Anghus Houvouras on the big Star Wars: Episode VII casting news…
The internet was abuzz with activity over the official cast announcement for Star Wars: Episode VII. There was a great deal of excitement, a whole lot of scrutiny, and a lot of armchair posturing on the future of the franchise. Star Wars is still the holy grail of geek culture. There is no franchise that generates such passion, even over the most minute of details. How many hours online have been spent postulating the question ‘Did Greedo shoot first?’ I’ve personally witnessed conversations where grown men have discussed in alarming detail the concept of ‘coolest Bounty Hunter from Empire Strikes Back after Boba Fett’ which seems odd since they account for about three minutes of total screen time and don’t do anything but silently stand in line waiting for Vader to finish speaking.
The prequels applied a layer of tarnish to the franchise it hadn’t previously experienced. For the first time since the original trilogy was released, Star Wars was uncool. It was a target for derision. We learned that with total control and zero creative accountability that George Lucas is a pretty average director making even the most seasoned actors appear under cooked. His failings as a director were only exceeded by his failures as a writer delivering wooden dialogue and derivative scenarios that ended up proving that Darth Vader was infinitely more interesting when we knew very little about him.
I don’t know what to expect from the new Star Wars films. My earliest inkling was that J.J. Abrams would deliver a Star Wars experience much like his outings with the crew of the USS Enterprise where he delivered stock versions of the characters smothered in healthy helpings of fan service. The cast announcement calcified those feelings for me.
My reaction to the casting of Episode VII was like being told “There’s good news, and there’s bad news.” At first I was elated to hear all the new names. Adam Driver, Oscar Issac, Max Von Sydow, Daisy Ridley, the great Andy Serkis, Attack the Block’s John Boyega. This is a great collection of both young up and coming talent and established geek icons. Then I got the bad news.
Harrison Ford, Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew.
Sigh.
They got the band back together. It’s the cinematic equivalent to the Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon tour. I know exactly what kind of Star Wars movie this is going to be. This photograph tells me everything Episode VII is going to deliver. Even the photo itself is fan service. Why else have Peter Mayhew there? The idea of Chewbacca at a table read is equally humorous and has the feeling of an engineered P.R. stunt rather than capturing a ‘fly on the wall’ moment. I’m sure it’s a thrill for Mayhew to be there, but I can only imagine the brutally awkward moment where Harrison Ford delivers a great line reading before Mayhew belts our “ROOOOOWWWWRRRRR”
They might as well titled the photo ‘the safe bet’. This is a Star Wars movie that is going to try like hell to appease all parties, a mission it already accomplished simply by existing. I was hoping for a new corner of the Star Wars universe or new stories to be told, but it seems like Abrams, Lucasfilm, and Disney are going to wring as much out of the original trilogy as they can before Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Leia Organa go from ‘too old for this shit’ to ’embarrassingly too old for this shit’.
I suppose this could be the film where the torch is passed. One last final glimpse into the original characters and stories before moving into uncharted territory. I thought the same thing with Abrams’ first Star Trek movie which seemed to nicely integrate Leonard Nimoy and transition the old to the new with some dignity. Then Star Trek Into Darkness went back to the well with a vengeance carting Nimoy awkwardly out once again proving that studios have very little trust in franchises that lack direct connections to the familiar.
This is a new Star Wars. For many, it will be enough. My ongoing concern is that this will be a very safe, very stale continuation of a franchise that hasn’t been any good since 1983. More interested in stoking fond memories and appeasing the established base rather than take us anywhere new, or god forbid, interesting.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published April 30, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
