ST October 30th 2012 reflection thread: Do you remember where you were when you found out?

I think it will be fun to read everyone's stories on this one year anniversary of this big shocking news. Where were each of you and what you were doing on this date exactly one year ago today when the news broke?

I guess the news broke earlier in the day while I was at work. I had been incredibly busy at work that day so I hadnt had time to surf the web before I was off at 5pm eastern time. When I got home I still hadnt seen the news. I forget what all I did that evening, but I still hadnt heard about it even once my wife and I finished dinner. It was about 7:30pm (eastern) and I had retreated to our loft area where our big screen TV is. I may have had the TV on but it was on ESPN, so there wasnt any entertainment news stories flashing on the screen obviously.i had been occupied trying to enter my credit card information on a website to purchase a streaming broadcast of my favorite college basketball team play their opening exhibition game. As I was shuffling through my wallet getting to my credit card my wife suddenly yells from down stairs, "Disney just purchased Lucasfilm, Episodes VII, VIII, and IX are on the way!"

My first reaction to that other than shock was "this has got to be a bogus rumor, Lucas would never do such a thing and allow someone else to make Star Wars movies." I then went to Yahoo.com and there it was. My jaw dropped and i knew it was truely reality. My first assumption once I knew it was happened was that Lucas sold the company, but then it was Disney who had come up with the idea to do the ST without Lucas' blessing. I was angry about that at first as I thought it was Disney just cashing in cheaply on it. However, as I read more on the deal I realised it was Lucas' idea all along to do the sequel trilogy and in fact he had come up with the story treatment and had given it ti Disney as part of the sale, I felt alot better about it. Since that day I have been thrilled and excited to have more Star Wars on the way. I just hope they live up to the greatness of the first 6 films.

 

I was checking facebook. It was my "I am your father" moment: i thought it was a joke a friend was playing on me, and refused to believe it at first. Then i realized it was true when the announcement started spreading on the different media outlets, and to this day i still dont know how to feel about it . Cautiously optimistic, i guess covers it.

 

Watching a hurricane destroy the place I was born is what I was doing.

Still though, I was rather gobsmacked when I found out.

 

I too was at work when it happened. Our IT guys (sci fi geeks) started to repost it on facebook. Then I saw it on major news portals too. The feeling was incredible!

 

I was texting my friend in my house while prepping up for Halo 4 the days to come and he told me there was going to be another Star Wars movie. I laughed saying, "Yeah, sure dude". He responded and was like, "I **** you not, Lucas sold LucasFilm to Disney for $4 billion and they are making Star Wars Episode VII which is coming out in 2015. I HAD to see if this was true, so I went downstairs and typed in Star Wars. This announcement was everywhere, I couldn't believe it, I didn't know whether to be happy or angry. I called my uncle up who's also a massive Star Wars fan, when I told him the news he was like. "Holy ****! I gotta come over and see this." It was very exciting day, never thought I'd live to see a new Star Wars movie be made, but this is still making me excited

 

I was at work, I believe, and I was only moderately interested. Because...and I hate to admit this...but I had never actually watched Star Wars. Somehow though, the sale peaked my interest enough to finally watch them all. The OT and then the PT.

I became obsessed. I love Star Wars and can't believe it took my until I was 24 to finally enjoy it. Since then, I've made it through most of TCW, played The Force Unleashed, listen to John Williams about everyday, and spend time at places like this.

That's my story. The sale to Disney effectively made me a Star Wars fan.

 

*desided to like everyones post, just cause*

I actually missed it that night it was released... didn't see it till the following morning when I was looking for something interesting online to wake me up so Id get out of bed. Needless to say I literally shot out of bed upon reading the news and ran to my computer for more details (oddly the same situation when I found out Bin Laden was killed).

Well, I was at first in disbelief but almost instantly over that sensation upon finding out I was getting the trilogy I always dreamed about. I was as giddy as a fat kid locked in a candy store who had been left unattended for the rest of the day. I think I litereally read every english site on the web who reposted the news and hunted for as many details as possible. It wasn't even until I read other speculating if it would follow the EU or not that that line of thinking even occured to me since my mind was so focused upon hearing I only had to survive the decade to get my dream sequal trilogy rather than waiting for Lucas to die then wait for someone to buy up the rights to Star Wars and start making new films.

Guess that shows how much the EU mattered to me, as big of a fan of it as I am in that moment the news of the Sequal Trilogies trumped any changes to the EU. Plus having lived through the changes the Prequal and The Clone Wars had on it I guess I was prepaired to lose it all along. Though I freely admit hearing Disney's CEO say the vast number of character, planets, and timeline would be used for inspiration for Disney's writers made me feel at least some of the EU would be reflected in the ST did sooth my possible bad reaction to having to worry about that aspect too much.

I pretty much spent the rest of the day online hunting for more news... then rewatched the OT... followed by repicking up The Thrawn Trilogy and working my way through the EU again (with the EU it was mostly a goodbye reread, though I was consciously looking for things that if I was a writer I'd be inspired by for possible spinoffs (which I deemed very very likely at the time due to what Disney had done with Marvel)).

Well that was me in a nutshell that day. Lol

 

I remember waking up from a nap and going on the computer, and seeing this as the big news story on all the websites, and thinking "I'm out of it for a little while and suddenly everybody gets delusions of grandeur".

After taking it in, I felt great, because Star Wars at least had a defined future.

 

My Star Wars tattoo artist posted it on his facebook and I was absolutely gobsmacked. After I verified it on other news sites my emotions ran the gauntlet through disbelief, pessimism, skepticism, acceptance, and finally excitement/anticipation. Then after 15 years I found myself back on this board. It was like coming home.

