Star Wars Episode 7: Where Will The Saga Take Us Next?

Director, George Lucas, at the New York premiere of 'The Adventures of Tintin'

With Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilms this week, first on the agenda is a seventh Star Wars film – something that has split opinion and caused its fair share of outrage.

Still, whether you want it or not, another Star Wars film is on the way (by 2015 no less) and whether you chose to welcome it with open arms or protest it with a burning effigy of Jar Jar Binks, soon enough we’ll be caught in Star War fever again like it was 1999.

Questions have already been raised as to the role Disney will have on the film, and whether or not this will help or hinder production. If the company’s acquisition of Marvel is anything to go by, then hopefully this should only mean good things (did you see The Avengers!) when the Star Wars saga returns, but this still doesn’t answer all the questions being raised by observers and fanatics alike. Who will be staring in the new films? Both Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill have spoken of their abhorrence towards the film, with Hamill particularly resentful of the films given his career nosedive after the original trilogy. But more to the point, will there be room for any of the original cast?

Of course, the biggest question that has been raised is just where will the story go next? The Star Wars film franchise may have ended with Return of the Jedi, but that by no means meant that the story ended after that as all manner of follow-on’s have been released in the form of books, comics, video games and so on. But will Disney choose to go with the Star Wars faithful and follow the New Jedi Order and such, or will they instead look to cook up something completely new and perhaps more Box Office friendly.

Some of you may shriek with horror when the idea of an original script comes to mind, especially given the fiasco that was this summer's colossal sci-fi misfire John Carter, but to those we say; one misstep does not rule out a history of success. The Pirates of the Caribbean (ok, only the first one at least) and just about every Marvel adaption have proved that still today, when Disney get it right, they get it very right. A revised approach to the saga might be just what is needed to give hope to a generation of disgruntled Star Wars fans.

If the studio does choose to take into consideration the countless books and comics that have since gone past then there’s already a wealth of options to chose from. We have the further rise of Luke Skywalker and his commandeering of the newly reformed Jedi forces, the discovery of a secret lost Jedi city, the dismantling of the Empire and reinstatement of the Republic and more to the point, we’ll also have lots of action involving smugglers and Wookies. The works of Paul & Hollace Davids and Michael Stackpole and other such writers don’t see the Empire killed off along with Darth Vader and the Emperor, the fight goes on for a good few years before order is reinstated and evil subdued – and the events already chronicled in the books could very well form the basis for a whole new trilogy never mind just one film.

We have at least three full years to wait until the next film is released, and speculation will no doubt be rife amongst the Internet from now until the film is released. Either way, whether the film is the answer to your prayer or the product of a worse nightmare one thing is for sure; Disney now own INDIANA JONES too and if they get Star Wars wrong they can always try and restore Indy’s dignity.