Anghraine

There was some Episode VII poll awhile back, and I voted for J. J. Abrams (entirely on the strength of Star Trek, to be honest, which felt a lot more like SW than ST). I didn't actually think it would happen, but ... it has!

For the link-averse, Lawrence Kasdan of ESB and Simon Kinberg as consultants (yesssss), Kathleen Kennedy is executive producer (duh), and George Lucas is creative consultant (cool). Okay, this is pretty much my personal wish list turned into reality. I really hope it's awesome.

Normally, I tend to ride on the fan rage bandwagon, but this news seems ... maybe not terrible to me? I don't know, maybe it helps that I dislike the prequels and a lot of the EU, but I'm feeling pretty cheerful about it. It could be awful, of course, but it might be good!

Also - it's OT era! (Ish, anyway.) And new people will be involved, so it should at least be different. And even if it is terrible, it'll probably fire up the fandom. and we can fight over exactly how terrible it is, and mentally wrangle it into compliance with the rest of canon (whatever that means for you). And it's coming out three years from now, more or less, with two more movies planned (and frankly, it sounds like they're planning something indefinite - Disney sounds really invested in making this ultra-successful, which is something, anyway). So there'll be years of rumours and gradually doled-out information and leaked footage and the whole deal. And Lucas is still onboard as a creative consultant, which I think is probably how he works best, anyway, but isn't likely to be targeted for any rage that results. 

So yeah, I'm wondering if they'll cast new actors for Han and Luke and Leia (BLASPHEMY though probably inevitable) and if we'll finally get proper Force-ghosts and ooh, who's going to direct and the impact on canon and if Disney Princess Leia will be agonizingly watered down, but ... I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll see.