I’m sure I speak for most of you that when those leaked character posters came out, we all just kind of reacted like this:
Now we can react like that to this one of Khylin Rhambo as Dink Meeker, which is unofficial, but still amazing for the fun/cool factor.
Khylin posted this to his Instagram today with credit to Ricky Middlesworth. Looks so legit, though I wish some names were on it!
I’m a bit late this week, but to be fair, there wasn’t that much to report about our young cast as far as social media announcements go – up until today, that is. Let’s have the good news first: Brandon Soo Hoo graduated High School. Congratulations, Brandon!
Also, Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak announced today via twitter that he will be joining castmates Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Harrison Ford at Comic Con.
Meanwhile, Abigail Breslin – again breaking the record for most tweets per day – has been alternating sleeping on the couch (due to a bugger infestation of her room, no less) and celebrating half-Christmas with glittery wintery images on Instagram, while Asa Butterfield has been relaxing with his family in beautiful, sunny Greece.
Aramis Knight, on the other hand, has made an effort to make the world a better place in this years annual “One Child At A Time Celebrity Basketball Game” on June 23. For him, and I’m sure for many of the spectators, it was a dream come true.
Finally, Khylin Rhambo has announced that he is changing his name. Personally, I welcome the change, as I’m never quite sure if I’m spelling “Rhambo” correctly.
– Anderson
I’m thinking the same thing you guys are. Finally something new! Now that we have a new still to pick apart, let’s get started shall we? You can click any image to see a bigger one.
First, the full image:
With only the expression on their faces to go by, I’d guess this is when Petra first offers to show Ender what she knows in the Battle Room on their own time. At this point they’re all in Salamander, Ender’s first army, so it’s a safe bet. They’re in the Battle School mess hall, which shows at least five or six teams and a Launchie. It’s possible that Fly Molo is in this image as well, sitting on the far table on the right end.
The other boys were talking about things—the big scoreboard on one wall, the food, the bigger kids. Ender could only watch in isolation. The scoreboards were team standings. Win-loss records, with the most recent scores. Some of the bigger boys apparently had bets on the most recent games. Two teams, Manticore and Asp, had no recent score—these boxes were flashing. Ender decided they must be playing right now.
Rat and Asp are on the board and therefore currently in the Battle Room, so I’m assuming the red patch on the soldier in the middle is actually for another army, despite the logo looking very similar to Rat. On the far right, you can see a group with teal patches and a guy with a darker red logo, though he could be in the same army as the red patches in the middle. Update: I received a tip that the dark red patched soldier is Cameron Gaskins, who plays Leopard Army commander Pol Slattery.
On the left, the bright yellow color of the Launchies. The scoreboard differs a bit from the book in that it doesn’t seem to list the standings of all the armies, but I do love that the Battle Room’s layout is in the center.
You can see the matching colors on both sides of the sphere, so these have to be the gates. The white obstacles floating around being the star configuration of that particular battle. Next to each army logo you can see several meters.
Next to the vertical meter are what appear to be soldier profiles of them taken in the plain whites we saw Ender wearing in the first still. It’s possible these swap screens in and out with the rest of the army because I think we asked how big each army was and although I don’t remember what it was, I know it wasn’t 8.
I’m not sure what this is, but my guess would be it’s the top three soldiers in each army. There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places on both sides of the board with a line graph. Shooting record perhaps?
If you’re wondering why I’m zooming in on what I’m assuming is Battle School breakfast, it’s because I want to try to recreate this for my blog Fictional Food. I even found and ordered one of these trays on Amazon already! It’s a lot shinier, but I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same model.
I can’t say I’m all that impressed with Battle School lunches. They have what looks like an energy bar as the main course, a pastry, gelatin, a green pudding, and a small loaf of bread. Is this really enough calories for a school of teenagers? Maybe the energy bar is packed with tons of protein.
Zooming in on Petra, you get to see the Salamander army patch on her arm, which doesn’t appear to be sewn on. It looks textured too, which makes me want one even more. Her nametag says Arkanian.
A few soldiers down from Petra at the other end of the table is Bonzo. His food appears to be untouched and he’s just sitting there staring either at something off the table or just at his hands. What do you guys make of his posture in this still? He looks like a bit of a loner in this one.
I can spot at least six girls in this still based upon hair buns, which is interesting as I would have thought they’d have the girls cut their hair short as well.
That’s all I’ve got for this one. Do you guys notice anything else interesting? It’s such a busy image and I wish we could see the board more in focus, but clearly the blur is intentional at this point. I can’t wait for more!
Now that you’ve seen EnderWiggin.net’s exclusive reveal of the official Salamander Army logo, as well as the logos for Dragon, Rat, and Asp armies, it’s time to show you why that was just a teaser for today’s reveal. (make sure you enter to win a set of Ender’s Game army magnets or pin buttons HERE)
I’m very happy to be one of four fansites revealing the second official still from the Ender’s Game movie, which, as of today, is 253 days from release. This new still is chock full of amazing new content for fans who have been dying for more since December, when we got our first look at Colonel Graff staring down young Ender Wiggin.
Without further ado, here is a first look at the Battle School mess hall with Salamander Army:
Not only do we see Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin again, you get your first look at Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian (left), Khylin Rhambo as Dink Meeker (right, next to Ender), and Moises Arias as Bonzo Madrid (end of the table on the left). Since there’s a whole lot more going on besides these four characters (see the Battle Room sphere on the board!?), be sure read my still breakdown article coming later today.
