The new trilogy will be the best 'Star Wars' films yet

Posted Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 4:25 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, October 16, 2014 at 4:28 PM Central

by John Couture

I hate that I have to start this article with a caveat, but we live in dangerous times my friends. It seems that if you fail to provide a spoiler alert these days, some form of capital punishment will be enacted upon you if you then go ahead and spoil something for someone, even if it's done unintentionally.

Well, I enjoy life and don't have plans to meet my maker anytime soon, so I will play nice and issue the aforementioned spoiler alert. If you plan to somehow live in a cave for the next 14 months and watch Episode VII untainted next December, then by all means turn back now.

It's not that I plan to intentionally spoil Episode VII or even to print nefarious rumors that may end up being truthful, but I wouldn't want to even unintentionally spoil anyone's movie-going experience. So, if the cave of Dagobah is too much for you, please get back in your X-Wing and make for Hoth or Tatooine or some other rebel friendly planet.

OK, are we alone now? Well, not alone per se, but have we gotten rid of those who might possess a weak constitution and be unable to accept what I'm about to disclose? Because what I'm about to say will most certainly be branded as blasphemy both here and in that galaxy far, far away.

Here goes: I believe that Episodes VII-IX will not only be better than the prequel films, but they will ultimately be the best Star Wars films to date.

There, I said it.

To punctuate that statement, allow me to present this clip.

This can mean only one thing. The ewoks will return in Episode VII and beyond and everyone knows that the only way to make Star Wars better is to add even more ewoks.

I jest, I jest. Of course, I will say that I'm much happier that Warwick Davis got the call over say Ahmed Best. To be fair, Warwick has played a number of different characters of the years in various Star Wars, so this casting announcement doesn't confirm that ewoks will return in Episode VII. But, that won't stop people from stating it as fact, more on that in a moment.

Now, here's the clip I really wanted to show.

I think Dante is on to something here. Arguably, the best film in the canon, to date, is The Empire Strikes Back and why is that? There are many competing theories, but my favorite is that it's seen as the best because it is significantly darker than the others. As Dante says, "All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets."

As dark as Empire was, Jedi was its polar opposite and ushered in the template for the prequels: keep things light, borderline slapstick, for the kids. The problem with that is the same kids who saw the original films in theaters wanted a more grown up version as they aged. To me, that was the beauty of the first two films, despite being age-neutral, they never pandered to kids or went the slapstick route.

There was no droid trooper head soldered on to C-3PO's body as in Clones or "NOOOOOOO!!!" scream from Revenge of the Sith to take you completely out of the film. And this is where J.J. Abrams comes in.

He's one of us. He grew up with the original trilogy and he's not as concerned as George Lucas was about creating a film for his kids. He's creating a film for all of us. The Star Wars film that we all want to see. A film that will be dark and stand in direct contrast from Return of the Jedi.

And when he passes the baton, don't expect the tone of the films to shift either. Rian Johnson isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows. No, these films will be dark and that's a good thing.

Here is what we know for a fact. The new films are set about 30 years after Jedi. The main three (Luke, Leia and Han) are back in some capacity. There will be some familiar places and faces from the original trilogy, but also plenty of new faces and places as well.

And that's about it. That encompasses everything that we officially know about Episode VII. The rest is conjecture, rumor, speculation or just plain misinformation. Remember, this is J.J. Abrams after all and he does love his old Mystery Box.

So, whether it's Daisy Ridley's home world or these supposed leaked concept art pieces, at best they are just rumors. Will they turn out to be accurate? Perhaps, but until we actually start seeing real footage from the film, it's just noise.

What's even more distressing is that it becomes a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg? There are rumors of concept art being seen showing Daisy Ridley's home world and then suddenly concept art shows up to support the rumor. So, could this be truth? Sure. But could it just as likely be self-fulfilling rumors and good fan art? Absolutely.

As an aside, the reason that I'm leaning towards these just being fan art is that many of the images seems to show cyborgs or other creations that are more machine in appearance than human. While sure, it's possible that the fall of the Empire may have triggered a regression in technology, I just find it hard to believe that in The Empire Strikes Back they have realistic robotic technology, but 30 years later everyone is wearing mechanical exoskeletons.

Sure, if these images prove to be accurate, than the nine films as a whole will take on a whole new theme of man's creation and ultimate dependence on technology. We would go from Anakin building a robot (C-3PO) in the first film to man becoming dependent on machines (Darth Vadar) in the middle films before the conclusion where man has lost his humanity entirely and surrenders to becoming a machine (Cyborg Bad Guy). It's an interesting rumor and again, if it proves to be true, I will a whole critique of the new theme in due time.

But again, this story really isn't about rumors. If you want to see all of the rumors, they aren't really that hard to find at all. Like anything, some might turn out to be correct and others will be horribly wrong. The point though is that there is one common theme through all of these rumors, the galaxy far, far away is going dark in a big, bad way.

And I'm not just talking about new bad guys, everyone is seemingly not having a good day. And think about it (here's the speculation part), it's only logical that things will have gotten bad again. If it was truly "they lived happily ever after" following Jedi, then there wouldn't be any need for a new trilogy. I can't think of a bigger waste of celluloid, other than the prequels, to have a new trilogy where it's just one giant celebration of life without the Empire.

So, going in, you have to expect that things have taken a turn for the worse. It's not too much of a leap to imagine that the rebellion had some growing pains going from "rebel scum" to a new governing body. And let's face it, no matter who is in charge of a galaxy, there are still going to a dissident minority looking for change.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an almost complete role reversal where the remnants of the old Empire are cast in the role of the rebels and we, as the audience, could even feel a bit of compassion for them. Ultimately though, this isn't going to end on a downer, so I'm sure our heroes will eventually right the ship in Episode IX.

But until then, it's pretty much a given that the films will be dark. All you have to do is look to J.J.'s other Sci-Fi franchise to see that he's not afraid to create a more adult film with real adult themes. Much like the first two films in Star Wars, family-friendly is not mutually exclusive from darker tone.

Imagine a whole trilogy of Empire films, how awesome would that be? Pretty freakin' awesome. And that's why I feel that these upcoming films will be the best in the entire series.