Disney acquires Lucasfilm; Episode VII proposed for 2015

Originally posted by DARTH POWER
No I'm pretty sure people would understand that those actors are too old now.

We had a new actor portraying Alec Guiness's legendary Ben Kenobi. That turned out well Imo.

And Episode 7 would be a sequel/reboot seen as it will be the first SW movie not created by Lucas.

Whilst the new Star Trek was a prequel/reboot. That worked out well, simply because they had good actors portraying the same legendary characters.

There's nothing overtly special about Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher that they can't be replaced.

No they've said it will be an Original Story. As in they're not going to take any existing storylines from books or comics.

If it doesn't at least have Luke with a major part then I don't see how that will be Episode 7. And I personally would have no excitement for it.

Yea, I just read the part about how it will be the ending to the saga just a few minutes ago... So that leaves me torn. I do not want new actors playing Luke, Leia, and Han. I could handle 2 things. Either having the next episode take place 20 years later, which would age the characters to the actors age, or you could use CGI and the actors voices.

The arguement that it worked for Obi-wan really doesnt fly with me because you had a transition time that could explain the aging of the character. But when watching ROTJ and then going to VII to see brand new actors for everyone wouldn't fly in my book.

Really depends on the time setting of the story.

Of course if it's supposed to be 30 years later then they can use Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher as the Yoda and Mace of the new order.

But then the story would obviously be about a new generation.

But I would personally prefer a story 10-15 years after ROTJ and the only way I can realistically see us getting that is with new actors.

I honestly wouldn't mind with a good cast. Not the one you chose lol.

Well, the series is not over, technically. Only the beginning and middle are done.

Sure, the Emperor is overthrown (dayd!) but the Empire is still quite huge. And Luke still has to reestablish a New Jedi Order and possibly a new Republic.

There's tons of stuff left to be done after RotJ. The "resolution" is technically not there. We still do not have a "spelled out" end. EU did that for us, though.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Well, the series is not over, technically. Only the beginning and middle are done.

Sure, the Emperor is overthrown (dayd!) but the Empire is still quite huge. And Luke still has to reestablish a New Jedi Order and possibly a new Republic.

There's tons of stuff left to be done after RotJ. The "resolution" is technically not there. We still do not have a "spelled out" end. EU did that for us, though.

Exactly. We never really did see "the end."

I want to see the difficulties of re-establishing the Jedi Order and the Republic.

I want to see Luke as an accomplished Jedi (and possibly Leia as well).

I'd absolutely Hate it if they just skipped a generation and not have Luke as a main character.

there has to be at least one dark jedi. maybe a pupil of luke who turns to the dark side. all i know is star wars will suck with no lightsaber duels.

Of course there will be Lightsaber fights and some Uber Villain. Disney aren't stupid.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Well, the series is not over, technically. Only the beginning and middle are done.

Sure, the Emperor is overthrown (dayd!) but the Empire is still quite huge. And Luke still has to reestablish a New Jedi Order and possibly a new Republic.

There's tons of stuff left to be done after RotJ. The "resolution" is technically not there. We still do not have a "spelled out" end. EU did that for us, though.

The resolution was Anakin Skywalker's death. The end of the Old Republic and the Rebellion were just the backdrop to that. That story is over.

Now, doing new stories is fine, but it is not accurate to pretend the old story was not over. As envisaged, it ended where planned, at ROTJ. Just because new stories are theoretically possible (which is so with the end of almost any story), it does not mean the original story is unfinished.

Originally posted by Ushgarak

Now, doing new stories is fine, but it is not accurate to pretend the old story was not over. As envisaged, it ended where planned, at ROTJ. Just because new stories are theoretically possible (which is so with the end of almost any story), it does not mean the original story is unfinished.

True but when watching all 6 movies a lot of unresolved questions come up about the ROTJ ending. Like the issue of restoring the Jedi Order wasn't exactly wrapped up. There was just Luke. And was Leia supposed to be trained as a Jedi? If so then she would have to give up being with Han Solo wouldn't she?

