T minus two years: Looking back & ahead at 'Star Wars'

Posted Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 5:07 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, December 19, 2013 at 9:49 AM Central

by John Couture

Today's date is December 18, 2013.

It's not often that I can tell you resolutely what I will be doing precisely two years from any particular moment, but I'm fairly confident that in two years' time, I will be sitting down in a theater in geek nirvana awaiting the opening crawl to Star Wars: Episode VII. I imagine that I won't be alone and that I'll be seeing many of you doing the same thing on December 18, 2015.

It's weird though, because this time it feels different. I apologize in advance as this story is going to be a little different than what we normally put up on this site, but we thought it would be fun to commemorate the official two year countdown with something. I mean we HAVE to, right?

When I say that something feels different, I mean in the buildup and lead in to Star Wars: Episode VII as opposed to the anticipation for the opening of Phantom Menace. The prequel trilogies were announced in 1993, the year I graduated high school and because George Lucas likes to take his time, we didn't see the fruits of his labor for six long years.

During the build up to the release of Phantom Menace, the Internet was still in its very early phases. Think the death star in Return of the Jedi, the Internet was fully functional at this time, but only vaguely resembled the beast that is the Internet we have today. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, it was indeed a trap.

I remember that the official Star Wars website would tease us with weekly images from production. I can't remember them all but this one seems to jump out the most to me.

Jango Fett with an umbrella, which now that we've seen the prequels is actually quite revealing to a pivotal rain-soaked scene. But the point is that social media didn't exist back then and smart phones weren't as prevalent as they are now. In other words, keeping things under wraps is almost impossible today.

Which means that director J.J. Abrams, who is notorious for his desire to keep everything secret, is going to have his hands full pretty soon. The problem is that while there wasn't constant buildup for six years for the prequels, there was an insane amount of fanaticism on display. Again, without sites such as Fandango and the like, crazy fans actually camped out in front of their local theaters months in advance just to get tickets for the film. No really kids, this isn't akin to that story about walking to school three miles uphill both ways in a snow storm, thousand of fans really camped out for months.

Now, we just wait for the presales to begin and order tickets for the showing we want and cruise over to the theater 20 minutes or so before the show starts. So, I think it's a good bet that the buildup this time won't capture that same carnival atmosphere. There's also the fact that the prequels weren't very good. That's kind of a double-edged sword though. The fan base isn't crazy wild in anticipation, but our expectations are much, much lower this time around.

And yet, here we are nary two years from the release of the film and we haven't had a single casting confirmed, other than R2-D2, we don't know the title or anything about the plot and we haven't been teased anything really. So, what does that mean for Episode VII? Will the films be better off if they are shrouded in secrecy? Will we be inundated with Star Wars news day and night for the next two years? And when will we see a trailer already?

Well, I don't really have any answers, other than I would be shocked if we didn't get our first trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII exactly one year from today. There would just be something symbolic about that. Hmm, Disney's Into the Woods opens next Christmas. Will the trailer for Episode VII be attached to that film? If I were a betting man...

So, I got my colleagues together and asked them two simple questions. First, what is your favorite Star Wars related memory? And second, what are you looking forward to seeing the most in the new trilogy?

Tim's response to question #1 evoked the buildup that I really do think makes the films great.

My favorite Star Wars moment is more than a single moment. It has to be the period leading up to the release of Return of the Jedi. Remember that we had to wait a whole three years after that cliffhanger of “Luke, I am your father” and Han in Carbonite. Three years seemed like an eternity as a kid.

I only vaguely remember seeing the first two films in the theater. I know that I loved them and was obsessed with everything Star Wars related (some things never change). The final film in the trilogy was really the only one I actually anticipated. I was 11 at the time.

In the months before the film’s release, my friends and I debated some of the plot points from the previous film. Was Darth Vader indeed Luke’s father? Surely not, I argued. Ben/Obi-wan would never lie to Luke. I think there may have even been a bet proposed with a certain action figure as the prize. I wouldn’t go that far. I was naïve but not naïve enough to risk my Star Wars guys.

Return of the Jedi opened on a Wednesday. I distinctly remember my mom taking my sister and I to see it a week later at the College Mall in Bloomington, Indiana. Even seven days into release, there was a long wait. The line for tickets was long — it wrapped all the way back to MCL Cafeteria! There was concern we wouldn’t even get in to see it.

Thankfully we did make it in to see it that day. I’m sure I loved all of it, including the Ewoks. Strangely, my memory of watching the actual movie pales in comparison to the anticipation. I can’t say I’ve anticipated a movie as much in the 30 years since.

