#i just really love force awakens and it was a pivotal movie for me (obviously my name is rey)

[a-walking-fandom-reference]

remember when force awakens came out and it was everything and it changed the world and then they took all of that potential and hope and threw it in the fucking garbage

[tomhollandnet]

There's a moment in Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to convince Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to abandon his school trip to come save the world.

Peter — fresh off of the highly emotional events of “Avengers: Endgame,” and still reeling from the death of his mentor Tony Stark — is reluctant to shoulder responsibility again so soon, and struggles against his Spider-Man duties.

“In our iteration of Spider-Man, Peter Parker gets on with everyone,” Holland said over coffee. "Even with Flash, who’s his bully, there's kind of a good rapport there. But with Nick Fury, [he] just keeps butting heads ... which is quite fun for me to play. But it’s also tough arguing with Sam Jackson … it’s pretty scary. There’s a bit in the trailer where he says, ‘Bitch please, you've been to space.’ It’s kind of every actor’s dream to be called a bitch by Sam Jackson.”

At the age of 23, Holland has been living his own dream playing Spider-Man for a significant chunk of the past four years. He’s the third actor to don the superhero’s spandex in a live-action feature — following Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s blockbuster trilogy and Andrew Garfield in the less fondly remembered “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequel — but quickly made the iconic character his own when he debuted in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”

As the official Spider-Man of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Holland played a pivotal role in the epic two-part “Avengers” finale “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and led his 2017 solo film “Spider-Man: Homecoming” to $880 million in worldwide box office. All while being the youngest actor to fill the role.

“My voice has obviously gotten deeper [since being cast], which is a little bit embarrassing because it’s something that happens when you’re 14,” said Holland. “I have to pitch my voice up a little bit now. And when you play a character five times, you run out of ideas — sometimes it’s a little tricky to find new unique things to do to keep the character growing and progressing.”

Growth is a major theme for Peter in “Far From Home,” which opens July 2 in the U.S., as the world scrambles to figure out who will step up to assume the mantle of Iron Man. For Holland, that sense of pressure mirrored his own nervousness over anchoring the first MCU release following the massive spectacle of “Endgame” — which exploded box office records to become the second-highest grossing film of all time both worldwide (behind “Avatar”) and domestically (behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”).

“There’s a level of pressure because people really want to know what’s next,” Holland said. “‘Endgame’ was a bit of a kick in the teeth at the end. Everyone’s fallen in love with those characters for the past 10 years, and all of a sudden people we know and love and feel we have a connection to, we’ve said goodbye to forever.”

For director Jon Watts, also returning from “Homecoming,” the intense emotional stakes of “Endgame” presented a unique challenge to explore in the Spidey sequel.

“I like to see it as an opportunity,” he said. “So many crazy things happen in that movie and so many questions are left unresolved. It really helped focus this film and create a very strong emotional jumping-off point for our story and for Peter.”

...

While all eyes will be on “Far From Home” for clues about Marvel’s future, the notoriously spoiler-prone Holland is still recovering from harboring the knowledge of Iron Man's death in "Endgame" long before audiences saw it.

“I nearly had to sew my mouth shut,” he said. “I think what people forget when it comes to these movies is that I’m a fan. Before I was even considering becoming an actor, I was obsessed with these movies. I’m as much of a fan of these movies as the fans are.

“When I find out spoilers, I want to talk to people about it because I can’t quite believe it,” he added. “I just get so excited, honestly, and I want to share the information because the term ‘break the Internet’ is a real thing. And if you know something that could break the Internet, it’s kind of a cool power to have.”

For the filming of Tony Stark’s death scene in “Endgame,” the filmmakers did not tell Holland why the cast was assembling.

“When I walked on set, it was Robert [Downey Jr.], Gwyneth [Paltrow], Don [Cheadle], myself, [co-directors] the Russos and Kevin Feige, and they [told us the truth] and I, like all the fans, felt like someone had just pulled the rug from under my feet. There was no real script, just ‘This is what’s going to happen. We know you guys are so emotionally invested in these characters that whatever you do will be truthful.’

“For me, it was just my moment to say thank you to Robert for being my mentor for the past five years and hopefully for the future of my career,” Holland added. “I think there were even moments where I improvised and said, ‘Robert, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.’ And when you say stuff like that to someone you love — even now, thinking about it, I’m getting a little choked up — the emotions kind of come through.”

Loss is a major aspect of Peter Parker’s journey throughout the comics, which was another reason director Watts was excited to tackle the “Endgame” fallout in “Far From Home.”

“Losing Uncle Ben, losing Gwen Stacy … so much of what shapes him as a character is tied into the people that he cares about being lost,” Watts said. “So the fact that he’s losing Tony as well allowed us to explore some of those iconic Spider-Man themes.”

As the world waits to discover what’s next for Marvel (also rumored to include a third Spider-Man adventure, perhaps sooner than some may expect), Holland is simultaneously plotting his acting career outside of the franchise. The actor, who initially made his name on the London stage in the musical “Billy Elliot” and delivered a critically acclaimed film debut in the 2012 disaster drama “The Impossible,” recently wrapped a pair of indies and several voice roles.

He has a whopping six films slated for release over the next 12 months, including a voiceover role in Universal’s “The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle,” starring Downey, and the lead in Netflix’s “The Devil All the Time,” produced by Holland’s “Far From Home” co-star Jake Gyllenhaal.

He’ll also reunite with “Endgame” filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo for the drama “Cherry,” about an Iraq war veteran grappling with PTSD and opioid addiction.

“He turns to drugs and becomes a bank robber,” Holland said of his character. “And for me, it’s a very exciting prospect because it’s a very different role to anything I’ve done before.”

Still, Holland admits the transition from Marvel’s massive productions to smaller-scale films has been challenging.

“You can get so spoiled when you make these big movies,” said Holland. “I felt that a little bit this year. ‘Devil All the Time’ is a really small little indie movie with a wonderful director, Antonio Campos. And I was on set like, ‘Why is this taking so long? What’s going on here?’ You get spoiled when you have a crew of 500 people and 12 cameras and anything’s possible.”

As Holland pauses to consider what else might come next, he reveals one genre he’s especially keen to try.

“Part of me would really love to do a funny movie,” he said. “I think I’m a pretty funny person, and I think it would be fun to do. I just love challenges, me. I don’t want to do the same thing twice.”

[jasonfry]

“Duty Roster” is my contribution to the unbelievably fun Del Rey anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. (Please go here to read more about the project and First Book, the charity it benefits.) As promised, here are some notes about the story and a discussion of its construction.

(SPOILERS MOST DEFINITELY AHEAD! SERIOUSLY! STOP!)

“Duty Roster” was my Plan B for From a Certain Point of View -- the scene I asked to do was taken. Happily, the consolation prize was pretty good: in the same email I’d also proposed a story I wanted to tell nearly as badly, which I described as “Wedge with the other pilots.” 

But I had a twist in mind: my POV character wouldn’t be Wedge, but Fake Wedge.

If you’re not a massive Star Wars dork like I am, this will require a little explanation.

That’s Wedge Antilles sitting next to Luke in the Yavin 4 briefing room as General Dodonna tells the rather skeptical pilots the plan for attacking the Death Star. Wedge says hitting a two-meter exhaust port is impossible, even for a computer; Luke, apparently hell-bent on coming across as a yokel who says nonsensical things, replies that he used to bulls-eye womp rats, which aren’t much bigger than two meters.

Here’s the funny thing: the actor in that scene isn’t Denis Lawson, who plays Wedge in the cockpit scenes in A New Hope, as well as in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. They sound the same, but they sure don’t look the same. 

That’s because they aren't the same. Wedge is played by two different people in A New Hope. In fan circles, briefing-room Wedge became known as “Fake Wedge,” and arguments about the identity of the actor who’d played him went on for years -- until Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo dug into production reports and Web images and proved that briefing-room Wedge was an English actor named Colin Higgins.

Why the switch? By Higgins’ own admission, he kept flubbing the line and got fired. Happily, Hidalgo’s discovery led to Higgins joining the Star Wars convention circuit and getting some love and recognition from fans before his death in 2012. 

So why does Wedge sound "right” in the briefing-room scene? Because all of his lines in the original trilogy were dubbed by a third actor, David Ankrum. If you were miffed by reports that Lawson had no interest in a Force Awakens cameo, perhaps you have more sympathy for him now. Also: you should stream the 1983 movie Local Hero. Lawson has a starring role, he delivers his own lines, and he’s wonderful.

Anyway, Fake Wedge became a part of Star Wars lore, with his different appearance just one of those movie moments in which you had to suspend disbelief. 

For FACPOV, I figured we could have a little fun with that. Hence my proposal: I wanted to do a pilot story about Wedge, except I’d be writing about Fake Wedge, who wasn’t Wedge at all. He was another pilot who was frequently mistaken for Wedge, and hoo boy was he tired of it.

I thought that was pretty funny. My editor thought it was pretty funny. The folks at Lucasfilm, presumably, thought it was pretty funny.

I was pleased with myself (and tweeted out a picture of a Wedge figure standing next to Aunt Beru and her blue-milk pitcher), at least until I realized something I hadn’t thought through earlier.

Fake Wedge not being the same as Wedge was a gag. It was a pretty good gag, but a pretty good gag is still just a gag. It would take about 500 words or so for me to tell that joke. What would I do after that?

That’s where I realized I’d actually signed up for something pretty challenging, and got a little worried.

“Duty Roster” wouldn’t work if it was just a Fake Wedge gag. It had to pivot from that and become something else -- a story that captured the terror of the Yavin 4 battle from the perspective of those left behind and saluted the heroism of the pilots who’d fought in it. The reader had to start off identifying with Fake Wedge, but wind up appreciating and admiring Real Wedge. And Fake Wedge had to make that same journey.

I realized that was a tough landing to stick, and 2,500 words (or however long “Duty Roster” turned out to be) wasn’t a lot of time in which to stick it. Well, there was no way to solve it except to get to work.

Before we go any further: Is “Duty Roster” canon? Beats me. I wrote it as if it were, working carefully on Red Squadron’s assignments and making sure the scenes in Massassi Base matched the movie. But that's just good practice. I suspect The Powers That Be would rule that it isn’t -- they’d say Wedge is Wedge, long pointy nose or not. Which is just fine with me -- and, for the record, would be my ruling too. My only concern was telling a good story. 

Job One was giving Fake Wedge a name. “Col” was easy -- that rather obviously honors Higgins. “Takbright” came after a couple of false starts, and was a portmanteau of two TV roles from his long career. 

From there, I told the joke, which I will now ruin by explaining. 

We see Col first, raging about the nickname he hates -- a nickname that I had to avoid specifying for as long as possible to make the joke work. A Mon Calamari tech, Kelemah, thinks Col and the person he’s confused with look alike -- but then all humans do to him. (Setup, plus mild social commentary.) Kelemah then notes that Col and his doppelganger sound exactly alike. (More setup, Ankrum tip of the cap, the most astute readers now realize what I’ve done.) A veteran pilot, Puck Naeco, almost says the forbidden nickname, but falls back to asking what, exactly, “the kid” said to make Col so mad. (Bit of misdirection, more setup.) Col recounts the two-meter objection we know as Wedge’s line. (Some readers now get it, which is a reward but means I’ve got to hurry to the punchline while they’re still smiling.) Biggs enters with other pilots, including Wedge. (Pieces moving into place.) One of those pilots, Elyhek Rue, mistakes Col for Wedge. (Board now set.) Laughter, and Puck explains that’s why Col is and will always be known as Fake Wedge. (Punchline, and scene.)

See what I mean? We’re less than two pages in and the joke has been told. Which is why I also used the gag to introduce the most important characters for the more serious story “Duty Roster” would have to become.

To pivot effectively, I couldn’t tell the joke and then take time to introduce a bunch of new characters to the reader. So we’ve got pilots and techs doing double duty for the gag and the serious story. There’s Puck, who’s Col’s mentor. Kelemah, whose technical knowledge will be critical later. Rue, who will be with us throughout. And of course Wedge himself. That’s a variant of a basic lesson: storytelling is most effective when scenes and/or characters are advancing the story on multiple fronts.

With the gag behind me, I had to establish Col as a sympathetic yet flawed character. And so I dived into that, setting up Col and Wedge as opposites in temperament and attitude. Col is dedicated to the rebel cause but thinks his anger reflects well on him; he’s too self-absorbed to realize it’s what’s holding him back. He sees Wedge as too quiet and reserved, perhaps even insufficiently devoted to the cause -- which is both unfair and untrue, and says nothing about Wedge but everything about Col’s immaturity and jealousy.

The pilots get their assignments, which is where Col’s dreams turn to dust. I had to engineer it so Luke’s flight of three is the last one filled out with pilots, and the final spot seemingly comes down to Wedge or Col. There’s no particular reason that flight would be announced last, so I suggested that Red Leader is filling flights in order from most-experienced pilots to least, with Luke a bit of a wild card since he’s just shown up. You can see the storytelling gears turning a bit there, which you’d rather avoid. But sometimes you can’t, and I like to think I got away with it.

A brief continuity note, for those who are interested: I’d filled out Red Squadron for The Essential Guide to Warfare, in a section whose most notable contribution was assigning Puck Naeco (originally introduced way back in the strategy guide for the X-wing game) to the up-for-grabs call sign Red 12. I was happy to do so again in “Duty Roster.” 

The rest of the squadron had some alterations, though, to fit Rogue One. It was obvious that X-wing pilots who’d survived Scarif would fly at Yavin 4 too, so Ralo Surrel, Harb Binli and Zal Dinnes were in, and off-screen Legends pilots Rue, Bren Quersey and Wenton Chan got sidelined. But that fit perfectly with the theme of the story. It’s no accident that Rue, Quersey and Chan are the  three pilots with Col as he watches the battle.

Col doesn’t get his spot on the mission, and so remains in the pilots’ ready room, alone in his misery. (Once again: he thinks it’s all about him.) Giving into his rage, he trashes the place -- only to realize Wedge has left his helmet behind. Wedge enters and tries to avoid a confrontation, but when Col tries to bait him he quietly but firmly puts Col in his place, showing the maturity and sense of camaraderie that Col lacks and the leadership he’ll display as a squadron leader in the future. 

It’s a moment of realization for Col. Which is why he cleans up the mess he’s made and heads for the war room to stand with his fellow pilots. That’s his turn -- and it’s because of Wedge.

Col finds his place in the war room and the Battle of Yavin unfolds as we know it. Except we learn something new that’s really important: Wedge is flying an X-wing with suspect hydraulic lines that were patched up after Scarif. It’s risky, but his choice was to fly and take the risk or stay behind, and he chose to fly.

As a fellow pilot, Col understands the risk Wedge is taking. As the battle unfolds, he thinks about how each of the squadron’s pilots has a shot at becoming the rebel hero he’s dreamed of being. That’s a bit of the old Col, but he doesn’t stop there. He cheers for them (a marked change), and also understands that some of them have no chance at glory -- they’re flying to buy the others more time, and know they’ll have to sacrifice their lives to do so.

And he understands that once Wedge’s hydraulic lines are severed, he’s as big a danger to Luke and Biggs as he is to the TIEs chasing them. So Col doesn’t blame Wedge when he peels off -- in fact, in a sign of his newfound maturity, he urges Kelemah to tell Wedge to do so. 

We then learn something else: Wedge charged his auxiliaries and tried to go back to help, which would have been a death sentence. It’s a bit of continuity added to a scene that doesn’t really work in the movie (where the heck is Wedge going?), but Col’s reaction is the key. He understands he would have done the same thing Wedge did, that it would have been a mistake, and begs Wedge not to throw away his life for nothing but pride.

The pilots return, but while everyone runs to congratulate Luke, Col hurries to find Wedge, who’s wrestling with the guilt he feels at having left the fight. It’s Col who absolves him, pointing out that Wedge took out six TIEs, ran the trench at full throttle, kept a malfunctioning fighter intact and then tried to go back. Because Wedge Antilles is that awesome, and because Col Takbright -- Fake Wedge -- has finally figured out that they’re both part of something larger, and that a single pilot’s identity (or mistaken identity) is far less important than what they can do together.

So that’s a wrap. Some other interesting bits for the trivia-minded:

Wedge’s malfunction has been described in various ways in various sources. I took bits and pieces of multiple explanations.

Luke’s simulator run is from the old Brian Daley radio dramas.

I didn’t know the canon status of Blue and Green squadrons, and didn’t want to open a canoncial can of worms. So Red Leader doesn’t know what’s happening with them either. Which makes sense -- he’s got enough on his plate. Since I couldn’t have the reader think Col could just join another squadron, I added the note about his having to go to the back of the line in such a situation.

Colonel Cor is mentioned in the Rogue One visual guide.

Kay-One-Zero is the Alliance evacuation code. Note that you don’t need to know that to understand the reference -- Quersey gives an explanation that reads right on the page but also helps those who don’t know every bit of Star Wars canon. Context is critical for making lore support a story instead of distracting the reader.

When Porkins dies, Rue quietly says “So long, Piggy, you will be avenged.” This is a thought balloon for Biggs in the original Marvel adaptation of A New Hope.

I accounted for the fates of Red Seven, Eight, Nine and Eleven, whose deaths aren’t seen on-screen.