Star Wars Just Got a New Lease on Life

How high are your expectations for Episode 7, now that Disney has acquired LucasFilm and announced a brand new Star Wars trilogy starting in 2015?

Given the amount of venom directed at the underwhelming Episodes 1, 2 and 3, I'm guessing your expectations for 7, 8 and 9 are lower than an X-wing fighter that crash-landed onto the ice planet Hoth and got trampled by an AT-AT. Mine were, the moment this was announced.

Well, raise your sights, young Jedi. Or, as the man who sold Pixar to Disney and became its largest shareholder would put it: think different.

The more we think of what Disney brings to the equation, the more we can see the Star Wars series just got the huge shot in the arm it so sorely needed.

Remember, this is the company that bought Marvel then released the most successful, and arguably the best Marvel movie in Avengers. Disney bought the Muppets, then released last year's The Muppets — again, the best movie in the series.

This is a company that cares about character, and knows just how to reboot a moribund franchise. It will have Kathleen Kennedy, one of the top producers in the business and partner to Steven Spielberg. It has newfound respect for consummate genre writers like Joss Wheedon.

Granted, the last two Pixar movies (Cars 2 and Brave) haven't been the best. We'll have to see how Monsters University turns out before we worry about Disney adversely affecting Pixar output, though. Even the greatest studios don't make great films every time. And for all that, admit it, you'd love a Pixar guy like Brad Bird to direct the next Star Wars.

Getting expectations yet?

Lucas Was Then, This is Now

With all due respect to Lucas detractors — of whom I have been one — I hope we never have to hear the line "George Lucas [insert verb here]-ed my childhood" ever again.

That era of fan disgruntlement is over. Today, the slate is clean. Lucas is retiring and will be little more than a creative adviser on Episode 7. The guy deserves an awful lot of gratitude for his career as a whole, but that's another post.

More importantly, Episode 7 will follow on from Return of the Jedi, not Revenge of the Sith. Episodes 1-3 can fade comfortably into film school history now. (Specifically, the CGI class.)

Potentially, we'll pick up some years after the end of Jedi. I say this because I hope the filmmakers will give in to the fanboy temptation to give opening cameos to any combination of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill, playing their characters in old age; passing the torch, as one generation of Jedis and allies gives way to a new.

Granted, the franchise is going to have to figure out how best to deal with the lack of the one character who has been at the center of every Star Wars movie so far: Anakin Skywalker, better known as Darth Vader.

But at last count, there were roughly a bajillion Star Wars novels that take place in the 'New Republic' era after Vader and the Empire's defeat. Disney couldn't ask for a better set of source material to draw on to form new scripts, complete with a flourishing ecosystem of writers.

The problem is going to be too many ideas, not too little. Much will depend on who is picked to direct the movie. But remember this: the last time George Lucas handed over his franchise to another director, we got Empire Strikes Back. Not a bad precedent.

What do you see in store for the next movie, now the Mouse House has move to a galaxy far, far away? Let us know in the comments.

Image via @YoungDesign