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Star Wars: Episode VII Will Officially Take Place 30 Years After Return Of The Jedi

By Nick Venable | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Ho. Ly. Crap. After what feels like many millennia, Lucasfilm and Disney have finally come forward and released some actual information about what is arguably the most highly anticipated film of the next two years, Star Wars: Episode VII. We still don’t know who’s in it, or what they’ll be doing, but we now know that the third trilogy in the franchise will start filming this May, and that it will be set 30 years after the events of Richard Marquand’s Return of the Jedi. So that should be somewhat comforting for everyone worried that they were going to somehow CGI the shit out of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.

The press release also mentions that it will star “a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces.” Of course, none of this is actually huge news, but the timeline makes sense, and proves that J.J. Abrams and co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (of Empire Strikes Back fame) aren’t trying to get too ridiculous with things. When Episode VII is released, it will have been only 32 years since Return of the Jedi came out, so our human heroes will look about the same as we’d expect them to, assuming the Star Wars universe has amazing aging creams. C-3BOtox, anyone?

But what about Chewbacca? We never quite learned the life cycle of a Wookie in those films, and I wouldn’t immediately assume he could live for over 60 years. [He totally could. – Didactic Dave]. But I won’t be surprised if we find him living in a small house, growling for kids to get off his lawn.

We still aren’t quite sure who these new faces will be, although a shortlist of actors for the main lead have been named — go Jesse Plemons! — and Adam Driver has been the go-to name for the unnamed villain character. All that’s left is rounding up about 10 females to wonder which of them will take the third lead. (Unless Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o gets the part.)

So anybody looking to get early peeks at what the production looks like should start camping out at London’s Pinewood Studios in the next month or so. And be sure to tell us what you found. For now, though, we’re content to just sit along for the ride.

In other news, let’s all wish New Hope and Empire costume designer John Mollo a happy birthday.

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Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens