Star Wars: The Last Jedi features touching end credit tribute to Carrie Fisher... as fans and critics spot secret messages and hidden meanings in dramatic film scenes

By Eve Buckland

It is the most hotly-anticipated film of the year, has won critical acclaim and is tipped to score the highest opening weekend of the year
And the lure of the Dark Side and explosive lightsaber fights aside, Star Wars fans eagerly counting down the hours until they watch The Last Jedi have an extra surprise in store at the end of the film.

At the end of the first set of credits Episode VIII features a touching tribute to late Princess Leia actress Carrie Fisher, who died aged 60 on December 27 last year.

It reads: 'In loving memory of our princess, Carrie Fisher.'

What makes Star Wars so special?

It's the most wonderful time of the year: the weekend of a Star Wars release! 'The Last Jedi' may have an ominous title, but it's hardly the last movie in this multi-generational franchise. What makes Star Wars hold a special place in our hearts? It's impossible to answer for everone, but here are five ways the series has set the standard for entertaining a planet.

Take a Luke...

By Rosie Gizauskas

Star Wars fans are one step closer to actually flying the Millennium Falcon. Disney have now released the first photo of the brand new attraction - and fans are going weak at the knees. With Disney's new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme parks due to open in 2019 in California and Florida, fans have been eagerly awaiting glimpses from the actual park - and now they have one.

All the amazing cameos in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Long-awaited Star Wars sequel The Last Jedi is now in cinemas, and it's absolutely full of surprises - but perhaps one of the most frequently shocking things about it is just how many starry cameos director Rian Johnson has managed to cram into the film, from big-name movie stars and fellow directors to actual members of the royal family.

Artificially intelligent robots could soon gain consciousness and rebel against humans to 'ELIMINATE us', scientist warns

From babysitting children to beating the world champion at Go, robots are slowly but surely developing more and more advanced capabilities.
And many scientists, including Professor Stephen Hawking, suggest it may only be a matter of time before machines gain consciousness.

'Maayavan' review: Science fiction or science lesson?

Maayavan's basic premise is great. But its execution on screen quite isn't.

Maayavan opens with Ilaiyaraaja's soothing 'Keladi Kanmani' number playing on what looks like a radio. But the listener isn't someone sitting in a tea shop in Thanjavur; he is lying in what looks like a futuristic hospital bed. The year, we're informed, is 2037.

2017 celebrity deaths: Science fiction and the world lost iconic talents

Looking back on 2017, it's impossible to forget the entertainment icons who were taken too soon. We lost a Batman and a James Bond in Adam West and Roger Moore, directors such as Jonathan Demme and George Romero, and actors with distinguished careers like Sam Shepard -- a Renaissance man of the arts. But one particular universe feels emptier as we look ahead to 2018: science fiction films.

Throwback Review: 'Solaris' (1972)

By Tony Schaab

Mention the words "science fiction," and many minds automatically picture large ships gliding through space, shooting lasers at one another, or bizarre and fascinating alien life making contact for the first time (or invading the Earth).

Deadpool Is already making trouble for Disney

By Emily Schaab

A certain anti-superhero isn't too happy about the Disney Fox merger. Leave it to Deadpool to rain on the Disney's parade!

The Merc with a mouth didn't waste any time making an impression on his new bosses, although it wasn't exactly a great one. Ryan Reynolds shared a photo of that first impression, and it seems Deadpool managed to get himself arrested at Disney World. The image shows a security guard ushering Deadpool out of the magical Disney kingdom with the caption "Apparently you can't actually blow the Matterhorn."

Interstellar asteroid checked for alien technology

A project searching for intelligent life in the cosmos is going to check the first known interstellar asteroid for signs of alien technology. The odd-shaped object was detected as it sped towards the Sun on 19 October. Its properties suggested it originated around another star, making it the first such body to be spotted in our cosmic neighbourhood.

