Secrets of Star Wars The Force Awakens : A Cinematic Journey

An inside look at the making of the movie Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), featuring footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers.

11 things we learned watching Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey

A few lucky Star Wars fans have been given the chance to watch behind the scenes of how Episode VII was made.

John Boyega, who plays Finn, took a break from filming Episode VIII to say hello and tell fans he can't wait for them "to meet Kelly". We're assuming he's talking about actress Kelly Marie Tran, who's listed in the cast for the next film.   That was about the only hint he dropped, but there were plenty of other things revealed.  This is what we learned from Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey.

1. Director JJ Abrams recorded a lot of the script into his phone.

He did it as he walked around sets.

2. The droid FX team made different aliens for JJ who never promised he would actually use them in the movie.

"We had to impress him with what we created, then he'd say 'I can use that'," they explained.

3. We get to see both John Boyega and Daisy Ridley's audition tapes.
 
The scene for Daisy was the torture scene with Kylo Ren.
 
She cried during her audition and was asked to do it again and again and she cried every time, but JJ says that's when he knew he'd found the right Rey.

4. John Boyega had auditioned about nine times for the role of Finn.

He's also revealed in the past his audition process took around seven months.
 
 
 
 
5. The weekend before filming started JJ had a parents' evening at his eldest son's school in Hawaii.
 
So he had to hot foot it to Abu Dhabi, where it was being filmed, which made him not panic "too much" about the start of filming.

 
6. Oscar Isaac's character Poe was supposed to die early on in the movie.

But Oscar told JJ he'd been in three or four movies where he'd died early and he "was sick of that".
So JJ changed the script to bring him back.
 

 
7. Harrison Ford made sure there were springs in the switches in the Millennium Falcon.

It was so that once it was pressed they didn't slowly drop back into position, like they did in the first Star Wars.
Back then there wasn't a budget for springs, apparently.

8. The Chewy double is slightly shorter than Peter Mayhew, standing at seven foot tall.

Peter is 7ft 2in (2.18m).
 
 
9. The character of Maz Kanata is based on one of JJ's teachers Rose Gilbert.

She was an inspiration for him growing up.

10. The story of how C-3PO got his red arm will appear in a comic book which is being made.
 
 
11. Adam Driver, who plays Kylo Ren, says he did everything to avoid shooting THAT scene with Harrison Ford.

There were no scenes or explanations of how Harrison Ford broke his leg during filming.

          Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is an upcoming American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz, from an idea by visual effects supervisor John Knoll. It will be the first stand-alone Star Wars Anthology film, and the ninth theatrical feature film in the series. Set in the Star Wars universe shortly before the events of A New Hope, the story will center on a group of Rebel spies on a mission to steal the plans for the Galactic Empire's new weapon, the Death Star. It will star Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Jiang Wen, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk and Jonathan Aris.

 

 

          The film is produced by Lucasfilm and will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Principal photography began at Elstree Studios, near London during early August 2015. Rogue One will be released on December 16, 2016.