For anyone with a Christmas wish list with Star Wars: Episode VII at the top, I certainly hope the two year wait between now and its December 2015 release aren’t too hard on you. Maybe you can take comfort in knowing that director J.J. Abrams is a lot happier to have more time to make the thing, even though he’s doing his damnedest to keep from telling us anything about it. He won’t even commit to saying whether or not C-3PO will be coming back to join his best buddy R2D2, the only official cast member the film has. He can’t break up the band, can he?
On the subject of the film's release date, in a recent interview, a jovial Abrams told MTV, "I will say that it is an infinitely better situation now than when they were saying they wanted it in summer." Disney first announced a 2015 release for the next Star Wars entry before Abrams was even on board, and since then they’ve already gone through screenwriter changes, with Abrams and Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan taking over for Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3). And while the director says having a set release date is fine, it means "you have to release something great… To me, the new release date is, you know, a huge improvement."
It’s kind of funny to see Abrams in this role of "filmmaker who talks about his projects before they come out," since he’s commonly known for his mysteries and secrets. But he’s still being coy about the most polite android in the galaxy.
While he openly said, "How do you do Star Wars without R2D2?" he then answered the C-3PO question by saying, "You know, they have different agents." A good joke, sure, since actor Anthony Daniels actually does have an agent, whereas the bleeping and blooping droid does not. But I’m still pretty positive deals will be made and that C-3PO will one day soon be dusting desert sand off of himself as he slowly makes his way toward one misadventure or another.
Now, before I post the video for you guys to check out in its entirety, be very warned that at the end of the interview, Horowitz jokingly asks Abrams for a part in the movie and proceeds to dive into a horrible impression of Jar Jar Binks, the bane of all nerds. Granted, the impression was pretty good, but that just makes it all the more intolerable. For shame.
Episode VII is coming December 18, 2015. Will you be there?
