So, what’s another seven months to wait for Episode VIII?
By Mike Audette // This week brought the return of Star Wars Rebels, a massive snowstorm that hit the East Coast–with plenty of Star Wars references, and the release date change of Episode VIII.
On Wednesday, Lucasfilm announced that Episode VIII’s release date has been changed from its previously scheduled May 2017 release, to a new December release following in the tradition of The Force Awakens‘ record-breaking December debut. Many people had different reactions to this news, both good and bad. The majority of the disappointed reactions just happen to come from the fact that they have to wait the extra seven months to see the continuation of The Force Awakens. Information coming about the change points to rewrites happening to the script, in response to the fan reaction to The Force Awakens‘ newly introduced characters. I hope this is the case, because I am absolutely in love with the new heroes and seeing them get more deeply explored would be awesome. If delaying the release date of the film is able to give the people working on it more time to give us a brilliant movie, I’m all for it.
The return of Star Wars Rebels also happened on Wednesday, which ended up being quite a good day in Star Wars. “A Princess on Lothal” saw the debut of the first appearance of Princess Leia since just being born in Revenge Of The Sith and her capture on the Tantive IV in A New Hope. The episode did a great job of portraying Leia as not only a member of the greater Imperial government but also as a quick-thinking, on her toes, strong-willed member of the Rebel Alliance. Tasked with bringing reinforcement ships to the crew of the Ghost from her father, Bail Organa, who still needs to maintain his appearance as a Senator while secretly supporting the Rebel Alliance. These sorta politics story lines are the things I really find fascinating during this time period in the Galaxy. I don’t foresee getting much more of that in Star Wars Rebels since it is much more character-focused instead.
Lastly, this week brought on some much maligned winter weather to the Northeast of the United States in the form of Winter Storm Jonas (not the brothers), and as all Star Wars fans do, it had to be related to the Wars somehow. Making comparisons to the ice-planet of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back anytime a blizzard hits doesn’t seem like it will ever get old. As tweets like this go to show, Star Wars has the everlasting ability to influence our daily lives and enable everyday occurrences to be something we can all share in.