Star Wars The Last Jedi: A Second Red Guard Design Has Leaked
Brace yourselves! We are getting closer to The Last Jedi, and you know that’s the case when we are seeing leaked images of cans of soda! The marketing machine is locked and loaded to be unleashed to the masses, and we happen to have gotten a glimpse at some of them below. My instant reaction was a flashback to 18 years ago, when Pepsi Co. released commemorative character cans across all of their brands for The Phantom Menace. At the very least though it does gives us another look at one of these rumored new red guards in the film, so some minor visual spoilers ahead!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Thanks to TheForce.net, we see four new energy soft drink cans, two of which contain new red guards from The Last Jedi.
Image removed by request.
The new guard shown in the far left can appears to be “at attention”, in a stationary stance, perhaps waiting for some direct order to engage/attack. Thanks to a piece at MSW, posted a few days ago, including a drawing by lumberjacknick, we can get a solid look at the guard entirely. Ultimately we have a fresh new look at a potential new character in The Last Jedi.
MSW’s Jason Ward’s description of the guards’ appearances from the same article linked above:
These guards are called Elite Praetorian Guards and they all have different weapons like nunchucks or double-bladed fighting sticks. They all have different helmets and fabric ornamentation but the core armor set on the chest and the arms appeared to be the same to me. The chest and the arms being the same really gives them all a sameness while allowing them to have some individuality. They also have red boots on that is obscured on the particular guard.
There is no confirmation on how much of an impact these new guards will have in the film, or if all of these leaking designs will even make it to the final cut, but it appears as though they will all have a unique look to them regardless, including different weaponry (aka, a lot more action figures and merchandise to make and sell!). You action figure collectors will likely remember one of the first figures released for The Force Awakens didn’t even make the final cut of the film. That’s not to say these guards (who are arguably more important than some desert outpost law officer) won’t either, but if a full on released action figure didn’t make the film, there’s no promise these guards on a yet to be sold energy drink will.
I do want to go back to David Kamp’s AMA with Rian Johnson for Vanity Fair, in which Johnson surprisingly, and bluntly, said Snoke wasn’t a character he particularly got into in The Last Jedi:
“I asked Rian Johnson about Snoke—Who/what is he?—and Rian was fairly up front in saying that Snoke is not a character he particularly gets into in TLJ. Hmmm.”
It is possible these guards are dispatched to battle, but then that really wouldn’t make them very good guards would it? My guess is most of these guards stay with/around Snoke at all times, not only to keep the lonely guy company, but to also help defend him. Granted we don’t know how powerful Snoke is with the Force, but we do know he is scarred, and appears rather brittle physically. Now if Snoke isn’t a character Johnson really gets into for the second installment in the trilogy, and these are his guards, we can speculate that they won’t appear much in the film either. It is possible that we see glimpses of them, and they are set up for a bigger role with more action in the next installment (hello Captain Phasma).
Either way we will find out for sure in a short six months. At the very least the guards’ new and individually unique designs give us something to be curious about and lets our imaginations run wild with ideas, and isn’t that why George Lucas created Star Wars in the first place?
If you’re up speculating about all of this because you’re hopped up on these energy drinks, you can find my profile, which is canon, on Twitter @JohnnyHoey.
“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”
John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast
"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."
Red masked guards, protecting the evil leader, haven’t we seen this before?
Yeah…but these have nunchaku…so its creative.
Rehash!!!!!
Exactly, but people are gonna say that “it rimes”…
LeAnn Rimes?
No one seems to complain when Old Republic and Legacy use the same iconography across generations, lighten up.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cd9c056b3528665cad7eca199b107724d3a229dd9688854116a3cf0bae62967.jpg
please tell me that picture is you wearing armour and that you can actually get the Dark Honour Guard armour. i know that there are many similar ones in game, but I’ve never seen an armour set of the exact ones
Sorry to break it to you Nihilus but that photo is definitely a screengrab of a rendered model. Still awesome.
Well they very much play off the legacy, where as the Episodes are meant to build upon it.
After the highly derivative Force Awaken I personally am hoping for Johnson to really push the creative envelope and not worry too much about Lucas’s “rhyming”.
That said, these sorts of things are very minor and do not bother me. It’s the overall feel and plot arc that I don’t want to be a riff on ESB.
Other than the color, how do these guys look like the Emperor’s Guard?
Clone Troopers, Storm Troopers, First Order Troopers.
AT-TE, AT-AT, AT-M6
Arc 170, T-65, T-70
Senate Guards, Royal Guards, Praetorian Guards
Tatooine, Tatooine, Jakku
Lucrehulk core destroyed/saves day. Death Star 1-2 cores destroyed/saves day. Star Killer’s core destroyed/saves day.
