display screens star wars manufacturer

Star Wars Screen Entertainment was a product of LucasArts Entertainment Company and Presage Software Development, Inc.,1994.A New Hope–themed screen savers. It was was available for Windows operating system 3.0 or higher, as well as for Macintosh system 7.0 and above.

Screen Entertainment does not include any interactive game. However, the user can customize some aspects of the screen savers (number of stars, speed, etc.). The icon to execute the program was R2-D2, which was also used in the Jawas option.

Death Star Trench: An animation of the trench, at high speed. Users can choose if they want only an X-wing, only a TIE fighter, or both (in this case, the X-wing will be chasing the TIE).

Hyperspace: A semi-static picture of the Millennium Falcon cockpit, with moving stars outside. Suddenly, Han Solo moves his arm and the stars become lines as if entering the hyperspace. After a while, Han moves again and the lines become stars. Chewbacca periodically howls.

Rebel Clock: Similar to Imperial clock, with Dodonna"s display of the Battle of Yavin. It is analog. The Death Star marks minutes and Yavin 4 marks hours. The Death Star might be over Yavin.

Space Battles: As seen from some window in a cruiser, small dots move against each other and shoot beams. Mon Calamari cruisers, Nebulon-B frigates and Star Destroyers drift slowly across the screen while fighters occasionally fly by.

Viewscreens, also known as holoscreens, vidscreens, and rarely repeater displays,holographic moving images on HoloNet channels from across the galaxy. It would display holo-signals in, but, instead of projecting a three-dimensional image, images on a holoscreen would be shown on a two-dimensional screen. It could be attached to a wall and viewed in a room. It was capable of receiving different transmissions, including Channel 1.

Establishments such as the Outlander Club on Coruscant had wall-mounted viewscreens, showing various sporting events including Podracing, Odupiendo racing, and nuna-ball. Viewscreens could be used for in-house events that were not broadcast publicly, such as events in the Taris dueling ring, which could be seen on viewscreens in the Upper City Cantina.

Different viewscreens had different characteristics. For example, the Empire"s viewscreens had slight static appear before a hologram flashed into view, while a Trade Federation transmission had a slightly white surrounding area, and began and ended with a wave effect.

“The Mandalorian” was a pretty good show. On that most people seem to agree. But while a successful live-action Star Wars TV series is important in its own right, the way this particular show was made represents a far greater change, perhaps the most important since the green screen. The cutting edge tech (literally) behind “The Mandalorian” creates a new standard and paradigm for media — and the audience will be none the wiser.

What is this magical new technology? It’s an evolution of a technique that’s been in use for nearly a century in one form or another: displaying a live image behind the actors. The advance is not in the idea but the execution: a confluence of technologies that redefines “virtual production” and will empower a new generation of creators.

In filmmaking terms, a “volume” generally refers to a space where motion capture and compositing take place. Some volumes are big and built into sets, as you might have seen in behind-the-scenes footage of Marvel or Star Wars movies. Some are smaller, plainer affairs, where the motions of the actors behind CG characters play out their roles.

Advances some time ago (think prequels-era Star Wars) enabled cameras to display a rough pre-visualization of what the final film would look like, instantly substituting CG backgrounds and characters onto monitors. Sure, that helps with composition and camera movement, but the world of the film isn’t there, the way it is with practical sets and on-site shoots.

This particular volume, called Stagecraft by ILM, the company that put it together, is not static. The background is a set of enormous LED screens such as you might have seen onstage at conferences and concerts. The Stagecraft volume is bigger than any of those — but more importantly, it’s smarter.

Naturally there are some trade-offs. At 20 feet tall, the volume is large but not so large that wide shots won’t capture the top of it, above which you’d see cameras and a different type of LED (the ceiling is also a display, though not as powerful). This necessitates some rotoscoping and post-production, or limits the angles and lenses one can shoot with — but that’s true of any soundstage or volume.

The size of the LEDs, that is of the pixels themselves, also limits how close the camera can get to them, and of course you can’t zoom in on an object for closer inspection. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with Moiré patterns, those stripes you often see on images of screens.

I’ve been told that nearly every production house is building or experimenting with LED walls of various sizes and types — the benefits are that obvious. TV productions can save money but look just as good. Movies can be shot on more flexible schedules. Actors who hate working in front of green screens may find this more palatable. And you better believe commercials are going to find a way to use these as well.

If you’ve ever wished you could recreate the iconic scene in Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker discovers a holographic message of Princess Leia, pretty much kicking off the entire franchise, you can now get a lot closer to that dream. Unfortunately, you won’t be using an R2-D2 astromech droid to do so, but rather a new type of display developed by Looking Glass Factory, a Brooklyn-based startup.

Today, July 24, the company announced the eponymous Looking Glass, a completely self-contained display for viewing three-dimensional, holographic content. Think of it like a second screen for your computer that allows you to view objects in three dimensions, without the need to put on a clunky headset.

The Looking Glass costs $600 for a 8.9-inch display (around how much a decent VR setup currently costs), and $3,000 for a 15.6-inch version. The displays only require two cables (an HDMI and USB) and a decently powered laptop to work, and can either be controlled by a mouse and a keyboard, like a regular screen, or connected up to a wireless controller, like

Frayne said he expects the display to find a home in commercial settings before it finds a way into our homes, the eventual goal. He’s had conversations with companies, games-makers, and artists, and believes that, although there is enjoyment and value to be found in VR and AR headsets, their benefits are often outweighed by how isolating the experiences are, and how lazy we can be.

By creating something that looks similar to the computer screens we’ve plopped ourselves in front of for the last 20 years, we wouldn’t have to radically change our consumption behavior to enjoy a completely new way of looking at content. Looking Glass’s displays can also be viewed by multiple people at once, unlike a VR headset, making them far more useful for collaborative work in 3D.

