Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

That would require Hamill and Fisher to play 40-year-olds. Not happening.

 

It would, of course, require that they be excluded from the film and the roles recast. Which I dearly hope will happen.

 

It's already been said that if they don't return, they'll just be written out of the film, not recast.

 

The allure of money can change a great many things between now and release day.

 

I too am against an invasion. the EU did it first and best and besides that an invasion has to come from outside, thus UR or extragalactic. sith would not meet that criteria.

I fear/guess the theme will be not a civil war but mirror actual politics as did the other trilogies. So given current blockbuster trends they will go the terrorism route akin to Batman villains and ST Into Darkness follows that same theme. I hope it is something unique and new, not the same terrorism thing again but I fear that is what we are up for.

Be it pro-Imperial terrorists in secret funded by Sith/former darksiders of the Emperor that appear to be good guys with a different opinion at first swaying some heroes over to their side so we have a family conflict of father redeeming son/daughter maybe? I know we had that in the EU too already, but moviewise that is the most obvious route to go... with heroes split at end of first movie into two camps who both sound to be right.. second movie then setting them to allout war thx to Sith influences.. with one hero turned to the dark side leading the faction.. and last movie the redemption angle and reuniting of both camps instead of one nuking the other into oblivion.

Kinda a coming of age thing with the kid falling and being redeemed. basically the EU did that kinda already with Luke in Dark Empire, redeemed by Leia in the end and multiple other stories like LOTF and NJO elements too.

but those are my best guesses, if I like them or not depends on execution, otherwise it's all "been there, done that, deja vu"




now as to what I really hope to see on screen:

-Redheads
-Base Delta Zero in action! slag that planet baby
-a capital ship crew that is good against starfighters for once and can hold itself against them without fighter support
-Mortis or its philosophy at least
-something stunningly beautiful and era-shaking that will be remembered for generations like the GOLD METAL BIKINI on a female body cause Padmés entire wardrobe did not come even close to that gem. Ok she got that black bondage suit for Annie in AOTC or the Midriff but.. nah... GOLD METAL BIKINI I want to know what Leia did with it.. it needs to appear in the Sequels on the next generation... not as slave.. maybe used to infiltrate a Hutt palace for a change
-Tatooine: Luke in Lars Homestead
-Lando as Chancellor
-LOBOT... one cannot bring back Lando without Lobot!
-If the Sequels are about kids/grandkids... there is one EU character that would rock the show: Boba Fetts grandkid Mirta... FemFett in Action please! diversity alone demands it
-if no EU characters in background or secondary roles / being honored with a fitting!!!! movie death that adds drama to the heroes struggle... they should reference the EU with some designs of ships, buildings, styles or even background tidbits.. like the Thrawn Trilogy comic painting of Padmé hanging in Leias new home still.. or such artsy references.
-EU reference that would make my day: Ryloths ICE side
-K'kruk could be in the Sequels.. he is prominent and needs to join Luke some day
-ROTTA THE HUTT... as a good nasty secondary villain

more later

 

I can't see recasting Luke or Leia as particularly profitable, especially because Harrison Ford is returning. Ford is in great shape for his age, but he still doesn't look young enough to play someone twenty years younger. Recasting all three would be one thing, but bringing back Ford and recasting anyone else? LFL will realize that's not a great decision. Unless they really want to run with that "Force users look younger than they are" thing.

On that note, that article does make me believe that the children will be the main characters no matter what, with the big three just being hopeful cameos. That, at least, is the right decision.

 

Or we could just pass the torch to the next generation and to a new family, and let the Skywalker line rest peacefully for once.

 

Yeah. The next great Jedi hope being trained by Luke Skywalker but unrelated by blood? YES PLEASE. (Though this would frame the OT-ST very much like MGS1-MGS2, which has the shift in emphasis from "nature" to "nurture")

Even better if they're born to a pair of muggle parents.

EDIT: Though, given this is EPISODE VII, rather than SAGA II: EPISODE I, legacy characters of the original cast are pretty much a must.

 

I can think of worse things to go with.

 

Palpatine: BUT I LIVE ON THROUGH THIS ARM!

 

And it would still be more logical than LotF/FotJ.

 

Hmm, let's see....

First, an invasion could work - PT threat from within destroys the old order, OT rebellion defeats the cancer that destroyed the old order and starts rebuilding, ST - that new order now must face a greater enemy that was always inevitable.

(In EU terms NJO tried to tap this but didn't pull it off for me, it had nerve but failed to follow through on it.)

Plagueis was mentioned in ROTS so that can act as set-up for him taking centre stage in the ST, who's worse than the Emperor? His boss.

All very hokey, but SW was all about the hokey, the 1930s serials it took as its inspiration were very hokey, but they were also fun high adventure and that seems to have been forgotten now.

Second, so far very few stories in audiovisual terms have attempted to show fleet battles - SW has tried it once with ROTJ and ROTS and frankly, the Battle of Endor kicks the crap out ROTS' Battle of Coruscant, it's on another level in terms of design and choreography. Babylon 5 took it on and did excellent work with a very limited budget, DSN also did some good sequences on a very limited budget. The question to ask then is this: What might be possible now with an ambitious creative team that have all the tools to really do anything they like, with the budget to match? To me, one answer is a massive but engaging fleet battle - very hard to pull off, but when done, quite, quite awesome.

 

No, the ST is not Metal Gear - besides that's all about Revengeance here nowadays, do try to keep up, hmm?

 

That's something that should be done over the course of the new trilogy. From a storytelling perspective, it doesn't make very much sense to completely skip over the formative years of the next generation.

