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Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced

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You may get your wish! :)

That would be great!

maisie_richardson-sellers.jpg

She's gorgeous.
 
I hope that the new films have a consistent villain through all 3, like Vader was. As opposed to having a different shitty villain in each film like in the prequel trilogy.
 
btw the reason most of Episode 2 looks like shoddy compositing is simple:
It was one of the first digital HD camcorder projects, they actually shot some material for action scenes on lossy HDCam tape which had super crappy compression. Imagine ILM trying to get good greenscreen keying results with basically heavily compressed 720p material and then on top of that there was the occasional: "This scene was lit and shot to emulate nighttime lighting, but can we now have Padme also stand at the window and have the scene at sunny daytime?"

Attack of the Clones was shot with 1080p cameras, not 720p.
The biggest difference between it and Revenge of the Sith in terms of image quality was 4:2:2 vs 4:4:4.

Afaik the previs department started on ep2. It was located on the Ranch's Third floor. They later formed their own company called The Third Floor. They basically came up with the Battle of geonosis and used fast Zooms. Lucas liked the cameras so they stayed. Dunno if that says something positive or negative about the production.

The Phantom Menace was extensively prevised. The previs lead was chosen for his previs on Mission: Impossible, another ILM project also supervised by John Knoll.
And previs is not a new idea at all. It was used on Return of the Jedi, just for less scenes.
 
This is going to be terri-bad...I'll be there day one to see this car crash in slow motion. Harrison Ford seems seems about 1 step away from being in coma in terms of his screen presence (Enders Game). The old cast are doing a few cameos right?
 
Tell us more!! What do you know!?!?


My time machine is about ready...Let me fire it up. Hold on a minute. Yep still terrible.

But all jokes aside...

Guess I'm just not too hopeful that 7 movies in there is anything more to say in this universe. JJ is a competent director though, so you never know.
 
There's lots to do and say in Star Wars. And there are new leading characters and a new narrative.

By the same token it could result in the same recycling of ideas regarding good vs evil and balance to the force and so on. If you trust JJ, Disney et al to push something vital out of this so be it. But a level of skepticism isn't unwarranted given the history of this franchise.
 
Not saying it isn't but you began your post with a statement that this will be terrible. Kind of a difference between that and skepticism :p

Based on where this is coming from and the people involved in production.... I think there's more than a good chance it will be terrible. I don't see why stating that is any less valid than. "I'm so hyped" "This is going to be soo good".

But perhaps you're right. I should have said. "I'm not excited for this at all" or "Hype deflated"

Having said that. I think there is a good way to tell another Star Wars story at the right time and certainly in the correct hands. I think on all counts this smells wrong.

Just some guy's opinion...carry on.
 
Having said that. I think there is a good way to tell another Star Wars story at the right time and certainly in the correct hands. I think on all counts this smells wrong.

I honestly think people make a bigger deal about the quality of the SW movies than what they deserve. I have problems with the writing and acting in every single episode, but on the other hand I've always seen them as just fun escapism with great imagination, characters and action scenes so I don't really give much of a fuck. Considering the talent that is on this film, I see no real reason to be worried about it. Abrams is a proven director to me, Kasdan who co-wrote with Abrams is a proven writer to me, the effects will obviously be good, the score (John Williams) will obviously be good, Abrams can shoot action and direct actors and put fantastical things on the frame...

Sorry, I'm just having a hard time seeing how there could just be some vastly superior team on this project.
 
I honestly think people make a bigger deal about the quality of the SW movies than what they deserve. I have problems with the writing and acting in every single episode, but on the other hand I've always seen them as just fun escapism with great imagination, characters and action scenes so I don't really give much of a fuck. Considering the talent that is on this film, I see no real reason to be worried about it. Abrams is a proven director to me, Kasdan who co-wrote with Abrams is a proven writer to me, the effects will obviously be good, the score (John Williams) will obviously be good, Abrams can shoot action and direct actors and put fantastical things on the frame...

Sorry, I'm just having a hard time seeing how there could just be some vastly superior team on this project.
Most people are skeptical because

A) Star Wars has blown up into a cultural icon, making people remember it as a perfect series of films when it's a flawed franchise like any other

B) The prequel trilogy failed to meet expectations for a lot of people

C) Combining these two things will quite possibly make the hype impossible to meet

D) Disney

I'm personally super psyched for all three new episodes, and I agree with you completely. It's easy to understand where naysayers are coming from, though.
 
My time machine is about ready...Let me fire it up. Hold on a minute. Yep still terrible.

But all jokes aside...

Guess I'm just not too hopeful that 7 movies in there is anything more to say in this universe. JJ is a competent director though, so you never know.