When we watch Star Wars, we tend to latch onto an impressive effect, a giant creature, or a memorable set as something visually memorable, and as something that expands the scope of the saga. But there’s a more subtle element that is just as important in making the overall world of Star Warsbelievable: in-universe graphics and displays. In A New Hopealone, there’s the tractor beam monitor, which tells us that Obi-Wan has successfully freed our heroes; there’s the Death Star schematic, which lets us know how the rebels can destroy the Empire’s battle station; and there’s Darth Vader’s TIE fighter targeting display, a visual signifier of his space combat skills and ruthlessness. Details like these convey story but also make the setting feel real; moreover, if they’re seamless, it means their designs really work. BLIND LTD has developed a staggering number of such images for all the modern Star Warsfilms, from First Order Star Destroyer blueprints in Star Wars: The Force Awakens right up to Han’s landspeeder dashboard in Star Warsgraphics into the modern era while still grounded in the look of the original and prequel trilogies. StarWars.com caught up with Andrew Booth, founder of BLIND, to discuss his company’s approach to Solo, how an L3 graphic connects to A New Hope, and why working on Star Warsis like going back to art school.

StarWars.com: Star Wars has a visual language, but each film has its own sensibility. So when you were starting work on Solo, coming up with what displays and graphics within its world would look like, where did you begin? And how did you drill down to what everything would look like?

Andrew Booth: Star Wars definitely has a distinct visual language — and yes, each film certainly has its own sensibility. With Solo, our fourth successive Star Wars film, we originally thought “Ah, it’s like Rogue One,” as it’s set in a similar time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. And it was a surprise to find this Rogue One aesthetic didn’t feel right. Our approach with Solo’s computer graphics then became grounded in real-world decades and not splitting the difference between the original trilogy and the prequel aesthetics. We imagined that if Rogue One was made in 1976, we needed to take the graphic language for Solo back to the mid-’60s. When it came to that decade’s film references, we are definitely talking about 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the real-world Apollo space program graphics from the late ’60s. This felt much more like the graphic language that we were looking for.

Everyone thinks computing or computer graphics is quite a modern thing, but we were referencing images from over 60 years ago. We were inspired by early computer imaging like the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) cathode ray radar system introduced by the North American military in the late ‘50s, and the abstract digital art pioneers such as John Whitney and Ben F. Laposky. Back then, just drawing a pixel was an engineering feat. What we realized through this research was these images had a beautiful fidelity — imagine an almost smoky trail “echo” that follows a moving graphic. When it came to Solo, we combined this echo with our very bold, simplistic vector-style graphics and created a design language that feels like it existed 10 year before the events in A New Hope. The result is a new version of Star Wars retro-graphics that has been aged — full of inherent flicker, dirt, and fuzz-ridden effects.

Andrew Booth:Ah, thank you! That’s very kind. We were definitely playing in the arena of the original film. In fact, all our Star Wars graphic work is informed by the DNA of A New Hope. For example, the gauges within the Starkiller Base control room are a direct homage to the tractor beam graphic, famously deactivated by Obi-Wan Kenobi. [See below.]

The triptych orbit screens on the bridge of the Raddus in The Last Jedi are a playful riff on the etched-glass panels found in the strategy room on the fourth moon of Yavin. As a child, I imagined the technicians moved the vector lines with their light pens. The star-map graphic featured on the Death Star command deck in Rogue One is a white version of the very same graphic used by Grand Moff Tarkin just before his death in the final scenes within the Death Star from A New Hope. And if you look closely, there is a graphic featured at the end of Solo that links to A New Hope in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

Andrew Booth:The speeder had to work driving at 80 miles an hour. Originally, we thought all of the graphics would be ambient loops, since we don’t have access to the car on set. We then had the idea that we could tie in a smart phone’s compass into driving the actual graphics. So we have an old-looking graphic, but it’s driven by the technology of the smart phone. We programmed it so that you can press the buttons and change what sort of map you’re looking at, and when they are actually driving, it moves around, giving it a little bit of interactivity and dynamism.We designed a rear-view camera display based on the cel-animation style of the X-wing targeting device.

Kessel’s computer and security-monitor-filled operations center became a showcase for our new Star Wars retro-graphics. Originally Han and Chewie’s adventure to find the coaxium was going to be played out in a schematic, and on the center monitor you can see a top-down view for the Kessel mine schematic created for such purpose. We then discussed the use of CCTV [Closed Circuit Television] though security cameras. The CCTV image on the monitor right of frame is actually a photograph of the art department’s “white” model of the set. We then processed the footage to make it feel like it was CCTV shot from the ’60s.

At the end of the movie we see Han and Chewie back in the Falcon and if you look closely in the rear, you can see the legacy display of L3 calibrating in the background — a direct connection to A New Hope, which I mentioned earlier.

StarWars.com: Your work really helps to complete the illusion of the movie in a subtle but important way. What are your reflections about working on Solo and Star Wars overall?

Andrew Booth:George Lucas believed that Star Wars designs should not call attention to themselves, so I’m super pleased to hear that our work contributes to these movies in a subtle way. We always make sure that whatever is designed, it adds to the film and doesn’t subtract. It is our hope that the graphics are only noticed when they’reserving a function, and when it is an ambient element it should be virtually invisible. All filmmaking is an illusion and we are thrilled that our computer graphic work, photographed in-camera, helps to build a completely tangible universe.

For me as a creative, it was like going back to art school and getting a Masters degree in the aesthetics and sensibilities of what graphics looked like in a galaxy far far away. The Star Wars films are such enriching experiences, and I am thrilled to be part of something as an adult that touched my heart as a child. The beauty of Star Wars films is that you can watch them over and over again finding new things each time — there is an inherent, layered richness to the Star Wars universe and this is why we can continue to look at it from many angles and find infinite possibilities.

Dan Brooks is Lucasfilm’s senior content strategist of online, the editor of StarWars.com, and a writer. He lovesStar Wars, ELO, and the New York Rangers, Jets, and Yankees. Follow him on Twitter @dan_brooks where he rants about all these things.

Behind the scenes on the set ofThe Mandalorian,the storytellers and unprecedented visual effects engineers creating the first live-actionStar Warstelevision series collaborated to crack the code for what has become a game-changing creation: StageCraft, a technological marvel that immerses the cast and production crew inside their CG environments in real time with the help of a massive wraparound LED screen.

“Jon Favreau found the breakthrough that George [Lucas] was always looking for when he first explored the idea of a live-action TV show,” adds Richard Bluff, the visual effects supervisor on the acclaimed series. Known as StageCraft, the innovators at Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm, and their collaborative partners on the project have achieved the planet-hopping magic ofStar Warsstorytelling that transports viewers to the galaxy far, far away by settlingThe Mandalorianin a largely computer generated, photo-real environment that wraps around physical sets and real actors to create a seamless effect.

It’s staggering to watch the final effect unfold, as a team of artists and engineers known as the Brain Bar act as mission control just a few yards away from the Volume, a curved cocoon of glowing LED screens ready to transport those standing inside of it literally anywhere. “It’s exactly the same sort of technology as the large LED screens you see in Times Square,” Bluff says. “What we wanted to do was shoot on a small stage with small physical sets that could be wheeled in and out fairly quickly and then extend those physical sets on the wrap-around LED wall.” And by moving visual effects to the beginning of the filming process, StageCraft enriches the performance of the actors, and the experience for directors and cinematographers using the new methodology for more precise storytelling in a completely fabricated galaxy.

It was just about six months before filming began that showrunner Jon Favreau, executive producer Dave Filoni, and DP Greig Fraser joined forces with ILM, Epic Games (maker of the Unreal Engine), and production technology partners Golem Creations, Fuse, Lux Machina, Profile Studios, NVIDIA, and ARRI to unlock this innovative achievement. While ILM had pioneered virtual production tools and had worked successfully with LED technology on previous Star Wars films, StageCraft was still very much in its infancy at the time, a virtual reality platform that helped storytellers scout fabricated environments to set up their shots. Propelled by the support of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the sheer will of Favreau, who was always pushing the collaborative team to try new things and bringing together some of the brilliant minds capable of making it happen, the crew took their next steps into the larger world by crafting the prototype of the Volume.

Fresh off projects likeThe Jungle BookandThe Lion King, Favreau was passionate about employing new technology to enrich storytelling as he began his work onThe Mandalorian. But the scheduling constraints of a television show — and aStar Warsshow that had to satisfy the planet-hopping scope fans have come to expect while making it feel entirely authentic and accessible no less — meant whatever the team came up with had to appear realistic and be able to be shot on a Los Angeles soundstage without the traditional challenges of location shooting. “One of the things we wanted to do is move away from green screens and make the scale of aStar WarsTV show work,” Bluff says. “And we knew that we needed a technological innovation to push the boundaries and provide a solve for the production. Through the collaboration with Jon Favreau, Greig Fraser, ILM,  Epic Games, and others we landed on the idea of utilizing video wall technology.”

Bluff, like many fans, discoveredStar Warsas a child enthralled by the galaxy far, far away and the stories that unfolded there. “I fell in love withStar Warsas a kid. I would watch the movies over and over again and I would lie in front of the TV drawing the characters. I desperately wanted to get into any sort of creative environment, particularly the film world, through drawing.” WhenJurassic Parkbroke new ground with realistic computer graphics animation, Bluff saw his opening. “I understood that the doors were about to be blown off the industry and it was going to be a race to learn this technology because it was in its infancy. So I took that opportunity with both hands!”

“It was that pioneering spirit from the early days of ILM and the birth of computer graphics and the birth of the Pixar computers that really got me into it,” adds Kim Libreri, the chief technical officer of Epic Games, who collaborated closely with Bluff and the crew. “Honestly, ILM and George’s legacy had a big influence on me choosing my career path.” One night when he was studying in college in the UK, Libreri had a dream about a realistic video game that involved flying a snowspeeder over Hoth during the battle with the AT-ATs fromStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. “It was totally real. I was in the movie, but it was a game. I thought, one day it will be possible that a video game will look as good as a movie. And that has driven me my entire career.”

Bluff went on to land a job with ILM as part of the team of matte artists onStar Wars: Revenge of the Sith;Libreri also went on to work as a visual effects supervisor with ILM before moving on. And they’re both thrilled to be working on newStar Warsstories. “For me coming back toStar Warsin the role that I’m in advancing technology, I hope it inspires kids that were my age when I [discoveredStar Wars],” Bluff says.

Nearly two decades after his first role working behind the scenes building the galaxy, Bluff recalls those early StageCraft tests in the spring on 2018, when the crew working onThe Mandalorianhad mere weeks to come up with the wraparound screen prototype. “We got the go ahead to start actively developing the tech sometime in the end of March 2018. The idea was that on the 10thof June the same year we would do a test on the stage with a much smaller LED Volume wraparound screen with our picture camera, a prototype of a costume, and many different LED environments to test the technology.”

Months later, the Los Angeles set ofThe Mandalorianwas a bustling hive of activity. At the epicenter, the Volume, a curved 20-foot high 270-degree LED video wall made up of 1,326 individual LED screens topped with an LED ceiling. Inside the 75-foot diameter performance space, a variety of physical props and partial sets, created by production designer Andrew Jones and his team, could be swapped out to match the screens and quickly transform the innovative arena into a variety of planets and interior locations.

StageCraft’s genius lies in the way it brings together the collaborative creative forces on the firstStar Warslive-action series and allows them to work together in real-time. The green- and blue-screens that were once standard for shooting real actors and props before digitally swapping out the background for computer generated environments would have caused a nightmare for the post-production effects team with a central character like the Mandalorian, whose gleaming beskar armor would have reflected back the very hues intended to be cut out from the final frame. In that way, StageCraft is a boon for cast, crew, and fans alike. “Wrap around green screens cause confusion for both actors and crew, limiting spontaneity and on-the-fly creativity,” Bluff says.

But beyond the time and cost savings of eliminating the step of meticulously replacing the green screens, StageCraft allows for better lighting on set, with environments reflected back in Mando’s armor without a laborious post-production detailing work. And StageCraft’s magic effectively allows creators to produce high-resolution visual effects in real time thanks to the game engine technology. “Everything we are doing we would have always done in post-production and it would have always looked exactly the same,” Bluff says. “That was the goal. We never wanted to compromise the quality of the show.  In fact, to the contrary we wanted to improve on the quality because our challenge was a main character with a fully reflective costume.