Consider this from a perspective years down the road, when all of the movies have been released. Obviously, we are intended to view the three Star Wars trilogies as distinct experiences, but at the same time, they also must remain cohesive. Love or hate the Skywalkers, they are, at this time, the centerpiece of the series. To not feature them at all would be a jarring disconnect. It would be a three act play without the third act. If the torch is to be passed, it needs to be depicted. I have no doubt there will be further Star Wars movies after the new trilogy, for good or for bad, but I believe the purpose of this third trilogy needs to be some sort of conclusion to the previous trilogies. The only true link that can be followed through all three trilogies is the story of the Skywalker's. If that story is to be concluded, it needs to be concluded on screen.

Obviously, all of us are EU fans. I like to think I speak for most of us when I say an Expanded Universe is at its best when it's really making an effort to expand, exploring different parts of the galaxy and not simply regurgitating what we've already seen in the films. But if there was ever a movie that's relying on its predecessor's legacy, it's the new Star Wars movies. I'd love to see smaller, more character driven Star Wars films. But this trilogy is naturally going to go for large scope, center-of-the-universe events. I wouldn't be surprised if the eventual purpose of these movies is to set up a new status quo, one where smaller stories can be told.

Public opinion on Star Wars is obviously still strong, but there is still a great degree of cynicism regarding new SW movies due to the prequels. The first order of business should be to get people interested in the setting again. Remind people what they loved about the original movies, and send them off for good. Then will be the time to tell more original, disconnected stories.

 

I'm thinking fleet-battle-with-a-twist. Have it in a nebula, or a binary/trinary star system, or something else unusual. As long as we have the ability to do something more than white pinpoints on a black background, we should make good use of it.

 

How do you see it going?

Kathleen Kennedy and Michael Arndt said it's the original cast, or completely new characters... nobody will be recast. It is very, very likely then to be set at least 40 years later.

Palpatine was never mystical. He was a politician with super-powers. The only hints of him being mystical was when he mentioned Plagueis. And we never saw Palpatine train Anakin like how Yoda trained Luke.

The Empire isn't enough... first they'd have to explain how they're still fighting, 40 years later, and there needs to be lightsaber duels. The underworld as the villains means no major war, and no lightsaber duels, they can't be the main villains. Mad scientist isn't Star Wars. Failed student would not be enough to justify a continuation of the main story, or be able to become that big of a threat. These are good ideas... for spinoff movies, not the Sequel Trilogy.

 

We have opening crawls and prologues for a reason. Not making the Sith the main threat doesn't mean there can't be lightsaber duels: concepts can be merged as easily as they can be split off, and Palpatine had no shortage of henchmen and minions. Star Wars can be whatever a decent writer wants it to be. To limit ourselves solely to what has already appeared in the films and to reject any exploration of new ground is a huge waste of potential. Lucas created something unique, that viewers are more or less going to give a free pass on strictly adhering to the conventions of genre that no other movie is going to get away with easily. That's a freedom that should be taken advantage of.

 

A henchman or minion isn't enough to have an epic war, epic lightsaber duels, justify a sequel trilogy, and have an epic grand finale.

The ST has to feel like the first 6 episodes, show its a continuation of that story, not be something totally different.

Also, like I said, to have an epic war, especially when there's only one major galactic government, there's only 3 sources of conflict: separatism (did that in the PT), revolution (did that in the OT), and invasion.

 

I agree we don't necessarily need Sith. There will be lightsaber battles, but it could just as easily come from dark Jedi.

I wouldn't be opposed to there being a Sith Lord, Plagueis or someone new, but I'm definitely not wild about seeing armies of them.

 

Darth Vader disagrees with you. Frankly, the ST doesn't need an epic war. Epic battles? Yes. But a major galactic war? We don't have to try and aim for three out of three. A conflict of unparalleled importance might be fought beyond the borders of the known galaxy to stop a new threat, in the Unknown Regions, but would it automatically become unworthy of ST material if it didn't drag in the rest of the galaxy for the entire trilogy?

 

There are those 'hundred terrors' lurking in the Unknown Regions -- one could also have a breakaway faction of Chiss (perhaps Force Sensitive Chiss). Mandos with their near-impervious Beskar armour could also be a good reason for Jedi involvement.

 

If they were to use him in a recognizable fashion? Like Lumiya in LotF. He shows up as a political figure of some kind (or hell, even as Hego Damask), works on corrupting Ben or whomever. Luke has no idea who he is; he would hardly suspect anything. He wasn't the "Muahaha my dark legions will crush you!" type.

 

So... in short: Plagueis is Evil version of Lando?

 

Yeah, why would Star Wars need a war?

And Darth Vader wasn't just jetting about on his own, like the villain in a superhero movie. He was one of the leaders of an entire galactic regime. We need something on a more drastic scale than the Separatists or the Empire, otherwise the ST is just an epilogue, not a continuation.

"You saw them bring down the Sith and the Empire, now watch our heroes... tackle some small time crime lords and one uppity Jedi student!"

 

So bigger is automatically better, now? We just keep escalating the stakes until we can't come up with anything worse? There's nothing bad about having an epilogue. We bring closure to the tale of the Big Three, have them pass the torch, and give the next generation a credible threat to deal with so that we have an entertaining trilogy and show that it's not just a happily-ever-after.

Is all that we wish of the Sequel Trilogy really just that it be bigger and flashier and more explosive than the OT or the PT? For thirty-five years, six films, and innumerable spinoffs we've had Star Wars, and that's as high as we're aiming?