In the meantime, I get to dish a little bit more about our visit to the set last year.
We’d been given a list of people we might be seeing and Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, and director Gavin Hood’s names practically screamed themselves from my laptop. I was pretty pumped. We’d also be talking to Conor Carroll (Bernard), Khylin Rhambo (Dink), Aramis Knight (Bean), and Suraj Partha (Alai).
I went into the set visit expecting to see and speak to these seven people, which made me unprepared for all the other people we got to spend time with that day. One of the first surprises of the day was when we were introduced to producer Roberto Orci, which almost made my head explode.
I’d only seen photos of him and hadn’t a clue he’d be there on the set, much less that we’d be spending the day with him. And while it sounds odd to be a “fan” of a movie producer, you have to keep in mind that I’m a huge fan of things like LOST, Fringe, the Star Trek reboots, the Hawaii Five-O reboot, all of which he’s produced or written. I see his name everywhere. And since I have a young son, I’ve seen or been forced to listen to the Transformers movies at least two dozen times which, again, he wrote.
We were in a room whose walls were covered in concept art and storyboards and I almost felt like I should avert my eyes because I’m so used to not seeing such things until a DVD release. A presentation began and we met several producers from Odd Lot Entertainment.
They told us so much in that first hour and a half that I admit I was confused. I’d never expected them to be so open and passionate about the movie, rivaling us fansites. It was like sitting in a room with fans who were 10 times the fans you were. It was humbling to say the least.
After the presentation, they took us on a set tour that included the Launchie barracks that we saw in the first still, Ender’s private quarters, and the infirmary. We were taken to the video village where we saw some scenes being filmed. Garrett Warren, the film’s stunt coordinator came by to talk to us and was so fun to meet.
We headed over to interview the very well-spoken and lovely Hailee Steinfeld, a very intense but also very nice Asa Butterfield, and director Gavin Hood. While it was amazing to interview the young actors who would be playing Ender and Petra, it was eye-opening to talk to Gavin Hood. It was immediately plain to us that he’s a huge fan of the book and after talking to him, I personally felt like the film was in great hands with him.
Having been a fan of Game of Thrones for over ten years, it was surreal when the monstrously large Nonso Anozie (Sergeant Dap in Ender’s Game and Xaro Xhoan Daxos in Thrones) walked– or rather, hunched over — to get into the room. Getting to then discuss movies and Pop Tarts with him was just amazing. We met a lot of the Battle School cadets, including Bean, who all seemed to be great kids who were huge fans of the novel and extremely excited to be a part of the film.
Our tour continued after lunch with a meeting with costume designer Christine Bieselin-Clark, who actually let us touch the flash suits. Nerd out!
We continued on to the props department, which was really cool because even that guy could bring up scenes from the book as if it was nothing. We then talked to set designers Ben Procter and Sean Haworth, who immediately passed our now standard Did-You-Read-Ender’s-Game Test. We were back to sitting in the Launchie barracks again and with that scenery around us, I think the sole question in all of our minds was just, “How do you build something like this from the ground up?” It was a continual thought in my mind as we walked through the Battle School and Eros sets.
And with that, yes, we did get to walk around on Eros. We were actually very fortunate in that they were at the point of production where they were filming Ender’s final battle scene. We stood on that set and I had to resist the urge to turn to my fellow tourists and shake them senseless in excitement. All I will say at this point is that the finale scene that I’d imagined seemed like a shriveled raisin compared to what they had in production.
As if that wasn’t enough, towards the end of our day, they told us they were able to get us 10 minutes with Sir Ben Kingsley. Let me tell you, sitting in a dark Formic room frantically trying to think of questions to ask a knighted actor is a whole lot of pressure.
Those of you that have been reading my site for a while have probably wondered why I seem so on board with the film despite some the changes (which are inevitable with a book to film adaptation). Hopefully this gives you a better idea of why. Everyone we met from the crew to the actors to the producers were all fans of the book and were all so excited to be working on the movie.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve left out specific details and quotes, as that’s all still to come as we approach the movie’s release come November 1st.
To stay up to date with all the latest news about the movie, the actors, and upcoming book releases in the Enderverse, be sure to follow EnderWiggin.net, available on the following social media networks:
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If you’ve been looking for an Ender’s Game podcast, be sure to check out the podcast EnderCast, which I co-host with Kelly from Ender News.
A slew of actors were reported to be officially joining the cast of Ender’s Game today, with Harrison Ford being cast as Colonel Hyram Graff and Abigail Breslin as Ender’s sister Valentine Wiggin.
Other casting announcements:
Aramis Knight has been cast as Bean, Ender’s smallest and most brilliant recruit in Dragon Army.
Moises Arias has been cast as Bonzo Madrid, the leader of Salamander and Ender’s first commander.
Jimmy “Jax” Pinchak has been cast as Peter Wiggin, Ender’s sociopath older brother.
Conor Carroll has been cast as Bernard, the first enemy that Ender makes on the shuttle launch to Battle School.
Khylin Rhambo has been cast as Dink Meeker, Ender’s friend and ally in the Battle School.
Suraj Parthasarathy has been cast as Alai, one of Ender’s toon leaders in Dragon Army.
Source: Variety