“This approach was a game-changer for us, not only by eliminating the green screens but by providing everyone on set with a VFX set extension that typically isn’t created until weeks after the shoot wraps. Instead it was there on the day, people could interact with it andimmerse themselves — the actors, the camera operators, the director of photography. Everybody was standing on a desert or in a forest or in some hangar somewhere. There was no need for the questions of: where am I going? What is this location? How deep does this go back? How tall is the ceiling?

“It’s like we’ve put them inside a video game,” Libreri adds, although the photo-realistic images go beyond the scope of current gaming technology. “The fact that we’re able to go to these locations, I think they got better content, better performances. It’s like going back to the days when George [Lucas] was out there in Tunisia,” or more recentStar Warsfilms that took the crew ofStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerto the sands of Jordan. “You get that feeling back,” Libreri says. “It feels like classicStar Wars…and it’s going to have resonance for many years.”

Such groundbreaking innovations are often the culmination of years of small, hard-won victories that propel filmmaking technology ahead inch by inch. For instance, Favreau and other filmmakers had already been experimenting with the technology, making films like Favreau’s The Jungle Book and others, like Gravitybefore it, possible, when LED screens were first used by Lucasfilm for lighting on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. At the time, the quality of the images meant most of the screens still had to be replaced by higher-resolution effects in post-production on the Star Wars standalone film. “We built on what was done for Rogue One, we both utilized a wraparound LED screen but at the time they were limited to playing back pre-rendered environments from a single camera perspective,” Bluff says. “Their intention was to focus on capturing the interactive lighting from the screens knowing that the content playing back would be replaced in postproduction for a high-fidelity version which would maintain the exact same lighting.”

As a longtime caretaker ofStar Warsstorytelling, working at the right hand of Lucas himself when he first signed on to helm the animated seriesStar Wars: The Clone Wars, “Dave [Filoni] brings a connection to George’s original vision,” Bluff says. “Dave is incredibly creative and is a wonderful storyteller in his own right, but the fact that he was schooled by George himself keeps everybody honest. You feel like you’ve got an open door back to what George was trying to do in the original movies. He guides us. He inspires us. He makes us laugh every day on set. He’s a wonderful, wonderful human.  And everybody loves working with him.”

Libreri first got involved in discussions when Filoni was exploring using Unreal Engine and similar platforms for animated storytelling. “We talked about the idea that a TV show likeClone Warsand some episodic animated content could be done in engine,” Libreri says. Tracking physical cameras in a virtual environment was something that Favreau had helped advance with his work onThe Jungle Bookand more recently,The Lion King. “As you start to look at all these different projects, Jon was always in the conversation and always pushing for what this next advance was going to be.” For years, “nobody quite had the answer,” Bluff says. “It took everybody coming together and talking about their experiences and what Jon wanted to do whether it was Greig Fraser the DP, whether it was Kim Libreri at Epic, myself from ILM or of course Jon and Dave the filmmakers themselves. And it was through those conversations that we came up with this idea of how we wanted to try to shootThe Mandalorian.”

“They are basically air traffic control,” Bluff says, although huddled together just feet from the Volume, they resemble NASA’s stoic mission control room. “They are the ones that are operating the massive screens. They are bringing up all the different environments that you would see, that you would shoot against. They’re able to move mountains quite literally. They can rotate the world. They can move us from one end of the hangar to the other end of the hangar. They can add extra lighting into the scene that of course would appear to have an effect on the actors on the stage so they do many, many, many things to continue to make the camera believe the magic trick.”

“I don’t believe that the technology would have worked as well as it did without the special place thatStar Warshas in everybody’s heart,” Bluff adds. “You can see it in the work that they did and the love that they had for everything that we did. Everybody brought something to this project that you rarely find anywhere else and it all goes back to George Lucas and the wonderful movies he made decades ago.”

Associate Editor Kristin Baver is a writer, host ofThis Week! In Star Wars, and all-around sci-fi nerd who always has just one more question in an inexhaustible list of curiosities. Sometimes she blurts out “It’s a trap!” even when it’s not. Do you know a fan who’s most impressive? Hop on Twitter and tell@KristinBaverall about them.

The targeting computer, and a few other displays in the original films, seem to be based on vector display CRTs (or designed to appear to look like them). Many of them (including some of the hologram stuff like the Death star plans) look vector-based to me, and when multiple images are drawn in quick succession the previous image is sometimes shown to slowly fade, or blur into the next. These are characteristics of the vector-based CRTs from the 1970s, though Star Wars technology seems to allow for multiple colours in some cases. The last well-known commercially available display (other than oscilloscopes) was possibly the Vectrex that was released in 1982. But even it did not have colour emitters. If you wanted colour you placed a translucent coloured panel on top of the screen. If any video game system ever made me feel like I was playing video games that might have come from a galaxy far far away it was on that machine. I suspect the images in Star Wars were simply a result of similar methods used in Tron (and later TV shows like Knight rider) where it was simply easiest to animate straight lines, but possibly jazz them up a bit by adding an oscilloscope-like glow to them to make them look more "science-y".

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

The story of how Sphero caught the eye of the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and ended up with the big business of making an official Star Wars toy is also surprising. The Boulder, Colo.-based company, which makes Internet-connected toys, has raised just over $90 million in venture capital and says it had sold half a million toys before it met Disney. But you can expect its sales to see a substantial spike in the next month, thanks to its $149 BB-8 toy.

BB-8, as Star Wars fans already know, is a droid—robot, that is—in the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.(The character got a considerable amount of screen time in the first theatrical trailer.) Last summer, Sphero executives were invited to participate in a Disney accelerator program. Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, met them on day one already armed with BB-8 sketches and asked them to help bring the character to life.

Now BB-8 the toy, in miniature form compared to the film version, hits shelves on Friday along with all the other licensed Star Wars toys. And the small-but-powerful robot is likely to attract the dollars of kids and adults alike.

