Here's how little we know about “Star Wars: Episode VII” so far: the news that the new film will take place 30 years after the conclusion of “Return Of The Jedi” is being treated like an amazing announcement.
Don't get me wrong… I'm interested to see how the world of “Star Wars” has changed after 30 years. It's nice to see them allow for the same amount of time to have passed in the movies as has passed in real life, so they don't have to pretend that Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford are younger than they are, and it gives enough time for things to have changed in some significant way.
Even so, the film starts shooting in May, and we still basically know nothing about the story or even the casting. Sure, we've heard plenty of rumors, and in some cases, the people posting those rumors have been adamant that will will indeed see Adam Driver playing a bad guy and Lupita N'Yongo playing a major role and that we'll likely see Jesse Plemons or John Boyega playing a key role as well. It is taken as common knowledge at this point that there will be returning appearances by Hamill, Ford, and Fisher, and that the Millennium Falcon is already standing on a soundstage in London. Is all of that true? I think so, but because nothing is official yet, I wouldn't just run that as fact. Not yet.
We told you not long ago that the film was going to start principal photography, and I am very sure that we had our story right. Today's press release confirmed the May start date, and it also confirmed that the film will feature “a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces.”
They're gonna make us work for it, aren't they?
“Star Wars: Episode VII” arrives in theaters December 18, 2015.