General Hux in Flux?

We are less than THREE MONTHS away from the official release date of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi to theaters (December 15, 2017)!!!!!!!!!

That in mind, I was rifling through some Star Wars news today, and discovered this interesting article about the lack of General Hux in the marketing for The Last Jedi. Domhnall Gleeson, the Irishman behind the dictatorial Star Wars character, said that it’s simply because General Hux isn’t as important as many of the other characters in the movie. I found this to be a really interesting point. (Lowkey, it could be because Gleeson has been a busy man, as he appears in SEVEN 2017 movies, including Mother! and American Made.)

When one watches The Force Awakens, it’s easy to see parallels between Gleeson’s Hux and Peter Cushing‘s Grand Moff Tarkin from A New Hope. They are both primary leaders of space stations that can destroy planets, yet the true power of their respective First Order and Galactic Empire does not lie with them. Where Grand Moff Tarkin had Darth Sidious (or The Emperor, if you prefer) and Darth Vader, General Hux has Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren.

If you recall from A New Hope, both Cushing’s name and the character of Tarkin (below Alec Guinness‘ Ben Kenobi, below the blaster in the hand of Harrison Ford‘s Han Solo) appear on one of the main movie posters:

In contrast, while Domhnall Gleeson’s name appears on the primary poster for The Force Awakens, the character of General Hux is nowhere to be found. This is made all the more interesting because Gwendoline Christie‘s Captain Phasma is front and just below center, despite having a SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER ROLE IN THE MOVIE (a lot of people were unhappy about that due to Christie’s Game of Thrones fame):

This changes slightly in one of The Last Jedi posters (albeit, not the primary poster for the movie), in which Gleeson’s Hux appears behind and to the right of Christie’s Phasma:

Now, there are two notable differences between General Hux and Grand Moff Tarkin.

The first one, is that The Emperor did NOT appear in A New Hope, while Supreme Leader Snoke DID appear in The Force Awakens. So there was no initial indication that Grand Moff Tarkin was not THE leader of the Galactic Empire, while it is painfully clear that General Hux is NOT THE leader of the First Order.

The second difference is that Grand Moff Tarkin did not make it past A New Hope, as Cushing’s character exploded with the Death Star. General Hux made it off of Starkiller Base prior to its total destruction.

Maybe those differences were director JJ Abrams‘ attempts to differentiate The Force Awakens from A New Hope? But then, what’s the point of Hux surviving the destruction of Starkiller Base if he’s just going to disappear into the background?

I’m very interested in seeing where Hux’s character is headed because I fear that Star Wars may be falling into the same trap that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fallen into: too many great actors and not enough screen time for them all. Of course, it’s also possible that this is just another attempt from the Star Wars universe to throw off audiences.

What do you think will happen with General Hux in Star Wars: The Last Jedi?

That’s all for TheHaysWay today, comments are welcome and appreciated (as always). If you enjoyed what you just read, click on the “like” and/or “follow” buttons to let me know. And, of course, have a new best day ever!

Star Wars, Lucifer, Life, Love

I’ve a lot to discuss in this post:

First of all, I suppose I owe all of you an explanation for my last post. I posted a link to the song And So It Goes by Billy Joel, and I typed up the lyrics to the song. I was going to write some sort of introduction and/or conclusion for that post, but I decided to just let you think about it without my opinions influencing you in any way. So, what did you think? Let me know in the comments (and write a comment about your thoughts on the song BEFORE reading on).

Now, here’s my opinion on the song: I was introduced to the song by a friend who I won’t see for two years because he is Mormon and about to head off on his mandatory mission (for the record, I’m not Mormon). It is an INCREDIBLY powerful song. The lyrics themselves are a poem, which is beautiful enough in talking about the longing for love and the complex nature of love between two people. Add in the longing tone with which Joel performs the song and the minor tonality of the song, and…wow. It’s one of those very few songs that is so beautiful and powerful that it brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it. EVERY time I listen to it.

Second of all, have you ever heard people say that they’re bad at life? I know I have. I have probably even said it before in the past, and maybe you have as well. But, after some very serious thought on the matter, I have decided that people are not bad at life. Rather, life is bad at life. Think about it. So many people say that life sucks when something gets screwed up, but many people say that sort of thing, and each person says it about different somethings getting screwed up. That means that life being bad is the only constant in there. So, life is bad at life. Somehow that all makes sense in my head. 🙂

Third of all, today was the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Blu-Ray and DVD release day. So, being the massive Star Wars nerd/geek/fanatic (pick whichever one(s) you like the most) I am, I of course purchased the movie. Just to throwback and shout-out to a couple of my old posts: here is my no-spoiler review and my spoiler review for the movie. So, I was watching the bonus content for the movie when a quote that I heard caught my attention. I didn’t hear it clearly enough to remember it the first time I heard it, so I reversed to take a second crack and write it down when it was said. One of the Lucasfilm reps that worked on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story said, “What makes something a Saga film is: it’s related to the Skywalker family in some way.” Basically, she revealed once and for all that Rey is a Skywalker. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a Saga film, therefore it’s related to the Skywalker family. Now, Luke and Leia are both still alive, but remember, Leia is essentially an Organa…or a Solo now (basically, she’s never known as Leia Skywalker) and her son, Kylo Ren, is definitely a Solo. This means that the only way that Rey is NOT a Skywalker is if Luke continues to be the focal point of this new trilogy. The logical assumption is that Rey is the Skywalker because she was the main protagonist in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. But don’t forget, the whole movie was about the search for Luke, which would make it very much related to the Skywalker family in some way. Futhermore, the title for the next movie in the trilogy is Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. We know from Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi that Luke is a Jedi Knight, while Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens never declared Rey to be a Jedi. So Luke may very well be that name sake “Last Jedi”. We are down to two possibilities, so what do you think? Will Lucasfilm go predictable and make Rey a Skywalker, or will Luke regain the focal point in this new trilogy?

Fourth of all, Timothy Omundson is joining the cast of Lucifer! The man who played Detective Carlton Jebediah “Danger” Lassiter or “Lassie” on the greatest television show of all time (Psych) (side note: Happy Birthday to Psych star James Roday who played Shawn Spencer!) will be playing God in the second greatest television show of all time (Lucifer). I’M PSYCHED! (See what I did there?) Also, apparently he voiced some rebellion characters in Star Wars Battlefront II. He is one of those very few actors/actresses that can act the phone book.

That’s all for TheHaysWay today, make sure to leave a comment on your thoughts about And So It Goes and/or on life being bad at life and/or on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and/or on any Star Wars conspiracy theory and/or on Timothy Omundson and/or on Lucifer and/or on whatever is on your mind, along with a much-appreciated like. If you are not yet a follower, become a follower for Star Wars‘ sake! 🙂 Have a pleasant tomorrow.