Paul Berberian: The company was pretty far along in June of last year. We had already raised $35 million in venture financing. We were approaching $20 million in sales. And there was this opportunity to do an accelerator with Disney. Accelerators are typically two guys in a garage learning how to build a startup, and we were already well beyond that. But the Disney program was really special and had incredible access to the top leaders at the company. And if we’re going to push the boundaries of robots and if we think that they’re going to be entertainment objects and be in every house, we probably want to meet these people.

When we joined the program our team was busy launching Ollie, so I took myself and the two founders [Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson] to California for four months, which was a real commitment. And the very first meeting was with Bob Iger. He pulls out his iPhone and starts swiping through the dailies from the set of The Force Awakens.And he points to something and says, “See that? That’s the successor to R2-D2 and C-3PO.”

I never got very concerned about that. And the fact that it’s a droid who has a role in your life—that really naturally fits in with our existing vision. The beauty of what Star Wars did is they made BB-8 so approachable and cute. So it’s natural for a toy.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (also known as Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) is a 2015 American epic space opera film produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. The sequel to Skywalker Saga". Set thirty years after Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens follows Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and Han Solo"s search for Luke Skywalker and their fight in the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa and veterans of the Rebel Alliance, against Kylo Ren and the First Order, a successor to the Galactic Empire. The ensemble cast includes Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong"o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

The Force Awakens premiered in Los Angeles on December 14, 2015, and was released in the United States on December 18. It was positively received by critics for its screenplay, direction, lead performances, action sequences, musical score, special effects, and emotional weight, although some critics found the film too similar to breaking various box office records and becoming the highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada, the highest-grossing film of 2015, and the third-highest-grossing film at the time of its release. It was nominated for five awards at the 88th Academy Awards, and received numerous other accolades. The Force Awakens, rounding out the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

On the desert planet Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron receives a map to Luke"s location from Lor San Tekka. Stormtroopers commanded by Kylo Ren raid the village and capture Poe, ultimately killing San Tekka and slaughtering the villagers. Poe"s droid, Rey. Kylo tortures Poe using the Force and learns of BB-8. Stormtrooper TIE fighter. Upon learning that FN-2187 has no other name, Poe gives him the name "Finn". As they head to Jakku to retrieve BB-8, a First Order Star Destroyer shoots them, and they crash-land. Finn survives and finds only Poe"s jacket in the wreck, leading to the assumption of his death. Finn encounters Rey and BB-8, but the First Order tracks them and launches an airstrike. Rey, Finn, and BB-8 steal the

The Falcon is discovered and boarded by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Gangs seeking to settle debts with Han attack, but the group escape in the Falcon. At the First Order"s Starkiller Base, a planet converted into a superweapon, Supreme Leader Snoke approves General Hux"s request to use the weapon for the first time on the New Republic. Snoke questions Kylo"s ability to deal with emotions surrounding his father, Han Solo, whom Kylo states means nothing to him.

Starkiller Base demostrates its power by simultaneously destroying the New Republic capital of Hosnian Prime and four of its neighboring planets, leaving the Resistance on their own. The First Order attacks Takodana in search of BB-8. Han, Chewbacca, and Finn are saved by Resistance X-wing fighters led by Poe, who survived the crash. Leia arrives at Takodana with Jedi mind trick on a Stormtrooper guard.

At the Resistance base on D"Qar, BB-8 finds R2-D2, who had been inactive since Luke"s disappearance. As Starkiller Base prepares to fire once more, the Resistance devises a plan to destroy it by attacking its thermal oscillator. Using the Falcon, Han, Chewbacca, and Finn infiltrate the facility, find Rey, and plant explosives. Han confronts Kylo, calling him by his birth name Ben, and implores him to abandon the dark side. Kylo seems to consider this, but ultimately kills Han instead. Devastated, Chewbacca shoots Kylo and sets off the explosives, allowing Poe to attack and destroy the base"s thermal oscillator.

The injured Kylo pursues Finn and Rey into the woods. Kylo incapacitates Rey, and Finn uses the lightsaber to duel Kylo, but is overcome due to his lack of experience. Rey awakens, takes the lightsaber, and channels the Force to defeat Kylo in a duel; they are then separated by a fissure as the planet"s surface begins to splinter. Snoke orders Hux to evacuate and bring Kylo to him to complete his training. Chewbacca rescues Rey and the unconscious Finn, and they escape aboard the Falcon. As the Resistance forces flee, Starkiller Base implodes. R2-D2 awakens and reveals the rest of the map, which points to the oceanic planet Ahch-To.

Star Wars creator George Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, but denied any intent to make it.Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company.Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas said: "I always said I wasn"t going to do any more and that"s true, because I"m not going to do any more, but that doesn"t mean I"m unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more."

As creative consultant on the film, Lucas attended early story meetings and advised on the details of the Star Wars universe.story treatments for Episodes VII–IX, which Lucas requested be read only by Kennedy, Bob Iger, Alan F. Horn, and Kevin A. Mayer.

Several directors were considered, including David Fincher,Brad Bird,Jon Favreau,Guillermo del Toro.Matthew Vaughn was an early candidate for the job, even dropping out of Colin Trevorrow was also under consideration by the studio, while Ben Affleck and Neill Blomkamp passed on the project.Steven Spielberg to Kennedy,J. J. Abrams was named director in January 2013,Santa Monica, California, New York City, Paris, and London. The first draft was completed in six weeks.Star Wars films and be based more on emotion than explanation.Episodes VII–IX would not feature storylines from the Star Wars expanded universe, though other elements could be included, as with the TV series

A fictional language was developed for use in the film by YouTube star Sara Forsberg, who created the viral video series "What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners"; Forsberg developed the language by studying various languages, such as Hindi and Gujarati.

