Two Classic ‘Star Wars’ Characters Confirmed in ‘The Force Awakens’

ScreenCrush’s WookieeLeaks is a weekly roundup of everything Star Wars! From The Force Awakens, 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, watch new trailers for a trio of big Star Wars video games, delve into more details concerning Star Wars: Rogue One, and pick through the latest The Force Awakens rumors.

Every Star Wars Game Has a Fancy New E3 Trailer

If you stepped foot on the internet at any point in the past week, you were at least somewhat aware of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (or E3), where all of the big video game developers and console manufacturers gathered together in Los Angeles to sell you on the next year’s worth of wares. And if you even dipped your toe into the coverage, you would have seen all of the Star Wars news. The saga is all over the place this year and that certainly extends to the world of video games.

And yes, that means a bunch of new trailers for new games have arrived. Let’s watch them from least exciting to most exciting.

First up is Disney Infinity 3.0, which will add Star Wars characters to this increasingly massive sandbox game. It’s weird to imagine a game series that offers you the opportunity to play as classic Disney characters, Pixar characters, Marvel characters, and Star Wars characters, but here we are. There will be two separate sets, available a month apart from each other, with each of them catering to a certain crowd. There’s the Twilight of the Republic set, which will offer up prequel-era characters, and then there’s Rise Against the Empire, which is all about the original trilogy. Otherwise, this just looks like more Disney Infinity and if you’re a gamer, you surely know how you feel about that by now.

Oh, and Boba Fett is a Playstation exclusive, which is surely going to truly enrage about 28 people around he world.

Next up is Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is still trucking despite the dwindling appeal of MMOs in general. The game is getting a fancy new expansion, titled “Knights of the Fallen Empire”, and this slick cinematic trailer is going to excite the people who are still playing (a number that is apparently high enough to warrant a new expansion).

And that brings us to what you really want to see: fresh, new gameplay footage from Star Wars: Battlefront. Looking like a fairly seamless merging of modern shooters with the original Battlefront games, Dice looks to have created the Star Wars action game to end all Star Wars action games. Take this extended (and very cinematic) look at the game’s version of the battle on Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. Sure, the familiar elements are there, but there’s also X-Wings and Tie Fighters and jetpacks and Luke Skywalker crossing lightsabers with Dark Vader. It may not be accurate to the film, but it looks like bliss:

Electronic Arts also unveiled a second trailer, showcasing the game co-op survival mode. Although not based on a specific scene from the films, you will surely recognize the location (Tatooine) and the guy giving you orders (Admiral Ackbar):

Rogue One Details, Revealed!

This week, we learned that Forest Whitaker is in talks to join Star Wars: Rogue One, a film already overstuffed with really interesting actors. Now, a slew of vague-but-enticing details have spilled online, painting a clearer picture of a movie that already had our attention. Let’s just dive in:

Definitely set during the "Dark Time" of the Empire (between Episodes III and IV)
Being coined as "darker and grittier" than any other Star Wars film to date
The film seems to be aiming to be much like an old school war film; Think Hamburger Hill meets Star Wars
All the Jedi are said to be in hiding; expect this story to leave them in the background
Stormtroopers have same armor as they do in the original films (i.e. episodes IV - VI)
Lots of alien life forms, Mon Calamari among them
New droids and aliens will be introduced. Kind of a no-brainer, but just so you know it's not just a bunch of rebels
At-Ats, X-Wings, Y-wings, At-Sts are said to be present.
Implied that some of the film will take place on Yavin-4; a lot of armies in the jungle and various battlefield locations
Looks like a new droid will be part of the band of rebels attempting to steal the Death Star plans
Felicity Jones is seen dressed as a rebel soldier ready for battle; expect her to get her hands dirty in this one.

Some of that is fairly obvious (of course there will be new droids and aliens) and some of it we already knew (no Jedi, only rebel soldiers). However, the detail that really sings is the Stormtroopers still having their “old” armor from the original trilogy, not the slick, redesigned outfits of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That seems obvious enough, but it’s the kind of nerdy detail that gets us excited. Pretty soon, there will be three distinct eras of Star Wars history on film and we’ll be able to distinguish all of them strictly through things like costume. With the anthology films jumping around the timeline as they please, this will give fans an instant indication of when a story is taking place. Much like how the fashion and tech of a period piece can give away a time and place, the uniforms and spaceships will let us know where we are in the Star Wars saga.

A Blast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens News

Star Wars news pops up in the weirdest places. Sometimes, it’s in the description of books waiting to be published and we only learn about it after someone translates it from German. Sometimes, it comes from a blurry photo of a LEGO set that somehow manages to contain a major spoiler. But this is a first. Today, we have Star Wars: The Force Awakens news courtesy of blurry photos of Covergirl products.

Yes, Covergirl is putting out a new line of Star Wars cosmetics and it even has a series of make-up designs with names torn straight out of the new movie: nomad, droid, sage, apprentice, Stormtrooper, and chrome. To make things even weirder, each item seems to have a Star Wars quote on it and while some are classic lines from the original trilogy, three of them are not. That means that these lines are surely from The Force Awakens, so take them as you will: