joe_b

I remember downloading that in the school library in tenth grade.

Rumor was that he could be playing two characters in the movie -- at least one of them mo-cap.

Most definitely:

Pip Anderson was there in October doing mo-cap work:

mcnabb

This would be really funny, if there weren't so much truth to it!

Why So Blu?

raven56706

trailer looked awesome but didnt really say much... but i guess thats why they call it a teaser.... im pretty sure the guy in the snow was Luke

taffer

Evidently, racist assholes are complaining about Boyega being a black stormtrooper.

I never assumed stormtroopers were clones. Clonetroopers and stormtroopers are not the same thing. Clonetroopers were made because that was a way to quickly raise an army. Traditional recruiting would be slower. After the Clone Wars was over, I just assumed the cloning stopped. As new troopers were needed, they would just fill the ranks with traditional recruiting.

Plus, the clones had artificial rapid aging from childhood to adulthood. I would assume few, if any, would still be alive 20 years later during the events of the original trilogy. They certainly still wouldn't be alive 50 years later during the events of Episode VII (or at least not still in active service).

Also, the original trilogy makes a point of demonstrating different size armor since Luke is "short" and wearing "short" armor which Leia comments on. Clones would all be the same and not need different size armor. I never understood Leia's comment anyway. How could Luke be too short to be a stormtrooper? If he was too short, the armor would be too big and not fit him. There wouldn't be "short" armor if he was too short. Eh, whatever.

Guru Askew

Lucas would have redubbed their voices with Temiura Morrison like he did with Boba Fett in TESB on DVD/Blu if that was his intention as well.

The idea of Luke going to "the academy" also supports the concept of recruiting people and that's in the original film, and even referring to the Clone Wars as a past event (again, in the original film, though the nature of the event was pretty mysterious back then) supports the idea that cloning soldiers is done.

rocket1312

The fact that Luke is "short" for a stormtrooper supports the idea that they are all clones and thus are normally all the same size. As far as the armor fitting or not fitting, call that creative licensing. Luke running around in armor that didn't fit him would just leave him unnecessarily encumbered. That said, I always took the comment as meaning Luke was a weenie shrimp and that typically only larger, more physically able guys were able to make the cut as stormtroopers.

Guru Askew

Without getting into nerdy canon arguments (which I always hate) I'll point out that, in contradiction to what I wrote above, Lucas did include the clonetrooper hitting his head in AotC to suggest that the clonetroopers and stormtroopers are genetically prone to bumping their heads on doors.

I'd say that is pretty flimsy compared to the evidence that they aren't clones. One has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg that supports it and the other one has a ton of evidence in the movies and cartoons that supports it.

And to make it extra-nerdy: per Episodes II and III and TCW the clones inherit Jango's voice and even his accent even if they had no apparent contact with him, and Rebels has already had an episode about children training to be stormtroopers.

Josh-da-man

It is possible that clone troopers were still being produced through the events of Return of the Jedi. They are mass-produced clone soldiers. No reason to think the Empire stopped using them after the Republic fell.

After Return of the Jedi, it is possible that the Empire fractured into regional governorships and territories that the New Republic would have to deal with. After the clone troopers were killed or aged beyond ability to fight, they would have to recruit or press normal citizens into service.

However, in Rebels we see regular humans being trained to join the Imperial ranks, so there seems to be a lot of flexibility there.

mcnabb

I have also heard on the twitter a few Spaceballs analogies when the Black Stormtrooper is 'combing' the desert, "We aint found shit!!"

Sean O'Hara

We already know the Empire recruits people since the Star Destroyer bridges are full of ordinary, non-cloned humans. That says nothing about whether stormtroopers are recruits or not -- the academy could very well be for technically demanding careers in the Imperial Star Fleet, while expendables like stormtroopers are cloned. Given the context of Luke's statement (and I believe this was explicit in the novelization), he wanted to attend a flight academy, so at most it's proof that Tie Fighter pilots aren't clones.

TGM

I just assumed by the size of their codpieces that all Stormtroopers were black.

rocket1312

I'm not really arguing one way or another with regards to the clones. I was just throwing it out there as an explanation for Leia's comment. The other explanation (that Luke just isn't particularly physically imposing) works better for me.

Draven

I always took that line as stormtroopers are typically larger and more imposing than Luke is. Like a short scrawny guy in the Marines.

Guru Askew

If one thing settles it its the fact that Lucas thought to redub Boba Fett's lines in Empire to match Jango Fett but he didn't do the same with any stormtrooper dialogue.

mhg83

The freakout over the new saber is really stupid. This might be an ancient sith character we see and maybe that's how the Sabers were like?

Guru Askew

I haven't lost any sleep over it. I don't think it's a stupid criticism. Once someone points it out its undeniable as a design flaw. It's a stupid flaw to the point that no ancient race of people who could construct a lightsaber would be able to ignore said flaw.

But like I said earlier, it's just a Star War is all.

dfmaverick2

Now that everyone has criticized the design flaw, they'll be able to fix the spfx before next year.

taffer

No, it does not. It just means there is a minimum height requirement, like a rollercoaster. You must be this tall to ride.

fumanstan

Seems like this is all there is to it to me as well. It's a little gag that obviously wasn't meant to tie in to 5 other movies

joe_b

The link to an article a few pages back pointed out a very simple solution: They should have just put an actual metal hilt under the mini-sabers to prevent your hand from accidentally getting sliced off. Form should follow function, even in a galaxy far, far away.

Draven

Isn't there already a hilt there? I admit I haven't nerded out over this, but it looks like he's basically holding a metal cross by the long end, with a metal crosspiece that the smaller blades are jutting out of.

dsa_shea

The side bars should curve up to make some light horns on the sides of the actual saber.

mewmartigan

yeah, the two coming out the side each have their own mini-handle...almost like mini lightsabers coming out the side.

All the people whining that an enemy could just cut through those side handles and proceed to slice your arm off must be forgetting that all the OT lightsabers had no crossguard at all and you would still suffer the same effect during a fight.

The fact that the blade itself looks distinctly different from all other lightsabers shows that it probably isn't a normal lightsaber. If only they would a make a full length movie that might explain it instead of just a 90 second movie!

*nerd mode: maybe the "long" part of the lightsaber can come out either hilt so while in the classic movie fighting stance of locking swords and coming face to face for some verbal sparring, he simply adjusts the length of each blade and puts it through your face without ever moving.

EctoCooler

Nope.

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