Searching for 'Force Awakens' Clues in Latest Disney Video Games

Marcus Errico
·Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo Entertainment

Daisy Ridley and John Boyega continue to make the most of their Star Wars experience. The delightful duo, who play the respective heroes Rey and Finn in the upcoming The Force Awakens, have been nothing but giddiness and gratitude while making their initial promotional stops at Star Wars Celebration in April and last month’s San Diego Comic-Con. And they didn’t disappoint this weekend at Disney’s in-house fan expo, D23. After being part of Saturday’s presentation of The Force Awakens, they returned Sunday to share a Star Wars rite of passage: the debut of their first toy selves.

“This is crazy. I have an actual action figure!” beamed Boyega. Earlier he confided to Yahoo Movies that seeing a toy of himself was “awesome.”

Garbed in the desert gear we see them wear in the trailers, the small, stylized figures of Rey and Finn were the first unveiled for the hitherto top-secret Force Awakens add-on play set for Disney Infinity 3.0. Ridley and Boyega voiced the characters in the game. (Disney Infinity 3.0 comes out Aug. 28, but The Force Awakens module won’t be out until the film releases in December.)

Boyega, who fancies himself a gamer, and Ridley, who doesn’t, were able to take their characters for a spin backstage before Sunday’s presentation by Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. Keeping with the filmmaker’s omertà, no game footage was screened, but the producers let a potential spoiler slip when they revealed to Boyega that Finn’s laser rifle is the most powerful weapon the game.

To which Ridley responded: “I’ll say I don’t need the most powerful weapon, because I’m a badass.”

The 90-minute presentation also included the first look at concept art from The Battle of Jakku, the free DLC pack that will be available in December for EA’s hugely anticipated Star Wars Battlefront game.

Jakku is the desert planet heavily featured in the early footage from The Force Awakens. The game serves as  prequel of sorts: set months after Return of the Jedi, a New Republic squadron engages with the remnants of Imperial forces on the isolated planet. The events that unfold in Battle of Jakku will explain why there are shattered ships strewn across the dunes, fodder for the scavenger Rey.

EA's art finds the opposing forces (including old-school Stormtroopers, not the First Order variety) exchanging close-range blaster fire amid the wreckage of various starships, a visual not unlike the opening of the second Force Awakens trailer.

Justin McCully, who oversees EA’s Star Wars division, said the game designers were embedded on the film set in Abu Dhabi and had unprecedented access to Lucasfilm archives to make the game as realistic as possible. The Jakku pack will be available for download on Dec. 8, 10 days before The Force Awakens hits theaters.

Watch ‘The Force Awakens’ trailer: