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Star Wars reveals plenty of new swag (and characters) inspired by The Rise of Skywalker
To announce its latest roster of Star Wars toys, games, and curios, Lucasfilm held a special livestream from the famed Pinewood Studios in London today. The 45-minute event was hosted by Warwick Davis, an established genre actor whose career in entertainment really began when he played an Ewok at age 11 in 1983's Episove VI - Return of the Jedi. Dotted with pre-filmed segments of certain Star Wars actors speaking with Anthony Carboni (The Star Wars Show) and being shown the latest swag based off of their characters, the livestream was meant as a prologue to "Triple Force Friday" (Oct. 4) when a lot of the merchandise will be begin to roll out in stores across the country.
Cameron Monaghan was the first to show up besides Davis in order to promote Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a video game developed by Respawn that goes on sale in mid-November. The Gotham vet voices Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan on the run from the Empire following the events of Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Hot on his tail is the Second Sister, an assassin trained by Darth Vader himself.
"I hope that Cal is gonna be a kid's first Jedi. I think that would be kind of amazing," Monaghan said before debuting a fresh trailer for the game, which you can watch below:
From there, the livestream turned its attention to the litany of toys inspired by Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, which will close out the Skywalker Family story that first began in Episode IV - A New Hope. Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), BB-8, and even D-0 all made appearances.
In particular, Boyega acted pretty suspicious when it came to a mysterious horned figure by the name of "Boolio." If Boolio ends up saving the galaxy, we'll know why so many cast members don't want to say too much about him. Then there's the mini "Babu Frik" figure that comes with the C-3PO of Hasbro's Black Series of toys. While this version of 3PO looks super cool with Chewie's bandolier and bowcaster, it's Frik who got the biggest reaction from Anthony Daniels, who admitted that the hush-hush droid-builder is one of his favorite characters from the new movie.
The most interesting stuff, however, came from series newcomers, Keri Russell and Naomi Ackie who are playing Zori Bliss (described as an old criminal friend of Poe's) and Jannah (a bow and arrow-wielding Resistance ally) respectively. Russell got to see Zori's Funko and LEGO figures for the very first time. Ackie beheld her Funko as well, but also got to see Jannah's figure from the aforementioned Black Series.
"It's super surreal," Ackie told Davis. "I think that when you know you're gonna be a part of this film, that's one stage. Then you train, and that's another. Then you're filming it and you realize, 'Oh my gosh. On top of that, my character that I've helped create is gonna be turned into a toy that's gonna last for a really long time and be a part of people's lives for a really long time. It's quite overwhelming if you think about it too much ... I think the first thing [I did in approaching Jannah] was finding out what my character was. I think a lot of people know it's super secretive, so it's figuring out the history and her interactions with the other characters. It's about training and being on set a lot, figuring out what the energy was for my character ... You've gotta be a good runner if you're gonna be in Star Wars."
Near the end of the stream, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni showed up from the set of The Mandalorian Season 2 to deliver a special message before Pedro Pascal (playing the titular Mandalorian) and Gina Carano (Cara Dune) were shown some merchandise derived from the show.
You can explore all of the new announcements in the full stream video below:
Created by Favreau, The Mandalorian debuts with Disney+ Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order goes on sale three days later Friday, Nov. 15.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters everywhere Friday, Dec. 20.
