Harrison Ford Confirmed For Han in Ep. VII

[Havok]

Gawd I hope that isn't even a question.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm pretty confident that Episode VII will be good either way. Disney seems to be making good choices about who to hire. Arndt and Abrams are both very good choices in my opinion.

[Lord Revan]

Tbh I'm not gonna rage if they take a existing EU character and make their interpitation of said character, hell it might retcon out some of the recent EU that's been not so good.

It's not like would have been the first time an EU character made into the movies (granted said character was essentially an extra in EP2 and any lines she might have had in EP3 were cut out)

[Covenant]

Aww dammit, they have to go with the god-damned children angle? Really? REALLY?

I'm filled with incredible despair at hearing that. Solo's kids, Abram's directing, and the lingering horror of an EU tie-in waiting in the wings. If they have a dribblet of sense they'll make sure that kid isn't one of the kids mentioned in the EU, steer as clear from it as possible, and for the love of Yoda don't try and shoe-horn this kid into the plot unless there is some specific reason why THEY are important to this new galactic threat.

Because what we really need aren't a bunch of wunderkinds solving problems they inherit due to plot genetics, but a brand new blockade-runner of heroes that nobody has heard about and the return to a world of possibilities not already defined by the people who've come before them.

You know who is looking good right now? The guy who played Palpatine. Don't know how old he is but I saw him in Timon of Athens not long ago and it was a fantastic performance, guy has real chops and has enough physicality to handle the load. If I gotta have Space Mutt going around swordfighting with Space Nazis then I may as just throw my chips in and say I'm down for Cloned Palpatine or whatever, fuck the setting, gimmie some more cackling. He was the only good thing in the prequels, and I've got no faith in Abrams to strike the kind of tone a Star Wars movie really benefits from.

I liked his Star Trek movie, mind you, but not in the sense that it struck the right tone than the sense that it took an existing universe and played with it. I don't want to see his "take" on the Star Wars universe though, I really don't.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't think the involvement of any of Han, Leia, and Luke's children is known for certain. Its also unknown weather they'd be children or not (probably not due to how long after Return of the Jedi this film will most likely be set).

As for importance, any child of Han, Luke, or Leia would be pretty important because of who they're related to. And if they're strong in the Force, they'll probably be a Jedi, which means they'll probably have lots of adventures due to their job.

And I don't understand the fanatical hatred some people seem to have for the EU. A lot of it is bad, but not all of it is.

And cloning Palpatine would be idiotic. Of all the things they could include from the EU, you go with that one? I don't care how good the actor is.

[Covenant]

Of all the things in the EU, I'd go with that, yes. I think it says more about the quality of the EU than anything else. If they're going for cheese they may as well go the whole way, afterall, and bring back the dramatic foil of the entire Skywalker storyline. Hell, you could even try and make a plot around him trying to get another Skywalker. Tired and stupid, of course, but it couldn't be too worse than going with a Han and Leia Solo storyline.

I wasn't aware of a widespread fanatical hatred of the EU until I joined the board, I had a very private fanatical hatred of it because so much of it is off-tone and dull. Maybe I only dipped into the shitty books, ones I cannot even remember aside from the terrible but enjoyable side stories in the short story collection books, but the insistence on following the same heroes forever is macabre. Let them be part of the background, for crying out loud, don't try to establish a new character I'm going to have to care about if they're living in the shadows of their galaxy-saving parents. That is not only a storyline I am uninterested in exploring.

It's not like I'll show up to a screening where you're watching and intentionally disrupt things, if it looks shitty I'll just wait a few weeks and see it with nobody else in the theater. I'm very excited about the idea of new stories and new characters, new plot lines, and I firmly believe that to tell a really good NEW story with a new plot arc you're going to need different villains, different settings, and this calls for different heroes. Not the children of previous protagonists. There's no more development there, and I don't want to see Old Man Han doing domestic stuff with the missus and their kids. I don't want a whiny kid rebelling against the parents. I don't want them either feeling entitled or sheltered or anything. I don't want a damned lick of it! The narrative of the original trilogy was not terribly complex, and I felt that was one of the strengths, since it had that kind of broad mythic quality to it. If you're bringing in Abrams then, ugh, I don't know. I don't think he's the man with the vision to do the series justice. We want more RotJ's and ESB's, not TPM's.

