Well, it looks as though I've broken my promise about more than one post per every three months. Finding quality computer time is a challenge for me even though we are all living in the digital age. Let's just say some of us are not as digitally gifted as others.
But, I find it quite hard to not post something in what could be considered the second coming of the golden age of Star Wars. You may remember quite a while back I posted on what we knew and didn't know about Disney's upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, yet to be titled geek-fest due out December of 2015.
Outside of Disney finally revealing that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew will be reprising their rolls from the original trilogy, none of the other casting rumors I wrote about were true at all. In fact Disney FINALLY spilled the beans on the other main cast members. Many of them are young and unknown.
Adam Driver, John Boyega, Domnhall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Daisy Ridley are the noobs who will find themselves thrust into the immortality that is Star Wars fandom.
What their rolls are is another mystery that Disney is holding close to their chests and we'll probably have to wait another six months before that information is revealed.
There are two more mystery roles that will be portrayed by well known actors to the geek genres. Max von Sydow and Andy Serkis will be bringing some geek loving familiarity to the new trilogy. Sydow is well known as Ming the Merciless from the 1980's Flash Gordon film (Flash! AhhhhhAhhhhh...Savior of the universe!!!.... Earworm...You're welcome.). He also did voice work on the epic video game that I can't stop playing long enough to post a blog once in a blue moon, Skyrim. Serkis is best known for doing the voice and body movements for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films as well as Peter Jackson's King Kong and the newest Planet of the Apes movies.
Of course, immediately after the casting announcements there was a rumor floating about that there is one more big role that has to be cast for the film that is a female lead role.
That all went down a month ago. More recently Disney announced their views on where the Expanded Universe would fall within its relationship with all of the new upcoming story content that will be released with the sequels coming. Or perhaps I should say how much of it will no longer make it into the traditional Star Wars cannon.... and that's to say, none of it. Yep, the EU of Star Wars is being pushed to the nether-relams to make way for original content.
I know what you're all wondering with baited breath that has kept you up all night in a cold sweat of anxiety..... "Zangz, good fellow, what is you're take on all of this?"
Well I'll tell you.....
First off, I'm ECSTATIC that Disney finally nailed down the original cast for the sequels. I was a bit worried that Ford was going to pull a no-show on the whole ordeal since he can be a bit of a curmudgeon on things involving Star Wars. But, somehow they pulled him into the wonderful madness and the old gang is all back.
As for the noobs, Iv'e only seen two of them in action. John Boyega was great in Attack the Block and Domnhall Gleeson is recognizable from the Harry Potter series as one of the Weasleys. The rumor is that Boyega may be playing a young Jedi and that Gleeson could be a relative of the Skywalker clan. He does have some Skywalker looks to him.
Adam Driver's most notable work to date has been the HBO series Girls. I've never had the inclination to watch the show, but I've heard from reliable sources that the character he plays is quite odd and quirky. Disney has confirmed he will be playing one of the main baddies in the film. By his looks he could certainly pass for a dark force user...with an odd quirkiness to him.
Oscar Issac has had supporting roles in a few films I have seen (Sucker Punch, The Bourne Legacy, Robin Hood) and as memory serves he has pretty decent acting chops. There is the belief that he may be playing a villain as well, perhaps due to his particularly douchey Prince John in Robin Hood.
Daisy Ridley is pretty brand spankin' new. She's mostly done English TV series, so it will be a pleasure to see this fresh face being introduced to the world in a movie of this magnitude. People are banging around the idea that she is to play the daughter of Leia and Han. She certainly has the looks to pass as their daughter.
The other big female mystery role rumor is growing less and less viable since they are full bore into shooting the film now and no one has heard a squeak about the role since. Another wait and see situation.
Ultimately, I'm glad that they chose to cast respectable and not quite as well recognizable actors for the new roles and not well known, name actors. It harkens back to when Lucas cast virtual unknowns of the time, Hamill, Ford and Fisher. and I'm so glad that the rumor of Zac Efron playing a big role was proven to be false. Keep your High School Musical out of my Star Wars, Disney!
Let's move on to the whole Expanded Universe controversy. It was recently announced that the EU would not be recognized or continued on in the current cannon of Star Wars mythos. The current cannon is the Star Wars movies, The Clone Wars animated TV show and the upcoming animated Rebels TV show.
I have to be brutally honest and a bit abrasive here when I say, I never really delved into much of the EU due to the fact that it became an epic soap opera where you had to read twenty or so novels about Luke, Leia and Han's children, cousins and second cousins removed becoming Jedi and Sith and whatnot. Out of the gate it seemed all too daunting for my simple mind. Hell, I can't even keep the characters form Game of Thrones together, and I'm only watching the TV show.
The very little of the EU I read took place during the storyline of the original trilogy. "Tales from the Mos Isley Cantina" and "Shadows of the Empire" are pretty much where I left off.
To an extent I feel the pain of Star Wars fans who invested a metric butt-load of time getting into the EU. I sort of feel you pain. I know how I felt as a James Bond fan when the rebooted the series and stared fresh as though Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me never took place. But, at the same time, the James Bond films became fresh again.
In the coming year and a half we'll be blessed with many leaks, rumors and news of Episode VII that will have us guessing, theorizing and dreaming of things to come. Perhaps I never learned my lesson from the prequels, but I'm already holding back from bursting with an orgazmatron of geek happiness about the sequels and subsequent side project movies (A Boba Fett movie done in the style of a spaghetti western, Man with No Name, type of vibe? YES, PLEASE!) that are coming our way sooner than later. No matter what, these are exciting times for us Star Wars geeks!
That is all.
Zangz.
