Star Wars Bits: Rogue One X-Wings, Journey To Force Awakens Excerpts, Grand Moff Tarkin And More

A Jedi Knight? Jeez, I'm out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of Star Wars Bits. This edition of news from a galaxy far, far away includes:

Header image: Artwork from Deviant artist ornicar

Production on Star Wars: Rogue One is under way across the pond, and some spy photos have revealed temple walls resembling those on Yavin IV in Star Wars: A New Hope as well as a shrouded X-Wing. However, this isn't one of the newer X-Wings from The Force Awakens, but rather the classic design from the original trilogy, which only makes sense considering this takes place before A New Hope. If you want to see the photos, head over to MakingStarWars.net right here.

Above is a piece of fanmade artwork that appears in a cool Star Wars round-up of pieces designed by Star Wars fans. There's some other cool pieces feature Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Stormtrooper in the middle of a big battle, and much more. Check out the rest of the artwork at ForeverGeek.com right here.

Some new excerpts for books that will be part of The Journey to The Force Awakens have popped up online since they novels are now available for pre-order on iTunes and Google Play with a sneak preview of the pages inside.  If you head on over, you can take a look at pages from Lost Stars by Claudia Gray, Smuggler's Run by Greg Rucka, Moving Target by Cecil Castelluci, and The Weapon of a Jedi by Jason Fry.  The above image comes from one of the books geared towards kids. (via: MakingStarWars.net)

Even though Star Wars: Episode VIII is still two years away, rumors are already swirling about the lead character in the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, which will be directed by Looper helmer Rian Johnson. GeekNation is saying Disney and Lucasfilm are on the hunt for an actress to play a strong, young female character.

That's not exactly a big revelation, but the rumor also says that this character would be Han Solo's daughter, which raises a whole bunch of questions as to whether or not Rey (Daisy Ridley) is actually a Solo child in The Force Awakens has been rumored. This seems a little fishy and too early for this kind of detail to leak, so take it with a grain of salt for now.

Some new paperback covers for a few of the forthcoming Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens novels have popped up online at MakingStarWars. Unfortunately, as you can see, they're just stylish text and don't offer any new imagery for us to sink our teeth into just yet. Though the unifying theme among the books' cover design is rather appealing.

It appears Star Wars fans are really pushing their love of the sci-fi saga onto their kids as Mashable has pointed out that the official Social Security Administration list of the most popular baby names in America in 2014 has the name "Anakin" landing at 957 on the list of the 1,000 most popular baby names.

Honestly, that's not too high, which likely means some parents don't want their kid to be inundated with questions about whether or not they like Star Wars. In fact, I feel sorry for the kid with that name who just may not end up liking Star Wars simply because he is named Anakin.

Finally, there's a rumor going around from The Daily Mail that Grand Moff Tarkin will be appearing in Star Wars: Rogue One. However, rather than having a new actor play the character in the movie, Lucasfilm may use visual effects to recreate the image of Peter Cushing, who played the character originally in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Reportedly the special effects team is going through hours and hours of old footage from Cushing's career in order to accurately recreate his entire face and body, including the way he walks and moves.

This seems wholly unnecessary and expensive, especially since the green screen heavy Revenge of the Sith didn't even use visual effects in order to bring Grand Moff Tarkin back to the big screen. They just made up actor Wayne Pigram to look like Peter Cushing. Of course, he had no lines, which made things infinitely easier, but there's no reason that an actor just can't inherit this role instead of spending what will likely be hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of dollars on visual effects.

That's all for Star Wars Bits for now. Stay tuned for more soon.