ST Stormtroopers... Here?

The only way we won't see Stormtroopers or Imperials is if there is smoke and mirrors at play, which is possible, if a little unlikely when so many of these rumours are coming from people who have seen stuff (although they could be piecing things together wrong). However, the prominence of the Empire and Stormtroopers in a lot of Disney's merch and branding (and especially Rebels) suggests to me that groundwork is already being lain.

 

I don`t think they would have any problem coming up with a new enemy if they wanted to. I don`t understand why the same old enemy must be left when we have a new trilogy. I know they want to appease to fans, but using Imperials is playing it incredibly safe, to say the least.

 

Okay- I'll play devil's advocate for a moment and give you the best arguments against my case:

1. Many moons ago, George wanted a twelve movie saga. ONE Death Star was to be destroyed in Episode VI. Luke's final confrontation with The Emperor wasn't to occur until Episode IX. So that supports a case for The Empire existing in Episodes VII-IX. The biggest hurdle is finding a replacement for the Emperor.

2. Re-using The Empire may be easier than inventing new bad guys from a writing standpoint. Some folks (not everyone) would argue George has lost his writing ambition- he just needed something to sell to Disney.

3. Disney wants to sell toys; not take risks. They bought a brand. Not an idea.

The pessimist in me says the aforementioned scenarios while disappointing, are nonetheless far from beyond the realm of possibility.

I loved the original Star Wars trilogy story, not just the cool spaceships & battles. I guess the question is: would you prefer another magical, inspiring story? Or would you rather have an explosion-ridden Michael Bay piece of crap? I prefer to be an optimist.

 

If the Empire survived the events of Episode VI and is around 30 years later, then I'm fine with stormtroopers being in VII. This would make Episode VI's ending more like IV.

 

Sure, they could come up with a new enemy, but that doesn't mean a new enemy is the most appropriate way of finishing off the Saga. A totally new enemy might be the worst possible, most disconnected way of ending this trilogy of trilogies (assuming there aren't more).

New is not always better. Original is never really brand new, but always just a new mix or spin on old elements.

I think better qualities to desire are appropriateness and resonance and contrast with what's previously been established. If they privilege these qualities rather than just a superficial desire for newness for newness sake, then we'll see some kind of Remnant like Darth Chiznuk says.

D'an: who is arguing that the enemy will only be the Empire? Most scenarios I've seen suggest a fragmented galaxy where we see the Alliance/Republic, Imperial Remnant, and other powers like Mandos or independent systems unwilling to join a galactic government.

 

They can always bring Vader back while they`re at it.
This begins to seem like the "PT apology tour" someone mentioned in the Gleeson thread.

 

It's becoming obvious that, in a way, JJ is rebooting the OT. There will likely be many, many things that will carry over (Kevin Smith cried 4 times!). The new elements will be fresh, young heroes and new major bad guys. That's good enough for me. It's the next chapter, not the next volume.

 

Boo. Boo to reBOOting. Save that crap for Trekkies, ha ha!

Yup. Except this time the emperor died. And so did Vader. And the grand admiral. And they partied on the streets of Coruscant among other systems. Other than that, it's about the same.

 

It would be an interesting and appropriate way to continue the "next chapter" as TK327 says. That's not necessarily a reboot -- which would give us all young kitschy versions of Luke and Han -- but it is certainly a major revision of what we thought was implied at the end of ROTJ.

But it's not much different at all with what the Legends EU did. It's not a surprise to me that we're continuing the conflict with the Imperials in some way -- Imperials vs. Alliance was always the most popular aspect of the Saga.

But what makes it appropriate and relevant is that a Cold War is what we saw in our own world after WW2. The struggle over what to do with rogue nations or nations threatened by Russia and China still plague us today.

The more I think about it, I'm feeling it's probable this is what we'll get. A fragmented galaxy where the Republic/Alliance is struggling with how to put it all back together and whether or not they are even justified in intervening.

This is actually a much better theme than the happily ever after ending of ROTJ. This new ending tells audiences that justice must be fought for actively because there will always be antagonistic forces trying to dominate people. Eternal vigilance is a better message than everything works out in the end almost as if by magic, forever -- a naive utopian message.

 

You could look at it that way of course, but to me ROTJ ended with too much of a bang to be considered the middle chapter.
It all comes down to the execution, of course. I mean, if ROTJ was coming out now I would have drowned myself in the toilet when I heard that they would do another Death Star. The only way I see the Empire work is for them to be a smaller part of a big coalition(which doesn`t seem to be the case). I don`t want to whine and I really want them to suceed, but I`m just afraid of recycling for the sake of nostalgia.

