Whether you’re a sci-fi fan bubbling away with anticipation and new hope for the 2015 release of Star Wars Episode VII or you’re a bit disenfranchised with the series after the last round of meddling you can’t get away from the fact that from now on there’s going to be a whole lot more force to go around. News, gossip, animated gifs, the first images from the set, teaser trailers and cast announcements are all about to take over the entertainment world as we build up to the return of the Dark Side, so whether you’re a over or a hater you’d better buckle yourself in for a ride back to a galaxy far, far away.
The latest news is that the Star Wars Episode VII UK release date has been scheduled for the 18th December 2015 as the movie goes out on the same day worldwide. That leaves the third installment of The Hobbit trilogy to take the 2014 winter movie crown before the flashing latesabres take over the box office once again in 2015.
If that’s not enough, Lucasfilm, which was sensationally bought by The Walt Disney Company in 2012, has also announced a couple of little snippets about the plot of the film. While it gives little away about full storyline, we now know that the first of the new wave of Star Wars films will be set 30 years after the climactic ending of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, which saw Vader throw the Emperor to his death only to die himself from the force lightning attack that had engulfed him in the process.
The second piece of news is that Star Wars Episode VII will focus on three all new central characters to restart the clocks and bring a whole new take on the Star Wars storyline. However, Disney and Lucasfilm are being tight lipped at the moment about who the three new characters are, how old they are or how their story begins and with such a long lead in time to the release date next year it could be some time before we find out too much more.
However, with the recent stream of auditions and the fact that principle photography is about to start in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios, we may have some confirmed cast members to announce sooner than we thought.
That’s not to say that the rumour mill isn’t already grinding out the names like some kind of intergalactic bingo caller already as speculation starts to mount over who will star in the new round of movies. Benedict Cumberbatch, Gary Oldman, Saoirse Ronan and Girls star, Adam Driver have all been mentioned as possible entries to the Star Wars: Episode VII cast list, but we’ll have to wait to see how this pans out.
While there’s a lot of questions about the new cast members there’s also a lot to talk about in terms of the old guard of Star Wars legends. George Lucas has given pretty big indications that Mark Hamil, Carrie Fischer and Harrison Ford will be returning to the series to reprise their roles. Lucasfilm has also confirmed that R2-D2 will be back for sure, so it’s only a matter of time before C3-PO gets the green light too, and if Luke, Leia and Han are back in the mix, it’s fair to say that Chewwie will be too.
For more information on the three new movies and the Disney takeover of Lucasfilm, check out our post – Star Wars: Episode 7, 8, 9…
