Today might be the most important day in Star Wars history that you're not celebrating yet. It was this day one year ago, around this time in the afternoon, when Disney made a blockbuster announcement-- they had acquired Lucasfilm, and they were making a new Star Wars movie. Nerds around the Internet rejoiced. Movie blogs like this one went into overdrive. Here's the conversation that happened between me and Eric Eisenberg when we realized what a colossal deal this was:
Disney paid $4 billion for the acquisition, which also involved George Lucas stepping down as CEO and Kathleen Kennedy stepping up as the President of Lucasfilm. On that day the focus was pretty much on the business end of things, with talk of future Indiana Jones movies taking up almost as much space as the actual Star Wars Episode VII that was in development. But we also took the time to speculate what might happen in Episode VII, which included the idea that the story might follow the children of Luke, Leia and Han and make room for older versions of the original characters-- a prediction that seems pretty spot on based on what we've been hearing. And I stepped up on my soapbox and claimed it wouldn't really matter who directed the film, because Disney would probably go Marvel-style and hire someone lesser known who they could control, like Thor: The Dark World's Alan Taylor or Captain America: The Winter Soldier's Joe and Anthony Russo.
Which brings us to the other Star Wars anniversary you're probably not celebrating yet: January 24, 2013, when J.J. Abrams was hired to direct Star Wars: Episode VII. Since Abrams came on board the Star Wars speculation machine hasn't slowed down a bit, but the amount of actual information we have access to has reduced significantly, all part of Abrams' customary "Mystery Box" treatment of new projects. Pretty much every time we write up Star Wars, even if it's just about bloopers from the original trilogy, it's with the caveat "because J.J. Abrams isn't telling us anything." And though we've continues to keep a close eye on what we know so far about Episode VII, there has yet to be nearly as big a news break as what happened a year ago today.
I have no idea how you celebrate the anniversary of a blockbuster studio acquisition-- it's not nearly as much fun as Back to the Future day, I know that much-- but today is an anniversary worth remembering. Where were you when you found out there was going to be another Star Wars movie? How did you react? Can you believe it's been a full year of nonstop rumors and we still don't actually know what the movie will be about? Share your remembrances in the comments below, along with an October 30-related pun on the level of "May the Fourth be with you."
(Thanks to Germain Lussier for the reminder of this momentous day)
