Star Wars: The Force Awakens Has Pirates And Lupita Nyong’o Playing This Creature
Yesterday we wrote about a rumor that may give away the ending of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. More than anything, I was surprised by people’s reactions. While I thought it sounded rather traumatic, many people have just sort of shrugged it off like no big deal. Today, because you can hardly go a day without new Star Wars rumors, we’ve got some reports about space pirates and the possible identity of Lupita Nyong’o’s character.
It should go without saying that there are potential SPOILERS beyond this point, and if you want to go into The Force Awakens blind, you should probably stop reading.
Making Star Wars claim they’ve seen some pieces of concept art and blueprints that detail a place called “Pirates Cove,” including designs for characters that inhabit this place that are described as, “These guys look like they would drink your space rum and throw you out the airlock of your ship. They’re all pretty dirty and scruffy looking… They’re a dash Star Wars, a dash Mad Max, and pretty much rad all around.” That’s promising.
The site supposes that these folks may have been borrowed from the “Legions of Lettow,” the name for the entire Sith order in George Lucas’ original Star Wars script. These are people powerful in the ways of the Force, but who walked away from the Jedi path. The main pirate is described:
There’s a main pirate that has many different designs. So we’ll just call him ‘main pirate.’ He looks like Robert Carlyle in a way, with a goatee and slightly long stringy hair. His under suit looks likes mummy wrappings, but they might be white foam, its hard to tell from the drawing. He has a chrome Stormtrooper’s bracers and gloves on his the gloves are fingerless. He has a blue coverall that goes over the wrappings, but just up to his chest. The groin area and stomach are exposed showing the wrappings. He has a belt on that is studded and a cup to project his important parts… it has a piece of cloth that drapes down from it. He has a red cape that is tattered and destroyed looking, more like a shawl in its frayed state. The cape is fastened to him with a rope he wears like a bandolier. He has a gun holster that appears to strap abound his leg, intersecting with his ‘cup.’ The design is very weird.
There is a lot of detail about the actual Pirate’s Cove, which you can peruse if you like, but the main gist is that it was a smuggler’s hideout—can’t you just imagine a young Han Solo and Chewbacca frequenting such a place, but was taken over by the Rebels and turned into an outpost. At one point, maybe here, maybe not here, Han turns to Chewie and says, “Chewie, we’re back home.” Can’t you just imagine him returning ot one of his old haunts and being overtaken by a wave of nostalgia? Here’s what the report says:
Pirate’s Cove captures the classic vibe of the rebel locations we’ve seen A New Hope and mixes them with the complexities and real-world lived in look of Echo Base from The Empire Strikes Back. I do believe the only pirate there is Han Solo, his partner Chewbacca, and their pirate ship, The Falcon.
There is apparently a piece of Pirate’s Cove called “Rose’s Room,” and from these reports, Lupita Nyong’o’s character is named Rose, or at least being called that for the time being. They say:
The set for Rose’s room required the room to be raised for puppetry requirements. It appears as if they need a channel in the floor for the puppeteer to move freely around, much like they did with Yoda’s house in The Empire Strikes Back.
You may notice the puppeteer part of that description and wonder, but it sounds like Nyong’o is doing most of her work in motion capture, which is an intriguing proposition. Here’s what they have to say about this puppet:
What’s interesting is the female puppet has a lot of of concepts [sic] art suggesting she’s important, and there are details regarding body articulation. However, the face is not articulated at all. It’s basically a puppet and you can put your hand up into the head to make its head move and its body has the standard work you imagine for a clothed creature. For some time we have heard the alien sidekick character would be a physical puppet with motion captured facial features. So it appears this little alien race is what Nyong’o is playing in the film.
But that’s apparently not all, and the report continues:
The ambiguity? There are two aliens. One is old and one is young. Both characters generally appear gender neutral in most of the concept art. The old character appears wise. One early iteration had the character crafting a crystal for (I presume) a lightsaber. The younger version appears to be related to that character and is younger and inquisitive. Just a wild guess, but it appears one is Lupita Nyong’o and one is Andy Serkis.
That sounds like a role right up Serkis’ alley, and this has a very Luke’s-first-encounter-with-Yoda vibe. Reports have said that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega visit a weird little creature, and it’s possible that this is it. This could be kind of cool. We know what Serkis can do with motion capture, but it will be interesting to see what Nyong’o does, and the mix of practical and digital could make for a unique appearance. And considering we’ve heard that the younger of the two creatures hangs out with Ridley and Boyega for the remainder of the movie, it’s possible she could be around for much of the film.
As usual, this is all rumor and hearsay, so make sure to take these reports with a grain of salt. In reality we’ll have to wait until December 18, 2015 to know anything for sure.
