The last time we saw Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), he was getting dressed down by the intimidating Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford). But in this new still from Ender’s Game, he’s been assigned to the Salamander Army—and who is that sitting across from him at the mess hall but Petra Arkanian! Once the fan favorite to play Katniss Everdeen, Hailee Steinfeld plays Ender’s older-sister figure. If you squint, you can also make out Dink Meeker (Khylin Rhambo) on Ender’s right and Salamander leader Bonzo Madrid (Moises Arias) at the far left end of the table.
Now that we’re seeing more of the Battle School—from uniforms to the Battle Room sphere in the mess hall—does it match what you envisioned when you read the book?
[still from Summit Entertainment via EnderWiggin.net]
Those kids are definitely not as young as Ender is in the book. But that was probably inevitable–it’s hard to find seven-year-olds with the proper acting chops.
Petra looks just about perfect. I had pictured Battle School as dimmer and more claustrophobic… though really I reserved most of my imagination for the battle room, and we’ll have to wait to see how *that* goes.
@jaspax – if you go to the first look of Harrison Ford yelling at Butterfield, they mention that the writer (with Card’s blessing) was shooting for a one year story, in which Ender is 12. I think he still looks a little too old – maybe 13 or 14 – but I’m comfortable thinking of him as an older 12/almost 13.
My bigger concern is that he doesn’t look isolated enough – I don’t remember Ender not being miserable during the Salamander era. Asa looks too happy.
I pictured the interiors as being much more cramped as well. They’re on a space station, no? What’s the purpose of the high ceilings?
The space station was inside a hollowed out moon which had been an alien base, and is supposed to have hallways which are suited for the aliens and which are not comfortable to the humans who have taken over.
@3 high ceilings probably because of the number of people (there are structural laws about having enough air in rooms designed to hold a lot of people, like a cafeteria) modern spaceships/the mir space station are cramped mostly because of space efficiency and cost. it’s in space: once you get past the price of construction, why not make it huge? most likely it’s for the sake of the camera, but it doesn’t feel wrong to me.
@@.-@ the battle school was not in a hollowed out moon, it was a free floating space station with artificial gravity provided by rotation (the center was 0-g for the battleroom). You are thinking of the command school, which was a cramped facility in a hollowed out moon.
Now I’m not going to judge the movie by a couple of stills, but since you asked…
It seems a little to bright. I agree with the comment that Ender looks too happy.
excited about seeing the film.
I have to agree with the sentiment that it looks a lot cleaner, brighter and generally ‘Star Trekky’ compared to what I imagined in my head. My mental picture was much more grey with metal grates and less light.
The ages are also obviously wrong but as pointed out above that may be unavoidable given you’d struggle to find a child actor capable of doing any justice to the role. It really jars though. I was 10 years old when I first read Ender’s Game, and seeing a protganoist of similar age to me deal with those extraodinary circumstances was a part of what seared the book into my heart. An older Ender just… doesn’t fit.
Ugh, yuck! Petra is way too fair and Ender is WAY too big.
Does anyone else find it ironic that Col. Graff’s aide is being played by an actor nameed “Han Soto”?
@@.-@. WillAdams
> hollowed out moon which had been an alien
You are confusing Battle School with Command School. Battle school where he performed the first part of his training was described as a typical space station. Command school was in the former Formics base that was a moon/rock/whatever.