Remember the Omaze contest that offered participants the chance to win a role in Star Wars: Episode VII? The raffle kicked off the Star Wars: Force for Change initiative with style. There was a low barrier to entry since entrants could donate as little as ten dollars to get a chance to visit the set of the Star Wars sequel and appear in it, and fans went all in. The Omaze contest ended just over two weeks ago, and the raffle raised $4.26 million for UNICEF. That’s a lot of credits. Disney kicked in another one million dollars, and the money raised will support 7-8 new UNICEF Innovation Labs. The labs focus on developing solutions “to critical issues facing children around the world in the areas of nutrition, water, health, and education.”
D.C. Barns of Denver, Colorado, won the grand prize, and the Force for Change team notified him by showing up at his office. They captured the surprise on video:
I’m a little jealous (or a lot), but mostly I’m excited for Barns. He’s clearly enthusiastic about Star Wars, and he has a reaction to the news like any thrilled fan would. Barns also received a digital note from J.J. Abrams:
Bad Robot tweeted the handwritten card earlier, and besides mentioning Barns as the winner, it offers a small Episode VII hint. Look at the hand that’s holding the note. Is it just a random droid’s hand, or is this Abrams’ way of confirming the rumored plot involving Luke Skywalker’s severed hand? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments.
That supposed plot about Luke’s severed hand floating through space and falling into a dessert planet can’t possibly be true. Luke’s hand wasn’t severed while he was in space, it was severed on Cloud City, which is located on the gas giant planet of Bespin.
The hand, if it had fallen clear of Cloud City, would have fallen into Bespin, not flung into space. And it certainly wouldn’t have made it to another distant planet.
Even if it HAD been flung into space, it would take far more than 30 years to make the light-years journey to another planet.
And then even if it HAD miraculously made it to another planet, it would have burned up entering the atmosphere.
The severed hand plot noted that it wouldn’t be the same hand that was lost on Cloud City, it’d be a recent loss (and questionable whether it’d be the robotic hand severed or his other hand), and it’d be the thing that sparks a search for Luke–who’s missing
It doesn’t say that anywhere in the link provided. Regardless, a hand can’t float through space and then fall into a planet without burning up in the atmosphere.
Looks more like Episode 1 unfinished C3PO’s hand to me.
How can that be Luke’s severed hand from Empire Strikes Back? Because he had gets a robotic hand after this incident…
I think it is vaders hand from return of the jedi
I’d like to know how much the winner spent/donated and how the selection was made.
It was a raffle. So for every $10 you got an entry. He could have spent $10, he could have spent $10,000. It was totally random… Just depends on how much he was willing to spend to get a part in the film and how much value he put on saving lives by donating the money to charity!
The rumored plot NEVER mentioned it was Luke’s hand. To quote Yoda “no, there is another”
Uh the other is Leia.
That’s Chewbacca’s hand. Turns out he was a robot the whole time.