Hey TORWarriors welcome to the first issue of a new regular feature about all things Star Wars! In this series we’re aiming to broaden our focus from Star Wars: The Old Republic and explore the wider scope of the Star Wars universe. We’ll be sharing news and opinion about upcoming developments on and around Star Wars and curating unique & interesting finds that are related to our favorite Sci Fi epic.
To kick off this series it’s only right that we talk about the latest huge development in Star Wars and that would be the news that J.J. Abrams has been brought on by Disney/Lucasfilm to direct Episode 7!
Meesa gonna make new Star Wars!
This story exploded on to the interwebs around the middle of last week and I have to admit that after a few other false alarms (Remember that time Zack Snyder was doing a standalone Star Wars film and then he wasn’t?) I was a bit skeptical at first. It didn’t help that Disney, Bad Robot and others either had no comment or weren’t returning calls on the subject. Finally, after a couple of days of “will he or won’t he” and at least ten thousand jokes about lens flare in my Twitter feed we finally got official confirmation that Mr. Abrams was indeed at the helm of the newest Star Wars trilogy.
Via StarWars.com:
After a bevy of emails and phone calls, the formalities have been wrapped up, and at long last everyone can exhale and properly share the word with an excited Internet. Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy.
Ms. Kennedy goes on to say:
“It’s very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie, J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture.”
George Lucas also shared his thoughts on J.J. taking the helm of his beloved franchise:
“I’ve consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller.” He’s an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn’t be in better hands.”
And finally, a few words from Mr. Abrams himself:
“To be a part of the next chapter of the Star Wars saga, to collaborate with Kathy Kennedy and this remarkable group of people, is an absolute honor,” J.J. Abrams said. “I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.”
There’s a few more details about the Bad Robot team being involved in the production and some comments from a few Star Wars veterans about the passing of the torch to a new generation of creators. You can find the entire article here.
So what say you Star Wars fans? How do you feel about the decision to bring in J.J. Abrams for Episode 7? While Abrams’ record speaks for itself, it’s interesting to note that the Bad Robot writing team will likely not be very involved in the project as Disney had previously announced that it had brought in Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt to write the screenplay. To be honest I like the idea of the writing being done by someone outside the team as I’m not always thrilled with Bad Robot productions and I think a couple of the writers associated with other Abrams projects have shown that they are not quite as good as we originally thought. Furthermore, bringing people together with disparate points of view and a variety of skills and backgrounds injects some risk into a project but can also lead to some pretty incredible results. I’m looking forward to watching how things develop and seeing where the Star Wars saga goes under Disney and it’s new stewards. We’re a ways off from May 2015 but I suspect the journey to Episode 7 is going to be almost as exciting as the end product.
Bonus Round: Take a look at this fan made concept poster for Episode 7. It’s a fantastic piece of art that really evokes the Star Wars mythos while not giving anything away. Unfortunately, I don’t know the source of this image as it was emailed to me without any details. (If you’re the artist, please contact me so I can give appropriate credit.)
Some Excellent Episode 7 Inspired Fan Art!
That wraps it up for this issue of Around The Galaxy. Star Wars is a vast universe of awesome and I’m always looking for stuff to share but there’s so much that it’s easy to miss something cool. If you’ve seen something Star Warsy and iconic (see what I did there?) that you think is worth sharing please let me know so I can check it out! You can contact me via TORWars or get my attention over on Twitter @HolyCrapItsLate.
As always we love hearing from you guys and gals so feel free to leave a constructive comment below.
TORWars Podcast #151: Aren't You the Pretty Kitty?
This is great to read about. I’m glad he will just direct and some else is doing the screenplay. I feel that this might be the greatest movie ever created visually. This will be ahigh budget film and it will be allowed by the share holders because they know the final gross dollar amount is infinite.
i wonder if this trilogy is gonna be the thrawn story or if they are gonna start from scratch and make up something new. i really want to see some chiss on screen!!
@Zaitana I agree that the Thrawn Trilogy would be a great story to see brought to the big screen. That seems to be a fairly common wish among Star Wars fans who are familiar with that series and the Expanded Universe in general. I do have to wonder though, if Disney indeed did start with the Thrawn trilogy, wouldn’t that mean we’d have to have a whole new set of actors for the main characters as that story takes place about 5 years after Return of the Jedi? The original actors have aged considerably.
