Star Wars: Episode 7, 8... and BEYOND!

[X-SOLDIER]

Keri Russell is apparently the first new member of the Episode IX cast.

...which is now 531 days away from release.





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[Lucis Caelum]

My take is "watch in whatever order", I was never fan of any "ideal" watching order, it always felt like a very gatekeeping mentality.

[X-SOLDIER]

Interesting. I never thought of it as gatekeeping, but more like there're lots of ways to consume long-form story media – some of which preserve storytelling hooks in more enjoyable ways compared to others, especially for first-time consumers. My mentality for that stuff goes WAY back to the days when I read C.S. Lewis' Narnia series as a kid. I'd always read them in release order, but then later on, they were republished and placed into chronological order. There are inherent differences to reading them in one order vs. the other because of the connections that you know about in advance and how details are revealed changes how certain moments feel when going through them. It's just like movies who intercut flashbacks or intentionally reveal information out of order would be different if they always showed everything in precise, linear time.

Star Wars Machete Order essentially tried and preserve each of the existing two trilogy's reveals for a new audience. In Chronological Order the "I am your father" reveal is spoiled in Episode 3, but in Release Order the "Palpatine is the Emperor / Dark Lord of the Sith" is spoiled in Episode 6 (why it puts 2 & 3 between 5 & 6).

For me, "ideal" always refers to keeping the big reveals intact for first-time viewers, and allowing the strengths of each film to build off of strengths of other films. YMMV, but absolutely nothing beats capping off a Star Wars marathon by watching Revenge of the Sith into Return of the Jedi, because of how much heavier every moment in 6 feels in the shadow of just having watched Anakin fall and knowing what Luke has to overcome and avoid to keep from falling to the Dark Side himself AND save his father.

By the same token, you can choose to watch the Clone Wars series chronologically since while it's VERY CLOSE to chronological (especially in later seasons) not everything in the series was. StarWars.com even has the order listed for anyone interested: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-w...l-episodeorder


tl;dr – Not gatekeeping, but more looking at the benefits and shortcomings of "the order of storytelling" vs. "the literal order of series of events as they came to pass" since each have their merits.




IN OTHER NEWS: It looks like Lando is likely confirmed for Episode IX – now just give us Anakin Ghost, please.





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[Lucis Caelum]

Re: Watch order

While yes, there are advantages and disadvantages of watching/reading something in one way or another, my issue is with the (concious or subconcious) agenda behind the "ideal" experience order (specially with first time consumers):

"Wanting everyone to have the same homogenic experience as I see fit and hopefuly share my same view on the matter (or at least be tinted with a certain len)"

Re: Lando

That's neat, though still waiting for the mouse confirmation.

[X-SOLDIER]

Does finding the most suitably enjoyable viewing order really homogenize the experience though? Regardless of how and when you watch any series of films, you're still going to have favourite moments that are unique to you. You COULD watch any of the Marvel Cinematic films that you want, but being as their release order was designed as a specific storytelling order for how they all interconnect to one-another, there's a clear merit to doing it that way.

Star Wars is different from the MCU in that all of the films weren't released as a part of a single storytelling experience, but rather as individual pieces of a universe – and depending on when and how you encounter those pieces, some significant story threads could possibly be undercut by them being shown earlier.

The same is true of the Alien films now that Prometheus & Covenant exist as prequels to the first Alien. Are they best before or after? Is it better not knowing anything about the Engineers and revealing that mystery before, or is it better to know about them even when the crew of the Nostromo doesn't? Both ways are interesting, but they do have impact on one another's big moments of mystery depending on which order you see them in.

I always saw the point of viewing orders for any media as being about looking for how best to arrange the extant content as a single story telling thread, since for some properties it was never designed that way. Even if things were designed to connect together chronologically – that's not always the most important part of how we tell or consume stories.





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[X-SOLDIER]

Episode IX Cast announced: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-w...cast-announced






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[Charles Xavier]

X-SOLDIER wrote:

Episode IX Cast announced: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-w...cast-announced






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And Carrie Fisher's back... kind of.

[Cthulhu]

They're really going to shoehorn that in there aren't they. Like shooping out a mustache.

[X-SOLDIER]

Given that IX was always going to've been her film before Carrie passed away, and she's the last one left of the original three in the story (aside from Force Ghost Luke), I was always figuring that they'd include her in some capacity.

Properly happy for the confirmation of Lando, and still REALLY keeping my fingers crossed for a little cameo from Hayden Christensen. What with them announcing a bunch of prequel-era stuff at Comic Con, and the last couple years, it's pretty clear that a BIG chunk of their audience aren't people who despise the things that came to make a lot of that era toxic.

I am quite interested to see how they wrap everything up.




X

[The Twilight Mexican]

There was no way they were going to be able to satisfactorily close this without Leia. It's great they have some previously unused footage to work with, though it remains to be seen whether they can make it work Organaically.

[X-SOLDIER]

The Twilight Mexican wrote:

though it remains to be seen whether they can make it work Organaically.

+10,000 Internets to you for this pun, Tres.





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[Doom Bunneh]

The Twilight Mexican wrote:

Organaically.

Just when I had lost all hope that there was still good in this world, you brought it back.

[X-SOLDIER]

Stumbled on this today, and it made for an interesting read on light of the conclusive nature of Episode IX. https://www.themarysue.com/learning-...the-last-jedi/





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[X-SOLDIER]

First day of filming officially completed: https://twitter.com/JohnBoyega/statu...21181902086144




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[Fangu]

X-SOLDIER wrote:

I was always figuring that they'd include her in some capacity.

some capacity - probably gonna be a lousy capacity if they're gonna scrape together a plot based on unused scenes.

That said -
As mentioned before I'd hoped they'd recast to give the character some closure, but I realise that might read as character closure just 'on paper' for a lot of people - Carrie Fisher was Leia. Which I am completely on board with. She was Leia for me too. It would have to have been some actress if they'd recast. And I'm not even sure it would have worked. Since so many people watch this series with their hearts first and foremost. I certainly do.

I'm just happy they landed on not doing the Peter Cushing thing. Because yikes.