Are we all aliens? Scientists create life's building blocks in a space-like environment suggesting we were created from interstellar dust

Life may have begun in the frigid vacuum of space, according to experts who found small organic molecules can form under these conditions.
Scientists were able to prompt chemical reactions that resulted in the creation of the building blocks for early organisms in a simulated solar system.
Rather than starting here on Earth, the finding suggests that the compounds needed for proteins and carbohydrates to develop may be extra terrestrial in origin.

Good Omens' will include a tribute to Terry Pratchett

While we're all still mourning the loss of the amazingly gifted Terry Pratchett, 'Good Omens' (which is finally getting a televised adaptation on Amazon) will include a tribute to the author.

Well we hope you enjoyed this issue of StarWarrior. Let us know what you think, we'd love to hear from you! Send in your Cosplay photos and a brief bio and you too could feature in StarWarrior!

Thomas Austen
thomasausten@starwarrior.space

News email: news@starwarrior.space

Admin email: johnausten@starwarrior.space                                

'Jaw-dropping, gripping, unpredictable, insane': Twitter reacts to Star Wars: The Last Jedi as it's billed 'best movie since Empire'

The Force is strong with this one.

The first reviews are in for Star Wars: The Last Jedi - and everybody is blown away. The world premiere of the eighth chapter in the Skywalker saga, directed by Rian Johnson, took place in Hollywood on Saturday night.

'Star Wars' box office: 'Last Jedi' has a key advantage over 'Force Awakens'

Well, this is interesting. Morning Consult, a privately-held technology and media company specializing in online survey and market research, just dropped a bunch of poll results around the Star Wars movies. You can read the results on their actual page, but I wanted to point out one very interesting nugget. To the extent that the 2,200 adults polled in the survey represent a national consensus, Princess Leia is the most popular character, followed by Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Yoda, RD-D2 and only then Han Solo.

14 things we learned about 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

The cast and creators of Star Wars: The Last Jedi had a whole lot to say in our new cover story - from writer/director Rian Johnson's revelation that he considered making Luke Skywalker blind to Adam Driver's confession of total emo ignorance to Daisy Ridley's declaration that she was done with the saga after the next movie (she's since attempted to walk that one back). But our in-depth interviews for the article yielded even more revelations that didn't quite fit. Here's what we learned.

Knights of the Old Republic won't be Rian Johnson's new Star Wars Trilogy

While Johnson himself is a huge fan of the two Knights of the Old Republic games and understands that fans of the series would love to see it adapted for the big screen, the director recently told Mashable he doesn't believe their story would really be compelling enough to warrant a trilogy. Like many filmmakers presented with the chance to grab ahold of a franchise like Star Wars, Johnson's far more interested in doing his own thing.

Millennial moviegoers most excited for 'Star Wars,' 'Jumanji'

The movie business has long been worried that it suffers from an aging customer base, with younger viewers abandoning multiplexes for the pleasures and convenience of Netflix or video games.

This free science fiction anthology is all about the future of space exploration

There's been a growing movement within the science fiction community to imagine the future as something other than a dreary dystopia. That's what Arizona State University is doing with a new digital anthology called Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures.

When 'Star Wars' came to California: Documents reveal history behind original film

Director George Lucas filmed much of the 1977 blockbuster "Star Wars" in North Africa and the U.K., but to get one of the key shots in the film, the production turned to Death Valley National Park in California.

The reason? Lucas needed an elephant.

'Frankenstein Dreams': When Sci-fi lumbered into the Victorian Era

Victorian Science Fiction with a quote that is probably as true now as it was in 1818: "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."