In November 2015, Lucas recorded an hour-long interview with CBS News reporter Charlie Rose in which he said Disney had not been "keen" to involve him and conceded: "If I get in there, I"m just going to cause trouble because they"re not going to do what I want them to do, and I don"t have the control to do that any more, and all it would do is just muck everything up."Kennedy Center Honors, Lucas stated, "I think the fans are going to love it, It"s very much the kind of movie they"ve been looking for."Star Wars films.

In May, Abrams announced a donation contest for UNICEF from the Star Wars set in Abu Dhabi; the winner was allowed to visit the set, meet members of the cast and appear in the film.Wicket in Return of the Jedi, as well as Wald and Weazle in The Force Awakens, but did not reveal his role.Debbie Reynolds confirmed that her granddaughter (Fisher"s daughter), Billie Lourd, was in the film.

Kennedy said The Force Awakens would use real locations and models over computer-generated imagery.Disney Research,Neal Scanlan and operated live on set with the actors.Tippett Studio and overseen by Phil Tippett, who also worked on the stop-motion sequence in the original Star Wars film.

In February 2014, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) announced plans to open a facility in London, citing Disney"s Star Wars films as a catalyst for the expansion. ILM"s Vancouver branch also worked on the special effects for the film.post-production and editing of the film at Bad Robot Productions" headquarters in Santa Monica.

On November 6, 2014, the film"s title was announced as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.Pablo Hidalgo, the creative executive at the Lucasfilm Story Group which handles all the canonical continuity for the Star Wars universe, revealed that the working title for the film was Shadow of the Empire "for the longest time".

Disney backed The Force Awakens with extensive marketing campaigns.teaser trailer. It was screened in selected cinemas across the United States and Canada and in theaters worldwide in December 2014. It was also released on YouTube and the iTunes Store,feel of classic Star Wars"—but noted the absence of Hamill, Ford, and Fisher and speculated about the significance of the new characters.Star Wars fanfare by John Williams reinforced brand loyalty among fans.

On December 11, 2014, Abrams and Kennedy released a series of eight mock Topps trading cards revealing the names of several characters.Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said the reaction to the trailer was "staggering [...] the entire room of almost eight thousand people just leapt to their feet and roared, I mean I can"t think of anything I"ve ever been to—other than a rock concert—that felt quite like that".million times within the first 24 hours of release."s Graham Milne wrote that the trailer "was an affirmation of something that we"d long been told was never going to happen. This was a gift. This was faith rewarded. About damn time."

Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm presented a look at The Force Awakens at Disney"s D23 Expo in August 2015.Drew Struzan—who designed the poster artwork for the previous Star Wars films—produced a commemorative poster given to the event"s attendees.BBC writing that "perhaps the most significant thing about the final trailer before the film"s release is how little of the story it reveals."Star Wars aesthetic".million views in 24 hours. 16 million of the views came from its airing on Monday Night Football.Air France announced a "Flight and Cinema" package, providing customers who book select flights to Paris transportation to a theater to see the film, since France was one of the first countries to release the film.Google was announced, in which Google users could choose to affiliate themselves with either the Dark or Light Side, which would change the appearance of their Google websites. Additionally, Disney teamed up with Verizon to create a virtual-reality experience for Google Cardboard.

On December 17, 2015, select theaters across the United States and Canada aired a Star Wars marathon, airing the six previous Star Wars episode films in 2D, followed by The Force Awakens in 3D. Attendees received a special lanyard featuring exclusive marathon art.

Disney Publishing Worldwide and Lucasfilm announced a series of at least 20 books and comics, "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens", which were released by multiple publishers starting in late 2015, prior to the film"s premiere. The series includes books by Del Rey and Disney-Lucasfilm publishers and comic books from Marvel Comics. All titles under the program are canonical to the Star Wars universe.Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of The Force Awakens which was released in e-book form on December 18.The Force Awakens between June and November 2016.

Disney Consumer Products and Lucasfilm announced that September 4, 2015 would be deemed "Force Friday" and would be the official launch of all the merchandise for The Force Awakens. Beginning at 12:01 am, fans could buy toys, books, clothing and various other products at Disney Stores and other retailers throughout the world.Maker Studios hosted an 18-hour live-streaming presentation on YouTube, showcasing multiple merchandise products beginning on September 3, 2015.Sphero.Toys "R" Us, were unable to meet demand for Star Wars products due to the event.

The Force Awakens is the first Star Wars film to not have a direct tie-in game to accompany it.Star Wars video games: Characters from the film were added to an update to the mobile game iOS and Android and released by Electronic Arts;downloadable content for Electronic Arts" reboot allowed players to battle on the planet Jakku;Disney Mobile for iOS, Android and the Windows Store, allowed players to battle on the planet Takodana during the Galactic Civil War era;toys-to-life game Lego video game adaptation, titled Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on June 28, 2016.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered in Los Angeles at the TCL Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, and Dolby Theatre on December 14, 2015.Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue, covering the "massive" premiere event that hosted more than five thousand guests.IMAX 3D formats.

In the United States and Canada, it had the widest release of December across 4,134 theaters,70mm), 451 premium large format screens, 146 D-Box locations,Dolby Vision format (high-dynamic range, Rec. 2020 color) in Dolby Cinema.Warner Bros." The Hobbit trilogy to receive such a release.

Advance ticket sales for the film began on October 19, 2015,Vue Cinemas, the United Kingdom"s third-largest theater chain, sold 45,000 tickets in 24 hours, 10,000 of which were sold in 90 minutes, a record for the theater.Fandango President Paul Yanover saying "people have set aside tickets for screenings in January, weeks after the big opening [...] We have people buying Star Wars [The Force Awakens] into 2016. It"s not just an opening-weekend phenomenon."

The Force Awakens is the first live-action Star Wars film not to be released theatrically by 20th Century Fox; accordingly the film is not introduced with either that company"s logo, or its signature fanfare composed by Alfred Newman.Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures,production logo shown silently before the main titles.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Force Awakens through digital download and Disney Movies Anywhere on April 1, 2016, and on Blu-ray and DVD on April 5. Physical copies include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews,The Force Awakens sold 669,318 DVDs and 3.4million Blu-rays as the most sold film on both formats in the United States.The Force Awakens topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, as well as the dedicated Blu-ray sales chart with 83% of unit sales coming from Blu-ray.The Force Awakens sold 2.1million DVDs and 5.9million Blu-rays, adding them up to get a total of 8million copies, and made $191million through home media releases.

