Good point, Who Me. Abrams is known for unexpected storytelling, though he doesn’t tend to mess with your mind on the same level as say Christopher Nolan does. I imagine, for anyone writing or directing the movie, it would be difficult to wrap your arms around all the books, video games and even some fantastic fan created materials that are out there. There are a lot of possibilities to be pursued. If I were a gambling kind of gal I would speculate that Abrams took extra care in preserving the integrity of the first three films. I also would bet that the vast majority of fans will appreciate his creation.
I actually don’t mind episode II. As for episode I, it was like all the actors phoned in their performances. I get the appeal of the Ewoks for kids, but I thought Lucas had really dumbed it down with Binks. I love episode III, but of course the dialogue between Anakin and Padmé in II & III is so painful to listen to. He should have turned those portions over to someone else to write. It makes for some great fodder between DH and myself though!
I have avoided all possible spoiler alerts so these are just my guesses. Yes, the timeline is about 30 years after the Empire is defeated. The Imperial Starship is perhaps crashed into the planet Tatooine and has remained there undisturbed – until recently. The young woman we see in the trailer is the daughter of Han and Leia. Leia is the one who is passing the light saber to her daughter, and Luke is the voice over (obviously) telling his niece the Force is strong in his family. That’s also obviously Luke’s hand reaching out to R2. DH told me that the soccer looking robot is what Lucas originally had wanted R2 to look like but didn’t have the capabilities back then to create the look. DH speculates that perhaps Luke is transferring information from the R2 unit and it will go into the soccer ball looking droid. Anything is possible however I can’t imagine getting rid of such an iconic droid. I am braced for a beloved character to be killed off.
