Fanboy Round-Up: STAR WARS Toys and CIVIL WAR Cuttings


Welcome to another edition of Fanboy Round-Up – your weekly, well, round-up of the big news from the past week. It’s really for if you’re a complete news addict, or if you missed out on a lot of last week’s reporting, or whether you just want a little refresher of the highlights. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an awful lot of ‘OMIGOSHSUPERAWESOME’-kinda news, but there was still a lot of important shit that went down. Let’s get cracking on it…

Some More GAME OF THRONES Casting

Last week was a big one for Game of Thrones – there were two major pieces of casting, as well as an interesting flurry of spoilers that you can read all about here.

freddie-stroma-game-of-thrones

We’ll start with the less-important one: ex-Harry Potter star Freddie Stroma was revealed to be playing the role of Dickon Tarly, the younger brother of Samwell. As you can see, the characters look incredibly similar.

The casting is interesting in that we haven’t actually seen Dickon appear in the books yet – he’s only been mentioned by name. This confirms that we will most certainly be seeing the extended Tarly family in the sixth season as Sam has now travelled down to Oldtown in the Reach to become a maester, which is near their castle of Horn Hill (we’re visiting there too). As well as that, we’re also gonna be meeting their asshole dad, Randyll Tarly. We’ve already heard a lot about why he’s a dick, but next season the writers are gonna have to put their money where their mouth is and show off just what makes Randyll one of the worst dads in Westeros (and one of the best military commanders, funnily enough).

Another piece of casting that needed to be done was for the character of Euron Greyjoy. The question of who would play him had been on the lips of fans for years, with names such as Mads Mikkelsen (ha) and Richard Armitage being thrown about. While neither of those guys ended up with the role, the new actor is Danish – like Mads.

euron greyjoy actor game of thrones

That’s Pilou Asbaek, who holds a remarkable resemblance to Alfie Allen (Theon). Funnily enough, Euron is the second-oldest living Greyjoy brother; Patrick Malahide, the actor who plays Balon Greyjoy, is in his seventies. The Borgen star is in his early thirties. It’s a pretty big age gap, and given how similar he looks to Allen some fans have been speculating that we’re either gonna see a much younger Euron in relation to Balon on the show, or he’ll be taking on a closer familial role so they don’t have to dress him up all old-ish.

STAR WARS Toys Look Awesome!!!

bb-8-star-wars-toy

While Star Wars is obviously a movie juggernaut, the majority of the money lies in merchandising. Since 1977 the brand has amassed $20B to line the pockets of George Lucas, and a recent report predicts that toys for The Force Awakens could make a quarter of that in a single year. Yup, that’s $5B.

That seems like an absolutely insane number and it probably won’t actually get that high, however it’s not hard to believe that well over $1B will be made when you take a look at the type of merchandise that went on sale last week. A Millenium Falcon drone? A multitude of LEGO sets? A remote-control BB-8?!

Certainly the biggest announcement was that you’ll now be able to get your own lil’ BB-8 toy, who will beep and boop and move around so long as he’s turned on. It kinda sucks that it’s only the size of a golf ball, but I think the novelty of it is enough to fork out $150 (maybe).

HULK is Sitting Out CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

As they say, it’s not easy being green.

Hulk in the Avengers

You’ll remember that at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner ended up stuck in a Quinjet high in the sky, choosing not to be rescued by his team mates. His fate is then left unknown; did he float off somewhere in space? Or did he crash down somewhere? Turns out we were supposed to find the answer in next year’s Civil War, but Marvel ultimately decided to leave him out.

“The reason is too great to be revealed in this movie (Civil War). I was in the script but then they removed my character. They don’t want to reveal where is he and why. I don’t even know if Hulk will be back soon.”

From the mouth of Mark Ruffalo.

River Song is BACK on DOCTOR WHO

river song doctor who

After a few years away from the TARDIS, the BBC revealed last week that Alex Kingston will be returning to Doctor Who this Christmas, reprising the role of Professor River Song. To some fans’ ears, this will be a delight. To others, it will lead to pain. Regardless of where you stand, it should be interesting to see how she and Peter Capaldi interact with one another, as well as the circumstances of their meeting…

“To be honest, I did not know whether River would ever return to the show, but here she is, back with the Doctor for the Christmas special,” said Alex Kingston. “Steven Moffat is on glittering form, giving us an episode filled with humour and surprise guest castings. I met Peter for the first time at Monday’s read through, we had a laugh, and I am now excited and ready to start filming with him and the Doctor Who team. Christmas in September? Why not!”

MEGA MAN: THE MOVIE?!

mega man

More and more video game movies seem to be reaching the development stage, and last week a rumour leaked out about another hot property that could be making the leap to the big screen – Mega Man!

This one has landed at Fox with the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes producers, likely hoping to turn it into the next four-quadrant blockbuster franchise. The potential is certainly there; an android and his robot/android buddies fight crime is a pretty neat concept and sounds somewhat similar to last year’s Big Hero 6.

This hasn’t been oficially confirmed so it might not end up happening – and even if the rumour is true, just because a movie is being developed doesn’t mean it’ll get made, especially with video game movies. He isn’t the most recognisable character from the gaming world either, although if they start becoming successful (I mean, Michael Fassbender and Assassin’s Creed is a recipe for box office gold) then this could be kickstarted into production.

The Most Important STAR WARS Question Ever is Finally Answered (well, not finally)…

Spoilers for the book below…

star wars aftermath book cover

Back before Disney bought Lucasfilm for a gazillion dollars in 2012 and announced a slew of new Star Wars movies, the story of what happened after Return of the Jedi was incredibly well-documented in an absolute ton of books, comics and the like. This became known as the ‘Expanded Universe,’ and for over two decades it was canon. When the buyout happened all of that went out the window, however the super-cool story group who are in charge of keeping track of the new canon have previously said that certain things from the EU material will be making their way into movies, TV shows, comics, books and pretty much everything with a ‘Star Wars‘ slapped on it. With Force Friday, we got out first taste of that.

The Boba Fett Fan Club were flicking through Star Wars: Aftermath (which is about exactly what you think it’s about) and came across some interesting details regarding their favourite character. Take a look…

star wars aftermath boba fett

The only way Boba Fett’s armour could be in that box is if he escaped the Sarlacc Pit, which is as much confirmation as need: he’s alive!

Or, rather, he lived. There’s no guarantee that ol’ Boba is still menacing the galaxy with those darn’ disintegrations. If the armour is all charred and damaged from the Sarlacc’s acidic bowels then there’s a good chance the man beneath the mask was injured as well. He could have shot his way out and discarded the armour, and then died shortly afterwards. There’s also the chance he’s still alive, but I doubt he would still be a bounty hunter; it’s more likely he would have lived a quiet life somewhere on Tattooine, or at the Clone Retirement Home.

To me, it seems like less of a hint towards a return for the character and more like a way to wrap up a plot thread in a neat way that fans will appreciate. So if you were holding out hope that he would be appearing somewhere in the Sequel Trilogy… sorry, but it’s your unlucky day.


That’s it for this edition of Fanboy Round-Up. Join us next week for another look back at what this week will bring; even more Game of Thrones casting? Some more Star Wars spoilers? I’m betting $10 that both those things will crop up next week…