Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[Reverend]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

You know, it would actually be quite awesome if there was another "Han Shot First" moment in Episode VII.

With JJ Abrams in the director's chair, I'd put money on it. Remember, he's not just a Star Wars fan, he's also a Spielberg fan. Specifically...

Well, that wasn't intended. THey only did that because Ford was sick.

And? It's still an iconic moment from that film, improvised or no.

[citation needed]

http://theforce.net/latestnews/story/Interview_Plagueis_Author_James_Luceno_142844.asp

How closely did you work with Lucas Licensing on Darth Plagueis? How much did George get involved? What advice did he give you?

George was involved in the early stages. When the book was first proposed, I wrote to him and asked whether there was any reason why Plagueis couldn't be a non-human, and he wrote back that Plagueis could be a Muun and sent me some artist renderings of the character. From that point on, everything was approved, as they're saying, “at the highest level.” I worked most closely with George's right-hand man at Lucas licensing, Howard Roffman. It was a strange way to go about the book, because I kind of had to bypass both Del Rey and the usual editorial staff at Lucasfilm and work directly with Howard over the course of what amounted to about a year of preparation.

I submitted many, many versions of the outline until we finally reached consensus on where we wanted to go with the book. The marketing text about “this is canon at the highest level” – I suppose that's true, that a lot of the stuff came from the very top levels of Lucasfilm. Everything was approved at that high level. I had to make the assumption that Howard was speaking directly with George about a lot of this stuff. I didn't have any meetings directly with George, but it seemed like a lot of the approval was coming through him to Howard. I was not privy to all of the things that happened behind the scenes.

As interesting as all that is, it doesn't matter. Disney now owns the franchise, making them the ones calling the shots. If they say it's not canon, it's not canon. And they have specified that from now on Star Wars canon is only the six movies and the Clone Wars plus the upcoming Rebels series and all upcoming movies.

I don't disagree, but I think it's fair to say that Lucas's involvement means that there's a reasonably good chance this material might find it's way back into canon. If nothing else than because it's prequel material and Disney seem mostly focused on the OT & ST end of things and thus less liable to directly revisit Plagueis in anything new.

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Wow, out for 2 months. That was clearly more than just a minor injury if he needs that much time to recover. And given the much larger role Han supposedly has, I imagine that had to impact the schedule quite a bit.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/harrison-fords-star-wars-injury-712102

 

[sojourner]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Sounds about right for someone his age with a broken bone.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

On the bright side, if Han has notably fewer scenes in the new film than he did in any of the films of the OT then him being out of commission for a month or two might not have as much impact as a bad Harrison Ford injury would have had in, say, 1979 or 1982. Ford was pretty much the #2 physical actor during the span of the Original Trilogy, behind only Hamill.

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Well since this is the story rumor thread I guess we should put this here, since everyone else is talking about it. It supposedly comes from "inside sources" and hints at who the villains might be.

It's somewhat spoilerific, but if true probably nothing that won't become apparent in the eventual movie trailers. And personally I think it sounds really cool and promising.

http://makingstarwars.net/2014/06/6-13-14-now-podcasting-episode-37/
http://makingstarwars.net/2014/06/s...us-clarification-rumored-classic-planet-film/

 

[DarthTom]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Well since this is the story rumor thread I guess we should put this here, since everyone else is talking about it. It supposedly comes from "inside sources" and hints at who the villains might be.

It's somewhat spoilerific, but if true probably nothing that won't become apparent in the eventual movie trailers. And personally I think it sounds really cool and promising.

http://makingstarwars.net/2014/06/6-13-14-now-podcasting-episode-37/
http://makingstarwars.net/2014/06/s...us-clarification-rumored-classic-planet-film/

How could they resurrect Sidious?

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Yeah I don't know about that part. But I like the basic idea of this trio of Jedi Hunters who want to somehow restore the Sith, and the fact the Empire appears to be reemerging in some form.

 

[DarthTom]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Yeah I don't know about that part. But I like the basic idea of this trio of Jedi Hunters who want to somehow restore the Sith, and the fact the Empire appears to be reemerging in some form.

Hum. McDiarmid may be part of the cast as well. Perhaps, like with Khan JJ is trying to keep this part as secret as possible. Perhaps they intend to bring him back as a clone?

According to Star Wars website Jedi News, the actor will be back for the 2015 blockbuster but the nature of his role is unclear.

The Emperor was killed at the climax of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader threw him into the Death Star's reactor shaft.

Speaking to Digital Spy at Star Wars Celebration Europe, McDiarmid said: "It's great that Disney are going to take it forward and do it differently - things always have to change - and that George Lucas has released it to be done that way, in fact positively encouraged it."

Read more: http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a506002/star-wars-episode-7-to-bring-back-ian-mcdiarmids-emperor-palpatine.html#~oHt7LLLoY4E5R6#ixzz34vGEtxQJ
Follow us: @digitalspy on Twitter | digitalspyuk on Facebook
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[AgentCoop]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

If even twenty percent of that turns out to be true, then I am very, very excited.

