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Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Officially Announced
eldavojohn writes: "Word was leaking this week of some familiar faces in London hanging out together. Finally today an official cast listing for Star Wars Episode VII was handed down from on high to us mere mortals (Google Cache and Onion AV recap available). From the short release, 'Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.' Let's not bicker and argue about who shot first but instead come to an agreement on expected levels of almost certain disappointment. No, this will not feature the Expanded Universe (EU) — you can now refer to those tales as 'Legends' which are not part of Star Wars canon. Instead prepare yourself for what will likely be the mother of all retcon films."
No?
I am disappointed that they are even making another Star Wars "film."
Most fandoms would be furious at literally the entire storyline beyond six films being tossed aside, and new sequels commissioned using only a handful of the original actors and one original writer.
*Most* fandoms didn't have to go through the prequel trilogy and a series of bad retconny rereleases being made by the original creator himself.
Add the fact that the SWEU is remarkably uneven in quality - while some parts are downright brilliant, there's wide swaths of crap that were still canon because the movies didn't contradict it - and I can completely understand why the general fan reaction to this is "cautious optimism" or "reserved pessimism" rather than nerd rage (there's *some* nerd rage, but not much). My own response is "interested apathy" - it might be good, but I really just can't force myself to care anymore, not the way I used to.
He already tried turning Star Trek into Star Wars, now they are giving him that franchise to ruin too... Star Wars, now with 5000% more lens flare!
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
A long time ago in a galaxy... (unreadable due to lens flare) ....
STAR (unreadable due to lens flare)
Princess Leia (unreadable due to lens flare)....
Spaceship... (unwatchable due to lens flare)
Monster/special effects, jiggly camerawork. Things happen in film for no logical reason and plot holes you could fly the death star through....
This *is* a JJ Abhrams movie after all....
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Thank god they got Kenny Baker. I would hate to see someone else we can't see inside a metal can that makes beeping noises.
I wonder if they got the same key grip?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Maybe it was just me who was hoping that it wasn't a thing of the past.
Why all the snark and angst? The story submission dripped with unwarranted sarcasm ("cast list... handed down to us mere mortals?" What, you wanted them to consult you first?) and negativity ("mother of all retcon films" - the stupid EU stuff was never really canon to be retconned).
I know everyone was disappointed by Episodes 1-3, but let's get over it and give the new movies a chance. Oh, and for the record, yes Episode 1 was utter trash except for about 15 minutes, but Episode 2 was at least marginal and Episode 3 was a decent movie. Attribute all this to George Lucas being a changed person/storyteller and having nobody looking over his shoulder to say "George, that's a stupid idea." (Who elects a queen? And who elects a 14-year-old girl to anything? Oh, and why do you want to prevent Jedis from having kids when using the Force is apparently an inherited trait?) We can all go on about what was wrong with the first three movies, but they were not collectively the unmitigated disaster people love to claim.
I don't think that anyone can deny that George Lucas, in recent years, was an absolutely terrible steward of his own creations - basically "nothing going on" with Star Wars except for an awful animated TV show and EU novels that were a perpetual crapshoot in terms of quality. Star Wars was stagnant and heading downhill in terms of ever building on its legacy. Besides, the EU had run its course - the last novel I read had Han, Luke and Leia running around blowing things up while they practically needed scooters to get around, and the series failed to deliver a really compelling new generation of characters to care about (maybe except Jagged Fel and Ben Skywalker's Sith pseudo-girlfriend).
So the EU was done, George Lucas had run the Star Wars empire into the ground, and it was time to start fresh. There's a new sheriff in town, and I'm OK with that. I know this is heresy here, but I actually liked what J.J. Abrams did with the Star Trek reboot. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with the new Star Wars movies. Yes, I will go into the theater in December 2015 with managed expectations but I don't understand everyone piling on and assuming they will be terrible.
"95% of all Slashdot
On my lawn, you are.
I thought he had to be in everything these days
The EU has always been subject to being tossed out for the films. I mean, I still have a copy of the 1994 "A Guide to the Star Wars Universe". On pages xviii-xx, it has a timeline that establishes the following:
1) C-3PO is 57 years older than Anakin Skywalker.
2) Obi-Wan Kenobi is only five years older than Anakin Skywalker.
3) The Clone Wars ended 17 years before Anakin became Darth Vader and Palpatine became Emperor.
4) Anakin was in his mid-thirties when he fathered Luke & Leia.
How could anybody have anything like a reasonable expectation that things would be different this time?
The original movies have always been kids movies. For us old timers we were teens or less when we saw them and loved them for the action, adventures, swashbuckling laser space fights. As we grew older our glass became rosier and rosier. We then started making Jedi a religion on the census and other squirrel crap nutty stuff like that. The prequels came out and we hated them because they "ruined" our star wars. We all failed to notice that our kids loved them though. Try getting your 6-8 year old to sit through star wars then pop in Phantom Menace and see how long they sit. Star Wars movies were always made for kids to love, we just stopped being kids. Go back and watch other shows that we loved. All out young nerd loves were just that. Let me know how well the original Transformers or GI Joe cartoon holds up. Go find the high school head cheerleader while your at it. She may have a little grey in her hair too.
I saw an interesting fantheory on this subject. To summarize, his theory was that the secret origin of the Jedi order is that force sensitives were growing in number across the galaxy due to the force sensitivity being a heritable trait. The power of the force easily lent itself to megalomaniacal personality development (essentially random people discovering themselves to be akin to gods among men). In order to resolve this growing issue. The Jedi Order was formed as a means of controlling the growth of the force sensitive population, by indoctrinating them with celibacy to cut down on the volume and potency of Force Sensitives in the galaxy, and avoid a need for mass genocide from the fearful majority of non-force sensitives, as well as avoiding too many power-mad force users. Over time, the overarching reason for the formation of the Jedi Order was lost over time, and all that they remember is the specific teachings of celibacy and self-discipline. Force users who simply embraced the gift of the force and welcomed the power it brought were labeled as the enemies of the Jedi Order, and called "Sith" by the Jedi.