The premium cable network Starz had U.S. broadcast syndication rights for The Force Awakens in January 2016,The Force Awakens began broadcasting on all Starz networks.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens grossed $936.7million in the United States and Canada and $1.132billion in other countries for a worldwide total of $2.068billion,highest-grossing film of 2015third highest-grossing film of all time.Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold close to 110million tickets in the United States and Canada.The Force Awakens earned 8.6% of the total 2015 releases in the United States and Canada, second only to the 8.8% of the box office earned by fastest film to surpass the mark at the time, doing so in 12 days.Deadline Hollywood calculated the film"s net profit as $780.1 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it first on their list of 2015"s "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

Analysts said that the box office receipts of the film, when compared to predecessors, must be adjusted for inflation, and that the first Star Wars film made more when this adjustment is made.

While The Force Awakens was very successful in the United States and Canada, the same success was not witnessed in many overseas individual markets such as India, other certain parts of Asia and Latin America. This was attributed to it being "a retro film" and how overseas audiences do not have the same nostalgia or affinity for the film as those in North America.Star Wars franchise has traditionally lacked resonance with filmgoers in China, and marketing for The Force Awakens heavily focused on appealing to that market.

Internationally, the film was released in over 30,000 screens.The Force Awakens had a total international opening gross of $281 million from 30,000 screens, a new record for December opening

Star Wars: The Force Awakens received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics.review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 447 critics" reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website"s consensus reads, "Packed with action and populated by both familiar faces and fresh blood, The Force Awakens successfully recalls the series" former glory while injecting it with renewed energy."Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale; women, and people under the ages of 25 and 18 gave it an "A+", while 98% of audiences gave it either an "A" or a "B". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 88% "definite recommend" while 96% said it met or exceeded their expectations.

Robbie Collin of Star Wars from its slumber, and reconnect the series with its much-pined-for past", and "it achieves this both immediately and joyously is perhaps the single greatest relief of the movie-going year."Peter Bradshaw of Variety"s Justin Chang wrote that the film has "sufficient style, momentum, love, and care to prove irresistible to any who have ever considered themselves fans."Richard Roeper of the "s Lawrence Toppman said Abrams had "pulled off a delicate balancing act, paying clever homage to the past."Mick LaSalle of the Star Wars sequel yet and one of the best films of 2015".CNN Business, found it was the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy and that it "is bound to be a film experience long remembered by fans and non-fans alike".

Certain critics found The Force Awakens derivative of the original Star Wars trilogy,Star Wars, it leaves "the ungainly and unneeded clumsiness of the subsequent prequels far behind", with "the energy, humor, and simplicity of direction [has] been recaptured".Tribune-Star called it "basically the same" as the original film but "isn"t that what we all wanted anyway?"Stephanie Zacharek of Mad Libs narrative doesn"t outright destroy the picture.""s Gerardo Valero went as far as to accuse the film of plagiarizing A New Hope and resorting to nostalgia. He felt that it "didn"t [justify] a return to the universe" from not having an original story of its own to tell in the plot, characters, and musical score, negatively comparing it to George Lucas" prequel trilogy, and that some of its climactic moments felt unearned.

In an interview with journalist Charlie Rose that aired on December 24, 2015, Lucas likened his decision to sell Lucasfilm to Disney to a "divorce" and outlined the creative differences between him and the producers of The Force Awakens. Lucas described the previous Star Wars films as his "children" and criticized the "retro feel" of The Force Awakens, saying: "I worked very hard to make [my films] completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships—you know, to make it new." Lucas also likened Disney to "white slavers", which drew some criticism; he subsequently apologized.Bob Iger said that George Lucas "couldn"t even hide his disappointment" towards J. J. Abrams" interpretation. According to Iger, Lucas said, "there"s nothing new" after seeing the film, and that "there weren"t enough visual or technical leaps forward".Rian Johnson"s sequel The Last Jedi and the anthology film

In 2016, when directly confronted about Lucas" complaints of The Force Awakens being too derivative of previous films, Abrams said, "What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new – to go backwards to go forwards".The Last Jedi as a way to apologize for the previous film"s oversight.The Force Awakens, Abrams further apologized about it, saying he "wished it would have been Lucas" favorite movie", and that he was "grateful for Lucas", while understanding his complaints about the film being highly derivative of A New Hope. Abrams also said the scene of Starkiller Base destroying a solar system would have had a similar emotional impact to the Death Star destroying planet Alderaan in the original film, had he not chosen to delete scenes of a character who Leia interacted with, prior to the deleted character dying on one of the exploding planets.

The $57 million figure incorporates revenues generated from the "Star Wars Marathon Event" from 135 theaters in which all previous six Star Wars films were shown along with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Ticket prices cost $59.99 for all the films (including The Force Awakens) at an average of $8.57 per movie.

Spence, Alex (March 9, 2016). "Star Wars: Disney got £31 million from UK taxman for Force Awakens". Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2016.

Lumb, D. (August 17, 2018). ""Star Wars Resistance" trailer shows off its anime style". Archived from the original on November 12, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2021.

Alexander, Julia (July 19, 2017). "Here"s your first look at Kylo Ren"s latest upgrade in Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.

Levine, Nick (January 5, 2017). "Adam Driver on what to expect from Kylo Ren in "Star Wars: Episode VIII"". Archived from the original on November 12, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.

Cremona, Patrick (December 19, 2019). "Meet the cast of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker". Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.

Ankers, Adele (October 19, 2020). "New Star Wars Book Clears Up Mystery About Snoke"s Origins". Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.

Richwine, Lisa; Gorman, Steve (May 3, 2019). "Peter Mayhew, actor who played Chewbacca in "Star Wars" movies, dies". Archived from the original on November 3, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2021.

Ford, Rebecca; Kit, Borys (April 29, 2014). ""Star Wars: Episode VII" Cast Revealed". Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2021.

