Feel the Force Friday: Rian Johnson Talks Episode VIII, Batman Makes an Appearance, Threepio Speaks and MORE!

Welcome back to DSOTF! It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day today, so everyone party like Hondo Ohnaka!

It’s also Feel the Force Friday, so let’s catch you all up on this week’s BIGGEST Star Wars NEWS!

Star Wars: Episode VIII director Rian Johnson was a guest on The Talkhouse podcast this week, joining host Terry Gilliam to discuss his filmmaking career.

Peter Sciretta of SlashFilm has posted a great recap of the interview, in which Johnson confirms once again that he is writing AND directing the next episodic installment of the Star Wars franchise.

To read highlights of the podcast interview with Rian Johnson, click here.

You can listen to the latest episode of The Talkhouse with Terry Gilliam, below:

Without a doubt, the biggest news of the week came straight from Star Wars: Episode VII director J.J. Abrams and his infamous Bad Robot tweets. On Thursday afternoon, Abrams posted an amazing video of a full scale Millennium Falcon from the set of Episode VII in Berkshire, England.

As part of an ongoing nerd war between Zack Snyder [Director of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice] and himself, Abrams revealed that his crew has attached a new component to the underside of the Falcon‘s hull, one that’s clearly meant to resemble the iconic Tumbler from Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy.

Check out the exciting reveal of Episode VII‘s new Millennium Falcon below, complete with the Tumbler from The Dark Knight:

This image shows a close up look at the Tumbler from Batman Begins, attached to the Millennium Falcon.

Earlier this week, Star Wars royalty and beloved British actor Anthony Daniels was featured in an interview over at Entertainment Weekly. DSOTF has a full report, here.

Daniels spoke about his career as fussy protocol droid C-3PO, his involvement in Star Wars Rebels and of course, his return to theaters in next year’s Star Wars: Episode VII.

To read the full interview, visit the official EW site.

In a report from Variety, it seems as though the Walt Disney Co. knows exactly what they’ve got in their ownership of the Star Wars property. Walt Disney Studios president Alan Bergman had some very positive things to say when speaking at a conference on Wednesday.

From the Variety report:

"“This title is very well known out there,” and “the single most important thing is to make sure that this movie is great,” said Walt Disney Studios president Alan Bergman, on Wednesday, at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Media, Communications & Entertainment conference.“If we can get this right, it’s a huge opportunity for the entire company,” said Bergman, who wore Stormtrooper tennis shoes while discussing the studio’s upcoming film slate — a standalone film, to be directed by “Godzilla’s” Gareth Edwards, is already scheduled for Dec. 16, 2016."

More NEWS from the Dork Side:

The hard working team over at MakingStarWars.Net have unearthed some information on the first five episodes of the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels. To read a synopsis of the fifth episode of the show, check out the report here.

The ever hilarious Matt Martin of Lucasfilm posted an interview with tattoo artist Josh Bodwell this week, over at the official Star Wars site.

The latest episode of Rebel Force Radio is up and boy, is it a doozy. This week, Jason Swank and Jimmy “Mac” talk to their good friend and Fanboys director Kyle Newman. The sparks fly when Newman addresses the latest wave of prequel hate. You don’t want to miss it.

You can listen to the new RFR podcast episode, here.

There you are, Dork Siders! Don’t forget to tune into the latest episode of Podcast 66, later on tonight.

We’ll be back with more news throughout the weekend, so keep checking back! May the Force be with you!!!