ST Is the sequel trilogy more anticipated than the prequel trilogy?

I think some people (myself) are more excited cause the ST was more 'Fabled' - if you know what I mean. You grew up watching the end of ROTJ and playing with you Luke action figure imagining all the adventures afterwards and going 'Ooo, ahh, wonder what that would be like'

Yes, the EU filled some of that - but nothing like the big screen where star wars began!

 

I was excited for the PT because it was new Star Wars. I am excited for the ST because it will (hopefully) be better Star Wars.

 

^this is really the essence of this whole thing. The buzz factor will be the same. But if SW7 is any good, it could be the biggest film ever (plenty more superlatives to come)

When TPM came out, I was 10. This is a whole different level of anticipation. I fully believe Star Wars 7 to be the most hyped film of all time. When I was growing up, the sequel trilogy was just an unsubstantiated rumor that had been passed down since the end of RotJ and which most people never took seriously. Now that it's coming to fruition 30 years after the original phenomenon, I think the conditions are in place for SW7 to be the highest grossing, most wildly popular cultural phenomenon of all time - but that's going to depend ultimately on the quality of the film.

People who saw the originals in the theaters will return to see what happens to Luke, Han and Leia next and for the nostalgia factor. People like me who were introduced to Star Wars through friends' SW toys, OT VHS tapes, and grew up as the prequels came out, are already indoctrinated. Children today have the cartoons and the video games in addition to all of the things previously mentioned. My point is that everyone from age 5 to 100 is going to be interested in seeing this film. The cultural saturation of Star Wars has only increased since the 70's. TPM and the prequels were considered by many (perhaps the majority of moviegoers) to be a train wreck - assuming Disney doesn't completely **** the bed on this one, the number of people who end up seeing this movie is only going to increase in multiplicative fashion as feedback is generated and word of mouth is passed on.

Look at The Dark Knight - that movie was wildly successful and created a cultural phenomenon. Joker imitations became ubiquitous. The success of TDK was in large part a perfect storm - Heath Ledger's death and the buzz surrounding his performance, a huge interest in the film prior to release due to an already established fanbase, and the high quality based on critic reviews and general reception. Star Wars 7 already has the interest and the buzz factor at a level which frankly may be impossible for any other film franchise to obtain. TPM grossed over a billion dollars based almost entirely on the existing fanbase and the buzz of a new SW film being released after 16 years. TPM could have been 2 hours of Jar Jar Binks literally ****ting his pants and it still would have made hundreds of millions of dollars, because people had to see Star Wars: How It All Began for themselves, my point being that if SW 7 is actually "good" or at least on par with the OT according to general public reception, we have the conditions in place here for the biggest movie of all time. It's friggin Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Not some fresh faced actors playing younger knockoffs of the beloved characters, it's actually Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. Assuming of course that the big 3 are back, but honestly if they aren't then the whole thing is already doomed.

 

The sequel trilogy is what the fans have wanted all along. I can understand why Lucas did the prequels though, people were going to see the sequels no matter how long they had to wait, so why not squeeze three extra admissions out of each of them in the meantime.

 

Lol. That's how I felt when the PT came out.

 

It'll be the first SW midnight showing I'll ever experience. Yes, I'm going to a midnight showing for this dammit!

 

Wow! You didn't go to the midnight showings during the PT era?

I saw all 3 at midnight. I would've seen the OT at midnight too except for the fact that they didn't have midnight showings back then and I was just a kid so I couldn't drive myself to see them even if they had them.

Kinda cynical, which is fair, but I think George always envisioned a long serial so why not fill in the beginning??? He has and now we can move forward into the future indefinitely (I hope.)

 

I might've actually gone to the midnight showing of TPM with my parents, but I can't be sure.

 

Saw Episode 1 on opening day but not midnight release due to my younger brother not being old enough to stay up that late but not being old enough to go by myself yet either. Saw Episode 2 and 3 days before release due to checking the film reels (worked at a movie theater), it was well after midnight (like 1-2am) when I watched them cause had to wait for the last showings of the night to end to check out the reels in private. Wasn't alive when OT aired (first saw it when I was 3ish year later, one of my first memories in retrospect is being confused what 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...' meant when my mother read it to me (yes, for about 15 minutes I though she was being literal, lol)), but saw special editions all on opening day.

