What a busy week for Star Wars fans. First we got word from Disney on changes to the EU. Next we were given the cast announcement for Episode VII. College Humor put out a video of Cantina Band auditions and finally we saw the trailer for Star Wars: Rebels that will be premiering on Disney XD this fall. Let's tackle each of these topics one at a time.
"A long time ago in a (ever expanding) galaxy far far away..."
Last week, Disney released this video which explains what the Expanded Universe is by having people who are trusted to bring new Star Wars stories to us today tell exceptional stories of how the EU effected them. A major component of Star Wars is that George Lucas allowed for a external narrative to take place in the form of books, comics, video games, etc. within the Star Wars universe which became a tremendous part of most fans lives, myself included. For those Star Wars fans, during the period between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, these stories thankfully bridged the gap and gave Star Wars fans something to do besides play with their action figures.
The video goes on to explain that this segment of the Star Wars universe is not considered canon but all future Disney projects (movies, television shows, book, video games, etc.) will be overseen by a creative team to streamlined stories and all EU projects will thus be considered canon. As far as I knew, previously the only things considered canon under Lucasfilm were the movies and the Clone Wars cartoon so this sounded great to me. To create new stories for films under the new Disney leadership, the storyline from book would have to be ignored or in this case erased from the timeline. Nothing surprising there at all. I was however surprised to start reading around online and see that the overall reaction was quiet the opposite.
Most posts I read led me to believe that Star Wars fans were going to be tortured by an IT-O Interrogator Droid to purge their memories of all stories within the EU but as far as I know this isn't happening nor do I think an IT-O Interrogator Droid is capable of even doing that. I can't honestly believe that fans had such delusions of grandeur that their favorite stories would be turned into the script for episodes VII, VIII and IX. No one in their right mind should think that Disney should be forced to use the Thrawn Trilogy or say the Courtship of Princess Leia as a back story or that the movies should take place within the New Jedi Order stories. That would be unfair and considering they paid $4 billion for the Star Wars property I'm glad they're creating their own story.
As for my story, in 1991 I was a ten year old Star Wars fanatic that had just recently fell in love with reading. It was during the 1990-91 school year that I truly became enthusiastic about books. My teacher introduced us to Roald Dahl through the books The BFG, The Witches, and of course Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a result, I would make my mother bring me to the Waldenbooks in the Newburgh Mall to purchase a new Dahl book every few weeks. I was amazed by the stories he told and went on to read close to 30 of his book by the fall of 1991. I was on one of those trips to Waldenbooks, most likely to pick up a new Dahl book that I was first introduced to the Expanded Universe.
I can remember that the Dahl book were located in the back right corner of the store next to the register but I never made it anywhere near them that day. Right front and center on the racks of new arrivals in the store entrance was a book with the forever recognizable Star Wars logo across the top.
Heir to the Empire was my first introduction into the Expanded Universe much like many other Star Wars fans from that time period. In the months that followed, I found devouring the Dark Empire comic series, future book releases, The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine starting with issue #18 for me, the Star Wars Trilogy SNES games, and all subsequent material to follow across all platforms.
There was a seven year stretch there where I was consumed by all things Star Wars. Luckily I was only tempted and did not give in to the power of the Darkside.
“I never doubted you! Wonderful!”
With each passing day it seems I'm feeling better and better about the upcoming sequels. While most of the names released as part of the cast for the upcoming Episode VII had been rumored, there were still a few names that caught me off guard. I was unaware that either Andy Serkis or Max von Sydow were being considered for roles. The Serkis casting means one thing, he will be portraying a character that will be created using CGI. Serkis is best know for his motion caption action and his portrayal of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I'm intrigued to hear about what type of character he will be portray. An alien side kick? Some evil alien? Someone a la General Grievous or Darth Vader that is more machine then man? As for Max von Sydow, my hopes are to see him in a Sith or Jedi deserter role. While it is more probable that he will be portraying a senior military official.As for fears, who the cast consisted of never truly concerned me. I was fearful as to how the screen time would break down. Rumors continue to swirl that Harrison Ford will play a major part in the upcoming film which is great to hear. However I'm still scared that Luke, Leia and Han are going to be written out of the story or killed off early on. I can see them killing Luke at the end of Episode VII to mirror the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode IV. That makes sense. Abrams was successful mirroring the previous films in his reboot of the Star Trek franchise and I'm sure it would work just as well with Star Wars.
As for my ideal storyline that would fall in with what we know so far, I'd have Luke working to reestablish the Jedi Order, Leia working as a Senator or Supreme Chancellor in the New Republic, and Han sitting around yearning for the glory days of yesteryear. The Imperial Alliance still survives on the outer rim but is fading away. A distress signal reaches the capital through the Senate and Leia approaches Luke about sending Jedi to investigate. Han volunteers to transport the Young Jedi himself having previous experience with the planet and the system from his smuggling days. Of course Chewie is along for the ride. When they arrive on the Planet they are ambushed by Imperials that either have a new secret weapon or, even better, a new Sith leader. While most of the crew escapes a few were killed and one or two are feared to have been taken alive. Sensing the threat, (here's where JJ gets his movie mirror moment) Luke travel to the outer rim to confront our new Sith but falls to him in front of our Young Jedi heroes. Perhaps while Han is away with the new Jedi Knights, you could have Luke revisit the message and spend his time searching through the remains of the old Jedi archives for information pertaining to the message in the distress signal. Maybe it's that they are traveling to the home world of the Sith, maybe the name is of someone dating back to the time of Episodes I-III.
Regardless of how the storyline plays out, I would love to see Luke either searching for and finding or already possessing and viewing archived hologram data from the old Jedi Temple. How cool would it be to see Luke watch a recording of the Ewan McGregor/Obi-Wan Kenobi. While many people were unhappy with Episodes I-III, tying all the eventual 9 movies together would serve Abrams well.
Mos Eisley spaceport: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
It appears Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes held auditions. Excuse me while I go dust off my Omnni Box.You Rebel Scum!
So it is Star Wars Day and Disney released a one minute trailer of the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels show.The Star Wars: Rebels series takes place in the time period between Episodes III and IV. With that being said, it was unclear what this series would consist of but I was relieved to see both a Jedi and a Sith featured during this clip. I hadn't followed the production of Rebels so I was uncertain if there would be any Jedi survivors included in the story.
I'm curious to see if R2-D2 or C-3PO are involved in the story at some point. This could end up being the first Star Wars film or television program not to feature R2-D2 and C-3PO outside of the two Ewok TV movies. I'm curious, with Disney's new EU, are the Ewok movies still considered canon?
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