Note: I wrote this yesterday and was going to post it until Sandy took out my internet. So sorry if I talk about something already covered.
Jesus Christ. Unbelievable.
My first reaction to this was, of course, negative. Why add on to the six film cycle? Oddly enough, I was just thinking the other day about how the big franchises (Bond, Batman, Spiderman) will be making movies forever, simply because they will keep making money. But Star Wars won’t. SW will stay at six, because Lucas wants to keep the integrity of the series (PT quality aside). Which is crazy, because SW is arguably the most popular movie series of all time. I thought that another movie was bound to be made, but I thought it wouldn’t be for a few decades, not a few years. And Disney. The first thing I thought when I heard that was “more Jar Jar, more Ewoks.”
But then I thought some more. Nobody was happy when Disney acquired Marvel, but their first movie together, The Avengers, was amazing. They’re just the distributor. I’ll wait until we learn who’s behind the new films to pass judgment.
As for now, I’m optimistic. Lucas says he wants to hand SW over to the next generation. What does the next generation love? The OT. I think the chances of us seeing the unaltered trilogy on BD have dramatically increased. Remember how Lucas used to say “SW is mine, and I don’t want to make anymore movies, so no more SW movies”? Out the window. So if Lucas is giving SW away, why wouldn’t “SW is mine, and it will be released the way I want” go out the window too? And doesn’t Disney like money? Won’t the OOT make a ton of money on BD?
I can only hope. As I do for the ST (can we start to call it that now?). If the people working on it have names that do not rhyme with Leorge Gucas, then I think we can assume that they are people who love the original trilogy. So why wouldn’t they make the ST like the OT, especially considering the fact that it will be based after it. I mean, seriously, what SW fan would want to make SW movies that resemble the PT?
So I guess the question is, what will we actually see? Well, I’m guessing (more like hoping) the original cast will be back, and their age will be acknowledged. I’m not really too sure if I want them to have a large role or not. I feel like the new trilogy should focus on different characters, thought they should be there, to some extent. I just don’t know if I would want to watch the adventures of an old, slightly overweight Luke Skywalker (no offense to Mark Hamill, guy’s awesome). Of course, there are ways to make them appear younger. Make up, I think, should be out of the question. I’m sure people will bring it up, but I think the de-aging process used in movies like Tron: Legacy just won’t work either if they’re used for such main roles. Of course they could make the whole movies animated, but I wouldn’t really like that, and I don’t think I’m alone here.
More content wise, this could be bad news for fans of the EU. I just have a hard time believing they would adapt EU stories for a new SW trilogy. I just think a new trilogy is too big of a deal to just adapt some SW tie-in book (no offense to stuff like the Thrawn trilogy, books’ awesome). People going to new SW movie want new stories. I guess the question here is whether or not they can make new stories without shitting on the established verse.
I think this means some other thing too. I think we can expect to see all of the 3D OT in 2014, or, at least, it would make sense if we did. And when EpVII lands in 2015, it better be memorial day weekend. And one other thing, that greatly saddens me: so I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that I will be traveling to a galaxy far, far, away in three years time, but it won’t be quite the same. It just won’t be a true Star Wars opening without that 20th Century Fox fanfare (thankfully, I can bet that all of the inevitable ST fanedits will remedy this).