Crossguard Lightsaber

The Future of Star Wars

President of Lucasfilm and Star Wars brand manager Kathleen Kennedy recently spoke about the future of the franchise. She spoke, but nothing was really said.

Specifically, she was asked if the spin-off films will distort the narrative of what is now becoming known as ‘the saga’. Fans already know it’s a big galaxy, and Ms. Kennedy confirmed that it was large enough for “endless opportunities” of new stories and characters, but the subject under discussion was whether we should expect two entirely separate threads of films and tie-ins or a complex weave of story-lines in the way the Marvel franchise has been handling the Avengers brand(s). This is what she said:

"George was so clear as to how that works. The canon that he created was the Star Wars saga. Right now, episode seven falls within that canon. The spin-off movies… exist within that vast universe that he created. There is no attempt being made to carry characters (from the standalone films) in and out of the saga episodes. Consequently, from the creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George made pretty clear."

It’s a fairly vague ‘for the time being/may be subject to change without notice’ response, but then how could it be otherwise?

Star Wars is being re-vamped but not ‘rebooted’ in the current sense. No one is re-imagining George Lucas’ creation, they’re recreating it. At least that’s what millions of fans are assuming and there’s no evidence so far to the contrary. Abrams is, as usual, being highly secretive. I don’t see any benefit in it myself if, as we’ve been told today, the script is finished. Why not throw a few bones to the fans? They must now know if Hamill, Ford and Fisher are in it and releasing that information would increase talk and speculation (i.e. hype, which is free magical advertising that makes people really want to see your film), and JJ Abrams knows keeping secrets can have an adverse effect, as was the case with the deliberately created yet anti-climactic (non)surprise that [SPOILER ALERT] Benedict Cumberbatch was in fact Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Of course, a lot of fans are now hoping he's secretly playing Thrawn in Episode VII. He isn't. 

Or maybe there are a few red herrings in the mix already and speculation and rumour has led us up the garden path. Maybe the script isn’t really finished, or there are several modular versions with different combinations of characters pending the final agreements. Who knows?

Artoo knows, as usual. But he never tells.

Back to Kathleen Kennedy. I’d say her comments indicate that at this time they don’t want to limit their options or tie their hands. They want as much free rein as they can maintain in order to keep the franchise flexible and give the writers as much creative scope as possible, while at the same time maintaining a cohesive brand. Can’t argue with that.

So, while we wait, here's something to remind us what we love about Star Wars.

Star Wars Episode VII - what to keep, what to drop?

Today io9 asked what would you keep in and leave out of the new Star Wars sequel.

These are my thoughts:

Main characters - Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie. R2D2 & C3PO are still in service but falling to bits.

Opening scene: in space. Big ship fighting little ship, a nod to ANH.

The Empire are still around. Only minor changes to uniforms and equipment –they hate individuality and change!

New TIE fighters have no shields! Show them as they are – fast and numerous, like a swarm of flies around the slower, tougher fighters.

Ignore EVERYTHING from the TIE Fighter games!

I loved the game, but to make solo play possible they did some weird things.

A power vacuum after Palpatine’s death allowed the New Republic to gain a foothold, but soon they were fighting a defensive battle against the re-formed Empire.

At first the Imperial forces split into factions, then someone rose to power. He is the film’s main villain. Not Thrawn. Not a Force-user. More like Tarkin.

This may be Hugo Weaving's role.

New management and reduced numbers means the Empire could relaxthe non-human rule and allow near-human personnel. An opportunity to please fans a little by showing some blue-skinned Imperials.

Include women Imperials! All ranks, including stormtroopers.

Women front-line soldiers on both sides.

Control of the galaxy is up for grabs and the good guys are currentlylosing. The heavily populated worlds are committed to sides so the battles are foughton frontier worlds.

Not Tatooine again!! Some other backwater planet with a simple climate.

No world-destroying super-weapons!

Force-users are incredibly rare!

