On October 30, 2012, the cinematic world changed in a very significant way. In a surprise announcement, the Walt Disney Company announced that they had made a deal to purchase LucasFilm for $4.05 billion and that they had plans to continue the thought-over Star Wars franchise. As the movie has headed towards production, we've basically been completely obsessing over the movie as new rumors kept pouring in about who would star in Star Wars: Episode VII and what it would be about. Well, now the film is finally really becoming a firm reality: production has begun on the next chapter in the Star Wars saga.
This breaking news comes to us thanks to the official Bad Robot Twitter account. Instead of having a comment announcing that cameras had started to roll, they instead simply chose to go with a hashtag:
As we learned last month, director J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII is set to feature a healthy mix of both classic and new characters. Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2) will all be in Star Wars: Episode VII returning to play their roles from the original trilogy, while newcomers to the franchise include John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson and Max von Sydow. The script was co-written by Abrams and Empire Strikes Back scribe Lawrence Kasdan, and while we don't really know what will be driving the story in Episode VII, we do know that the events that take place will be set 30 years after the events shown in Return of the Jedi.
It's kind of amazing that Star Wars: Episode VII is now in production given that we all though the era of live-action Star Wars movies ended with Revenge of the Sith, but really this announcement only serves to make my appetite grow bigger. Will we be getting to see any official set photos? When will we finally find out the actual name of the film? Is a plot description with even the vaguest descriptions of what's going on coming soon? We may have to wait until San Diego Comic-Con in July to get any of these answers - if not longer - but today is definitely a day to be excited about.
