AndyDursin wrote: Growing up, we went from 1983-1997, and had nothing -- no spin-off series, nothing at all, to satiate those of us who grew up with the series. It's not like Star Trek where it was one spin-off after another that lasted for decades, never mind years. Star Trek fans had the original series, then all of the original cast movies, then TNG, then Deep Space Nine, then Voyager, then Enterprise....you get the drift.

With Star Trek though, you've got the "exploration" angle -- a largely uncharted galaxy, which is fertile story ground to keep "boldly going where no man has gone before"

To me, Star Wars was wrapped-up with Return of the Jedi -- the rebellion overthrows the empire, the emperor is dead, Darth Vader redeems himself by dying to save Luke. No expansion on the Star Wars universe could ever be as satisfyingly epic as the fall of the republic and the defeat of the empire by the rebels.

AndyDursin wrote:If it's done properly (like Abrams' Star Trek, or Rise of the Planet of the Apes, etc.), I think people will be excited to see what they come up with. If it's just a heartless rehash, it will disappoint.

mkaroly wrote:

AndyDursin wrote:If it's done properly (like Abrams' Star Trek, or Rise of the Planet of the Apes, etc.), I think people will be excited to see what they come up with. If it's just a heartless rehash, it will disappoint.

That's my big concern. I am admittedly excited to see what product they can come up with without Lucas' involvement. They really have a chance to open things up and breathe new life into the series. My concern is that they will rehash it to be safe (and to cater too much to the fanboy audience), which will ultimately disappoint. I am also concerned that it's Disney...not a big fan of their output.

AndyDursin wrote:I'd love to hear it, but I'll be surprised if Williams writes the score as well by the time it rolls around in a couple of years.

Besides, Giacchino's good at being a hack. Writing a ersatz-styled Williams score would be the best thing for the movie -- and he's done it in the past with those Medal of Honor scores, so why stop now? Certainly it won't take much to eclipse the non-factor Desplat was in the Harry Potter films.

Recent reports have surfaced that Harrison Ford is indeed set to return for Star Wars: Episode VII and that the film will focus on the Skywalker and Solo children. Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, spoke to Entertainment Tonight recently to clarify his involvement and talk a bit about the possible return of Luke, Leia and Han Solo.

"They're talking to us," he said. "George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we'd be interested. He did say that if we didn't want to do it, they wouldn't cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven't signed any contracts. We're in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed -- on their end, not mine. They're more busy than I am."

Hamill had previously stated that he and Carrie Fisher had spoken with Lucas about Episode VII and Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm well before the official announcement, so it is unclear how much has progressed since that time.

The actor wouldn't commit to saying that he knew precise details about the script and story for Episode VII, but his speculations are fairly close to the rumors that are now circulating.

"I'm assuming, because I haven't talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring -- like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character. … When I found out [while making the original trilogy] that ultimate good news/bad news joke – the good news is there's a real attractive, hot girl in the universe; the bad news is she's your sister – I thought, 'Well, I'm going to wind up like Sir Alec [Guinness]. I'm going to be a lonely old hermit living out in some kind of desert igloo with a couple of robots.'"

He did stress that he’d like to see the bulk of the original cast make an appearance in the film rather than just one key player, i.e. Harrison Ford.

"Another thing I'd want to make sure of is - are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that's around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody's on board here, rather than just one."

Hamill also said he’d like to see the film revisit the magic of the original both aesthetically in terms of the balance of the practical and CGI effects and in terms of the tone.

"I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous – in my opinion, anyway....hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings -- I'm sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that's unfortunate. … If they listen to me at all, it'll be, 'Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.'"

While there is no official word, it starts to feel more and more like Episode VII will indeed be exploring the Skywalker/Solo legacy.

Star Wars: Episode VII opens in theatres in 2015. J.J. Abrams is set to direct from a script by Michael Arndt.