There is no slowing down the blockbuster train. Avengers: Age of Ultron is in theaters now, has already made a bazillion dollars, and it already feels like old news. Ant-Man is next on the Marvel docket, but that’s small potatoes to the enthusiasm fans have for the coming of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and if this film delivers on the hype, watch out, the Star Wars train will take over every waking hour of online fandom as a new Star Wars film is already planned for the next four years and there are always rumors to discuss, and as this world expands, so will the theories, the connections, the wondering what will come next.
With The Force Awakens set some 30 years after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) it stands to reason as exciting as it is we will finally begin exploring new territory in the Star Wars galaxy, at the same time fans will be on the lookout for references to what’s taken place in the past. Speaking with “Vanity Fair” (via The Playlist), director J.J. Abrams discussed such references and how they worked some in, but found they also had to cut some out:
“…we’ve obviously had a lot of time [during the development process] to talk about what’s happened outside of the borders of the story that you’re seeing. So there are, of course, references to things, and some are very oblique so that hopefully the audience can infer what the characters are referring to…
“We used to have more references to things that we pulled out because they almost felt like they were trying too hard to allude to something. I think that the key is — and whether we’ve accomplished that or not is, of course, up to the audience — but the key is that references be essential so that you don’t reference a lot of things that feel like, oh, we’re laying pipe for, you know, an animated series or further movies. It should feel like things are being referenced for a reason.”
Yes, “referenced for a reason”, though I would like to know said references are basically dropped into casual conversation between characters and hopefully not explicitly addressed. I don’t need any, “Remember that time when we were on Endor with the Ewoks and Luke was all like, ‘my sister has it’, and then he went and fought Darth Vader while the Emperor looked on and Lando and team blew up the Death Star? Man, that was so crazy! We partied like it was the 1997 special edition re-release when that happened!”
Abrams calls the question of when to, and when not to reference something a “constant struggle” saying, “That, to me, has been the constant struggle: to make sure that none of these things are treated like either they’re a museum piece and we’re trying to honor them or they’re gratuitous and thrown in because, well, it’s a Star Wars movie so you’ve got to put these things in. Everything has got to be essential to the characters in the film.”
Personally, I don’t see the struggle unless you are at once trying to tell whatever story you’re trying to tell while also trying a bit of fan service, the latter being an issue with so many of today’s comic book-based blockbusters. I’m not sure why filmmakers feel they are beholden to fans in any way. If they have a vision for character and story, run with it and Abrams is essentially working with a blank slate in this case. We’ll see how it all turns out once The Force Awakens arrives on Dec. 18.
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