Tiny Harrison Ford Is Very Disappointed In The First Image From ENDER'S GAME

Has Han Solo always been that short?

Here's your first look into Gavin Hood's adaptation of Orson Scott Card's incredible sci-fi novel Ender's Game.  Set in a future world where humanity barely managed to fight off invasion by a race of aliens called the Buggers, Earth is now counting the days until the Buggers return to finish the job.  Thus mankind begins to draft genius children from across the globe into an orbiting Battle School, where they relentlessly train to become the next generation of generals and military strategists in order to protect the planet from a seemingly unstoppable enemy.

In case you're unaware, the name of this blog is itself an Ender's Game reference, so to say I'm excited about this movie is an understatement.  Granted the last film Gavin Hood made was the abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so there's really no guarantee of quality here, but they've put together a great young cast and Hood is not wholly without talent.  At this point I'm essentially keeping my fingers crossed.

Granted there's not a whole lot to see in this image, but let's break down what we can:  We've got curmudgeonly old Dr. Jones as Battle School Colonel Graff, Asa Butterfield (star of Hugo) as the titular Ender Wiggin, and they're standing among the bunks and the other members of one of the student armies.

Now for some speculation: It's hard to tell, but I think that the blonde girl on the left is actually Hailee Steinfeld of True Grit fame, here playing the awesome Petra Arkanian.  There's a symbol on the back wall that looks like a Greek psi phi and there's a preponderance of yellow in the room.  Each of the different armies (named after animals) has different color codes, but I don't remember any of them featuring yellow.  I'm assuming that the Indian kid next to him Ender is his friend Alai, which would make this Rat Army, Ender's first assignment before being transferred to Salamander and eventually leading the Dragon Army.

Believe me when I say that the potential for awesome in the Battle School is virtually limitless.  A large portion of the book is dedicated to the children engaging in zero-gravity warfare, with each adolescent soldier flying around a room in space suits, harmlessly shooting each other with laser pistols.  But fear not, all you Hunger Games/Battle Royale fans; there is also some remarkable child-on-child violence throughout the story.

Speaking of which, Ender's Game will hit theaters next November, about three weeks before Katniss Everdeen returns to the screen in Catching Fire, so get ready for lots of press going to great lengths to compare and contrast the two franchises.  Personally I don't think they're very similar at all, but if it means getting more asses in the seats for one of my favorite stories of all time, then yeah.  They're totally the same.