Leia is the boss Jedi. Yes, Leia! Luke is out looking for Force-sensitives. What he finds worries him (tricky issue here. We need one or more Dark Jedi and there HAS to be a good, simple reason they exist).

Or Leia is the new Dark Jedi and Empress of the Galaxy. She's going to have a harder time forgiving Darth Vader than Luke. She saw none of his good side and plenty of his bad. She might despise the Jedi for letting Anakin down and despise the Sith for corrupting him. In her anger she could attempt to purge the galaxy of all traces of both and in doing so slip to the Dark Side herself while trying to do something for the greater good.

The New Jedi Order is radically different. Wiser, trains young adults, allows emotions but teaches control.

Luke’s padawan is his niece, Leia’s daughter. Leia’s padawan is Luke’s son. Only at the end of Episode VII do they become Jedi Knights, in a ceremony (a nod to ANH) and a set-up for the next film where they become the main characters.

No one under 40 is allowed to be a Jedi Master!

Introduce various rogues and shady characters – smugglers,bounty hunters, assassins. Most people on the frontier worlds are either rogues, villains or trying to ignore the war. Show how the war comes to them and they have to choose a side.

Boba Fett is still alive. He shot his way out of the Sarlacc when everyone had gone. Kill him off in a climactic showdown with Han.

Han shoots first!

After an epic fight, intercut with Luke and niece in a lightsaber fight against a villain that will somehow lead to the plot of the next film (Dark Jedi?), Fett dies but mortally wounds Han. He dies in Leia’s arms. Put in a clever bit of dialogue about their love that ends with Han’s last words – “I know.” Not a dry eye in the house.

Link the Boba Fett fight and the lightsaber fight with a crushing defeat of the main villain’s plans. Victory for the good guys, butonly just. The Empire is beaten this time, bad guys in disarray, but will return in the next films.

Drop the politics.

Nothing about taxes.

Shady characters show their true colours and either becomegood guys or bad guys. White hats and black hats – no one wears a grey hat forlong.

Battle scenes are not CGI showcases. Keep them simple. Less is more!
References to previous films are subtle. Enough to establish the pedigree. Keep it natural. If it feels forced drop it.

"No, I Am Your Father! That's what I should've said!"

Click on image for full size

Thank you to Ian Smith for the conversation that inspired this silly idea and for suggesting a meme of famous quotes going wrong.

Here's the text in full:

“Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father. Look… When Obi Wan chopped off my legs… You see, this… all this… the heavy breathing and the robot limbs… I suppose I’m more machine than man now. When we were at the first Death Star… Oops! Shouldn’t have said that! I mean THE Death Star… Anyway, when I was trying to shoot down your fighter and kill you I swear I had NO IDEA who you were. I thought: “well the force is definitely strong with this one!”, but how was I supposed to know who you were? No one told me about you! Obi Wan never said a thing. I mean, we hadn’t talked in twenty years, but he knew where I was. Maybe he was worried about that whole “circle is now complete” thing and the striking down… Do you know what happened to the body, by the way? He was standing right there and then after I killed him he just disappeared! Nothing! You were watching, right? Where did the body go? Anyway, I had absolutely no idea who you were until my master told me. He was going to have you killed! But I talked him out of it, because, I know it’s hard to believe right now, but I do care about you. It’s not easy for me to show it. I have a lot going on right now. I have… anger issues. But I meditate now and I’m getting better. Well, I did Force Choke Ozzel to death from my meditation chamber earlier, so I still have some way to go, but I accept that and I am making progress. I’m trying, and that’s the main thing. And the Dark Side, it’s just SO powerful! And the whole anger thing with the Dark Side is quite a combination, but sometimes things get a bit out of hand. We don’t actually do that much with the Dark Side though to be honest, except lightning and the chokes. Lots of chokes actually. I’ll teach you that one, *heh heh*. What I’m trying to say here is, this isn’t how I wanted it to be. I never meant for all this to… My master promised me he’d teach me how to save the ones I loved. As long as I, you know… He wanted me to betray my friends and my pregnant wife, and there were these younglings... But by then all Jedi were declared enemies of the Republic so it wasn’t that bad. And it was for the best because I was trying to protect everyone! You can see that, right? That was just before we dismantled the Republic and I helped the Emperor take control of the galaxy. I know this is hard to understand, you weren’t there, but the biggest enemy of the Republic then WAS the Republic. Sounds insane, I know, but I swear that’s how it was and we had to DO something. But I didn’t do any of it for me! Can you understand what I mean? I took a new master and tried to kill my best friend, but it was the only option I had. Everything in the galaxy was a mess and I don’t think I’d been thinking completely straight since the thing with the Sand People and your grandma. That was absolutely my own decision, though. And they asked for it! Have you ever been to Tatooine? It’s a hole. I was born there and I met your mother there. Wait, do you even know about your mother? Did Obi Wan tell you anything about her? The whole THING was about her! She was so beautiful. I thought she was an angel when I first saw her. Ha! I was just a kid and she was a teenager. She’d come to my town with Obi Wan because they had trouble with their ship. Actually there was this whole thing about taxes and people trying to secede from the Republic. Eventually we annihilated their army, which is kind of ironic when you think about what we did as soon as the war was over. But anyway, there was this trade embargo on her planet… Look, do you want to go and get a coffee or something? This isn’t the best place to have this conversation and I can tell I’m making a complete mess of it. Your arm must be killing you! We should get that looked at. I’m sorry I chopped your hand off, and trying to freeze you just now and everything… It’s totally safe by the way! I know because we tested it on your friend! Ok, that came out wrong. Look, let me start again from the top…”

What Makes Star Wars Star Wars?

This is my checklist for the 2015 Star Wars sequel, the as yet unnamed Episode VII

What do we know and love about Episodes IV-VI? The story is simple, things are black and white. Ok, light and dark.

Bad Guys are cruel and come in two styles:

Oppressors:
English Nazis attended by American junior Nazis and faceless drones.
No one smiles unless their evil plan is about to succeed.
Their evil plans never succeed.

Scum & Villainy:
Revolting aliens, cool humans, scary monsters. Scruffy gangsters all. They laugh when others suffer.

“He’s the brains, sweetheart!”
Good Guys aren’t always so good, but they do the right thing:
Classic all-American heroes, short on schemes and long on courage.
Relaxed mavericks or zealous newbies, they all have some growing up to do. Luckily there are mentor types on hand to guide them, and then die.
Supported by trustworthy WW2 Allied forces, they fight against terrible odds and win.

Tech:
Well-used, covered in unfathomable ‘greeblies’, with no fixtures, fittings or fastenings in sight
Impossible to tell what button does what or even what a display screen is displaying. On the rare occasion a screen is visible, the display is very basic.
There are no Health & Safety considerations whatsoever!
There is a very cool spaceship.

Things that need to change:
There is only one person of ethnicity in the galaxy.
When women do appear they need rescuing.

What I definitely do not want to see:
• Roddy McDowell as a cloned Emperor Palpatine building a third Death Star which gets destroyed by two guys, their sidekick mutual girlfriend/sister and a big, non-speaking alien.
• A bunch of Force Ghosts hanging out, like the dead princes in Stardust.
• A blue alien in charge of what’s left of the Empire.
• Tattooine as the bright centre of the galaxy. Again.
• Anyone saying “Yippee!”

What I want to see:
• Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford.
• Jedi Master Luke Skywalker mentoring a Padawan. A female one would be good.
• The Millennium Falcon, patched up and still in service, used by the new heroes after Han Solo builds up their expectations then reveals the ‘hunk of junk’ he’s giving them to use.
• Chewbacca with grey fur.
• Leia as a Jedi.
• A film that is recognisably Star Wars and rooted in the original trilogy, true to their spirit and style (well, the first two anyway), but not just a re-hash of Episode IV.

