Star Wars Episode VII

I haven't actually "written" too many blog posts recently, but I felt I had to say something about the recent Star Wars news...

I was raised on Star Wars. I am even old enough to have seen Return of the Jedi at the cinema on its original release! I had the toys, the books and the videos (including the recordings of the TV!). I had the theatrical releases and the special editions on VHS. I went to the cinema to see the special edition releases in 1997. I've played the video games old and new just to keep getting a fix of the adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids.

So, in 1999, I eagerly awaited the release of Star Wars: Episode I. I watched it and, with a generation of 20 somethings, was completely and utterly disappointed. Episode II improved the experience and Episode III condensed 90% of the trilogy's story into 2 hours. It was pretty good, but the whole thing could have been so much more.

Since then, there have been some animated additions to the franchise, including a feature film (which I own, but have only seen 2 or 3 times). But nothing has replaced the excitement that rose up in me and everyone else when Episode I was announced.

Until now.

Disney have indeed bought Lucasfilm for a sum north of $4billion! George is now an even richer man than before. This has been joined by the announcement of further Star Wars films, including Episodes VII, VIII and IX!

I've always known that Mr Lucas had plans for Eps I, II and III as well as for VII, VIII and IX. It's been written about before we even knew that Jar Jar Binks would be the bane of the fanboy's existence. But now, we will finally know what George has planned for our favourite heros!

If it has our favourite heros involved. There is now a lot of speculation over who will be in these films, who will write them, who will direct them and what on earth the story will be. Will it be based on a set of books? Video games? Who knows? Well, George knows... We are all concerned, but we're all interested. Like Helen O'Hara wrote in her article on Empire "everyone’s going to be interested in a new Star Wars movie." It's that simple! And I'm more interested than ever.

I love Star Wars and everything about the Galaxy that it exists in. Or existed in, a long time ago! In all fairness, I can't wait to see what happens...

This is what George Lucas has to say: