In this packed edition of The Week in Star Wars, George Lucas is wanted back by fans, J.J Abrams talks about comparisons to A New Hope, #WheresRey, The Force Awakens continues to smash records, we’ve got some Rogue One rumours and more…
To kick things off this week, I’d like to extend my congratulations to John Boyega on his Rising Star nomination at the BAFTAs…
…For someone who has left the Star Wars Universe with a tasty $4 billion in his back pocket, George Lucas has been the focal point of quite a few editions of The Week in Star Wars (see here and here). This week is no different as a fan petition has been launched for the director to return to his creation. Clearly these people didn’t see Attack of the Clones. “Bring back George Lucas for the Star Wars movies,” reads the petition. “Put the father of the franchise as director of Episode IX. We really want this, please. We have no problem with Colin Trevorrow, but he’s not the right guy to direct Star Wars: Episode IX. George Lucas as director of Episode IX would be the perfect way to end this new trilogy and make an epic farewell between the Father of Star Wars and the whole universe of the galaxy far, far away…” At press time, the petition has had over 14,000 signatures – which is probably a few million away from putting some pressure on Disney…
…Moving over to The Force Awakens, and it was announced this week that the movie has become the biggest movie of all-time in North America – toppling Avatar. What’s impressive is that it took Avatar seven months and a re-release to hit its $750 million domestic total, whereas it only took 20 days for The Force Awakens. The final results of its China release (which we’ll know later today, but it did earn $32 million on its opening day) will give us a better idea of whether it can top its global total of $2.5 billion, but it can also lay claim to be the biggest movie of all-time in the UK as well, beating Spectre this week. So, totting up its list of accomplishments so far, The Force Awakens has the biggest opening day of all-time, the biggest opening weekend of all-time, it’s the highest-grossing Disney movie ever released. It’s also – currently – the fourth biggest movie of all-time…
…One thing that could heavily impact the movie’s takings is the boycott started by Men’s Rights Activists. Just kidding. However, the group claimed to have cost Star Wars: The Force Awakens over $4 million. They’re very proud…
…Remember that official photo of Supreme Leader Snoke last week? Well there was another one released this week of Maz Katana, alongside some behind-the-scenes images and a featurette video of the shoot on Skellig…
…Another new IMAX poster was released this week, and you can see the previous three posters here, here and here…
…Last week we reported on the Blu-Ray release of the movie, and this week J.J. Abrams has revealed that there will be deleted scenes, but no extended cut. “I don’t know what the longest cut was,” he said. “Probably, if it were with credits, close to two hours and 50 minutes was the first cut…”
…Someone who wasn’t impressed with the lightsabre action in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was Samuel L. Jackson – who played Mace Windu in the prequel trilogy. “I think the kids need to go to lightsaber fight school, but that’s just me thinking that,” he said in an interview to promote The Hateful Eight. “They’ve got time to get better…”
…Another complaint made by fans is that The Force Awakens is, essentially, a remake of A New Hope. This week J.J. Abrams addressed those concerns saying, “”It was obviously a wildly intentional thing that we go backwards, in some ways, to go forwards in the important ways, given that this is a genre — that Star Wars is a kind of specific gorgeous concoction of George [Lucas]’ — that combines all sorts of things. Ultimately the structure of Star Wars itself is as classic and tried and true as you can get. It was itself derivative of all of these things that George loved so much, from the most obvious, Flash Gordon and Joseph Campbell, to the [Akira] Kurosawa references, to Westerns — I mean, all of these elements were part of what made Star Wars. I can understand that someone might say, ‘Oh, it’s a complete rip-off! What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards. We inherited Star Wars. The story of history repeating itself was, I believe, an obvious and intentional thing, and the structure of meeting a character who comes from a nowhere desert and discovers that she has a power within her, where the bad guys have a weapon that is destructive but that ends up being destroyed — those simple tenets are by far the least important aspects of this movie, and they provide bones that were well-proven long before they were used in Star Wars…”
…There was a little bit of controversy this week when a letter written by an 8-year old to Hasbro complained about a lack of Rey in the Star Wars:Monopoly set. Well, controversy on Twitter, anyway, with their hashtag #WheresRey. Hasbro did respond and said that Rey would be in future sets and other merchandise. “The Star Wars: Monopoly game was released in September, months before the movie’s release, and Rey was not included to avoid revealing a key plot line that she takes on Kylo Ren and joins the Rebel Alliance,” Hasbro said in a press release. “Fans will see more Rey product hitting store shelves this month, including 6-inch and 12-inch Rey action figures. We are thrilled with the popularity of this compelling character and will continue to look for ways to showcase Rey across all of our product lines. “We love the passion fans have for Rey, and are happy to announce that we will be making a running change to include her in the Monopoly: Star Wars game available later this year….”
Click the button below to see what J.J. Abrams makes of #WheresRey as well as Episode VIII and Rogue One rumours…
Originally published January 10, 2016. Updated July 2, 2023.