Am I asking too much? No! Of course not! The producers and the director will be paid millions and, if the original cast are involved, I’ll bet Episode VII breaks all box office records. They have at least two years to get it right. It’s worth thinking it through properly and getting the fans on board. Yes, they will still make money. Do it right and they could make history too.

(Edit 21.12.2012)

Costume:
Let’s all first agree to forget the epic continuity error that was Ben Kenobi’s Tattooine desert peasant wear becoming the basis of the Jedi Order uniform in the prequels.
…
Actually, let’s just spend a little time with it first.
Ben Kenobi and Yoda go into hiding for 20 years…AND THEY STAY IN UNIFORM THE WHOLE TIME!
In the original trilogy the robes are seen on several non-Jedi. Uncle Owen dresses this way, as do several of the background characters in Mos Eisley. Even in the prequels many Tattooine residents are seen dressed in a similar fashion. Because light, cheap fabrics in voluminous layers is what poor people wear in deserts.
http://jimdavies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-jedi-should-dress.html
This stupid costume decision wasn’t always the plan. George Lucas had other (better) ideas, but dropped them in favour of keeping the Jedi “instantly recognisable”. Follow this link for a chance to say “Oh for f…. Why didn’t he stick with the original plan???”

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/lucas-original-jedi-plan.50006663/
If Jedi costumes in Episode VII follow the same desert robe theme, as I suspect they will, it will at least be justified because Luke only encounters Ben and Yoda while they’re dressed in desert clothes (floor-length clothing in a swamp, Master Yoda? Is that such a good idea?).

A monk in simple robes is a well known real world thing and it could add to an atmosphere of humility the Jedi badly need to hold onto in the sequels. It’ll probably be the ONLY token of humility, though, because Jedi are thugs.
In the prequels the Jedi rough people up, intimidate and manipulate them. They get their own way by strong-arm tactics supporting a corrupt and ineffective Republic while easily switching between roles as law enforcement and military commanders. If there is a New Republic, it will be interesting to see whether the Jedi will become the bullies they were before. If not, if they maintain a humble disposition as shown by Ben Kenobi in Episode IV and by Luke in Episode VI, even in the face of death, perhaps it will justify all that nonsense and slaughter after a prophecy said The Chosen One would ‘return balance to The Force’. Maybe the Jedi were on the wrong path and needed to be purged; the Sith were, according to George, like a cancer sapping life from The Force and needed to be removed. Seems a bit of a harsh way to do it though. So now what?
The problem is how to include the mandatory lightsabre battles without reviving the Sith and making an even bigger nonsense of the prequels. I predict at least one previously unknown former Jedi (like Count Dooku) who escaped the slaughter due to his (it will almost certainly be a man) inactive status. There’ll be a complex reason why he left the Jedi Order and why he now feels he can reappear with a red lightsabre and start a ruckus, but he may just appear in a black costume with a bad temper and we’ll get no further explanation. I think I prefer the second option.
So, on to the other costumes.

Arguably the most iconic things in the films are the legions faceless armoured minions. Stormtroopers quite possibly inspired a generation or two of film-makers and costume-makers to learn their trades. I know they were the main reason I became a costume prop-maker, along with several of my friends who still work in that field. Stormtroopers and TIE fighter pilots are my absolute favourite things about the original trilogy. I’ve wanted a Stormtrooper costume since I was eight. The 501st are a testament to the sustained popularity of the costumes.
http://www.501st.com/

Will there be Stormtroopers in Episode VII? I hope so, but I may be hoping for too much. Do we want a new type of minion or a familiar one? Will using the old ones make it look like they’re not trying? And that 40 years have gone by and the enemy are still in the same suits? This could be a deal maker or breaker for me, but I honestly don’t know what they should do.
I do want to see weird, complicated hairstyles on the women though!