 

I was checking theforce.net which I had discovered some time ago. When I read the all the articles about the purchase and the new films I was completely shocked. I didn't think they would ever make a new episode. But, I was also ecstatic and told a bunch of people about it. The news is partially what inspired me to join these forums. Can't wait til Episode VII!

 

I just said in another thread how I didn't hear about this until around May... I don't remember exactly when or how but reading over these it's really strange because I remember hearing it coming out as news that Lucas was selling the franchise to Disney and how he was going to donate a significant amount to charity but somehow I didn't see/hear about the new trilogy!

I'll admit, I probably don't remember the exact circumstances of finding out because I wanted to put it out of my mind... to just forget about it until 2015 so the wait wouldn't be so long. (My wife and I are going on vacation in a few weeks and she asked if I was excited... I told her not until we walk off the plane.) Unfortunately when it came to Star Wars, I couldn't help myself so here I am, going through the agony of trying to find out whatever I can through message boards like everybody else.

 

I had just come home from work and saw the headline on ComingSoon.net. At first I thought it was just one of those rumors that would get debunked after a while. But when I read the actual article I realized it must be real.

 

Found out on movies.yahoo & then spent an hour looking at all the other sites & then joined the Jedi council forums to get in on the action...........

 

I was having a drink with some aquintances and a fellow SW geek came in the room with his iPad announcing the news. I just told him it was a joke. It took days for me to believe it and then...

 

I don't remember what I was doing just before losing consciousness at the news.

 

I was at home browsing the internets, just doing nothing important really. Then i stumbled upon I guess Yahoo news or something and the article read "Lucas sells LUCASARTS to Disney." Keep in mind that Lucasarts was the video game division. I thought nothing of it really but read the article anyway and learned that it wasn't Lucasarts but the whole shebang and literally flipped out. I couldn't believe it! After doing some more checking and searching to verify the news I started to believe we're finally getting more SW.

Then I cam here to LURK on the forums and realized I needed to re-join because my long-lost friends were back! And I've been here everyday ever since (if even not to post.)

 

I was in a CPR refresher class for work and I checked google news during a break and saw it there.

 

I was at a Chinese restaurant eating with my friend when I found out. I believe I saw it on the Breaking News Twitter account.

 

I had just buried my grandmother, who I loved very, very dearly, and was sitting in her house with relatives for the very last time after the funeral. A relative told me about the Disney/Star Wars deal. I was numb, and didn't really take it on board.

Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on Grandma's knee watching The Empire Strikes Back. She would talk to me in the Yoda voice, then we would laugh, a lot. Good memories. It's a shame that we won't be able to watch Episode VII together.

It was a bittersweet and surreal day.

 

I was in the Philippines at an All Souls' Day celebration. A Filipina girl told me about memes she'd seen about the Disney deal, and I learned of it that way.

 

I was at work, surfing CNN of all places. They posted the article, I read it, I stopped working for the rest of the day.
I called my wife. When she answered, I said, "Baby, today I received the best news of my life."
She countered with, "Really? Not our marriage, any of your three children, any of that?"
"Nope, today wins."
"Wow," she said, "it must be really big. What happened?"
After a dramatic pause, I let fly with, "They're making more Star Wars movies."
It was silent for several moments.
Finally, she responded. "Yup, that wins."

 

Since we are talking stories of last years October 30th, that was a day I'll never forget. Funny enough 2 weeks earlier my best friend and I were on the phone talking, and we talked about how "depressing" our "nerd lives" were. Nolan's trilogy was over. So we started talking about our favorite universe, Star Wars. And for 2 hours we just talked and got depressed about how sadly it had to end with the PT (which of course he did not like either) and that George would NEVER sell Star Wars. I remember him saying that and Katie saying they would never allow anymore to be made...ever. So we got really depressed because we wanted to see other film makers take Star Wars into the future.

So oddly enough I remember the day of October 30th...about 2 weeks after that conversation. I remember it was beautiful sunny but cold morning (it is today too....maybe a sign). But there was frost everywhere, but not a cloud in the sky. I dug into storage and played Metroid Prime 2 on the Wii. I was bored and felt like playing through it. So around 10 I went to go work out, after coming back from the gym, I just turned on my computer then decided I should shower first. I remember getting out, dressing and refreshing my Facebook page. Now the feelings and part of the story I'm about to tell lol, happened within a matter of minutes. But I had a range of emotions. One of my other friends posted the news. And all I saw was a headline and a description of the article saying: "Disney buys Lucasfilm for 4 billion dollars New Star Wars Trilogy starts in 2015 with Episode VII." At first I got mad at this friend, I started thinking right away...god I hate "TRICK or treat" I thought it was a prank. I was mad. Then I looked at the source of the article and it said "Deadline". My emotions changed to stunned because I know Deadline is almost 100% accurate. So I went to a bunch of other sites and saw the press release, and one of the 24 hour news networks that was on, in a TV in the background shouted out the news. I went into pure excitement. Saw the video of George letting go and giving the reigns to Kathy. I just went nuts. I was literally jumping around screaming. I called up my good friend, and told him the news and he went nuts.

Then I had a Star Wars day. I went into my storage room, and found my Thrawn Trilogy, my six soundtracks for SW, KOTOR 1&2 the Dark Forces series. And I had John Williams blaring in my house all day while playing games and reading books. It was a great day.

EDIT: It would be cool to see the traffic charts on TheForce.net on October 29th 2012, then on October 30th 2012. I'm sure their average viewers have spiked quite a bit over the year.