Wait...a studio that has recently put out really good adventure movies is making this. A director, who even though can be hit or miss, is arguably MUCH better at directing than George Lucas...and you're skeptical that this film won't even reach average status?

Not sure I understand the skepticism. I mean, a UNIVERSE is a damn big area of space with a shit ton of planets. You're saying that using old ass Han, old ass Luke and old ass Leia to link future projects to the OT can't result in a good film?
 
I honestly think people make a bigger deal about the quality of the SW movies than what they deserve. I have problems with the writing and acting in every single episode, but on the other hand I've always seen them as just fun escapism with great imagination, characters and action scenes so I don't really give much of a fuck. Considering the talent that is on this film, I see no real reason to be worried about it. Abrams is a proven director to me, Kasdan who co-wrote with Abrams is a proven writer to me, the effects will obviously be good, the score (John Williams) will obviously be good, Abrams can shoot action and direct actors and put fantastical things on the frame...

Sorry, I'm just having a hard time seeing how there could just be some vastly superior team on this project.

If you reduce a film to those measures then of course it's going to resonate with you. Not sure we can have a debate if that's the bar that has to be hit.

DISNEY + JJ + KASDAN is hardly the dream team.
The prequels are just plain bad film-making. For all the faults of the first set of films... there's just no comparison.

Anyway this is all terribly off-topic. You're excited I'm not. let's leave it there.

Back on topic. I'd rather see no original cast in the narrative at all. A clean break for all the obvious reasons.


Wait...a studio that has recently put out really good adventure movies is making this. A director, who even though can be hit or miss, is arguably MUCH better at directing than George Lucas...and you're skeptical that this film won't even reach average status?

Not sure I understand the skepticism. I mean, a UNIVERSE is a damn big area of space with a shit ton of planets. You're saying that using old ass Han, old ass Luke and old ass Leia to link future projects to the OT can't result in a good film?

What films are you referring to? In terms of Disney's recent output. I don't want an average film. Mediocrity in cinema shouldn't be tolerated...you should want more. I know I do. Yes I don't want old Luke, Solo and Leia in the narrative. We are past that now. But hey I'm sure they have clever way to make it all work. Neat and tidy so we can bathe in nostalgia....Kirk and Picard in Generations was great right? (That's a low blow..but you get the point...when it's bad it's bad)
 
A clean break for all the obvious reasons.

How clean a break could you really want if you're still watching something called "Star Wars," though?

At some level you gotta be honest about what it is you're interested in, and why you're interested in it.

Because there's plenty of competing fictional universes to play in if the appeal of the new carries that much weight. And many of them are MORE than worthy of the same level of attention people give to this 35 year old movie series. If you're worried about mediocrity in cinema, continuing to check in on a 30+ year old film series about star fights seems a weird way to seek out excellence, especially considering 2/3rds of the movies in question are hovering right around that particular mendoza line.

If you want new - there's lots of new. Go get some. If you want Star Wars - here you go. There are ways to blend the two together, and it appears there was never going to be an Episode 7 that wasn't a blend. But if people are going to complain that this hypothetical Star Wars automatically sucks because there's STAR WARS in it, I don't get why we're even at this restaurant in the first place, then.
 
How clean a break could you really want if you're still watching something called "Star Wars," though?

At some level you gotta be honest about what it is you're interested in, and why you're interested in it.

Because there's plenty of competing fictional universes to play in if the appeal of the new carries that much weight. And many of them are MORE than worthy of the same level of attention people give to this 35 year old movie series. If you're worried about mediocrity in cinema, continuing to check in on a 30+ year old film series about star fights seems a weird way to seek out excellence, especially considering 2/3rds of the movies in question are hovering right around that particular mendoza line.

If you want new - there's lots of new. Go get some. If you want Star Wars - here you go. There are ways to blend the two together, and it appears there was never going to be an Episode 7 that wasn't a blend. But if people are going to complain that this hypothetical Star Wars automatically sucks because there's STAR WARS in it, I don't get why we're even at this restaurant in the first place, then.

Supposedly the universe is so large that there's a thousand stories to tell. But yet we find ourselves mining that of Luke and co.

They can choose to make the movie anyway they deem. It can be blend or clean break. There's no reason to expect any restriction there.
The "What do you expect it's STAR WARS" argument seems to excuse the studio's responsibility to make a compelling above average product.
 
Supposedly the universe is so large that there's a thousand stories to tell. But yet we find ourselves mining that of Luke and co.

They can choose to make the movie anyway they deem. It can be blend or clean break. There's no reason to expect any restriction there.
The "What do you expect it's STAR WARS" argument seems to excuse the studio's responsibility to make a compelling above average product.

No it doesn't. It doesn't excuse anything. If a Star Wars movie isn't compelling or above-average, people are going to make their disappointment and displeasure felt. The last 15 years should be proof enough of that, Jesus.

But if the universe is so large and this corner of it is so stultifying why would you keep poking around that corner? If the idea of Star Wars being in your Star Wars movie irritates you to the point hearing that people from Star Wars are going to be in a Star Wars movie causes you to lose faith instantly, why are we still kicking around Star Wars land?

You know?

There's a big universe out there. Star Wars is but a small part of it. At some point, you gotta be honest with why you care about this universe, and why you're still visiting, EVEN WHEN YOU KNOW the substance that can quench your thirst for the new is out there waiting for you to watch it.
 
No it doesn't. It doesn't excuse anything. If a Star Wars movie isn't compelling or above-average, people are going to make their disappointment and displeasure felt. The last 15 years should be proof enough of that, Jesus.

Legitimate criticism of lazy or cynical storytelling can't really be countered with "Well it's Star Wars what did you expect" The fact that people will be upset is not in dispute. That they should be told that their expectations are not reasonable is ludicrous.
 
Yikes. I did my best to write my post without any bashing or over the top negativity. I thought the poster to which I originally responded might be genuinely interested in reading more about the production. It wasn't intended as a "let's all bash Lucas" derailment.

I get where you are going. But every director assembles a team of people they think can bring something good to the table. Lucas hired many of those people to work on the film. Lucas was incredibly smart to hire McQuarrie. There were a number of people he could have hired but got the right person because he saw the talent and tast. Just like Ridley Scott getting Giger for Alien. It is a directors responsibility to hold the project together and push it where it needs to go. Film is incredibly collaborative but the director is always responsible at the end. Lucas should get every prize for every success just as he gets ever kick for every failure. It has to go both ways because that is what the job entails.

There's also Red Tails, so yea it's not looking so good.

I don't see a George Lucas directors credit on there. With that logic Raiders of the Lost Ark is a George Lucas film.
 
Good, talented actors is a great start, but even Liam Neeson and Ewan can look hammy with terrible dialogue and a bad script, I am very excited but nervous at the same time. I really hope Ford and the original cast bring their A game.
 
People keep allowing the prequel trilogy to tarnish their opinions on any new movies. Lucas is gone and a very competent director has taken control.

Personally, I'm looking at Abrams prior work for what we can expect to see. Specifically super 8, which really tapped into that 80s nostalgia and vibe. I'm confident he can rekindle the magic.
 
Pretty nice Tweet from Mark Hammill earlier, don't think I saw it posted here:

"Mark Hamill ‏@HamillHimself 7h
UK table read- I was knocked out by the diverse & extraordinarily talented new cast members. WOW they're good! The saga is in superb hands."
 
Attack of the Clones was shot with 1080p cameras, not 720p.
The biggest difference between it and Revenge of the Sith in terms of image quality was 4:2:2 vs 4:4:4.

The Phantom Menace was extensively prevised. The previs lead was chosen for his previs on Mission: Impossible, another ILM project also supervised by John Knoll.
And previs is not a new idea at all. It was used on Return of the Jedi, just for less scenes.

You are correct in that it was 1080p. But in several scenes they decided to reframe and digitally zoom into the image, that is why some scenes, even ones that required heavy compositing had nothing more than what amounts to 720p to work with.
Also: The disk recorder rig they had was massive amounts of cables, heavy and difficult to move. "WATCH THE CABLES; WATCH THE CABLES!" So when they needed to film action scenes that required the camera to move a lot, they actually switched to HDcam format which on top of being 4:2:2 also has nasty image compression.

Regarding the previs: Of course Episode 1 also had an extensive storyboarding process and previs being done, but afaik there was no culture to test out Lucas ideas as fully as possible before the shoot began. There definitely was no full animatic for the whole movie, including dialogue scenes.
I remember making of featurettes for AOTC that showed how special and novel they found the process of a small Maya previs team working with Lucas directly on low-res scenes to block out cameras and pacing of the battle scenes on Geonosis. Stuff like that should probably have been done for everything, starting on Episode 1 and at best years before it.

If you look at Ralph McQuarrie's artwork for the OT, Lucas actually fell back on them a lot regarding framing. Lots of shots are basically just McQuarrie art in motion.
I think they lacked a guy like this for the Prequels. They had the best vehicle designers (Ryan Church) and cool concept artists (Ian McCaig) and also Doug Chiang (who only did Episode 1 I think) but the films seemed to miss that overarching art director who Lucas listened to.
 
Wasn't luke supposed to bring balance to the galaxy? That is why there is no sith anymore?

So what will the history be about? If there is no sith and Luke is this Force God...sounds like a boring premise for a movie.

They should do Old Republic stuff. There is so much meat there.
 
Wasn't luke supposed to bring balance to the galaxy? That is why there is no sith anymore?

So what will the history be about? If there is no sith and Luke is this Force God...sounds like a boring premise for a movie.

They should do Old Republic stuff. There is so much meat there.

I don't know specifically but logic would dictate that balance means that there would be an emergent Sith. Luke bringing balance was offsetting Palpatine/Vader.
 
I assumed SIFO DYAS was just some pseudonym for SIDIOUS, but I fear not even Lucas thought that through.
And what about Sifo-Diyas or however it's spelled? I'm super confused there - they mention his name in passing as the Jedi who ordered the Clone Army, but wasn't he like, dead before the army was ordered or something? Was he a secret Sith? Did Dooku use his identity to order the army in secret?

This is part of the problem of the PT, too much information isn't given to the audience and they're left confused at all these new characters who've barely had an introduction but are important to the plot somehow.

Master Sifo-Dyas was explained a fair bit in the Clone Wars TV series (the newer one), his character is actually explained in that and it helps clear quite a bit of confusion.

Personally the Clone Wars help make the PT better for me, a lot of the characters in the PT are given proper motive for their actions in RotS with actual character development in the Clone Wars.

I don't know specifically but logic would dictate that balance means that there would be an emergent Sith. Luke bringing balance was offsetting Palpatine/Vader.

This has always been an interesting point, when you bring balance to something, both sides are equal. In the OT, when there are just two Sith and very few exiled Jedi, both sides of the force are in balance the most they have been for thousands of years.

Once all the Sith are dead, there is no longer balance now. It would be nice to explore this plot point in the new trilogy, Sith trying to exist that don't want to kill the Jedi so there could truly be balance (then a Sith can go rogue and start another Jedi vs. Sith war).
 
I watched Star Wars last night. Thoughts I had:

1) The Millennium Falcon will make an appearance. It might get destroyed but I guarantee they bring it out of mothballs or something.

2) The line Solo uses at Luke about OWK? "Where'd you dig up that old fossil!?" SOMEONE in the new movie will use that line about Solo.
 
I watched Star Wars last night. Thoughts I had:

1) The Millennium Falcon will make an appearance. It might get destroyed but I guarantee they bring it out of mothballs or something.

2) The line Solo uses at Luke about OWK? "Where'd you dig up that old fossil!?" SOMEONE in the new movie will use that line about Solo.
I hope they don't use callbacks, I honestly don't see what benefit there is
 
I watched Star Wars last night. Thoughts I had:

1) The Millennium Falcon will make an appearance. It might get destroyed but I guarantee they bring it out of mothballs or something.

2) The line Solo uses at Luke about OWK? "Where'd you dig up that old fossil!?" SOMEONE in the new movie will use that line about Solo.

Honestly I really hope they don't go the route of destroying the Falcon. That just seems like a cheap shock value moment.

No more "I've got a bad feeling about this" lines, please.

That's pretty much a trademark line per movie now. It's totally going to show up.
 
"balance to the force" was "no sith". everything at peace. balance doesn't necessarily mean there need to be evil people. a country having a civil war isn't something i would call "balanced".
 
I don't get what's so confusing about Sifo Dyas. He was a Jedi Master who died ~10 years prior to AotC (obviously before TPM since he's not on the Council). Sidious and/or Dooku used his name to order the clone army. That's it.

Now in truth, it WAS originally just supposed to be a pseudonym for Sidious because the original draft has the name as "Sido Dyas", but Lucas decided to change it slightly and a new character was born. It's not really confusing and I understood it immediately when I was a kid.
 
I watched Star Wars last night. Thoughts I had:

1) The Millennium Falcon will make an appearance. It might get destroyed but I guarantee they bring it out of mothballs or something.

2) The line Solo uses at Luke about OWK? "Where'd you dig up that old fossil!?" SOMEONE in the new movie will use that line about Solo.

I can see Han taking the tarp off in his dusty garage. lol


"balance to the force" was "no sith". everything at peace. balance doesn't necessarily mean there need to be evil people. a country having a civil war isn't something i would call "balanced".


I believe the Sith are back due to something in Episode VII. It's like Ying to the Yang.
 
"balance to the force" was "no sith". everything at peace. balance doesn't necessarily mean there need to be evil people. a country having a civil war isn't something i would call "balanced".

Wrong. The light and dark side of the Force are equally important. Anakin did bring balance to the Force when he helped exterminate the vast Jedi Order. The Prophecy had nothing to do with the resolution in Return of the Jedi.

If the Jedi did not wholly reject the dark side, there would be no need for the Sith to return. If they do return in Episode VII, it will be the will of the Force.
 
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