Loose Lips Sink Starships

The last time I wrote on this blog was on the leading up to the release of Force Awakens- Obviously, in the near 3 year-gap that has occurred since I wrote here, much has changed with Star Wars and Disney (and rather dramatically I may say). While I could go in the future and talk about the positive, today I'd rather discuss a disturbing turn of events that has taken place in this very medium...

What will the new Star Wars be about?

That is obviously a question I don't know the answer to, and we probably only have vague ideas about it. For one, the story of Star Wars, as we saw it in the movies, was mainly about the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker and how with the help of his son, he destroys the Sith and fulfills the prophecy of the Chosen One, and also brings balance to the force. So, as things had been beautifully ended in Return of the Jedi, it is difficult to imagine what could have happened later. Obviously, the EU fans will tell you a long, winding and depressing soap opera set in a series of books, comics, and other media. But as far as we know, that is not the story George Lucas intended to tell with his movies. If anything as it's shown in this quote dating back to the early 80's, Luke's story and that of the other characters would be dramatically different from what the EU has said so far:

“The prequel stories exist — where Darth Vader came from, the whole story about Darth and Ben Kenobi — and it all takes place before Luke was born,” Lucas explained at the time. “The other one — what happens to Luke afterward — is much more ethereal. I have a tiny notebook full of notes on that. If I’m really ambitious, I could proceed to figure out what would have happened to Luke.”

Now, when I first read this, I wasn't sure of what exactly ethereal meant. So by then, I decided to look it up in a dictionary, and according to their definition, ethereal means the following:

1. Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world. 2.Heavenly or spiritual.

Now as we speak if we interpret correctly this quote from George Lucas, about how the Sequel trilogy would be, we can see that he didn't really change his mind about how the Prequels were. The story of Obi-Wan and Anakin was meant to be a tragic one, while Luke's story in the story was meant  to be basically the complete opposite. So if George wants to make these sequel films, to make them be like how he originally intended to, he is going to have to ignore the EU post ROTJ, meaning that he either renders it non-canon or puts it in an alternative timeline. Obviously, this would make several fans of the EU angry, but well that is another story.

The important thing to note, is that besides the fact that the EU might get thrown out of the way, their is still much mystery to what will happen in Star Wars Episode VII. We know very little, only rumors that Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee-Williams are willing to come back and reprise their roles as Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian. It's very likely that these movies are going to be much more ethereal than the others, but besides that our speculations are virtually driving everyone nuts in the Star Wars fanbase. We will have to wait and see what comes next.

The Other Big Fear

I would have to say, that their was something else I feared about the new Star Wars films at Disney's hands besides the fact of the EU's involvement in the story, and that was the fear that Star Wars would turn itself into James Bond. What I mean by that is that essentially I fear Star Wars can turn into a long running and never ending serial of movies, like Bond. With James Bond, this essentially works because they are all different interpretations of the same novels, but that is very different when you tackle with Star Wars, essentially due to the fact the movies are meant to represent the  real thing. For now, it hasn't been confirmed to whether or not Star Wars will continue after the Sequel Trilogy, but essentially I think it would be best if the story ends when George feels it best to end while he is alive, and not see it end when he is dead and the movies no longer have his story or vision. George will turn 71 by the  time the new Star Wars film is released, so it would be best if he stays in good health and allows the story to go on only until his vision is represented in it.

Of course, we can't know for sure how long people will live, so it's actually a good thing that George already has story treatments for 7, 8 and 9.

I haven't been able to find the interview made to Kathleen Kennedy in Entertainment Weekly about the future of Star Wars, but when I do, I will share the answers and my view here. And finally I would like to end this post by saying that from now on, I won't talk so much about what can go wrong in Star Wars, and I will try to be more optimistic about it. After all, as a very old wise man once said, ''fear is the path to the dark side.'';)

Entertainment Weekly to spoil details on the future of Star Wars

According to the EW website, tomorrow EW's magazine will hit the stands with the cover seen above. It will supposedly include and interview with the Executive producer of the new Star Wars films, Kathleen Kennedy, and will spill the details of what is yet to come. What really annoys me of all of this is the fact that they apparently will include a section which talks about what the fans want (and what they don't want), due to the fact that it's probably going to include a polarized point of view. Similarly to how they said that supposedly the fans didn't like the prequels (which is next to being a complete lie), they might say that the fans want to see the Thrawn trilogy adapted into the next movies, when that is not neccesarily true. Their are plenty of Star Wars fans (including myself) whom find the EU stories set after Return of the Jedi to be absolutely horrendous, and other Star Wars fans who simply don't even read that stuff. The second bulk of Star Wars fans are primarily the people on the ages from 28-14 years old, due to the fact that they grew up with the prequels, but they probably were too young or weren't even born when several EU books and comics set in that time period were released. They are more likely to actually ''get'' Star Wars as seen from George Lucas's vision (on contrary to some fanboys who are somewhat old and don't get it). Not to mention the new generation of 10-6 year olds who became fans thanks to The Clone Wars. Anyway, George apparently doesn't like what those stories did in that time period, and wants to make an original story in this set of movies. I won't be capable of buying this magazine tomorrow due to the fact that I live in Colombia, not the US, so I'll have to stick to whatever EW.com spills over the internet tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope that some nasty internet rumors are cleared out of the way with the interview that follows.