Daisy Ridley says she won't play Rey anymore after 'Star Wars: Episode IX'

By Dave Trumbore, Collider

Daisy Ridley returns as Rey in Rian Johnson's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", bringing her feisty, Force-wielding character back in a big way. But "Star Wars" fans better enjoy the on-screen moments with Ridley's Rey while they can, because after the concluding chapter of the current trilogy, she's probably done with the franchise.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi's Supreme Leader Snoke is not a Sith Lord

By Bryan Abrams

You'd have been forgiven for assuming that Supreme Leader Snoke, played by Andy Serkis, was a Sith Lord. While we only saw him in holographic form in The Force Awakens, it was made crystal clear he was the man-er, being-in charge.

Exploring the Skelligs: Irish islands feel the Force

By Wes Little, CNN

Cinematic even before you add the Millennium Falcon. You can see why "Star Wars" producers chose Skellig Michael as a location in a galaxy far, far away.The small rocky island sits about 8 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland. It hosts a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an ancient Christian monastery famous for its architecture consisting of stone "beehive" huts built without mortar.

Netflix releases trailer for 'Black Museum,' ahead of 'Black Mirror' season four

Netflix has released the trailer for 'Black Mirror' season four episode titled 'Black Museum.' The intriguing and dark series that has been likened to a modern day 'Twilight Zone' has fans eagerly waiting for the next installment, even though Netflix has yet to announce the season's official premiere date.

Is it possible that even those responsible for 'Star Wars: the last Jedi' don't know who Rey's parents are?

It seems that even the star and director of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' don't know the answer to what is possibly the new trilogy's biggest mystery: who are Rey's parents? Filmgoers witnessed a young Rey being abandoned on the desert planet Jakku. Obviously, her folks aren't some random, never-before-seen nobodies.

We just got the most detailed description yet on the new billion dollar Star Wars land coming to Disney World

By Ken Storey

The Orange County Register, a highly respected Southern California newspaper, posted a lengthy analysis of the newly public permit plans for the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge that Disney shared with the City of Anaheim. Disney is currently building two nearly identical 14-acre Star Wars lands, one in California at Disneyland and one here in Florida at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Each is estimated to cost well north of a $1 billion. The details that the OC Register shared regarding the new land can be assumed to be accurate for the one here in Florida with a few exceptions, most notably the LARPing-focused Star Wars hotel that has been announced for Disney World.

Stormtroopers invade the Sage as the Star Wars Spectacular delights the audience

With next month's release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, what better time to reprise all the unforgettable musical themes which have helped to create the cinema legend over the past 40 years?

John Williams, the multi-award-winning American composer, is credited with reviving the use of a full orchestral score to support on-screen action.
What Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner and Erich Korngold did in the 20th Century 'Golden Age of Hollywood', Williams carried on. His music for the Star Wars adventures is arguably his finest work.

Meet `Oumuamua, the strange interstellar asteroid that sent us a message

In the classic 1973 Arthur C. Clarke science fiction novel "Rendezvous With Rama," a mysterious object is detected outside the orbit of Jupiter as it rapidly approaches the inner solar system. Traveling at high speed and on a hyperbolic trajectory, the object is obviously not from our solar system; it's from interstellar space.

Virtual reality boom brings giant robots, cyberpunk castles to China

Giant robots and futuristic cyberpunk castles rise out of lush mountain slopes on the outskirts of Guiyang, the capital of one of China's poorest provinces.
Welcome to China's first virtual reality theme park, which aims to ride a boom in demand for virtual entertainment that is set to propel tenfold growth in the country's virtual reality market, to hit almost $8.5 billion by 2020.

The 330-acre (134-hectare) park in southwestern Guizhou province promises 35 virtual reality attractions, from shoot-'em-up games and virtual rollercoasters to tours with interstellar aliens of the region's most scenic spots.

How did you get into Star Wars?

By Joe Tonelli

At some point or another, we were all bitten by the Star Wars bug-er-sandflea. We were dragged to a theater by a cool uncle, handed an N64 controller to play Star Wars Episode I: Pod Racer (let's be kind to those whose first exposure may not have been the original trilogy), or just caught a marathon over Thanksgiving weekend.