Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

Bryancd said:
No, TPM lacked the shear nostalgia value this new film embodies. In some respects LucasFilm marketing engineers the TPM hype. And they did a decent job they just produced way too much product. Disney has far more merchandising experience then LF.
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It wasn't for a lack of trying.... they shoe horned in
- the origin of Boba Fett which, in my opinion really detracted from the coolness of the character
- the origin of C3PO... like anyone really cared... and in the end it really had no value since they wiped his memory anyway
- Chewbacca and his people... sorry, that should have been done in RotJ instead of Ewoks
- Jabba

Little bits of nostalgia by way of familiar faces that I guess were a form of connective tissue between the prequels and the originals.
I'm just thankful they didn't also give us a young Han Solo and Lando out on the playground or something stupid like that.
 
Inquisitor Peregrinus said:
Um... The next Celebration: Europe is in 2016. Next year. Not this summer. They'll undoubtedly show stuff for Rogue One, maybe Episode VIII, new stuff for Rebels... We'll probably see stuff from TFA after the fact, but nothing in the lead-up we're in now.

--Jonah
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Yeah my bad I thought it was this year. The official site had a banner up with no year, so I assumed this summer.
 
Father said:
- Chewbacca and his people... sorry, that should have been done in RotJ instead of Ewoks...
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You probably already know this, but that was Lucas' original intent--Wookiees instead of Ewoks. But the budget didn't allow for the number of Wookiee costumes they would have needed, and the technology wasn't sufficient at the time for them to film a smaller number of actors in Wookiee costumes and insert them numerous times (the method they used for Revenge of the Sith), so Wookiees became Ewoks.
 
That's funny. I heard that it was about finding that many tall actors. Small people are a dime a dozen but actors over 6'7"....that's tough
 
I thought the Wookiee vs. Ewok thing was debunked in the making-of book or something. I've never read or looked through it, I'm just going by what I've heard, so I could be wrong.
 
Zombie_61 said:
You probably already know this, but that was Lucas' original intent--Wookiees instead of Ewoks. But the budget didn't allow for the number of Wookiee costumes they would have needed, and the technology wasn't sufficient at the time for them to film a smaller number of actors in Wookiee costumes and insert them numerous times (the method they used for Revenge of the Sith), so Wookiees became Ewoks.
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Yes, I knew... that's why I worded it that way. :)
 
Admittedly, I'm probably just repeating the most-often-repeated story that I've read from different sources a number of times over the years, and it's entirely possible that it's just as untrue as most rumors. After all, difficulty finding several actors that would fit the height requirements sounds equally valid, as does another rumor/story that Lucas simply changed his mind.
 
I think GL thought teddy bears would be more kid-friendly than sasquatch. Could you imagine "wookiee adventures" as a movie? :lol Ah crap, did i just give disney an idea?
 
I don't think any of that is correct. Lucas said that originally he was going to use Wookies for the Endor battle, but after he had already showed Wookies/Chewie as being a very intelligent being, flying spacecraft and stuff, he wanted the battle to be more 'primitive vs technology'. So he just changed the letters around and invented the Ewoks to be that primitive race he wanted.
 
It sounds to me that regardless of whatever the original reason was Lucas has since forgotten and/or keeps on changing his mind on why he did it originally. Given his constant changes to the OT and, to a degree, the prequels would it be that much of a stretch to believe?
 
Well I guess it was both, and the question is which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Finding that many tall actors necessary for a proper army of Wookiees, plus the budget restraints on one side, and the problem their culture may be regarded as too sophisticated to show the superiority of primitive over technology on the other hand...

I think the whole theory of Ewoks being invented because of their marketing value as alternate teddy bears is nonsense though... I was a teen when Jedi came out and although there were lots of merchandise available (not only action figures, but linen, cereals, you name it) I did not see a single plush toy back then...

Quite apart from the fact that this is completely off-topic.
 
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Laspector has it closest. In his notes, it was wookiees fighting alongside Our Heroes on the ground in the battle to destroy the Death Star. But, when making Star Wars, since he didn't figure there would ever be any sequels, he lifted the Death Star and wookiees (or, at least, one wookiee) from the end of the story to be in the film he did get to make. So, when he got to that point in the sequels, he'd already established Chewie as a non-primitive and had already used the Death Star... but is such a weak writer he didn't see any way out of it except to havetwo Death Stars and invert the very-tall hairy aliens. The newer Making of ROTJ book is a gem if for no other reason than it contains many transcripts of story sessions with Lucas, Kasdan, and Marquand. The teddy-bear aliens thing was decided on very early, well before they dropped the extra Death Star (and made the remaining one bigger to compensate) and moved the setting from a nature-preserve moon over Imperial Center (aka Had Abbadon, aka Coruscant) to being a planetless moon somewhere out in the middle of nowhere.

--Jonah
 
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Falk said:
Well I guess it was both, and the question is which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Finding that many tall actors necessary for a proper army of Wookiees, plus the budget restraints on one side, and the problem their culture may be regarded as too sophisticated to show the superiority of primitive over technology on the other hand...

I think the whole theory of Ewoks being invented because of their marketing value as alternate teddy bears is nonsense though... I was a teen when Jedi came out and although there were lots of merchandise available (not only action figures, but linen, cereals, you name it) I did not see a single plush toy back then...

Quite apart from the fact that this is complete off-topic.
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yet the word Ewok isn't even in the movie but it was still a household word
 
Zombie_61 said:
Admittedly, I'm probably just repeating the most-often-repeated story that I've read from different sources a number of times over the years, and it's entirely possible that it's just as untrue as most rumors. After all, difficulty finding several actors that would fit the height requirements sounds equally valid, as does another rumor/story that Lucas simply changed his mind.
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I think Lucas just had a thing for little people.
 
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