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December 7, 2015

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All hype as 鈥楽tar Wars鈥 returns to screen

The new installment in the "Star Wars" movie saga opens in theaters this month against a formidable force: the galactic hopes of devoted fans who have waited a decade to revisit their beloved universe of Jedi, droids and lightsabers.

Can "The Force Awakens," the seventh episode in the celebrated sci-fi series, meet those expectations when it debuts on December 18?

鈥淣o,鈥 said director J.J. Abrams. 鈥淗ow can anything live up to any expectation like that?鈥

What the movie will offer, Abrams said, is great performances and visual effects, music 鈥渢hat breaks your heart and soars,鈥 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.

鈥淕eorge was creating a world that we wanted to go back to in order to tell a story we鈥檇 never seen yet,鈥 Abrams said. 鈥淚n a way, we were going backward to go forward.鈥

For example, he said, the filmmakers created droids 鈥渢o feel completely new and different and at the same time something that was so of 鈥楽tar Wars.鈥 That was always the challenge.鈥

Lucas bowed out of 鈥淪tar Wars鈥 after he sold his film studio to Walt Disney Co in 2012 for US$4 billion. 鈥淔orce Awakens鈥 is the first in a new film trilogy.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no way that I can imagine anything touching the magic of what he did,鈥 Abrams said. 鈥淎nd yet we all did the best we could to make that happen.鈥

Set 30 years after 鈥淩eturn of the Jedi,鈥 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 鈥淔orce Awakens.鈥 The secrecy has stirred rampant online speculation, particularly about the fate of Skywalker, who is absent from trailers and posters promoting the new film. Abrams said the character was purposely left off to keep key parts of the story under wraps.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just what our narrative is,鈥 Abrams said, 鈥渟o if it鈥檚 driving anyone crazy, apologies. But it鈥檚 mostly about wanting to protect the experience for the people who might go see the movie.鈥

Ridley, who plays a scavenger, said the film captures the 鈥渄elightful鈥 tone of the earlier movies. 鈥溾楽tar Wars鈥 never had like insane violence or anything,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always joyful and always uplifting even though bad things happen.鈥

鈥淔orce Awakens鈥 also features 鈥渃lassic Star Wars humor, choppy dialogue,鈥 said Boyega, who described his role as a conflicted Stormtrooper.


 

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