Updates on 'Star Wars' Comics and Books

As with anything ‘Star Wars’-related, ‘The Force Awakens’ is going to have a ton of merchandise built around it. Some will attempt to pry cash out of the wallets of older fans (Statues! Novels! Art!), but most of it will be all about emptying the bank accounts of long-suffering parents. What's most interesting about the recently leaked listings for the first wave of new kids' books is that most of them seem built to introduce the original trilogy characters to younger audiences raised on the prequels and the ‘Clone Wars’ animated series. Just check out some of the tiles below and weep as you realize that some kids need a reminder about who Han Solo is:

Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire # 4 by Jason Fry (October 6, 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 6.99 USD 9,781,484,716,618)
World of Reading Star Wars AT-AT Attack! (Level 1) (November 3, 2015, paperback, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 3.99 USD 9,781,484,705,490)
LEGO Star Wars Rebels Unite! (September 2015, Dorling Kindersley, 9780241186824)
Star Wars: Episode VII Picture Book (Dec. 22, 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 16.99 USD 9,781,484,705,582)
World of Reading Star Wars: Episode VII: Level 1 Reader (December 22, 2015, paperback, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 3.99 USD 9,781,484,704,806)
Journey to Episode VII: Princess Leia Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 12.99 USD 9,781,484,724,972)
Journey to Episode VII: Han Solo Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 12.99 USD 9,781,484,724,958)
Journey to Episode VII: Luke Skywalker Middle Grade Novel (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 12.99 USD 9,781,484,724,965)
Journey to Episode VII: The Fall of the Empire / The Rise of the rebellion (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 17.99 USD 9,781,484,724,989)
Star Wars: Episode VII Doodle Book (September 2015, Paperback, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 12.99 USD 9,781,484,725,047)
Star Wars Episode VII Book and Magnetic Play Set (September 2015, Hardcover, Disney Lucasfilm Press, $ 14.99 USD 9,781,484,729,410)

If you're an adult with disposable income and no pesky kids, you'll probably me more interested in this variant cover for the first issue of Kieron Gillen's upcoming Darth Vader comic book series. Painted by the great Alex Ross, it's a thing of beauty:

Marvel

And while we're here, expect to see these posters for Marvel's new ‘Star Wars’ series start popping up in your local comic shop. And then expect to start buying the issues when they go on sale because you're only human.

Marvel

The Next Big 'Star Wars' Game Could Feature Chewbacca

Yeah, everyone is pretty excited that Star Wars: Battlefront is coming back next year, but it's not the only ‘Star Wars’ game in development. Bioware, the developer behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (the best ‘Star Wars’ game ever made) and the Mass Effect trilogy (one of the best science fiction games ever made) is currently working on a new game set in this universe, which is exciting news for anyone who likes good things. Details are under wraps, but we can safely assume it'll be a character-driven RPG and that it'll be awesome.

But here's what we do know: the game will probably feature Chewbacca. We know this because a company working with Bioware posted a Cragilist ad looking for a Chewbacca voice actor in the Seattle area, promising $150 for 30 minutes of work. So if you live around those parts, need some quick cash and can "Raaaaaaaarrruhhhh" with the best of them, you should take advantage of this sweet deal ... and let us know what you find out.

'Star Wars Rebels' Reveals News Clips

Another week, another batch of ‘Star Wars Rebels’ clips! Really, there's no necessary commentary here. You know whether or not you're going to click on those YouTube embeds or not.

Everything Else

First of all, the legendary James Earl Jones was awarded the first annual Voice Arts Icon award, giving the deep-voiced man behind Mufasa, the CNN logo and yes, Darth Vader, all of the deserved recognition. Congratulations, sir.

Have the strong desire to dress like an Imperial Officer? Want only the best quality, movie-accurate outfit? Got $1,275? Anovos has got you covered.

Anovos

Yes, that is a bird who can imitate R2-D2. Yes, he's a very cool bird.

And finally, here is J.J. Abrams getting hit with a fish because, you know, comedy.