As long as JJ retains the cinematic integrity of the series and refrains from his trademark lens flares and shaky cam. I think it will be a great choice.
Directing both Star Trek and Star Wars. Interesting.
It doesn’t matter what the story is, as long as its good.
That poster seems about right and legit, it even has “lens flare” on the saber lol. It’s offical…
I saw an extended preview of the new Star Trek film on IMAX 3D and I came away impressed. I didn’t have especially high hopes for it, but the story was serious and goofy at the same time, and the visuals were incredible. I think we can learn more of who J.J. is as a multiple part story-teller in this next installment. I liked Mission Impossible 3 a lot, but I could not get into Ghost Protocol.
Here are my thoughts…
About the Thrawn Trilogy:
I can guarantee that VII will not be about this as the ORIGINAL story was written by Lucas himself, with an expanded story treatment by Michael Ardnt. If Lucas has taught us anything its that he tolerates the Expanded Universe (even borrows elements from them *cough* Coruscant *cough*) but at the end of the day, HIS vision is first and foremost and trumps anything else anyone has written.
I would LOVE to see Thrawn. Imagine Jeremy Irons as Thrawn? *shivers* Glorious. I always saw this as the unoffical third trilogy, as did many fans, but it just isn’t Lucas’ style.
What could the next trilogy bring:
If you want to know what we may see, you really need to go back to George Lucas’ plan from the get-go. Depending on who he talked to Lucas’ vision seemed to be nine or twelve movies. If you take the nine movies as a template, Lucas plan was to have this repeating theme with roots in the Hero’s Journey.
The Prequel Trilogy has a boy (Anakin Skywalker) meet a mentor (Qui-Gon Jinn) who introduces him to a larger world before the mentor is struck down by an approaching evil (Darth Maul – and by extension the hidden Sith). The mentor then passes the boy along to another wise teacher (Obi-Wan Kenobi).
The Classic Trilogy has a boy (Luke Skywalker) meet a mentor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) who introduces him to a larger world before the mentor is struck down by an approaching evil (Darth Vader). The mentor then passes the boy along to another wise teacher (Yoda).
Lucas has said on multiple occasions that his plan for the Sequel Trilogy would be for Luke Skywalker to adopt the mentor role before dying and passing the baton on to a new generation of Jedi.
Who would this new hope, so to speak, be? Who knows. The current fan accepted theory would be a son or daughter of Luke Skywalker, but at the end of the day, who knows.
About J.J. Abrams:
After being a little cynical about Abrams at first, I’ve put my distain for the Star Trek franchise behind me and really looked at J.J. This guy is a massive Star Wars fan, and I think he will do great things for the trilogy. Heck, J.J’s filled his movies with scenes and characters based on the classic trilogy. Everything from Lost to Star Trek contains homage to Star Wars. He also showed us with Super8 that he can adopt another filmmakers classic style and use that as a tool for his storytelling.
As a side note, I’ve been a passionate proponent for Michael Giacchino to be the composer for the next trilogy. It is my belief that John Williams is getting on in years and a 8 year commitment will take him to almost 90 years of age. Giacchino has an excellent track record, understands the space opera feel for the music, and even was hired by Disney to rhythmically alter John Williams’ classic themes into something a little new for the new Star Tours ride at Disney World. Michael and J.J. also have a very close relationship so that’s one step closer to a theory I’ve been behind for sometime.
At the end of the day, I believe we’re in good hands. Star Wars fans have a bright future ahead of us.
On the one hand I am interested to see what he does and how he expands the universe a bit more. However, I am also a bit fearful. I didn’t like how the Star Trek film he direct essentially wiped out all the other films and rewrote the entire Star Trek universe. (I.E. Vulcan being destroyed like Alderon.)
I just hope he or his writers does not try to do the same thing with Star Wars.
[...] ● Rob, who is the purveyor of our newest all things Star Wars feature, Around The Galaxy [...]
one thing i wish i could sit down and make JJ watch is the movie review of ep 1 by red letter media. actually i would make every star wars fan watch.
http://youtu.be/FxKtZmQgxrI