It's not easy being a Star Wars fan right now. Everything we've been a fan of since 1977 is coming to a close in just a couple short months with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. On the one hand, we don't want to know anything about what's going to happen until the movie starts and we're seated in the theater. At the same time, we have all of the questions. We have only the smallest puzzle pieces, and we have no idea what the picture is even supposed to be.
Quite frequently, intentionally or otherwise, licensed merchandise has been known to reveal answers to some of a movie's biggest questions. And so, with yesterday's preview of Triple Force Friday, it wouldn't have been surprising if we'd received a few of those answers, and yet, all the day created was more questions. I got to attend the preview event at Lucasfilm in San Francisco myself to look for answers, but now here are all the questions we now have after everything I saw, and also didn't see.
Who Is Boolio?
While we would have thought we'd known the names of all the most important characters that will appear in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, yesterday's event revealed a couple more who are apparently important enough that they'll be getting their own merchandise. One that was brought up more than once during yesterday's livestream was an alien named Boolio. He sort of resembles a Minotaur, as he has large, bull like horns, but while everybody made a point to reveal Boolio's existence, they were just as sure to say nothing about him.
All we can surmise about Boolio from what we know is that he (or she?) is in some way connected to the Millennium Falcon. The Boolio minfig will be one of several included in the upcoming LEGO set for the Falcon. The rest of the characters included, Lando, Chewbacca, etc. make sense, but Boolio is an X-factor. Perhaps he's a new member of the Resistance who has been hired on to help crew the Falcon? Han and Chewie never needed help, but perhaps, with Rey having a lot on her plate, Chewie now has his own copilot?
Who is Babu Frik?
The other new character which Triple Force Friday revealed was a little guy named Babu Frik. Or at least, he appears to be little. We're assuming that his stature is accurate relative to C-3PO, which makes him incredibly tiny. He looks like the toy that, for us, he actually is.
In the case of this character, he was revealed to be a droid builder, but why he's important is far from clear. Is he the creator of D-O, the new tiny droid that we've seen alongside BB-8? A few new astromech droid units were also included among the Triple Force Friday toys I saw. They had names like R2-SHP, R6-LE5, and R5 2JE. Did Babu Frick build any of them? And if he did, how will these droids play into The Rise of Skywalker? Perhaps, since Babu is included with the Black Series figure of C-3PO, he has something to do with what causes his eyes to turn red.
Why Is Zorri Bliss Flying A Y-Wing?
We don't know much about Zorri Bliss, the character that Keri Russell will portray in The Rise of Skywalke, beyond that name. Although, clearly, her look is designed to make us think of characters like Boba Fett, who keep their faces covered because they are up to no good. However, it looks like Bliss might be one of the good guys, as her LEGO fig is included with the new Y-wing set, alongside Poe Dameron. And she's even flying it.
At the preview I attended Bliss' figure was sitting in the pilot's chair, which seems odd. She certainly doesn't look like a Resistance pilot, and even if Zorri Bliss is meant to be a Han Solo-like rogue, fighting for the good guys, you still wouldn't expect her to be piloting one of the Resistance's crafts. She'd have her own ship, right? Of course, it looks like there's also a Stormtrooper figure included with this set, so perhaps this setup was meant to misdirect.
Why Does Jannah Have a Bow And Arrow?
While we've seen Naomi Ackie's character of Jannah a couple of times, we don't know much of anything about her. It appears that her home is the rocky desert planet throwing a party that we've seen in the trailers, but that doesn't explain why she joins our heroes or ends up on the Millennium Falcon with Finn.
However, we now have an even bigger question about who Jannah is, because her weapon of choice is apparently a bow and arrow. The Star Wars universe has always been this weird mix of new that looks ancient. People are flying among the stars, but places like Tatooine look less than futuristic. Still, everybody who has a weapon carries a blaster of some sort, so why does this one character have a piece of technology that is centuries old even on our own planet? Does it have technological features? Does it shoot laser arrows?
Where Were Dark Rey, The Emperor, and The Knights of Ren?
While the products that I saw yesterday raised a number of questions, there are also questions to be asked because of what we did not see. Some of the most talked about characters that fans are wondering about were nowhere to be found. The Emperor, who will be making his return to the Star Wars franchise in The Rise of Skywalker, and the "Sith" version of Rey that was teased in the D23 footage. This was also the case with the Knights of Ren, who have also been confirmed for the movie. Not only were no products dealing with any of them shown, none of those characters was even mentioned.
But why not? We know all of them exist. That information is very public, and so it's not like seeing them as action figures would have been that surprising. Even if "Dark Rey" is nothing more than a vision, and not technically a real character. Even if the Emperor is nothing more than a Force Ghost, or the Knights of Ren show up in a flashback, it doesn't mean they won't be getting their own toys. There's no way in hell that Dark Rey isn't getting an action figure. Simply showing them would have revealed nothing, so why weren't they there?
Of course, while we're asking these questions, we don't really want answers. Some of these answers probably aren't even all that important, while others likely deal with the core of how the Skywalker Saga will come to a close. Even finding out which is which would reveal more than we really want to know. We'll do our best to be patient, and wait until December 20.