Yeah… Star Wars has borrowed from itself a ton. I expect it to continue.
Nope, sequels are rehashed, JJ Abrams sucks, THE WORLD IS ENDING, REEEEEEEEEEEEEE
/s
These look more like Knights of Ren if you ask me…
Many of us thought the same. It will be interesting to see if the former Knights of Ren are actually now First Order Guards in their official capacity in the sequel trilogy. The designs are certainly similar.
This would also help to explain why Kylo stops wearing his helmet in TLJ…no need for the old uniform, maybe. Interesting idea.
I’ll be honest. I like them.
Are you saying you normally lie about everything else..?
It depends on who you ask. I could be lying right now, or am I? 🙂
I do love the concept they are akin to the Praetorian guards which was something I mentioned in an off hand matter. i know some will say they are a carbon copy of the royal guard. Now, honestly; I am indifferent because the Royal Guard in the movies were over glorified and barely did anything. Legends was a different story. My hope is that these guards inclusion in TLJ will lead to something cool and not be something to sell toys. I’m looking at you TFA.
Because, in all honesty; showcasing these guards kick some butt would be an AMAZING way to differentiate itself from the OT and give the ST something to be proud of. I know I will sound like a broken record, but in all honestly ROTJ would have been so much better had Luke and Vader(who was redeemed by Luke) fight the Royal Guard tag-team like Lego TFA.
So after the “endboss” is destroyed, and vader is redeemed, you really think that the red royal guards should be the last stand in ROTJ? And ‘that’ would make the whole film a better one? Bad broken recorBad broken recorBad broken recor…..
Nice strawman you put forth. ROTJ is my FAVORITE SWs movie.
I loved as a child and continue to do so even today, flaws and all. That said, just because you love something doesn’t mean you cannot critique it .And while I loved that ending of ROTJ, you cannot deny that the Royal Guard were a very superflous element of that film. Something the Lego TFA game addressed and came to light and I found myself agreeing with its turn of events.
And really my point, if you bothered to read, was to highlight what was something TLJ, and the ST by extension could do to differentiate itself from the OT. But I guess that raced past your head with your emotionally filled tyrant. So with all due respect, do some research. Lego TFA’s ending had nearly the exact same ending as ROTJ, minus that one aspect.
the plot closed , if you would let the royals make a stand after the fact then storywise they would represent the end battle. in my opinion a bad choice. that was my only point. that i back you up with your own broken record statement, well don’t be bitter about that.
if you actually played the game(again, do your homework) you’d see that the royal guard battle coincided with the battle with the Emperor, as in he got involved when Vader and his guards were dealt with. But that once more must have crossed your mind. And my view that would have been a lot better. But I can accept the ending we got as still had the same meaning.
You ask me if I am bitter which is puzzling, because I could ask you the same question. Your attempts at sophistry and rudeness have been quite grating. And I don’t have time for your deception. Have a good day.
i like the ending of ROTJ. If the guards would fight after the emperor fell, doesnt make it a better movie. i just look at the movie. enjoy those saur grapes man.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon
turning Chinese with the weapons ?
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/3f/3f600a5802f15078d248f7b42f98364e63a40749924104d3b6e9952f07c4d6b3.jpg
This is something he keeps saying..”We don’t get into Snoke in this movie.” So we waited 2 years to have no further backstory for this character other than he’s evil? Or Rian won’t go into “Snoke” but he’ll develop information on the character’s true identity. We shall see..we shall see.
We didn’t get the Emperor until return of the Jedi, so I don’t mind the lack of Snoke.
Right but that’s the difference..The Emperor was predominant in only one film (at the time of course), so the lack of backstory was justifiable. We’re getting Snoke for 3 films.
Yes, but I imagine we’ll slowly get more info about him until the floodgates open in Episode IX. until then, he’ll be hiding in the shadows like the Emperor in Episode V.
Those guards are damn awesome
People who think this design is original are obviously not familiar with 80’s GI Joe.
What happened to all the comments in here too? I could have sworn it said 290 not 29. Regardless, This is something that seems like it would get a lot of feedback.
Outside of trailers and the like, It seems like there is less interest on here in TLJ than TFA or even R1 going by the shrinking comments regarding spoilers.
It will pick up in late summer or the fall. We’ve gotten two new Star Wars movies now; the hype isn’t year long anymore. But when the movie draws closer, the forums will start to pick up again.
It was dead in here from late Spring until the report last summer that there were a ton of reshoots for Rogue One. Then it dropped off again until the fall.
Does anyone the couple of old looking people we saw in Palpatines throne room in ROTJ? I don’t think they are Snoke but I suspect they may know who he is
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