The secrecy around Star Wars: The Force Awakens goes pretty deep, and insiders have had to work extra hard to find any kind of information about the characters, story-lines, and photos from the filming and production of the movie. As with any J.J. Abrams film, security is top-notch and secrets are kept hidden until the Director/Producer deems fit to release them (See Cloverfield for reference on Abrams’ now legendary secrecy).
Every once in a while, scripts leaks, set photos, and concept art does make its way onto the internet, where we obsessive few can dissect each and every piece down to its minute detail. Such is the newest art leak from rumor confirmer/debunker site, Indie Revolver, featuring a concept art piece of Maz Kanata who is being portrayed by Lupita Nyong’o using motion capture.
For reference, here is Nyong’o in the midst of some mocap work, from the Vanity Fair shoot.
Uncanny, yes? It’s almost as if her concept art was taken from the photo above. In their exclusive piece, IR goes on to talk about how some very astute fans uncovered Maz Kanata’s face just briefly shown in the Force Awakens second teaser.
Here it is in GIF form, but it’s almost impossible to see her face this way, which is really impressive that someone went so far as to dissect each frame.
According to all the Star Wars: The Force Awakens information from the Vanity Fair piece, Maz Kanata is the owner of some type of castle, where smugglers and other random folks kind of just hang around.
“Galactic travelers, smugglers, and other assorted riffraff fill the main hall of pirate Maz Kanata’s castle.” ~Annie Leibovitz
Notice the description in the photo, which is a direct quote from photographer Annie Leibovitz, who took the photos for Vanity Fair.
So, from the information we’ve cobbled together, from multiple sources and sites, at some point in The Force Awakens, Leia and Maz Kanata will cross paths, where the alien will hand Leia her brother’s old lightsaber, and we will be introduced to Maz in her castle, which may or may not be a safe haven for a bunch of bad dudes. I guess we will have to wait until December, to find out.