A New Hope

I thought I was good and done with it.  It was an old flame that didn't have an ember glowing in my heart.  Well, it turns out the spark is back.  Maybe it never left.

It's hard to not get excited about the wide world of opportunities Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, and more importantly, Star Wars, has opened up.  So what better time to dust off the old Monotony blog and gush a little about future.

Post Lucas-ian Star Wars

If that phrase doesn't give you goose bumps, I don't know what will.  There's a reason that the prequels, as truly terrible as they were, didn't put an end to Star Wars.  The universe which George Lucas created is by far one best science fiction universes ever conceived.  Whatever existential angst Lucas brought to his beloved fans with Jar Jar Binks pails in comparison to the love we have of X-Wings and Lightsabres.  I mean, it's a universe where fire burns in space, every planet is a short hyperspace jump away, and space samauris can lift you off your feet with their minds.  What's not to love?!

And that's the first point I want to make: there is a treasure trove of great things to work with for making movies in the Star Wars universe, and George Lucas was the one thing getting in the way from those stories making it on screen.  We've already seen many of them off the silver screen.  Timothy Zahn and Kevin Anderson wrote phenomal novels with Lucas's characters.  Bioware built a Star Wars universe that was totally fresh and yet totally familiar, and made us care about characters who had never seen a single moment in any Star Wars movie.  Just imagine the likes of Avenger's director Joss Whedon, or Pixar/MI4 director Brad Bird, both go-to directors of Disney properties, getting a chance to tell their Star Wars story.  Ok sure, the Ewok movies were awful, but entire generations of JJ Abrams-like directors grew up wanting to make Star Wars movies, and now they have a chance, meddling-free.

Likely and Unlikely

As wide a world as the opportunities are, it's probably best to do a reality check of what Disney and the unknown creative talent behind the new movies will likely end up doing, and will almost definitely not do.

Unlikely: Sex, Drugs, and Tie Fighters

I'll admit, the first thing that came to mind was a dark, gritty, Chris Nolan-esque Star Wars.  As cool as that could be, the one big thing to remember is that when Disney bought Star Wars, it most likely wasn't just because it saw billion dollar, Dark Knight box office totals in the future.  Disney knows what Space Ball's so bluntly parodied, Star Wars' vaster profit potential is "moichendizing."  That said, it's likely that films in the future, especially 7, 8, & 9 will be purposefully kid friendly, PG or soft PG-13 affairs.  As much as I would love to see Star Wars incorporate more mature adult themes, I imagine that the folks at Disney will be careful to remember their target audience.

Likely: Expand Universe of some sorts

I don't really expect to see direct adaptations of EU books, as much as I'd love to see the Thrawn triology on screen.  I do however expect to see elements and characters brought out from the expanded universe.  It wouldn't at all surprise me to see Mara Jade, the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, fleets of clone ships, or even the Solo children.  There are decades, even centuries of post-Retun of the Jedi lore to draw from, and with the popularity of the books with the hardcore Star Wars base, I expect to see directors dip into that well for inspiration.  They would be foolish not to.

Unlikely:  That Star Wars live-action TV show we've been promised

It's entirely possible for the longer future, but even though Disney has a TV station at its beckon call, it's unlikely to be in the works any time soon.  Prequel product Rick MacCallum gave a great candid talk about the TV show only a year back and was clear that it wasn't for lack of stories or lack of talent to get a live-action Star Wars TV show off the ground, it was just too expensive.  The level of effects, practical or CG, to produce a calliber of Star Wars TV show that we'd expect based on the films is still just too expensive to be sustainable.  Great sci-fi shows like Battlestar Galactica or Firefly got away on thinner budgest by build worlds that were pretty easy to shoot practially for a broad majority of scenes.  Firely in particular did a great job of making a world look real and lived in on a micro bugdet, but Star Wars has a ceratin look and feel and expectations associated with it, and the tech just isn't cheap enough yet.  That's why Disney has been pretty silent on the subject, and I expect they will continue to be for the next decade or so.

Likely: Original actors in Episode 7, 8, and 9

They may not be pretty, but they are far from dead :).  I could probably spend an entire post speculating about what Episodes 7, 8, and 9 might be, but the reallity is the original actors are probably too old to be swashbuckling stars we remember.  Personally, I think Leia and Solo are probably off the table.  Carrie Fisher, lord luv her, is probably not fit to return to the screen, and I think Harrison Ford might be done with reliving old characters after Indy.  Mark Hamill, however has kept up a lively career as a voice actor, and seeing as he is the only freakin' jedi left alive at the end of Return of the Jedi, I'm betting we almost definitely see Jedi Master Skywalker in some capacity in these episodes.  Older and grisled, but definitely there.  We probably will continue to see R2D2 and C3P0, as long as Anthony Daniels can keep doing the voice... which is basically just HIS voice, and I'm betting Peter Mayhew can still put on the Wookie suit.  Williams will probably also continue to score the films as long as he lives.  That's a good thing.

No.  No Jar Jar.  Just. No.

Unlikely:  Star Wars original edition cuts

Give it a rest folks.  We all know Han shot first.  It doesn't really matter anymore.

Likely: More Star Wars in the Disney parks

Is this even a question?

It is your destiny

I'm still kind of in shock about the whole thing.  I've joked about it in the past never thinking that one day Star Wars might actually be opened up to the creative minds of my generation.  However, when I think about it, it makes total sense.  Star Wars as a brand has showed no signs of slowing down in the 7 years since the last movie.  Cartoon Network has seen great success with the animated Clone Wars series.  Star Wars merchandise is still as popular as ever.  There's even a Star Wars Angry Birds coming out!  With Lucas clearly weary of the movie business, and a franchise that refuses to be unpopular even after three unpopular movies, I'm suprised it took this long for someone wake up and offer a buy-out.

It's time get excited, get out the Jedi robe from mothballs, and dust off the lightsaber.  A world of opportunity just got opened to some of the most creative minds in film making, and if Disney can show the wisdom to put Joss Whedon at the helm of the Avengers, just think what they could do for that far, far away galaxy.

Obiwan was right.  The force will be with you.  Always.