STAR WARS EPISODE VII? Why Not!

My first reaction to announcement of Star Wars Episode VII, was an intense feeling of dread — like a great disturbance in the force.

After the craptacular Prequels, I couldn’t stand the Star Wars brand being tarnished anymore.

But the more I think about it, if there are good stories in the Star Wars universe that remain untold, why not tell them?

The only reason I can think of against making more Star Wars movies is that the brand will lose its uniqueness. Lucas largely preserved the the Star Wars mystique by making almost no live action spinoffs — the last was Ewoks: The Battle for Endor in 1985.

While the Star Wars universe had been expanding in books, comics and video games since 1983, there was a near two decade gap between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace, which is what made the release of Phantom such a huge event and then disappointment.

There is precedent with what Disney will do with Star Wars.

Look at Star Trek.  

The Next Generation resulted in three decades of new Star Trek adventures. Of course not all of it was great, but for Trek geeks there was way more upside than downside in continuing to tell stories in the Star Trek universe.

And with the success of the reboot, it’s clear that Star Trek will continue to be with us for a very long time.

Who doesn’t like that?

I’m starting to think that Lucas was wrong to make so few live action Star Wars movies (or TV shows).

Although “wrong” can be a subjective term…

Some of the stories in the books, comics and video games are actually really good — a lot better than the Prequels. Told as movies, with a more competent director than the last four Star Wars movies had, they’d probably be pretty entertaining.

Maybe the best argument I can make for more Star Wars are Ralph McQuarrie’s illustrations. Only a fraction of his vision of the Star Wars universe has actually been realized.

His paintings of Coruscant remain more intriguing and stimulating to the imagination than anything visualized in the Prequels. I want to see all of the different places he depicted on Coruscant brought to life.

The only other downsides I can think of, are 1) Star Wars Wars: Episode VII won’t open with the 20th Century Fox Fanfare; and 2) It seems highly questionable if John Williams will compose the music.

A Star Wars movie without John Williams is probably the closest will get it to sacrilege with Star Wars: Episode VII — midi-chlorians and Jar Jar Binks have set a basement 10 floors under hell.