"13 "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Cameos You Might Have Missed". MTV. December 18, 2015. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.

Trumbore, Dave (December 17, 2015). ""Star Wars: The Force Awakens": All the Cameos You Might Have Missed". Collider. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2016.

Child, Ben (October 17, 2014). "Warwick Davis to feel the force of Star Wars: Episode 7". Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.

Fletcher, Rosie (December 18, 2015). "The famous actors you probably missed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2015.

Ward, Jason (December 6, 2015). "Harriet Walter cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?". MakingStarWars.net. Archived from the original on March 19, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2020.

Lee, Chris (December 17, 2015). "Daniel Craig"s Star Wars: The Force Awakens cameo revealed". Archived from the original on December 18, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2015.

Mzimba, Lizo (September 1, 2014). "Game of Thrones swordsman joins Star Wars film". BBC News. Archived from the original on September 2, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.

Butler, Tom (January 20, 2015). "Star Wars 7 News: Woman In Black 2"s Leanne Best Outed As Castmember". UK: Yahoo!. Archived from the original on January 26, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.

Nakashima, Ryan (October 30, 2012). "Disney to make new "Star Wars" films, buy Lucas co". Los Angeles, California: Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2015.

Chitwood, Adam (January 21, 2015). "George Lucas Says His Treatments for the New "Star Wars" Films Were Discarded". Collider. Archived from the original on January 27, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2015.

Romano, Nick (January 19, 2015). "How George Lucas" Star Wars 7 Ideas Were Used By Disney" (Written coverage/Video interview). CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.

Child, Ben (October 9, 2013). "Star Wars sequels: George Lucas "constantly talking" to JJ Abrams". Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2015.

Siegel, Tatianna (December 9, 2015). "Inside the Star Wars Writers Room: Meet the 5 Architects of the Franchise". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 17, 2022.

Staff (September 29, 2014). "David Fincher discusses meeting Disney about Star Wars: Episode VII". Archived from the original on September 29, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2014.

Kit, Borys (October 24, 2013). "Writer Michael Arndt Exits "Star Wars: Episode VII"". Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013.

Micke, Sébastien (February 22, 2014). "J.J. Abrams un livre et des étoiles" [J.J. Abrams a book and stars]. Archived from the original on May 23, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2014.

Nicholson, Matt (April 25, 2014). "Lucasfilm Clarifies Star Wars Expanded Universe". Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.

Prudom, Laura (December 7, 2015). "Star Wars Actor John Boyega on Finn"s Past: "I"ve Got Some Conspiracy Theories"". Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2015.

Rizzo, Carita (December 16, 2015). ""Star Wars": YouTube Star Creates New Language For Aliens". Archived from the original on January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2016.

Goldberg, Matt (November 20, 2015). "Star Wars: George Lucas and Disney Disagreed on New Films". Collider. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015.

Butler, Tom (May 19, 2013). "Star Trek Costume Designer Joins Star Wars VII Crew". Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2013.

Merchant, Beth (May 22, 2013). "Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey on Cutting Star Trek Into Darkness". Studio Daily. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.

Collura, Scott (October 24, 2013). "J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan Take Over Star Wars: Episode VII Screenplay Duties". Archived from the original on November 20, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2021.

Pearson, Ryan (October 10, 2013). "Michael B. Jordan Confirms "Star Wars" Rumor". Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2013.

"Frida Gustavsson". TheFrontRowView. November 12, 2014. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2020. She has said that she is not necessarily drawn to a Hollywood style career, although she recently auditioned for the new Star Wars film but did not get the part.

Kroll, Justin (February 26, 2014). ""Star Wars": Adam Driver Near Deal to Play the Villain (EXCLUSIVE)". Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2014.

Kir, Borys; Ford, Rebecca (April 2, 2014). "With Black Mass Casting, Jesse Plemons Likely Out of Star Wars: VII". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 21, 2022.

Davids, Brian (January 10, 2020). "Jessica Henwick on Underwater and Her 6-Month Star Wars Audition". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 21, 2022.

Newbould, Chris (April 23, 2014). "Disney confirms that Star Wars: Episode 7 is filming in Abu Dhabi desert". Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.

Newbould, Chris (May 10, 2014). "Star Wars filming to start on May 13 in Abu Dhabi desert". Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2014.

Variety Staff (June 12, 2014). "Harrison Ford Injured on the Set of "Star Wars: Episode VII"". Archived from the original on June 13, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.

Ford, Rebecca (June 14, 2014). "Harrison Ford"s "Star Wars" Injury: New Details!". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.

"Star Wars prosecuted over Harrison Ford injury". BBC News. February 11, 2016. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.

Couch, Aaron (August 13, 2014). ""Star Wars: Episode VII" to Resume Filming This Month". Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2016.

"Star Wars surprise: Millennium Falcon and X-Wing pictured". BBC News. September 10, 2014. Archived from the original on April 24, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.

Ward, Jason (September 21, 2014). "Close up photos of the Star Wars: Episode VII Greenham Common set". MakingStarWars.net. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.

"Star Wars: Puzzlewood "magical" location for filming". BBC News. December 17, 2015. Archived from the original on December 20, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2015.

Child, Ben (July 29, 2013). "Star Wars: Episode VII to limit cheap CGI tricks and keep it real". Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.

Otero, Jose (April 16, 2015). "Star Wars Celebration: Why Star Wars 7 Uses Practical Effects". Archived from the original on April 22, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2015.

Couto, Anthony (December 13, 2014). "Mark Hamill Says Star Wars: The Force Awakens" BB-8 Is a Prop, Not CGI". Archived from the original on April 22, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2015.

Han, Angie (December 21, 2015). "See How The "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Stop-Motion Sequence Was Created". Archived from the original on November 21, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2021.

Cohen, David (February 11, 2014). ""Star Wars," "Avengers" Spawn Industrial Light & Magic"s London Expansion". Archived from the original on February 12, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.

Chitwood, Adam (August 15, 2015). ""Star Wars: The Force Awakens" — Current Runtime Revealed". Collider. Archived from