Star Wars: Episode VII is now known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here's everything we know about the new Star Wars movie so far.
A long time ago, Star Wars fans thought they had seen the last of the franchise in theaters. But on October 30, 2012 Disney and Lucasfilm announced that Star Wars would live on in the form of a new trilogy. And now, almost two years to the day since that announcement, Star Wars: Episode VII has completed principal photography, and is now known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
We'll start this off with stuff with the absolute latest news, then move on to official, confirmed details, and then we've moved things like story rumors, spoilers, production art, and our own speculations to page two. They're there if you want 'em.
Let's start with the latest news, and the question that everyone (including us) is asking. When will we see the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Let's see what we can figure out...
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer
There are two potential scenarios that we've come across as to when we'll get our first look at a teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The first is that it will be attached to screenings of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies when it premieres on December 17th. But there's a chance we'll see it even sooner.
SlashFilm are now reporting that a 90 second teaser will show in front of all movies screening in "a limited number" of select theaters over Thanksgiving weekend. So, we might not have to wait until December to see the trailer, but there's a chance it will be exclusively be in theaters before it hits the web. We'll have it right here the instant it makes it to the internet, though!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast
The cast of Star Wars: Episode VII is as follows: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. It's likely that some of the new cast members will play the offspring of characters like Han, Luke, and Leia.
Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie will also be in the film in undisclosed roles. Additionally, Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, has joined the cast. What role she's playing remains to be seen, but there's some serious speculation about a rather obvious choice. Christina Chong is also on board in an unnamed role. Game of Thrones' Miltos Yerolemou also has a small role.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Story
The plot will focus on a trio of new characters, possibly including the teenage characters described in the open casting call in December of 2012, along with “some very familiar faces.” The film will take place 30 years after Return of the Jedi and the story will not mesh with that of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The new Star Wars timeline will only contain the six previous films as well as The Clone Warsand Rebelsanimated series, although future novels, comics, and video games will all be part of Lucasfilm's new Star Wars canon. In particular, the events of Rebelsmay have some bearing on Episode VII but we'll get to that soon enough...
There are more story details on page 2 of this article, where we've put all the rumors and production art, by the way...
Everything Else
J.J Abrams is directing Star Wars: Episode VII. Initial press releases reported that the script would be written by Michael Arndt, scriptwriter of Toy Story 3, but in October of 2013 it was announced that Kasdan and Abrams had taken over scriptwriting duties.
Principal photography is complete! Of course, in a Star Wars movie, this is barely half the battle, of course. Unsurprisingly, John Williams will be returning to provide the music, as will sound designer Ben Burtt and supervising sound editor Matthew Wood. Fight coordinator Nick Gillard said on Twitter that he is not working on the new films.
If the film sticks to that December 18, 2015 release date it will be the first live action Star Wars film not to be released in May.
Now, as we move on to this next page, beware, as that's where the unconfirmed rumors, speculation, and potential spoilers begin...