We can assume all sorts and read the Eu, but my point is the movies on their own leave a lot to be guessed about the ending.

A few scenes at the end seeing the future (kind of like Return of the King) would have been a more perfect ending to the series. But the way it was left wasn't Imho (well not after watching all 6 movies anyway).

Like I say, virtually all stories have ways in which you can imagine further stories. That's not the same as the story being unfinished. The story as told, which is Anakin Skywalker's story, is completely over, all important plot points raised resolved and the central lynchpin of it all dead, sorted and never returning. It is normal and, indeed, preferable for there to be plenty of potential ways for characters to move on from the end point of a story and for that to be a matter of speculation; this is irrelevant as to whether the story is done or not. One of the very few examples where I can think of where the story ends with no apparent means of moving on at all is Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where they destroyed the world and killed everyone... and they still made more stories.

Above all, if Star Wars starts with a variant of "Long ago and far away"- a fairy tale in space- then the Ewok party at the end of ROTJ sums up the ending- they all live happily ever after.

This will be an entirely new story in the same continuity. It's not finishing the original as that already fiinished

the point is that the main story arc was from 1-6.

PT: sith invade and rise to power
OT: good guys fight back and defeat the sith.

while the story may be continued and go down a new road, the old arc is complete.

Shorter and sweeter than my version, there...

Like I said above, calling this Episode VII is more a marketing thing than anything else. It's not part of a continuous tale as I-VI are. This is not being done because the story is unfinished. It's being done because they want to make new stories- at the end of which there will again be possible ways of making further stories, and so on.

Originally posted by focus4chumps
While Disney now owns the rights to the Star Wars universe and all future films going forward, 20th Century Fox has retained the rights to the first six movies. The original film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is theirs forever, and they’ll own the final five films, Episodes I-III, V and VI, through May 2020. This makes the fan dream of releasing the original, unedited trilogy box set very difficult.

http://www.slashfilm.com/20th-century-fox-still-owns-rights-to-first-six-star-wars-films-making-original-box-set-difficult/

Fine, good. So maybe all those people who want the unaltered versions will finally give up and move on.

Originally posted by roughrider
Fine, good. So maybe all those people who want the unaltered versions will finally give up and move on.

but who is more ridiculous?

the person who simply wants to own the films they loved as a child

or the person who is offended by the one who simply wants to own the films they loved as a child?

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Shorter and sweeter than my version, there...

Like I said above, calling this Episode VII is more a marketing thing than anything else. It's not part of a continuous tale as I-VI are. This is not being done because the story is unfinished. It's being done because they want to make new stories- at the end of which there will again be possible ways of making further stories, and so on.

This is incorrect. Star wars is not just about Anakin Skywalker and his fall and redemption. But I will let Lucas himself explain.

"This is stated explicitly in George Lucas' preface to the 1994 reissue of Splinter of the Mind's Eye:

It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take at least nine films to tell—three trilogies—and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story."

george lucas says lots of things:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/nov/01/star-wars-disney-new-trilogy

Lucas himself has had decades to think about the possibility of bringing a sequel trilogy to the big screen, but as recently as 2008 did not see how it could be done. "I get asked all the time: 'What happens after Return of the Jedi?' and there really is no answer for that," he said during promotion for that year's ill-fated animation Star Wars: The Clone Wars, adding: "The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends."

he is a habitual self-contradictor.
however you dont need his quotes to recognize that the main antagonist from the beginning of the PT was defeated at the end of the OT. thats the story arc.