Ken took the question in a whole other direction and touches upon forces of the dark side that play in that evil phrase, "spoiler alert."

My most powerful memory is actually painful.

Let’s set the scene. It’s late May of 1980. Nerds had none of the resources then that they have now, in terms of accessing information in seconds or sharing that information instantly all over the world. Sci-Fi Geeks had Starlog Magazine, really. That was it. But by that summer of 1980, Star Wars was bigger than any movie had ever been. While it wasn’t the religion it is now, it was big enough to make the cover of Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, et. al. Even in a backwater burg like Mos Eisley…. Uh, I mean Jackson, Mississippi. So when Empire opened, our local NBC affiliate covered it on the 10 PM news. And they used audience reactions, as people came out of the very first showings. I hadn’t been yet. I’d been both insanely anticipating it, but furiously avoiding any advance plot information. I wanted to see it as cold as possible. Because this time, Jackson was getting it at the same time as the rest of America. You see… back in 1977, living in a microscopic-sized market meant that the REST of America got Star Wars way before we did. Remember, the giant-sized wide opening didn’t exist then. And as patently bizarre a film as the original was, Fox chose to platform-release it all summer long. So while the popular culture was totally re-shaped on May 25, 1977, we had to wait for the tsunami. And waited. And waited. By August of 1977, when we finally got Star Wars, well….. there were no surprises, other than the shock of seeing the film itself. The plot was an open book after three months of conquering America with a Marvel Comics adaptation, the Del Rey novelization and every magazine cover short of Good Housekeeping. Anyway, back to the night of May 21, 1980. I watch the TV coverage. People are excited. Especially this one idiot who said, “I couldn’t believe that Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!!” Good god damn it. The only thing more upsetting was the TV Christmas special. May the force be with you, but SHUT THE HELL UP about it!!

Fair enough. I guess that begs the question, will it even be possible to stay spoiler-free on Episode VII? Dannette adds her two cents with the following memory.

In 1980 I was 5 years old. I was with my dad and his family which at the time included my 4 cousins, all boys. My grandparents bought us some glow in the dark lightsabers that you had to hold up to a light before you turned the light off for them to glow. Ok, they may have been swords, but in my 5 year old mind and memory, they were definitely lightsabers.

We all piled in the car to go and see Empire Strikes Back. It’s my first theater movie memory. When we got home we played Star Wars for hours and hours. I don’t think we stopped playing Star Wars until we were grown.

I, of course, was always Princess Leia. I would even put my hair up in buns like hers. I still have such a love for anything Star Wars as it always takes me back to those great memories with my cousins!

Personally, my favorite memory from Star Wars was getting to rent The Empire Strikes Back on VHS back on the day of release. Now, it also happens that Empire was the first film that we ever watched on our brand new two piece VCR. The date was November 13, 1984 and a decade later that same VCR followed me to college and it truly was the springboard that shaped my entire life.

We had a video store on the corner and we would go up there every day on our bikes and rent movies. It helped to foster a love of films that continues to this day.

Sure, by late 1984, I had already seen all of the Star Wars films theatrically, but there was just something magical about experiencing Empire as that first VHS tape. That was almost exactly a month before my tenth birthday but I remember that day more vividly than any of my birthdays growing up.

Moving on to question two, Tim was short and sweet.

I think I’m most looking forward to the new trilogy with hopes of vindication. We all know the prequels sucked in varying degrees. I hope (and believe) that Abrams and crew will show that the original trilogy is indeed sacred and a new series of successful stories can be built on top of it.

Well said, sir. Ken was also brief in his response.

LENS FLARES ON THE MILLENIUM FALCON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dannette got a little more visceral with her answer and it brought a chill to my spine.

This might sound silly, but I can’t wait to hear the sounds of lightsabers. I just love the sound they make when they are swung around and when they touch each other. If you heard that sound with your eyes closed, you would know exactly what it is.

Well, said. I think the hard part about answering question two is that since the new sequels are such a big unknown with a new studio, new director, etc. that it's really hard to offer much in terms of what we are hoping to see. I think I echo most fans though when I say that I hope that J.J. is able to bring back the Star Wars mystique. As Tim alluded to, the prequels tarnished the whole franchise to varying degrees, but it would be nice to have a new set of films that return Star Wars to the glory that it deserves.

We only have 730 days or 1,051,200 minutes or 63,072,000 seconds to go until we get a definitive answer. Tick...tick...tick...

Please use the comments below to let us know your favorite memories and what you are looking forward to the most with the new trilogy.