EDIT: McDiarmid may only appear as a recording or something, but that would still be amazing.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

It would definitely tie the new film to the Rebels series, if indirectly. I've heard better ideas for an Episode VII story, but if this turns out to be close to the actual script then I've also heard far, far worse. I could like this, especially if Sidious/The Emperor made a cameo appearance, even if it's a hologram recording or flashback of some sort. Ian McDiarmid makes every Star Wars movie a little better with his presence, however brief or expansive.

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Apparently people aren't too crazy about the fact no new Republic was formed after ROTJ, but I don't really see that as a huge issue. It always seemed to me that main goal of the Rebellion was just to fight and stop the Empire, not to restore the Republic in some way afterwards.

I would think just the fact the planets are no longer being controlled and oppressed by the Emperor would be more than enough for most.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

And since the official, full title of the Rebel Alliance is "the Alliance to Restore the Republic" it's likely a long-term goal in the aftermath of the victory at Endor, but subsequent events delay the creation of the New Republic for a long time. For all we know the New Republic could be established by Episode VIII or IX, but it's not really important that it doesn't yet exist in VII.

 

[Reverend]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

And since the official, full title of the Rebel Alliance is "the Alliance to Restore the Republic"...

According to the EU...which means naff all. In the movies it's just the "Rebel Alliance".

As for the New Republic; I can see a very strong case for it not coming back. Just for starters I doubt two decades of Imperial rule persuaded any of the former Separatist worlds that they were wrong to try and break away in the first place. Quite the opposite I'd bet. Plus, the Republic crumbled and fell into corruption over the course of a millennium. I don't think anyone will be in a hurry to just blindly put all the old corrupt institutions back into play as if nothing had happened and I don't think "a Sith did it" would be seen as a reasonable argument to the contrary.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Meh. Maybe so. But eventually the victorious Rebels and their allies will want to create a democratic government and rule of law to replace both the vanquished Galactic Empire and the decayed, flawed Old Republic that collapsed partially as a result of its own growing corruption. I could see a new version of the Republic happening at some stage, perhaps a more enlightened Republic 2.0 that eschews the suffocating, inefficient bureaucracy of the old one.

 

[Set Harth]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

According to the EU...which means naff all.

Including the ANH novelization.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Plus, the Republic crumbled and fell into corruption over the course of a millennium.

But how is that an argument against the Republic? Most governing systems fall apart before then. The fact that a mixed theocracy-representative democratic system survived for a thousand years under the Jedi and Senate says more about its resilience than anything else.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

^
This.

As corrupt, weighed down by bureaucracy and untenable as it became in its later years, the Old Republic was a remarkably successful and healthy system of government that spanned much of that galaxy and existed and thrived long before even ancient Jedi such as Yoda were even born. It wasn't perfect, but saying that it wouldn't be a good system to emulate because it eventually fell into decay and collapsed is like saying there's no point in buying a reliable and safe car with lots of convenient and helpful features because one day it's going to just stop running and become scrap or a museum piece.

Embrace what was good about the Old Republic and build upon it, correcting as many of the old mistakes as you can. That's just the nature of creating a representative government.

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Well from the sound of it Luke and the rebels are too busy fighting off the remnants of the Empire and these new Jedi Hunters to form a new Republic anyway.


What I'm wondering is what role Han would play in a story like this, and why he's apparently such an important part of it. Maybe his and Leia's daughter gets kidnapped by these Jedi Hunters for her force powers, and the movie's all about his mission to rescue her? Presumably the first thing he'd have to do is track down a tired and worn out Luke, who's recovering from his latest battle against the villains or something...

Not the most original idea, but it does seem like the most obvious way to bring the original characters back to the forefront of the story again. And it's at least a lot more simple and straightforward than the kind of muddled plot we got in the prequels.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Even Return of the Jedi recycled old ideas from Episode IV. Another Death Star. Another massive space battle where the Millennium Falcon helps save the day. Another bizarre, dangerous place on Tatooine full of freaky, weird and mysterious aliens, grime and intrigue.

I don't mind if the story's not the most original concept so long as it's a great and a fun story that excites us more than much of the Prequels did.

 

[kirk55555]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

If that is the actual story concept, or even parts of it, its not particularly impressive sounding, but it could be ok. I really don't think that there wouldn't be a New Republic or something similar after 30+ years, but at this points its all just rumors. It could be 100% wrong, and even if its not, it could be made into a decent story.

Also, after 30 years, there shouldn't be any Empire left, unless (like the EU) they eventually came to a truce with the non-imperial forces or the Empire was a whole lot more popular with people then it would seem. But, I can see them wanting to play it safe with a familiar enemy, even if its kind of goofy. The Jedi Hunter stuff is not great (three sith are not a particularly threatening group, unless Luke has literally trained zero Jedi in the past 30 years) but it might give Luke someone to have a cool lightsaber fight with, so it could be interesting. Honestly I think, at this point, that a lot of this will turn out to be rumors, but if not it could be a lot worse.