Originally posted by focus4chumps
george lucas says lots of things:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/nov/01/star-wars-disney-new-trilogy

Lucas himself has had decades to think about the possibility of bringing a sequel trilogy to the big screen, but as recently as 2008 did not see how it could be done. "I get asked all the time: 'What happens after Return of the Jedi?' and there really is no answer for that," he said during promotion for that year's ill-fated animation Star Wars: The Clone Wars, adding: [b]"The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends."

he is a habitual self-contradictor.
however you dont need his quotes to recognize that the main antagonist from the beginning of the PT was defeated at the end of the OT. thats the story arc. [/B]

Lucas does contridict himself alot, but he did say this is the story of Anakin AND Luke Skywalker. To me ROTJ could be the end of an arc in the story, becuase like the guy stated earlier, the story of Luke is far from complete and leaves room for another trilogy to finish the story. Much like Lucas intended while writing the sequels of the original trilogy... before he became burnt out by the whole thing....

Originally posted by Ushgarak
The resolution was Anakin Skywalker's death. The end of the Old Republic and the Rebellion were just the backdrop to that. That story is over.

I agree that each movie and each trilogy had definitive beginning and end. An argument can be made for each individual movie, as well... (except maybe Empire?).

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Now, doing new stories is fine, but it is not accurate to pretend the old story was not over. As envisaged, it ended where planned, at ROTJ. Just because new stories are theoretically possible (which is so with the end of almost any story), it does not mean the original story is unfinished.

It is definitely personal opinion. George himself said it was a triple trilogy so he obviously had more to tell. But even that can be a personal opinion. Did he ever endorse Eps VII-IX beyond simple Eu canon? Like, did he try to elevate those stories to higher credibility?

Originally posted by CaedusRules
Lucas does contridict himself alot, but he did say this is the story of Anakin AND Luke Skywalker. To me ROTJ could be the end of an arc in the story, becuase like the guy stated earlier, the story of Luke is far from complete and leaves room for another trilogy to finish the story. Much like Lucas intended while writing the sequels of the original trilogy... before he became burnt out by the whole thing....

well yes there are many new roads luke, han, and leia can embark upon, assuming there is a new arc and they are included. else its just the new jedi order taking down various random factions of the old empire and luke training jedi...try stretching that for 3 films.

just the notion that the story is "unfinished", despite the main arc concluding, is a completely subjective slipperly slope. (what about 95 year old luke's struggles at the galactic nursing home, battling overbearing aggressive orderlies?) we're always curious over what happens to characters and in some cases we are endulged...(some cases way too overendulged like return of the king), but these are all post-story.

so yeah, new trilogy needs a whole new arc

Originally posted by CaedusRules
This is incorrect. Star wars is not just about Anakin Skywalker and his fall and redemption. But I will let Lucas himself explain.

"This is stated explicitly in George Lucas' preface to the 1994 reissue of Splinter of the Mind's Eye:

It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take at least nine films to tell—three trilogies—and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story."

It is not incorrect at all- what I said was directly stated by George Lucas, and what you quote him saying does not in any way contradict it. The common mistake here is to think he is referring here to another trilogy after ROTJ. This is not so. It is simply that ROTJ would originally have been episode IX, with three other films leading up to it (involving the search for Luke's sister). He changed his mind and brought forward ROTJ to episode VI instead, leaving no need for extra films. This has all been explained and examined in detail over time.

-

Actually, other than ROTJ of course, the only Star Wars film that completes its own arc is A New Hope, which didn't even have the Episode IV named attached when originally shown, and of course he didn't know if he was going to get to make any more. Yet even there, the setting is intact to keep the story going, whilst in ROTJ he completely wraps up that setting.

All the other films leave connections directly related to sequels.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I agree that each movie and each trilogy had definitive beginning and end. An argument can be made for each individual movie, as well... (except maybe Empire?).

It is definitely personal opinion. George himself said it was a triple trilogy so he obviously had more to tell. But even that can be a personal opinion. Did he ever endorse Eps VII-IX beyond simple Eu canon? Like, did he try to elevate those stories to higher credibility?

No, and as said, his original three trilogy plan was changed when he made ROTJ. There's no personal opinion here. GL has been repeatedly explicit about having finished the story he wanted to tell.

He even sums up the entire story as simply being about a good man who turns evil and is redeemed by his love for his son. The end.