One of the joys of the promotions surrounding Star Wars: The Force Awakens is getting to see the new cast interact with the old guard from the original trilogy. It was a real treat to see Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac and John Boyega chilling on stage with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and others at Star Wars Celebration in April, and last week’s San Diego Comic-Con event even added Harrison Ford to the mix.
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It’s no doubt part of Lucasfilm’s strategy to emphasize that The Force Awakens will represent the “changing of the guard” moment of the entire saga, as the veteran stars pass the torch to the newcomers. It’ll be a bit sad to see these beloved characters recede into the foreground, but part of the fun is seeing how they play off of the incoming rookies and what surprises result.
Of the three new leads, Boyega is clearly having the most fun with his superstardom by tapping into this dynamic, and now it’s resulted in a cool new image combining two characters we haven’t yet seen together that the British actor posted on his Instagram page.
https://instagram.com/p/5FhCg6MCq-/
We can see his character, the rebellious stormtrooper Finn, aiming a blaster of some sort with Chewbacca readying his crossbow gun by his side. Does this mean the two will team up against a common foe at some point during the film, or is it simply a cool juxtaposition for a promo? Hard to tell.
If you’re wondering where this image came from, it has an interesting backstory. It’s actually a cropped section from a larger banner photo that appeared in a Russian Lego catalogue but was soon taken down by Lucasfilm.
Here’s the full image from the catalogue, which we hope Lucasfilm doesn’t mind us posting.
The style of the piece recalls the feel of some classic Star Wars artwork, especially from properties from the old Expanded Universe.
So, Boyega is posting a piece of concept art that Lucasfilm didn’t (or doesn’t) want on the Internet. Hopefully, instead of terminating him from the franchise, Disney will just make him perform some community service and force him to polish all of their stormtrooper armor sets as punishment.