General Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker News and Rumors Thread

The scary bit is something I wonder myself. Because a villain, that would actually be scary for a 30+ yo, is not something that would fit in a SW movie. So, there needs to be a definiton of a "scary" in Star Wars.
Now for Hux. Like most things in TFA, Hux was a generic evil guy in a uniform, so people could imagine him to be as powerful and menacing as they wanted. TLJ gave Hux characterisation - that of a neurotic punching bag, which robbed him of that "menacing" bit. So, as with everything else in TLJ, we have a conflict between expectations and reality.

 

Exhibit A: Vader.
Exhibit B: Palpatine.

People tend to gravitate towards the "scary" villains because their presence on screen tends to be more weighty, more captivating for the most part. You can be intrigued by a villain who is there to be ridiculed, but you won't ever feel threatened by him or the views he portrays, and the heroes will never feel like they're in danger of facing him.

When Luke emerges in the cryo chamber on Cloud City and you hear Vader's breath and see his silhouette, you know the situation just got real.

But when you see our heroes get captured by Hux, you're just thinking "Yeah. Nothing's happening here. Let's move on.". Ridiculous villains can be fun and can also be very fun to write for, but it feels like a waste to not do something with an actor like Domhnall Gleeson other than incompetence and slapstick.

The moment where he draws his gun on an unconscious Kylo is arguably his defining moment in the Last Jedi. Is it that wrong to ask for more of that and less of the floor kissing in Episode IX? He's basically a young Tarkin. Use that.

 

i want more of this guy in ep9 (and i think we will)..

 

Me too. Hux needs to be a fully evil guy while Ren is the conflicted Anti-hero. Rey is his light and Hux is his darkness.

 

Hey all,

So, unless I’m mistaken, Ep.IX filming starts tomorrow (July 28th), right? Do we know anything besides the Yavin 4 lot teased earlier & Pinewood (which is a given)?

Have we any idea about the wheres and whens and hows at all? Have any production companies or location scouts been spotted anywhere in the world? Crew and/or actors?

Are there any new locations? Any return locations? AbuDabi? Forest of Dean (not necessarily for Takodana as FoD is widely used in film)? Iceland (seemingly used in every other major movie nowadays)? Skellig Michael? Norway (return to Hoth, please? *joke*)? Hollywood? Anything? Will this film be shot entirely on studio lots and sounds stages, or is the secrecy so effective that with thousands of people involved not even major locations are known?

My Google skills are utterly failing me on this, and have for months, but with filming about to start we should have some idea of where the production are working? Help?

PS: I'm starving for details!!!

 

hey bro

we are none the wiser than you my friend.. that's why we've been grasping at straws and discussing Zeroh's latest offering

it's coming. you just have to be calm and patient like me..

 

I refuse to discuss Zeroh's creative lies passed off as news scopes speculations! (man, I wish I could give myself the *wise* mark for that one...)

I think you're underestimating my chances!

 

this, this, and THIS.
Kylo Ren is not Darth Vader.
Hux is not Tarkin.
Snoke was not Palpatine.

that's totally the point, so far as i can tell from the ST.
and for me it doesn't make them any less villainous.

and Hux is fine. he had a bad day. that's also the point.
these aren't battle-hardened, seasoned veterans, this is literally his first war.
yes, he got knocked down; he's not going to stay down.

 

It's clear that it was by design that Hux came off bad in TLJ. Like all the other characters Hux needed to suffer and fail, in order to become something new in TrIXie. So yeah, I get what message Rian was trying to get across and why he did with the characters what he did. It just to my mind the execution was not well done, he took it too far with Hux's character.

 

i agree Gleeson could have played it straighter. i think they got carried away, the both of them.

it feels like Gleeson's natural default to do comedy, and Johnson didn't restrain him from it. it was a bad mix.
if he'd played Hux totally straight and kept the smirking more subtle, it could have worked.

also, Ren choking him in the throne room is just a bad story beat. it has no impact on Hux's attitude toward Ren (he's not the least bit scared of him), and though that could be somewhat telling of Hux's resilience/perseverance, i think it's the wrong choice.

