ST TFA - strikingly youthful?

It seemed to me that everyone in TFA was surprisingly young (apart from OT characters), eg all the First Order staffers, Hux etc. In the OT, a lot of the people in those control rooms and command decks looked 50+. Apart from practicality on the part of Disney, is this because most capable older people were killed off by the end of ROTJ, meaning a whole new generation of capable leaders/executives had to be grown from scratch?

Has Snoke been slowly seducing the impressionable youth (who haven't got many greybeards to advise them), and now that it's 30 years post-Endor, he's now got enough capable young adults to mount a bid for power?

 

I think thats just a thing with modern movies. Usually younger cast, However, this might be story related.

 

Well most of the first order was kidnapped at a young age. I believe it wasn't just troopers that were taken. Since this takes place 30 years after ROTJ it would make sense for them to be in their 30s or younger.

 

Sure but.. where are the people that took them? That trained them? Chicken or egg?

 

This may sound weird, but people look younger than they used to for the same age. Less smoking, better nutrition and physical training for actors.

 

Yes, I noticed the FO looked young. LST was old as were a few Reb... I mean Reistance officers.

 

Since the FO are the remnants of the Empire, we can assume that the most experienced Empire fighters have all died.

Also, real world proves that it is easier for an evil mastermind to seduce younger people to these types of causes....

The story of TFA has very similar bases to what happened to Germany after WWI and before WWII.

The Galactic Concordance is similar to the Treaty of Versailles.

 

That's true, generally speaking.
Would you believe that at the time of principal photography for their respective movies, this guy



was one year younger than these two gents?




I do get the feeling, though, that Snoke has been seducing the impressionable youth, as Jakku put it.

 

Yes yes I would believe that. Ridley was made to look much younger than I'd expect. I think there was an effort put into making her appear as young as possible.

No idea if it's story related or just the demographic they want to appeal to most. Probably demographics but I'm just speculating.

 

I think we only saw younger FO officers because the more senior members are either on Snoke's flagship or the capital of FO territory.

 

This I will agree with, in the beginning, especially when we're seeing her interact with Unkar and when she confronts Teedo about BB8, she's nearly childlike.

 

Lor San Tekka looked a little shaky on his pins. Poe is being played by 36 year old Oscar Isaac. Driver is actually actually about the same age as Kylo Ren. Coming up, Benicio Del Toro is 48, Laura Dern is 49.

Of course we have the folks from the OT, including Admiral Gial Ackbar, born during the last days of the Republic. He just looks the same, but has a few years on him (I am unsure what an aged Mon Calamari is supposed to look like).

Edit: never go ahead and post a stream of consciousness without questioning what you are doing.

 

I hear aged Mon Calamari is delicious with a vintage Chardonnay.

 

Blimey. So can we assume that all those old blokes on the various Empire control decks were...in their thirties?

 

She looks especially childlike with the helmet on.

The look overall could've been for demographics, but it is fitting for the story, since Rey has some childlike qualities.

 

Don't know if it is story related but I never noticed how a lot of them are young. Really didn't hit my mind. It's not story related just new actors/actresses I'm sure

 

Warning: language

 

All this youthful talk makes me hope that Darth Not Appearing in this Film will show up in VIII:

 

I did notice this as well. I felt much of the cast was quite younger than what we saw in the OT. However, I'm sure there could be many ways to explain that off in-universe.

I will say that it may be somewhat deceiving-it seems to me that young people today generally look younger onscreen than young people back in the 70's (and in some cases the 80's) did. the magic of HD and makeup I suppose...not to mention certain style differences that could be more flattering in terms of age related looks...

 

Of course it was.

The scene with Finn and Rey looking at Kylo and Kylo looking back at them right after Han's death single handedly sets up the next two trilogy series.

That could have literally been the entire movie and we all would have said "oh, okay, I see what's going on here..."

 

Hamill was 26, Ford was 35, and Fisher was 21 (when SW was released). It isn't anything new to have younger, up and comers in the start of a new big, blockbuster trilogy. Same with the PT.

 

I feel like part of it is Disney trying to bring in a new/more diverse audience. But there's also an in-story reason for it I think. The FO strikes me as basically a bunch of young fanatics who worship the Empire and it's ideals, but have little concept of what the Empire was actually all about. They're basically young thugs playing dress-up. Plus, most of the old Imperial leadership is likely long-dead or retired by this point (it's been over 30 years since ROTJ after all).

And I think this even more because they're also doing it with Kylo Ren and his Vader obsession. He worships the IDEA of Darth Vader (or at least the idea as Snoke has been feeding it to him), but he never actually knew or even met Vader (and has no real clue of what Vader was actually all about either).

As for Rey and Finn, I do think that there's an attempt to make them look and act younger, especially Rey. Daisy Ridley in real life seems "older" just because of her look and the air of confidence that she seems to have. She seems much more, what's a good work, "wordly" in real life. But with Rey, the costuming and makeup departments did their job well of making her look "younger." I think that she's SUPPOSED to come across as more naïve and innocent. She's smart and tough, and has developed (by necessity) a good survival instinct on Jakku. But, in terms of social interactions, interpersonal relationships, knowledge of how the Galaxy at large works, etc, she's much more naïve and innocent. Heck she didn't even think that Luke Skywalker was a real person until Finn told her. And with Finn, it's there to a degree as well (although it's more about how he interacts with the other characters than his actual "look").

 

I think that was an explicit point with the bad guys, in particular.

Kylo Ren's "look how old you've become" set that tone. They're young fanatics, and they have contempt for the old and decrepit.

Apart from Snoke. Because...the force.

 

Yeah, Rey, Finn, Poe and Kylo being young isn't surprising in the least. Also, it seems obvious that Kylo and Hux are intended to be about equal in rank and experience, which makes Hux's youthfulness entirely appropriate.
What is a bit surprising is the complete lack of gray hair in the FO. Again, though, I suspect that the FO has intentionally recruited young people, or fostered them since childhood, to have an easier time indoctrinating them.
With the Jedi training padawans since infanthood and clones being bred and raised in a lab, this seems to become a recurring theme in the Saga. This time around, there's a bit of a Hitlerjugend feel to it.

 

It's almost like TFA is doing a parallel between the somewhat cult-ish way that the old Jedi Order "recruited" it's members, and how the FO does so (which also seems rather cult-ish).