A long time ago George Lucas was the man behind Star Wars. Now it’s going to be J.J. Abrams.
The news is spreading from one Star Wars fan to the next faster than Han Solo made the Kessel Run – J.J. Abrams has officially signed onto directing the next new Star Wars film. Episode VII will be the beginning of the new trilogy that Disney had announced they were going to do after they acquired the rights from Lucas. The new adventure in a galaxy far, far away is scheduled for release in 2015.
This announcement is somewhat surprising since Abrams had previously ruled himself out as a directing candidate for the new the film not too long ago. His name was just one of dozens of potential directors that rumors swirled around who would conceivably be helming the start of a new Star Wars series.
That pretty much encompasses everyone who directed a film in the last ten years including Brad Bird, Matthew Vaughn, Colin Trevorrow, Joss Whedon, Steven Spielberg, Zack Snyder, Jon Favreau, Joe Johnston, Guillermo Del Toro and probably little kids who make puppet shows for YouTube.
Abrams had dismissed his interest in directing a Star Wars movie back in November. “I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things. I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.”
There’s one big piece of the new Star Wars puzzle in place. I haven’t read any further details whether Abrams will direct more than one film in this trilogy. So that will be something that we’ll find out down the road I guess.
As far as the choice of Abrams goes, I like it. I’ve liked Abrams since his days back on Felicity. (Hey the first two seasons of that show I dug!). Nowadays Abrams is able to take these big franchises (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible) and make them some pretty entertaining films. Not to mention his TV work that attracts devoted fans.
He obviously loves the original films. He’s often talked about the influence and respect he has for them. It should be interesting to see what he’ll do with Star Wars.
I do find if kind of odd that he’s going to jump from Star Trek right into Star Wars. A change of approach is going to have to happen with Star Wars compared to Trek. The tone will have to be adjusted. I just can’t picture Star Wars having as much lens flare and shaky cam as Abrams’ Star Trek.
As I’ve said before I still have my love of the original Star Wars, but for any newer adventures (newer than 1983 that is) I’m somewhat indifferent towards where the saga goes. So I’m not as hyped up for a new trilogy as hardcore Star Wars fans, but I’m certainly curious about it. Now with this Abrams news it is going to be the beginning of an endless series of headlines and announcements that we’ll all be following until this flick makes it to theaters.
Who will be in the cast? Will this series be as CGI heavy as Lucas’ previous trilogy? Will Abrams include the Gungans? Will all that midichlorians jazz be ignored? Any chance we’ll see some intergalactic slave bikinis?
There are so many questions left to be answered about this new trilogy.
I went to see the new trilogy in theaters mostly because I was a sucker for lightsaber action, leaving the latter two films w/ buyer's remorse. Any shred of criticism I have has already been covered by the outstanding Plinkett reviews.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
Aside from the original trilogy, my fanfare for Star Wars has mostly been sustained by its Extended Universe, from comic books featuring ancient Jedi and Crimson Guards to video games like the KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC and the JEDI KNIGHT series.
Despite these, my favoritism has always swung towards the Star Trek universe, but I have to wonder: If Abrams knocks Star Wars out of the park similar to his first (and hopefully second) Star Trek, could we conceivably see a crossover with both franchises in the next decade or two? Not since King Kong vs. Godzilla would such a clash have happened I think.
George Lucas' decision to resurrect one of the most beloved franchises of all time was a misguided movie travesty, but know this – the Star Wars we all fell in love with died a long time ago, and Disney's buyout is guaranteed to prolong its drawn-out demise even further, by focusing on Star Wars, Disney will pass on a lot of original ideas and that's too bad.
Probably going to be more coherent and possibly more entertaining than the prequels (I'm going with Red Letter Media's view that Empire was best because Lucas didn't direct – he did a lot of directing on Jedi). But what story potential is really left by this time? I thought Star Trek worked up to a point, but it did have the advantage of going back to the 1960's TV series and thereby getting a nostalgia pass over flaws. Don' think the same approach will really work with Star Wars, so I'm not sure exactly what Abrams involvement will ultimately mean.