Rumours about what may or may not being happening with the seventh live-action, theatrical installment of the Star Wars saga have been flying across the internet faster than the Millennium Falcon, and she’s fast enough for you, old man.
We’ve been told that Darth Vader is being resurrected and that it’s “for sure” going to be about the New Jedi Order, or it’s going to feature Thrawn, or it’s going to have Han Solo die in it.
Who knows if any of that is true, though for most of it I’d say it’s not likely.
What we DO know isn’t all that much, but I want to start a weekly column about all the rumours and try to sort fact from fiction. There’s a decade of this coming up ahead and we don’t want to be misinformed in anyway. We want to know exactly what we’re getting into.
I will do my best to avoid major spoilers. Not because I want to spare you at all, but because I want to know as little about the actual story of this film going in as I can. I’ll report on casting and creatives being attached, but I won’t report on anything story related beyond characters involved and rough synopses. I just don’t want to know details.
So, as far what is officially confirmed:
- In 2015 we will be getting Star Wars: Episode VII
- Episodes VIII and IX will come every 2-3 years after that, with more Star Wars movies beyond
- It is, at this point, going to be written by Michael Arndt, one of the minds behind Toy Story 3
- No director is yet selected, though it seems as though they’ve already narrowed it down to a couple of contendors
- George Lucas has discussed the film with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, though their involvement is nothing more than speculation
- Reports of Harrison Ford wanting to reprise the role of Han Solo are, as far as I can tell, unsubstantiated
- Lucasfilm will be producing 2-3 movies per year (no word on how many of them will be Star Wars movies)
At this point, everything else is speculation.
The only thing that half-concerns me is the involvement of Michael Arndt. He won an Academy Award for writing what I thought was one of the worst movies of all time: Little Miss Sunshine. I thought Toy Story 3 was great, though, and having creatives like George Lucas behind him in the same way he had Pixar is comforting to me.
Aside from that, all I still have is excitement for what is to come. We’ll be back with more rumours and official news as it happens.
I would like to ask you guys though, would you prefer weekly roundups of this information? Or would you prefer tiny stories as they happen?
In the meantime, the Force will be with you, always.