Star Wars Episode 7 - 2015

[teacake]

Mark Hamill as an aged Luke: That's like the best nostalgia drawcard you could come up with. All the old farts who haven't paid attention to anything SW since the OT will go along, just to relive a bit. They might not show up to something they could write off as post OT silliness with Mouse ears. But give them a trailer with the elder Luke staring at Tatooine's suns setting and it's gold.

This will have absolutely zero effect on a young audience who grew up on the PT. They will be there.

[sidious618]

Just got some internet access so I'm late to this but I'm thrilled about the news. If they end up sucking we still have the old ones but if they rock then it's great. Interested to see where they intend to go with this. As I'm just getting caught up and have limited internet time, have any plot developments been confirmed so far?

[Skywalker]

teacock wrote:

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But give them a trailer with the elder Luke staring at Tatooine's suns setting and it's gold.

I'm geeking out just from picturing this.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Since this decision, I've always been a bit split.

STar Wars is a special, in some basic, foundational way.. it looks and feels unlike anything else, and this look and feel is consistent throughout its own universe. It mixes the storytelling of fantasy with the trappings of science fiction. It was not just perfect escapism, but it spoke to the human imagination in a very basic way, and its characters truly became our modern mythology, becoming more recognizable to our culture than Odyseus and Achillies.

So, in some ways, the time period during which STar Wars was most special was during the time when there wasn't much Star Wars at all, the 16 years between episode six and episode one. It was special and we all were eager for more stories but didn't want the mythology to be cheapened, or its unique feel to come to easy. Even as a kid, I knew the tremendous lengths the filmmakers had to go through to make the films, and how they changed the everything by being so innovative in every aspect of the film.

The prospect of getting so much Star Wars, then is both good, because the universe is so rich and unique and so many good stories can be told there, but I don't want the franchise cheapened. But I think that the "new" powers that be must come to realize that there is so much meaning to this franchise. It shouldn't be a "let's slap a story together and finish the script after we start shooting" philosophy that damaged the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

So I'm hopeful, and eager to see a new take on stories set in this wondrous universe. The first post here, written years ago points out that even the OT had plot points that really don't hold up well, but that these stories were set in this unique universe really was a big part of what made them special.

[PsychoPere]

Jar Jar Binks wrote:

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I'm geeking out just from picturing this.

And a Jedi outpost built around the old Lars homestead...

[SiddFinch1]

sojourner wrote:

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The thing you keep missing is that when people think of Luke they immediately picture Mark Hamill. Recasting is a bigger risk than aging the character to match the actor when doing a continuing story. It can work well for a reboot, but that's not happening here.

And Eonline agrees if you actually read the article all the way through.

If you can do it for kirk.spock and Mccoy you can do it here too

[cooleddie74]

teacock wrote:

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Mark Hamill as an aged Luke: That's like the best nostalgia drawcard you could come up with. All the old farts who haven't paid attention to anything SW since the OT will go along, just to relive a bit. They might not show up to something they could write off as post OT silliness with Mouse ears. But give them a trailer with the elder Luke staring at Tatooine's suns setting and it's gold.

This will have absolutely zero effect on a young audience who grew up on the PT. They will be there.

This. x 2.

Nailed it.

[Hound of UIster]

And they just rebuilt the Lars Homestead in Tunisia!

[Samuel Walters]

Ghouleddie74 wrote:

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This. x 2.

Nailed it.

x3 ... don't discount nostalgia ... and don't discount the need to establish a new identity. A "passing of the baton" scenario is highly likely - and will no doubt result in endless internet nerdrage.

[Brolan]

Samuel Walters wrote:

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x3 ... don't discount nostalgia ... and don't discount the need to establish a new identity. A "passing of the baton" scenario is highly likely - and will no doubt result in endless internet nerdrage.

Just like Star Trek '09.

[CorporalCaptain]

Samuel Walters wrote:

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x3 ... don't discount nostalgia ... and don't discount the need to establish a new identity. A "passing of the baton" scenario is highly likely - and will no doubt result in endless internet nerdrage.

Could even be a passing of the lightsaber scene.

[Turtletrekker]

Timothy Zahn chimes in...

"The original idea as I understood it— and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now – but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him [in the prequels], and if there was another 7th, 8th, or 9th film, it would be Luke’s children. The Thrawn Trilogy really would have fit into the gap," Zahn said.

...

"I’d like to see the original characters in perhaps smaller roles, handing the mantle of adventure to the next generation. Luke would be like Obi-Wan, but not quite the same because he will have raised his children and Obi-Wan was more standing off, watching and protecting.
“I’d love to see a good father-son, or mother-son, or daughter story. I’d like to see family. We haven’t seen a lot of good family stuff in Star Wars. A lot of it has been dysfunctional, and driven by somebody else. Anakin was a slave and manipulated all his life. Luke and Leia never knew each other...

[Donald Draper]

That is exactly what I been hoping for too. The Obi-Wan comparison makes sense for age and experience. But Luke barely knew Obi-Wan before he died. I think while Luke's role maybe less than it was in the OT it will be larger than Obi-Wan's was.

[Kegg]

I like Timothy Zahn's comment about family, actually. Family has been one of the biggest themes of Star Wars as a film series (given its sometimes almost myopic obsession with the Skywalker clan), but it's mostly been presented dysfunctionally, as he says.

And having Luke be the Obi-Wan to his actual child (or children) would be pretty interesting. Not to mention Aunt Leia and Uncle Han. It'd be funny to have at least one scene of those two in their understated old age shoving their kids out the front door for adventure.

[JD]

What Zahn is talking about there sounds great to to me.