I'm more excited for Episode VII two years before it came out than I was two years before Episode I came out (guess as a kid 2 years seemed way too far away, plus I was too wound up over the Special Editions then). As in part since I always cared more about the further adventures of the big 3 than who Vader became Vader. That said just prior to the release of Episode I I was literally foaming at the mouth with anticipation, I'm not sure I'll be that excited for Episode VII just before its release due to now being an adult and having more ability to control my emotions and can be more pragmatic about it after the [for me] letdown of the prequals.

So oddly I've never been to a midnight release of Star Wars either... this might be my first time doing so.

 

Cool that you got a private showing! When I went to opening day of Return of the King, the theater employees got to watch it first right before we did, and we could hear the rumble outside in the hall (they let us line up inside because it was about -15 degrees, but only 3 hours ahead of time. We were second in line, so we were right outside the door.)

I haven't seen a midnight showing for Star Wars either. Episode 1 had a ticket line that stretched all the way around the theater, Chuck E. Cheese, and another store, and while I knew someone who got permission from his mom to skip school and stand in line, I wasn't good enough friends with him to get him to get me a ticket. I was in a small town where the theater didn't do midnight showings for 2 and 3.

While it sounded fun (there were lightsaber battles in the parking lot and people dragged out TVs and VCRs to watch the originals!) ...thank goodness for online movie ticket purchasing!

 

I think the sequel trilogy is more anticipated if you base it on the sheer amount of fans. There are a lot more Star Wars fans now than there were back before the prequels came out. Also, because we were told that there were not going to be any more, it makes the idea of a new trilogy even more sweet. Add the big 3 and the hype will go up yet another notch.

 

Wow. A lot of you guys are young.

 

Actually, the midnight showing for Episode I was a private showing and not open to the public. I worked at a theater in 1999 just so that I would have the opportunity to see it first (this was a part-time job mind you.) That night I spliced the film(s) together and we ran it after the theater closed to make sure it was correct. Actually we ran two copies in two theaters. All the employees had friends and family and it was the biggest crowd we'd had at one of those screenings. A lot of fun.

The next day I went to the first matinee as well.

 

Curses!

 

Meddling kids.

 

I am very exited for Episode 7, but also a bit worried. I wasn't born when TPM came out, and I was to young to go see AOTC and ROTS, so this will be my first experience watching Star Wars in theaters, which I'm very exited for on one hand, but on another I am a bit worried it won't be that good, so I'm not sure how high I want my anticipation to get.

 

I don't expect that it will be eye gougingly terrible like Battlefield Earth.

 

That's awesome. I don't know why I didn't think of doing that - I would have been looking for my first summer job around then.

I was really looking forward to seeing Episode 1 at the last drive-in theater in the area - normally they had the big early summer movies by August - but it closed for good that summer before Star Wars got there. Sigh. Ooh...but there's the possibility of IMAX this time, even though it's 2+ hours away....

 

While I my anticipation for TPM was *extremely* intense, I remember also being worried after seeing Lucas's choices in the Special Editions, and choices in his producing career post-Willow.

I'm also anticipating the ST and am actually rather hopeful considering the creative team that was assembled, and not having been shocked at how horrible some of their past artistic choices have been. However, the anticipation will never be as intense as that for TPM simply because TPM represented a narrative link that had been missing for 15 years. Having 1-6 tell a satisfyingly complete story, there isn't that sense of necessity which pushes the anticipation into overdrive.

 

Still not sure about Abrams directing so I'm not as excited as I was for episode 1 yet. Probably when more spoilers and pics come out next year I'll get more excited.

 

I would say that the PT was more anticipated than the ST.

Reason being, SW, cica pre-May of '99, was nearly blemishless.

It was assumed at that time that the PT was going to be a continuation of the OT's quality.

Well, this turned out to be wrong, resoundingly wrong, and the PT was a major disappointment for most fans.

Then, Lucas released the O-OT on non-anamorphic DVD, basically taking a giant dump on the purists.

And then, George did the same thing again with the OT Blu-ray (No, No, NOOOO!!!).

So now, many people have a justifiably bad SW after taste in their mouths.

As such, thinking about the SQ isn't nearly as good as was the case with the PT prior to it's release.

 

Must be location. The midnight showing was open to the public where I'm from, as we saw all 3 of the PT movies opening night, midnight showing.

 

It's going to be very chilly I feel for the midnight showing.

 

yeah, can't imagine that there will be many slave leia costumes