Recently, the news that Star Wars, one of the most popular movie franchises of all time, was sold to the Walt Disney Company for over $4 billion exploded onto the Internet. “For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next… It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers,” said George Lucas in an article on Entertainment Weekly.
Michael Arndt, Star Wars: Episode VII’s Screenwriter
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (who gained recognition for his work on Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3) will be the new screenwriter for the latest film in an upcoming Star Wars sequel trilogy. Named Star Wars: Episode VII, it will be the first installment in a trilogy chronicling events after what happened in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Scheduled to be released in 2015, Star Wars: Episode VII will be the first film released under Disney. Though Lucas will serve as the creative consultant for the upcoming Star Wars sequel trilogy, he will no longer be the director (as of this writing, no one has been chosen to direct any of the films in the sequel trilogy).
The three main leads from the first Star Wars movie (filmed in 1977), namely Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, were said to be open to reprising their respective roles as Luke, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. Mark Hamill noted that though there may be people opposed to the idea of the three of them getting back together for another Star Wars trilogy, he said there are many who still want to see them battle it out in space one more time.
“I can see both sides of it… Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and that’s the way it should be — and it’s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, there’s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material,” said Hamill in another Entertainment Weekly article.
The Future of Star Wars
The change in ownership may be a sign that the old franchise still has some new ideas left to explore. Taking advantage of the vast wealth of science fiction available, perhaps Disney can use this chance to showcase a story still worth telling to a new generation of moviegoers. Indeed, many of today’s critically acclaimed directors rose to fame with groundbreaking forays into television, movies, and animation, as noted by Bloomberg.
Although, perhaps the sentiments of many are echoed in the words of Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2) when he told Entertainment Weekly that, “The idea of another trilogy that further shrouds the Force in mystery as its secrets are lost to time – that’s extremely compelling… I want so bad for it to be good. Can you imagine?” Or maybe these words by J.J. Abrams (director of Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, and Super 8) from the same Entertainment Weekly article embodies the feelings of other Star Wars fans even more succinctly when he said, “Part of me? Thrilled. Part of me? Terrified. Most of me? Thrillified.”
(Featured Image and Article Images Credit: Lucas Film via Yahoo Movies)
