J.J. Abrams And Lawrence Kasdan Wish You A Happy Star Wars Day
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Fun fact time, today, Star Wars Day, owes its existence, at least in part, to conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher took office on May 4, 1979, and to celebrate, her party took out a newspaper ad that read, “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie.” The phrase, of course, sounds like that iconic line from Star Wars, “May the Force be with you,” and though we’d be wiling to be that obsessive fans would have made that connection eventually, that’s not how it went down. And for fans across the globe about to revisit George Lucas’ space opera, Star Wars: Episode VII director and writer J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan recorded a special message for fans.
This video isn’t really anything more than a little tip of the cap to the legions of fans that are frothing at the mouth for anything Star Wars related. These guys are rather busy these days, so it was nice of them to take a few minutes out of their schedule to say hello. There is one moment that could prove to be interesting, or it could very well be nothing at all. Over the past week, no story has been bigger than the announcement of the key cast of Episode VII. From the sound of Abrams’ message, it seems like we can expect to hear more in the future.
The key phrase here is “as casting announcements continue.” Though the bulk of the cast seems to be in place, both old and new, we know that there are still all manner of smaller roles that will need to be filled. We’ve even heard rumors that there is another significant female role that still has not been cast yet. Could this be one of the announcements he’s talking of? (Am I reading far too much into what could be an offhand statement?)
So far, there hasn’t been that one, big bit of news that many people anticipated today. We got our first look at the Star Wars Rebels trailer, but there’s nothing on the Episode VII front. When the announcement came down this past Tuesday, it caught many people by surprise. Though it felt like Disney and Lucasfilm were ramping up to something—there had been reports of the original cast members all being in London, where production is scheduled to take place—we didn’t necessarily expect it so soon. Many people actually expected them to save the public declaration today, but suspect that the news was about to leak so their hand was forced.
Accompanying the casting announcement there was a picture of all of the actors—John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker—at the first table read. And with production at London’s Pinewood studios on the way, even with the notoriously taut security, there will likely be some slivers of news in the near future.
Star Wars: Episode VII opens December 18, 2015, and if we hear anything more today, you’ll be the first ones to know.
