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Star Wars: What Is and Isn’t Canon, and Why it Matters to You

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Canon; Essentially the events that unfold in any given tale that are part of the official storyline, whether that be a novel, a film, a video game, etc. 

Now, many Star Wars fans rejoiced when news broke that Disney had acquired the rights to make more Star Wars films. It also crushed others. With the announcement that when Disney purchased the rights, also came the announcement that nearly everything the fans knew as the Star Wars Expanded Universe was essentially made non-canon and re-branded as Star Wars Legends. Some of you may fondly remember the novels in The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn or Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane Trilogy. Maybe you played the video games like Shadows of the Empire or Knights of the Old Republic. All of those stories and maybe more importantly, the characters, that those games and books introduced into the Star Wars universe are no longer official and are only “real” from a certain point of view.

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Star Wars: Episode VII – Officially Pushed to December 2015

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After much speculation, Star Wars Episode VII has officially been moved from its summer 2015 release date to December 18th of that year. This comes on the verge of last week’s news of the writer change-up with J.j Abrams and Episode’s  5 & 6 writer Lawrence Kasdan taking over from Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3). The film’s plot is still tightly under the wraps, but rumors have it that Abrams was very unsatisfied with the initial draft, and felt a need to speed up production to hit its original summer date. Thankfully though, he’ll now get an extra few months to polish up the film and deliver a worthy inclusion to the Star Wars Saga.

Alan Horn, the chairmen of The Walt Disney Studios said in his press release,

[quote]”We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture”.[/quote]

Not only does the report give a release date, it also gives an estimated shooting date and location, which means they’ll also get an extra few months on the effects heavy post production,

[quote]Shooting is scheduled to begin spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios.[/quote]

All in all, this is great news. Yes, it won’t be hitting the usual May release that all previous 6 films have, but it’ll give Abrams more time to deliver a quality picture instead of a rushed one. While this film is almost destined to make bank, it doesn’t hurt that it be separated from the surplus of blockbusters due to hit summer 2015.

This list is long so bear with me: The Fantastic Four reboot, the video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed, Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant Man’, The Terminator reboot, the sequel Jurassic World, the sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron,  the sequel to Independence Day, the sequel Batman vs. Superman, Ted 2, and lastly Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak.

Wow. That is a lot. Now to be fair, the majority of those, besides the Marvel films (which are pretty much locked in), are bound to change in some form. But still, even half those in one summer would be a little insane. Would I like them all to be released? Hell yeah, to see all those one after another, but the film business is about money, so putting them back to back could really hamper their box office, and dissolve chances of more big blockbusters being produced. On the other hand, Star Wars Episode VII will now be in the clear for its pre-Christmas release date.

Star Wars 7 fan art

 

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J.J. Abrams Is Your Star Wars: Episode VII Director

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Get ready fans of the Force, you’re about to meet your newest accompanying special power: Lens flare!

abrams starwars 1That’s right boys and girls, according to several sources, including Deadline.com, the Los Angeles Times, MTV.com, and the Hollywood Reporter, the next installment of the Star Wars saga will be directed by none other than J.J. Abrams. Confused a bit like me? Of course you should be because let me throw out a quote from J.J. Abrams from Empire in December about rumors of his involvement with the storied franchise:

[quote][Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy is a friend and there are no smarter producers,” he said at the time. “It’s in great hands. There were the very early conversations and 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.[/quote]

Obviously something changed. Let’s just assume that Disney threw bunches of money at J.J. to test his actual loyalty to the Star Trek franchise. It is more than apparent Disney wants to launch the franchise in the biggest way possible and landing J.J., who is very well respected amongst all the filmmakers out there under consideration for this epic film series, is a huge get for Kathleen Kennedy and the Mouse House. It was interesting to note that Ben Affleck was listed in the article sources above as a frontrunner to take over the franchise. I think that would’ve been a great choice as well as it would solidify him as one of the premier directors out there but again, if you want the go-to guy in Sci-Fi, Abrams is it (unless you can get Ridley Scott a few decades ago).

abrams starwars 2

I do like the selection of J.J. quite a bit as I do love Lost (even as convoluted as it got), Fringe and everything that he touches (except for the second half of Super 8). I’m also curious how this affects the Star Trek franchise. I think J.J. will be able to separate both franchises and make sure that we see new things as opposed to borrowed elements from both series (which, imagine if that happens, the internet message boards and trolls would be out in full force claiming one is a rip off another, people rioting at Comic-Con, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, that sort of stuff). I have faith in this plan because Michael Arndt is writing the new Star Wars Episode VII and he did a great job in incorporating family in Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine that I think it’ll be great if we follow the story of the Han and Leia kids. Again, we don’t know the actual story yet but we can assume that there will be so many hands involved with Star Wars, Abrams job will be to make sure it all clicks together on the big screen. With the Star Trek franchise, he was pretty much ‘it’ as producer and main decision-maker, let alone director on those flicks so I’m sure we’ll see the differences enough to make both enjoyable experiences.

I will say this, as soon as this news came out, I went “Wow.” He’ll do a good job and with the team behind him, they’ll make sure he doesn’t screw up too. Although if they borrow the monster from Cloverfield and Super 8, I’m going to have a Jar Jar moment. In case you need the information, Star Wars Episode VII is due out on 2015. Start getting excited friends.