UPDATE: The photos have been removed at the request of LEGO.
Even before Disney shelled out a whopping $4.05 billion to acquire Lucasfilm and all of its precious assets in 2012, Star Wars was widely considered to be one of, if not the biggest brands in entertainment. And one need only look to the ongoing marketing blitz for Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi for evidence of the franchise’s enduring popularity.
Pegged for a theatrical release on December 15th, and following the blistering success of Rogue One, Star Wars: The Last Jedi will beckon moviegoers back to the core Skywalker franchise and, by effect, pick up where The Force Awakens left off in 2015. That signals the return of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and, perhaps most exciting of all, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who slipped off the radar soon after the events of Return of the Jedi only to be found aboard the rocky outcrop known as Ahch-To.
To date, we’ve only seen one tantalizing teaser for the film and truthfully, it didn’t show us very much. Disney’s clearly keeping a tight lid on this one and while we’ll likely get some sort of behind the scenes reel at D23 this weekend, the next trailer may still be a ways out. Thankfully, then, we’ve been getting a steady stream of LEGO set leaks, the biggest of which has arrived online today.
Coming to us courtesy of Imgur, you can check out all of the photos in the gallery up above. As usual, they show off various character/vehicle designs along with hinting at potential plot points and set pieces. Admittedly, some of what we have here has already been seen before, but this is definitely the best look at the LEGO sets we’ve got yet and Star Wars fans will no doubt want to pour over each and every photo for any possible new story details they may be able to find.
From what we can gather, it appears that BB-8 will be along for the ride with Finn and Rose on their secret mission, while Hux is seen with his own blaster, which suggests the villain will get in on the action this time around. There’s also Kylo Ren’s TIE Fighter to take into consideration, which looks pretty damn cool. Aside from that, there’s not too much else that can be gleaned from these photos, but feel free to browse through the gallery for yourself and see what you can spot.
Said to balance the “familiar with the unfamiliar” and lay down a new series of rules for this most precious of cinematic universes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been penciled in for release on December 15th. It’ll be followed in relatively quick succession by Ron Howard’s Han Solo spinoff before Colin Trevorrow’s brings the curtain down on Disney’s rebooted trilogy with the release of Episode IX in May of 2019.