I will, however, say that if the movie looks good, I'll just let it convince me on its own. I'm eager to cancel my flight to Ragerville and totally accept this as a new and exciting chapter in a beloved title that has seen much better days.

The worst possible situation I can think of involves a young force sensitive child of Han and Leia who have to adventure out from under the wing for the first time. I especially want to avoid them being important only because they're related to people who did something. What could the motivation be? Did Han gamble away the Corellian Minivan and get locked in Carbonite again? Wouldn't Leia have enough pull by now to make that kind of thing hard to do? What nemesis out there can threaten these characters in a meaningful way that does not entirely invalidate the original trilogy?

Imperial Remnants? Maybe, I can kinda accept that, stupid as it would be. Without getting nitty gritty about the reality of the situation, the original trilogy ends in a way that makes it pretty clear that the good guys have won. Aliens from outside of the Empire? I sure hope not, that would be awful. Honestly, without an Evil Empire to oppose you either need a smaller scale or some very personal enemy that is going at you one on one. But all the really big dangling plot threads for the characters got pretty much sewn up at the end of the trilogy. Luke's dad is redeemed and dead, has no other apprentices, etc. Palpatine has no other apprentices either, and he's dead. The death star is blown up for good, the Imperials seem to be entirely beaten from the celebrations we see across however many worlds they added into the special special editions, and its not like Han will be wanting for money now so it's not like we can make a trilogy just out of him getting frozen again.

The biggest thing is no more Sith, they've made that pretty clear. If they wanna shoehorn in some more sith guys then that is just stupid, but honestly, I'm sure they will. But it will absolutely feel forced and out of context with the original trilogy, which is what they should be striving to emulate. What about the balance to the force, prophecy, bleh, whatever? The sith look pretty done after the original trilogy dropped Papa Palpatine down the shaft and Vader ended his tenure, so what are they going to have crazy lightsaber duels with? I would almost hope they aren't, I could go for a more toned-down, OT-esque emphasis on the saber stuff after the lightshow of the prequel trilogy.

All of these problems can be avoided in huge part if the focus of the movies stays away from the idea of following the Hero's kids into the next movie. Thankfully the prequels never felt the need to show Han's parents or something, and I always recall how Ford wanted Han to eat it some time in RotJ. What's wrong with a new cast of heroes? Entirely new? Not related to the originals? I would be absolutely down with that, especially since it means that JJ Abrams creating a shitty movie doesn't have to feel like the canker that the prequels are.

I don't know, I'm just really attached to the idea of getting some new characters into the mix, and none of the selections so far have been ones I would have made. The Little Miss Sunshine guy and Abrams do not make a duo I would call to mind as a sure-fire Star Wars creative team. I'm glad all the old actors are thrilled to get back on board for something, but I... I don't know. I read Hamill's statements about his role suspected to be something akin to Obi-Wan level of importance, and I think that is entirely proper. I just feel like throwing someone's direct descendant into the mix without there being an exorbitantly good reason why all the greatest heroes of the realm don't show up to do some enemy spanking... it just seems wrong, and that it'll look stupid.

[Havok]

I have ZERO problem with them creating a new enemy for the Jedi to fight. At least the EU tried the whole no Sith thing with the Vong, and it had it's moments, I just don't know why it had to be all S&M and Coral>strongest alloy ever made. They could have done it all without it and just made them technologically superior and you know, not pain freaks.

I am of a mind that they don't continue the saga (VII, VIII and IX) at this point and just focus on the other movies. The more I think about it the less I think there is story left to tell and Lucas was/is right.

[Covenant]

I agree, I really don't see a need to continue this plot arc. I can see there being a good bit of fun to be had in the Wild West areas of this Post Civil-War Galaxy, since that has a lot of parallels to the western and samurai myths that inspired elements of Star Wars, and there's a lot of room for heroes to do things. You don't need to save a galaxy to be a hero, afterall. Saving a town was enough in some movies. Or hell, killing one dude.

There's a ton of universe out there to explore, but they keep it so small and messy by tying it back to these same characters. I really don't need to hear about the Skywalkers anymore in Star Wars to feel satisfied that it is a Star Wars movie. Plus you run the serious risk of making it into one of those uncomfortable call-backs to an earlier movie, the way Crystal Skull was, that only makes you remember how the old characters were and why you don't really like this new one.

I really think the mythic aspects of Star Wars and the grand tapestry that left all this open space to imagine... that was really important to the success. But if we start diving into the nature of people's kids, ugh, I just think it starts expanding the network of "Shit I need to know to enjoy the movie properly" far too much.

[Ralin]

I have ZERO problem with them creating a new enemy for the Jedi to fight. At least the EU tried the whole no Sith thing with the Vong, and it had it's moments, I just don't know why it had to be all S&M and Coral>strongest alloy ever made. They could have done it all without it and just made them technologically superior and you know, not pain freaks.

They actually weren't intended to be S&M pain worshippers. The original plan was to have the Vong group/clan/whatever handling the initial parts of the invasion be the ones who were into that with all the other Vong thinking they were crazy fanatics. Apparently some of the authors involved didn't get the memo.

[JME2]

I have ZERO problem with them creating a new enemy for the Jedi to fight. At least the EU tried the whole no Sith thing with the Vong, and it had it's moments, I just don't know why it had to be all S&M and Coral>strongest alloy ever made. They could have done it all without it and just made them technologically superior and you know, not pain freaks.

They actually weren't intended to be S&M pain worshippers. The original plan was to have the Vong group/clan/whatever handling the initial parts of the invasion be the ones who were into that with all the other Vong thinking they were crazy fanatics. Apparently some of the authors involved didn't get the memo.

Yeah, it was just meant to be Domain Shai and then it was mistakenly applied to the rest of the race.

[Flagg]

I'd rather see any trilogy other than one with Skywalkers and Solos (at least within the lifespan of the other Skywalkers and Solos). But that's what we're going to get. My hope is that if they goto the EU it's just for very broad outlines and maybe a couple of characters, but I'd rather they toss the baby with the bathwater and give us something new.

[zman]

Cameo's they'll still look horrible in. I've not kept up on Carrie Fisher, but Mark Hamill has indeed not aged well. Followup movies that use the OT characters should have been done half a decade before the PT or so.

not really an issue anymore Remember what they did for Jeff Bridges in Tron? http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff3 ... 10x292.png


As for the EU I enjoy a lot of the books but a lot of them including the Thrawn Trilogy would make HORRIBLE movies. Mainly because there is just WAY too much information in them. I would like to see a movie with Thrawn in it but not based off the book.

I would much rather see something I haven't read before.

Of course didn't they already announce that EP7 wouldn't be based on anything in the existing EU?

with that being said there is a rumor from Aint It Cool news that they might also be doing a Knights of the Old Republic movie

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/61117


granted if it is true its still just in talks. But I think this is what we can expect from Disney ie getting a CRAP ton of Star Wars movies.

[Batman]

I'd rather see any trilogy other than one with Skywalkers and Solos (at least within the lifespan of the other Skywalkers and Solos). But that's what we're going to get. My hope is that if they goto the EU it's just for very broad outlines and maybe a couple of characters, but I'd rather they toss the baby with the bathwater and give us something new.

While I agree that the vast majority of the EU would, in a just universe, never have happened, I don't see why something completely new must automatically be better than something based (preferably loosely) on the good parts of the EU.

[Flagg]

I'd rather see any trilogy other than one with Skywalkers and Solos (at least within the lifespan of the other Skywalkers and Solos). But that's what we're going to get. My hope is that if they goto the EU it's just for very broad outlines and maybe a couple of characters, but I'd rather they toss the baby with the bathwater and give us something new.

While I agree that the vast majority of the EU would, in a just universe, never have happened, I don't see why something completely new must automatically be better than something based (preferably loosely) on the good parts of the EU.

The good parts of the EU happened 3 thousand years before ANH.

[Batman]

That's your opinion. Not everybody shares that.
While I'm unfortunately forced to agree the vast majority of the post-OT EU (or at the very least the vast majority of the the part I know, I gave up on it about two thirds through the Vong idiocy) I have to insist there were good post-OT stories, if not all that many of them. The Thrawn stuff, Wraith Squadron, I know I'm probably the only person on this board who liked it but Truce at Bakura...
But let's ignore the post OT stuff. How about the original Han Solo/Lando Calrissian trilogies?
Also, we're talking Disney. If all else fails they can always go for animated movies, which would neatly eliminate all those 'actor aging badly' concerns.

[JME2]

The weak spot of Bakura is that the villains suck.

Still, by virtue of picking up immediately where ROKJ left off, the book is a goldmine in terms of character study and development. The points I still like:

* The Rebel Alliance, having dealt a crippling blow to the Imperials, must take the first steps in transitioning from a ragtag Rebellion to a nascent New Republic.

* Luke, having faced the final challenge Yoda and Obi-Wan set in order for him to become a Jedi Knight, must now contemplate the new challenge of not only rebuilding the galaxy, but also restarting the Jedi Order as a half-trained Knight.

* Leia and Han have also formally begun their long simmering relationship and are struggling to make it work.

* Leia is still processing the revelation that not only is Luke her brother, but Darth Vader was her biological father.

[zman]

The weak spot of Bakura is that the villains suck.

Still, by virtue of picking up immediately where ROKJ left off, the book is a goldmine in terms of character study and development. The points I still like:

* The Rebel Alliance, having dealt a crippling blow to the Imperials, must take the first steps in transitioning from a ragtag Rebellion to a nascent New Republic.

* Luke, having faced the final challenge Yoda and Obi-Wan set in order for him to become a Jedi Knight, must now contemplate the new challenge of not only rebuilding the galaxy, but also restarting the Jedi Order as a half-trained Knight.

* Leia and Han have also formally begun their long simmering relationship and are struggling to make it work.

* Leia is still processing the revelation that not only is Luke her brother, but Darth Vader was her biological father.

except its not taking place right after ROTJ. its starting from about 40 years after.

[StarSword]

Personally, I think they should stay well away from the movie cast. One of the things I like about the X-Wing series is that it leaves the neverending Jedi/Sith war in the background and focuses on regular people. Similarly the Black Fleet Crisis: no superweapons, regular people take a lot of the screentime, etc. I even like the Republic Commando novels for that, since it's about the grunts that have to do the heavy lifting instead of about the Jedi/Sith conflict. They beat that horse until it turned into a ghoul and started trying to eat the printer operators.

[Batman]

The weak spot of Bakura is that the villains suck.
Still, by virtue of picking up immediately where ROKJ left off, the book is a goldmine in terms of character study and development. The points I still like:
* The Rebel Alliance, having dealt a crippling blow to the Imperials, must take the first steps in transitioning from a ragtag Rebellion to a nascent New Republic.
* Luke, having faced the final challenge Yoda and Obi-Wan set in order for him to become a Jedi Knight, must now contemplate the new challenge of not only rebuilding the galaxy, but also restarting the Jedi Order as a half-trained Knight.
* Leia and Han have also formally begun their long simmering relationship and are struggling to make it work.
* Leia is still processing the revelation that not only is Luke her brother, but Darth Vader was her biological father.

except its not taking place right after ROTJ. its starting from about 40 years after.

What are you blathering about? Truce at Bakura starts about a day after the conclusion of ROTJ. The freaking Vong invasion predates '40 years after'.

[Flagg]

The weak spot of Bakura is that the villains suck.
Still, by virtue of picking up immediately where ROKJ left off, the book is a goldmine in terms of character study and development. The points I still like:
* The Rebel Alliance, having dealt a crippling blow to the Imperials, must take the first steps in transitioning from a ragtag Rebellion to a nascent New Republic.
* Luke, having faced the final challenge Yoda and Obi-Wan set in order for him to become a Jedi Knight, must now contemplate the new challenge of not only rebuilding the galaxy, but also restarting the Jedi Order as a half-trained Knight.
* Leia and Han have also formally begun their long simmering relationship and are struggling to make it work.
* Leia is still processing the revelation that not only is Luke her brother, but Darth Vader was her biological father.

except its not taking place right after ROTJ. its starting from about 40 years after.

What are you blathering about? Truce at Bakura starts about a day after the conclusion of ROTJ. The freaking Vong invasion predates '40 years after'.

He's talking about the new movie having to start about 40 years after ROTJ you blithering idiot. I don't agree, I think they could skip ahead a few centuries, but that's just me.

[Batman]

Yeah. 'It' referring to the new movie in response to a post that is exclusively about Truce at Bakura is totally obvious.

[Losonti Tokash]

Yeah, it is, glad you could recognize your error.

[Batman]

Except for the part where it's not, of course.

[Stark]

Maybe if you stopped flaming 'errors' and vulturing dead horses you'd grow as a person.

[Batman]

Last I checked for something to be considered a dead horse it had to be, you know, something that has been done to death already, which I don't think is quite applicable in this case?
Also, I can't flame errors by definition as they are mistakes made by people, not people in and of themselves. How, exactly, do I flame '7+5 equals strawberry'?