Hank mcCoy (Before the Fur)

I’ve been very excited about all of the Star Wars buzz going on. I've always DREAMED of seeing episodes 7-9. Even when I heard about Episodes 1-3, I was excited, but the idea of seeing where Luke, Han and Leia ended up, what happens to the Rebellion and the rest of the galaxy has intrigued me even more.

I do lament that this involves sort of outing Timothy Zahn’s fabulous trilogy, which practically ushered in a new age of Star Wars expanded universe greatness from the scope of the Star Wars universe. Those books are great. And I seriously wouldn’t complain if someone cast Malcom McDowell as Thrawn and they just went ahead and made Star Wars Episode 7: Heir to the Empire.

The buzz about a Han Solo and a Boba Fett movie? I feel surprisingly lackluster about it.

I don’t know. For some reason movies just focused on the background and/or continuing exploits of these characters just aren’t calling to me. They don't strike me as movies that need to be made. I sort of feel like I know what I need to know about these two and I don’t necessarily need their whole past filled in piece by piece. Of all the Star Wars novels and mini-series, for example, these very specific character-driven arcs are usually the stories I’m most likely to leave aside.

I’m not totally sure what tact these movies will take. I mean if it IS in fact a young Han Solo kind of thing, I suppose (not surprisingly) the movie will be very comparable to the The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (you see what I did there?). You’ll get to see what kinds of things made Han who he is and how he came to be the smuggler with a heart of gold that one day helps save the universe.

A Boba Fett movie is a bit more intriguing, I'll admit. Although I’m not totally sure what direction to take with it. It’s interesting to consider a really dark Star Wars movie being made. That is, a movie in which the protagonist has no vested interest in being or doing anything heroic. It’d be like a Star Wars crime drama, I suppose?

If they are going to go ahead and make these though what can we expect? Here’s a few guesses:

1. Foreshadowing. George Lucas showed us this in his next trilogy and he seems to love it. You can expect characters to say lines or have conversations that they have years later or even to allude to events that you, the viewer, know will one day come to pass.

I do have to say Boba Fett’s relationship to his father is a bit of an eerie parallel between Anakin and Luke Skywalker. One of the central themes in Star Wars is how easy it is to make the same choices as your parents. I’m not totally sure how they can bring that all out, but I suppose the movie could have plenty of those hanging, tense moments that Anakin has in the new trilogy. You know, where you sort of KNOW he’s going to go bad but you find yourself intrigued by what he’ll do and what he’ll choose anyway? It’s painful. You know he’s going to go bad but you sort of hope he’ll work it out anyway. I could see a Fett movie having plenty of ‘tough choices’ like that, concluding with Fett sort of sealing his own fate by choosing the life of a heartless bounty hunter.

Han’s film might contain similar themes about choice. I mean, I’d be prepared for Han to do some bad things in this movie. Probably the point will be to show you how exactly Han came to be the mercenary smuggler who looks out for number one by the end of it. But of course, those parts of the movie are likely to be interspersed with ‘heart of gold’ moments where Han does something heroic or we see that sliver of sentiment that leads him towards the path of the hero.

2. Cameos: Jabba the Hutt, Chewbacca, Lando and maybe even Darth Vader himself. All likely candidates for movies like this, no question about it. Essentially, besides the title characters these movies are likely to serve as a backdrop for you to understand the history of a few other important characters of note.

I know the Star Wars TV show was supposed to be designed to bridge the gap between episode 4 and 5. And I suspect little elements of this might be tucked in here too. You might get to see how the rebellion gets started and more organized just for example. Of course, some of this history is likely to be implicit rather than explicit. Sometimes it’s just the shape and design of a spaceship that makes you go: “oh, that almost looks like a Star Destroyer” or something like that.

3. Space weirdness: Star Wars has gotten to be so much about the Force and the Jedi that you tend to forget that it’s basis is old-school, science fiction, space opera kind of stuff. It’s about aliens and droids and smuggling spice through a deep pocket of unexplored space.

I’m sort of expecting them to crank up the ‘coolness’ factor in these movies. So I’d expect a little less mystical/philosophical kind of stuff and a little bit more of blasters and unexplored planets. Just saying.

Funny thing is there was a rumor a while back about a Star Wars movie getting made that would have been based on Seven Samurai. This rumor has since been shut down but see I think THAT would have been a kickass Star Wars movie. How about seven Jedi--the only ones remaining--making their last stand against waves of Stormtroopers. They know they can’t stop the inevitable but maybe they can make their deaths meaningful and inspire a galaxy to rebel against the Empire. If that movie isn't in the works it damn well OUGHT to be!