Michael Arndt set to write the screenplay for Star Wars Episode VII

So, according to a confirmation of a rumor in the Star Wars website, Michael Arndt, the man that wrote the screenplay for Toy Story 3, is now going to bring the screenplay for Episode VII. That for one, is probably one of the best news that has been released about the upcoming Star Wars movies, do to the fact that well, Toy Story 3 was an excellent sequel to the already established Toy Story 1 and 2. So if that is any indication to how things will go in the next treatment of Star Wars films, I have a feeling we will be pleasantly surprised, as Obi-Wan would say.

Perhaps, that means, that I should be excited about the next installment of Star Wars, just like my idol Brad Paisley is. As he demonstrated in a recent interview with EW, he was asked about his thoughts on the next Star Wars films, and said that he is ''more excited than anybody'' and that ''I'm friends with a lot  of people at Disney.'' Brad did compose a couple of tracks for the soundtracks of both Cars movies, and has met with John Lasseter and with George Lucas. So perhaps, his judgement is probably realistic, so I guess we should trust the killer guitarist. Man, how I'd wish to see him in concert some day.

My Biggest Fear Part 2

One morning, I believe it was the first of November or so, My friends were asking me about what I thought of the upcoming Star Wars Episode 7. I told them that I was worried that the movie might end up screwing up everything, and one of my friends went ahead and decided to say, ''they can't screw it up like they did in the Prequels. Doing it more horrible than that is almost impossible''. Obviously I ignored his blatantly ignorant comment, since in all honesty, the arguments of why the Prequels were bad are so filled with nonsense, that they get to the point of annoyance. If any of you don't like the prequels I respect your opinion, but seriously, don't bring up arguments about Jar Jar Binks, or the acting, or anything subjective that has been said over a million times before. 

Anyway, the main reason why I feared for my life the EU being adapted into the Sequel Trilogy is pretty simple: Those stories depress the heck out of me, and honestly they have so many plot holes and bad stories in them that if they were to be adapted into the movies, I would probably not even show up at the theatre. The stories depicted in the books, comics, video games and other media set after Return of the Jedi, Are in general stories that aim at violating the fundamental principles of Star Wars that George Lucas set up in the first place. 

The prophecy of the Chosen One, as said by the movies and by George Lucas himself in the commentaries of the DVD's in Revenge of the Sith, explained that even after Anakin turned himself into the Sith Lord Darth Vader, that he indeed fulfilled the prophecy by destroying the Emperor and himself, and therefore, the Sith were set to be destroyed. Which pretty much means that the Sith should not come back. But hey, they did in the comic series Dark Empire, in which Palpatine is reborn in a clone of his and Luke turns to the dark side!! So much for the prophecy. 

And anyway not only does Emperor Palpatine come back, but so do the Sith in general, I don't know how, in the stories and books that follow starting with Han and Leia's oldest son. So pretty much that is enough to have gotten plenty of fans of the movies (guys like me) extremely angry. Not only that, but the fact that the Empire somehow never collapsed (don't ask me) and somehow stormtroopers are running around well after the destruction of the Death Star in Endor. Why didn't they sign an armistice, for crying out loud? 

I don't think that going further into all of this is actually going to satisfy anyone and it will only upset me even more. Their is one more point I would like to make anyway: 

I don't hate entirely the EU. I think that a lot of the things that appear in this books are very interesting, but in particular the interesting stories are the ones which are set either in-between or before the movies do to the fact that George Lucas vision is far more closely seen and it's somewhat significantly valued. I don't see that in the EU set after Episode 6. I've never read any of it, but simply by taking a glimpse at Wookieepedia to see what it was about is enough to have depressed me for a long time. 

For a long time I was happy about the fact that their would be no Sequel Trilogy, and that apparently if George Lucas hasn't changed his mind, then perhaps, we won't see any of these fetid feces adapted into any movies: 

 "I've left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be any more features. There will definitely be no Episodes VII–IX. That's because there isn't any story. I mean, I never thought of anything. And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married..."-George Lucas, Total Film, May 2008.

The good news that came out recently, is that, As I said before, Lucasfilm and Disney have apparently both confirmed that the next series of movies won't be based out of any work in the EU, but will instead be an ''original story''. 

The only thing that I think still floats inside my mind like a gigantic question mark is what will happen then to Heir to the Empire, and all of those books and comics made in that time period? Will they be deemed as non-canon, in order to give space to what actually happens in the movies? Or will they end up creating an alternative universe, in which all of these stories are considered canon but simply are all automatically divided into two universes, one in which all the EU stories before this decision of new movies finds itself, and the other in which the movies and related content to those movies take place? The latter I think would be a best choice since it wouldn't get as many EU fans angry as would the other choice, and it would allow for much more space and freedom for George Lucas to set up those stories like they were originally intended it to be, not what the EU intended it to be in the first place.

Future updates and continuous speculation will come as we get more information.