It's the Star Wars Episode VII (SWEP7) thread!

April 27th 2014 (EU reboot): http://starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page.html

April 29th 2014 (the cast): http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html

Man, I totally thought this thread was going to be about Finland taking over Europe.

FGR making intentionally confusing thread titles? Well, I never!

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This was deleted too, being in that thread:

And yet here we are again? CM is Smith and FGR is ...?

We should make a thread for Episode VII and all it's recent news such as Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill were all spotted separately in London this weekend.

This news is also related to Episode VII, since it won't follow the EU and the EU will be rewritten according to what the new trilogy brings about.

You can't re-write the existing expanded universe. You can only add new universes to the multiverse.

They could just stop printing all post ROTJ EU and instead write an entirely new and different timeline, and not acknowledge the previous one in any instance, effectively erasing the previously established and replacing it with whatever new things they come up with.

Also, for those interested, here's Mark Hamil, recent picture, growing a beard, lost the belly and most of the double chin.

http://www.starwars7news.com/2014/04/mark-hamill-is-also-in-london.html

They already said they're just rebranding the EU, it's not going anywhere. It just won't be influencing the movies, basically relegated to officially sanctioned fanfics.

Which means that new canon will conflict with the EU in probably much stronger ways than before. I have no problem with most of the EU not being canon, but things such as the Kyle Katarn story line are quite dear to me, and if we don't see another JK because Katarn is no longer part of the canonized EU, then that'll be a tragedy, but we'll probably not see another JK anyways so no need to fret.

Yeah, there's a few things in the EU I'll miss for sure, but in general it's so bloated with garbage that it deserves a mercy killing (or decanonization). Plus "official canon" isn't worth a whole lot w/r/t imaginary stories unless LucasFilm is writing your paychecks haha

I would be just as surprised were Kyle to vanish from all future games as I would be if we ever saw him in a Star Wars film.

Then again, the old LEC is dead, so who knows.

Existing EU will now be branded "Legends".

Also, the stories of the Clone Wars animated series are now officially canon, complete with all its plotholes and lore contradictions.

It's a good thing I don't give a rat's ass about what is "canon" in a fictional universe. I'll leave that to the piss nerds.

Oddly enough today Lucasfilm has said that the new games that are being made are canon.

jason court to star in episodes VII-IX calling it here first

jason court to supply delicious bespoke napa wines to episodes VII-IX wrap parties calling it here first

"What would you do without me, Kyle?"
"I'd be a content old man."

I'll only consider anything Star Wars related to be canonical if George Lucas confirms it to be in line with his vision. Disney calling it canonical doesn't mean squat to me. It's all up to George Lucas and his vision, and that didn't suddenly change when the rights were sold.

I just hope GL comes out to confirm or deny the canonicity of everything released as Star Wars from now on so I know what's canon and what's not. That was so much easier to determine before the rights were sold to Disney, but it shouldn't be a problem if GL just takes the time to comment on it whenever new Star Wars creative material comes out.

I dread the day when GL is no longer with us, because then it might become impossible to distinguish the canon from the not since we can't just ask the guy. It'll require careful examination of what was deemed canonical in the past, and then comparing that to new Star Wars material to determine its probability of aligning with GL's vision.

GL's vision = make toy ads until he can afford to finish Skywalker Ranch.

I love Star Wars but I don't see how people can be that outraged over this. I mean if George Lucas is willing to re-write canon with stuff like 'Greedo shot first' it shouldn't shock anyone that very little consideration is given to the EU.

Also:

http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html

Hey FastGamerr, I was thinking about opening an Episode VII official news thread, but since you beat me to posting the news, I think you should open it instead.

Yeah, I asked CM to change the title of this thread.

You know, once he gets back from eating Skyline chili.

om nom nom nom

To me the biggest surprise is seeing Kenny Baker in the cast. Last time I saw him at Celebration Europe in Essen he didn't look too healthy. Perhaps he will just sit at the side and deliver R2s lines.

I'm just as surprised. I would have thought that R2 would be mostly animatronic/digital today.

Maybe it's just one of those ceremonial things. Like it would be a snub to not have him on board or something.

He was in the prequel. Maybe JJ Abrams wants to pull the CGI back a bit? We can only hope.

He was, in the prequels. Abrams has already said several times that they're planning on filming these much more like the original trilogy by using real sets/props/etc for movies. R2 will probably be in his real physical droid-like self for the majority of the films - except for his ridiculous "insert hoverjet here" scene that I'm sure Lucas will beg Abrams to put in.

In all seriousness though, I'm sure Kenny will reprise the role of R2 in a few scenes with the old cast mates as a tribute to his work ~35 years ago more than anything else. For the rest of the scenes I'm sure they'll just use an actual robot version of R2 that's remote controlled by someone off screen.

[Edit: CM sniped me]

Yes Abrams like's doing things with real sets and props, which are vastly superior to a pure CGI environment. I think his Star Trek films demonstrated this beautifully, as the perfect balance between CGI and live action. Still, there was significant and vast amounts of CGI in those movies, as there will be in these, but unlike the prequels (where there were literally entire sets made of nothing but green/blue elements) it will be properly balanced. Anyhow, I think this is a great cast, and it isn't forcing racial or gender diversity on anyone (if you didn't know, there were rumors that Disney wanted to make a black female the main lead to promote racial/gender diversity), and Abrams is a magnificent director.

Wow.

(Footnote: Nothing about the film's casting is deviant from mainstream American cinema of the 2010s, so I'm not exactly bothered)

eww gross what the ****, don't put that in my stra war

*tips fedora*

What about Max von Sydow as a surprise? Will he be a villain?

I imagine he'll be exorcising some bad midichlorians.

max von sydow is playing the role of gay obi wan kenobi

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with male/female black lead, if the story was originally written that way, but the rumors I read was that near the final stages of the script some Disney execs basically forced the script writers to change the lead to a black female because of a lack of such a main lead in previous films, and that it might be considered racist/sexist to not do such a thing. I guess those rumors were unfounded as I see no evidence of that from this casting. BTW, I mean't gender diversity not sexual diversity (didn't realize they are not the same thing).

guys i just realized something important

billy dee williams is not in the movie

WHERE IS LANDO CALRISSIAN YOU RACISTS????!!!

Yes, I'm also bummed by this. It makes no sense to bring everyone back but him.

Same goes for Alec Guinness.