Category: sequel trilogy

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Rumor: Is this our first photo of an Episode VII set?

The National, a newspaper in Abu Dhabi, claims it has the first image of the Star Wars set in the desert there:

The photos, taken on Tuesday morning in the dunes near Qasr Al Sarab resort, reveal a large encampment of tents with four to five workers moving around what appear to be parts of a filmset.

It is one piece of equipment in particular, however, that is the most suggestive: a giant, round, grey disc, which bears a striking resemblance to parts of an escape pod on which C3P0 and R2D2 crash-landed on Tatooine in the original, 1977, Star Wars: A New Hope film.

They go to say that according to ‘sources,’ “crew members have already been hired for the Abu Dhabi leg of the secret production.”

Are you convinced? An Abu Dhabi location shoot has been rumored, but is not confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney. And honestly it looks like it could easily be part of a water main to me.

In other Episode VII ‘news’ today, a pair of random actors (Ansel Elgort and Beau Mirchoff) say they auditioned for Episode VII. Alrighty then!

UPDATE: More details from The National’s investigation, which involves, I kid you not, the dating app Tinder.

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Rumor: Oxford-educated actress up for Episode VII role

Maisie Richardson-SellersLast night, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Maisie Richardson-Sellers, a young Oxford-educated actress, is “in line to nab an undisclosed and possibly major role” in Episode VII.

THR believes that role may be the one described (according to them in January) as a descendent of Obi-wan Kenobi, a report that was met with some skepticism.

Richardson-Sellers recently starred in the play They Will Be Red at the Burton Taylor Studio Theatre.

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Big Moon Rising: Why I don’t mind if the Star Wars sequels mean the end of the Expanded Universe

The Death of Chewbacca

I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was barely 13, and became an Expanded Universe fan only days later. My entire experience of falling in love with Star Wars was prompted and is because of the Expanded Universe; I ‘first’ saw the movies on VHS over Christmas break in 1991. And we wouldn’t have even had those copies in the house if not for the release of Heir to the Empire in the spring of that year.

I owe my entire fandom to Heir to the Empire and the Thrawn trilogy. The Expanded Universe, which was pretty much all there was back in those days, formed the nucleus of my fandom. They hooked me, and they hooked me well enough that I sit here, 22 years later, running a fairly popular blog devoted to the franchise, with those same worn copies of Heir, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command not four feet away.

I love the Expanded Universe. It’s a weird kind of love that you get with this sort of fandom; I kept with it through some of the absolute worst fiction I have ever read, and many books that could I barely bring myself to call mediocre and, yes, even those rare gems that make it all worth it.

But I’m also okay with letting it go.

Continue reading “Big Moon Rising: Why I don’t mind if the Star Wars sequels mean the end of the Expanded Universe”

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Report: Peter Mayhew back as Chewbacca for Episode VII

SWGTCC's Chewbacca, as found via the WookAs we all guessed after that tweet two weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter is now saying that Peter Mayhew will return as Chewbacca in Episode VII.

Mayhew last donned the Chewbacca suit in Revenge of the Sith, and many speculated he’d be returning after he recovered from knee surgery last year.

The Hollywood Reporter makes this a much stronger report, but we only consider information confirmed if it’s openly from Lucasfilm/Disney or appears on StarWars.com.

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Disney’s Alan Horn: Episode VII mostly cast, they’re “shooting some of it now.”

We have a lot of them, we’re just not completely done yet,” Disney’s Alan Horn said about the cast at a live interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Stephen Galloway at Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television in Los Angeles.

Horn acknowledged there had been some problems getting the script right. “It’s all about the screenplay,” he said. “It has to be screenplay, screenplay, screenplay.” Asked if the screenplay was fully where it needed to be, he added: “It actually is now.” The script has been co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams, following an early draft by Michael Arndt.

What’s being shot now could be, as many have speculated based on the various rumors, second unit work for use by ILM.

Horn also says that in-universe, the film will take place 35 years after Return of the Jedi. StarWars.com said in March that the film takes place “about 30 years after,” (emphasis mine.)