 

It was a joke... "JJ has nailed it" etc.

 

You should be excited PJ. KS liked the PT. And he likes the ST so far too.

 

Here's a recent statement of him:

 

This is spot on and I've argued the exact same thing as regards the ST before, myself.

Well said.

 

Of course the empire survived after the events of episode VI. Do you think that when the word of the emperors death got around the troops & ships scattered across the galaxy just all said 'I suppose we better go home now then'.
My guess is that remants of the empire broke into several factions and new leaders appeared and took control of all the military hardware available.

 

The point to me is made pretty clear when you look at the overall saga.

In the PT we have the Republic but it's not all hearts and butterflys. It was turned into an Empire but not overnight. As TCW makes even clearer the Republic had it's own problems going on already then it got the clone army. This army then over time morphed into the Stormtroopers with a bunch of not as good soldiers but that wasn't necessary as they just need to stomp around a lot and didn't need to fight a war.

With the vast engine that was the Republic that became the Empire why would the machinery fall apart? It wouldn't but it would change again.

I don't see why some systems that were the underprivelaged and oppressed wouldn't break off and band together with other ones that were also connected to the rebels why the richer well off ones would want the status quo.

So factions of Empire make a lot more sense. The victory in VI was real in that it crushed the centrality of the Empire/Republic. The point of this trilogy should be to end with a new and better Republic though not one maybe of the relative harmony of the previous thousand years.

 

What have the rebels been doing for 30 years, then?

 

I don't know. There are any number of possibilites.

Just because they restored freedom doesn't mean they restored order. If anything maybe the take will be that disorder came in and people wanted to keep the Empire just not the old Evil one from before but a more benign one.

 

I really don't understand those who so erratically want new stuff in this movie. You want to keep John Williams themes, the opening crawl, the dodgy scene wipes, but the enemies have to be different? Having the Imperial forces, who make only the most sense being in this movie, would be repeating things too much?

Some praise all the new elements of the prequel trilogy, but somewhat shortsightedly forgive the myriad of things that simply existed, often illogically and mostly completely forced in a very fanservicy way, because people liked them from the Original trilogy. There is a very important distinction between doing that and doing things that simply make sense story-wise for a Star Wars sequel.

You want there to be new stuff, but only the new stuff you want there to be. How about you just enjoy the movie they give you, you deserve no more...

 

They don't want new stuff, they want the Prequels. They want Sith and Jedi. In one breath they scream that the Empire surviving ruins the end of Return of the Jedi, but hordes of Sith and a Jedi order is not only OK, but AWESOME!

I still contend the end of ROTJ had nothing to do with whether or not the Empire was defeated, but it was about the end of the Sith and Anakin fulfilling the prophecy.

Sith returning in this movie as the villains ruins the end of ROTJ, The Empire surviving does not.

But, even though someone who would KNOW the difference between a Stormtrooper and a Mandalorian or any other armored character says, flat-out, he saw Stormtroopers, the same people will continue to deny the Empire is in Episode 7, even after the movie comes out and the Empire is, in fact, in episode 7.

 

We're well aware of how much you loathe Abrams. But it's not like Smith is any more biased towards liking the film than you are apparently biased against liking it. At least Smith has some real basis for his beliefs.

 

According to IMDB we will not only have Stormtroopers but also Pirates !.......

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

 

I'm still thinking that the setup for Episode VII will be like this: The Rebel Alliance won at Endor and the Empire started falling apart. However, some Imperials managed to keep the Empire somewhat intact, not strong enough to dominate the galaxy, but enough to be a nuisance. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance began building up a government ala the New Republic and there's been a Cold War-like state between the two governments (like the last few years of the Galactic Civil War in the EU after Palpatine's clone was killed). That would explain why there would be still stormtroopers of some kind.

Maybe, during the 30 years, there were attempts to have a peace treaty, but unknown Dark Siders (perhaps the Jedi Hunters?) kept sabotaging such efforts, hoping to keep the galaxy in a perpetual state of war or near-war. Their actions would force Luke and co. to continuously respond, not giving Luke a chance to really rebuild the Jedi Order. Maybe by the time Episode VII, the Jedi Order is not that much bigger than after ROTJ and quite a bit smaller than in the EU.