 

Exactly. That's exactly my point.

 

Gleeson played it the way he was told to.

But this is not fitting for a Star Wars villain. We all know Gleeson can play serious too. Take "The Revenant" or "Ex Machina".

He's not scared? I've seen something differently. Hux became a kissass after he had been choked. My brother even called him coward.

Hux being choked was important because now Hux knows that he has to kill Ren fast.

 

i think Rian didn't direct him enough (as opposed to directing him specifically into what he was doing).
i think Johnson let Gleeson run with it, and Gleeson ran with it.

i get what you're saying about it not being appropriate for a Star Wars villain and that Gleeson can do serious roles, but at the end of the day he's an actor and what's true about insecurity with actors is definitely true of him. and when an actor isn't sure what to do, they do what feels comfortable.

obviously i can't say 100% that Johnson didn't tell Gleeson: "do it goofier!", but that's just not the impression i get from the interviews.

despite choking him, Hux still challenges him on the shuttle again and again. i don't see him in any way being a kiss ass. but i do agree that yes, he obviously knows he's got to get rid of Ren, so again, it does ultimately serve. i just think if it was going to happen, it should have happened on the shuttle, not in the throne room (and not like that).

 

i kinda saw this... but i could also see an element of "i've almost had enough of this and i'm gonna snap" from him.

he missed his opportunity, and i guess that played a part in his demeanor that followed.

i personally think it will all add to how he takes control of the FO, and how he runs it once he has the reigns.

 

So what you want is a villain with a commanding presence. Not someone scary.

Exactly. In TFA he's a weak copy of Tarkin that is only in the film because there was a similar character in ANH. He has no purpose. When he's onscreen, it's obvious Abrams wanted to recreate the same presence that Tarkin had but he has no idea why did Lucas need him or how he got there. So he's there, making mean faces and feeling smug about himself, just like there:

People complain about Hux being different in TLJ but for the first time he's played for what he is - a Tarkin cosplayer, not Tarkin's clone. He isn't scary. He has no commanding presence. His most defining moment is an impactless recreation of a scene from Triumph of the Will that is there to show that Abrams is also familiar with Leni Riefenstahl. A visual without an impact. He's a sad character. TLJ was just the film to show it.

 

hehe

despite the fact that your statement has caused a weird blink in my left eye that won't stop lol, it really does add to the pile of things that we all see so very differently from this movie.

we will literally be discussing this movie forever - and that is an awesome (x10) thing !

 

To be fair, this is not really an either/or situation. Having a commanding presence can very often be scary.

But it's not really a dealbreaker for me how they ultimately choose to portray the villains. I simply tried to conjure up an explanation as to why people found their portrayal lacking.

I'll give you that he definitely feels like a tacked on Tarkin expy in the Force Awakens, and the speech wasn't exactly the most subtle Star Wars scene, but he's a Tarkin expy that can grow beyond his roots because he survived the first movie and is still very much young. As FN said, I would have probably preferred it if they played some of his scenes straight in The Last Jedi as opposed to humorous. He's got a similar beat to Kylo about proving himself in Episode VIII, but unlike Kylo he has no one to confide his insecurities and fears in, leaving us with a different perspective on how we see his character as opposed to Kylo.

Ultimately, if you oust Kylo as a Vader cosplayer, and Snoke as a Palpatine cosplayer, and Hux as a Tarkin cosplayer, and Phasma as a Boba cosplayer - and then kill off half of those - you're facing a bit of an uphill battle. Kylo works great as a commentary on legacy and walked out of Episode VIII as one of the most interesting characters from the movies for me, but Hux needed a bit of a tweak, I feel.

 

Hux works as a counterpoint to Ren's failing Darkness.
Hux is what Ren thinks he is: destined for greatness, but spackling over weaknesses and insecurities: rejected, and abused.

Hux will ultimately fail because Ben will ultimately succeed. they are diametrically positioned on purpose.

 

I strongly agree with this. That's a great way of looking at it, and the setup is definitely there for it.

 

A little George Lucas Cameo in IX would be sweet