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 Can "The Force Awakens," the seventh episode in the
celebrated sci-fi series, meet those expectations when it debuts
on December 18? "No," said director J.J. Abrams. "How can
anything live up to any expectation like that?"
What the movie will offer, Abrams told Reuters, is great
performances and visual effects, music "that breaks your heart
and soars," plus a story, characters and creatures that are new,
but feel like they fit in the universe created by George Lucas
in the original 1977 film.
"George was creating a world that we wanted to go back to in
order to tell a story we'd never seen yet," Abrams said. "In a
way, we were going backward to go forward."
For example, he said, the filmmakers created droids "to feel
completely new and different and at the same time something that
was so of 'Star Wars.' That was always the challenge."
Lucas bowed out of "Star Wars" after he sold his film studio to
Walt Disney Co in 2012 for $4 billion. "Force Awakens" is the
first in a new film trilogy.
"There's no way that I can imagine anything touching the magic
of what he did," Abrams said, "and yet we all did the best we
could to make that happen."
Set 30 years after "Return of the Jedi," the new movie brings
characters Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie
Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) back to their galaxy far,
far away. Newcomers Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega)
lead a younger generation that grapples with the conflicts that
haunted the past.
Disney is guarding details about the plot of "Force Awakens."
The secrecy has stirred rampant online speculation, particularly
about the fate of Skywalker, who is absent from trailers and
posters promoting the new film.
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Abrams said the character was purposely left off to keep key parts
of the story under wraps.
"It's just what our narrative is," Abrams said, "so if it's driving
anyone crazy, apologies. But it's mostly about wanting to protect
the experience for the people who might go see the movie."
Ridley, who plays a scavenger, said the film captures the
"delightful" tone of the earlier movies. "'Star Wars' never had like
insane violence or anything," she said. "It's always joyful and
always uplifting even though bad things happen."
"Force Awakens" also features "classic Star Wars humor, choppy
dialogue," said Boyega, who described his role as a conflicted
Stormtrooper.
Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren, a character dressed similar to Darth
Vader who is presumed to play the main villain, though that depends
on the perspective.
"I don't think he's evil at all," Driver said. "I think he's right."
Aside from fan anticipation, the movie faces lofty box office
projections for the opening weekend, from $170 million to $220
million in just the United States and Canada, a level never achieved
in December. "Jurassic World" holds the record with $208.8 million
in June.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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