Star Wars The Force Awakens!

OMG THE NAMES

FYI y'all do know this new trilogy will not use any material from the Expanded Universe? Sad, I know, but thankfully (1) JJ Abrams is a fantastic storyteller, and wrote the screenplay for Episode VII with Lawrence Kasdan, the writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and (2) he will, according to Rian Johnson, use little CGI and more traditional, practical special effects, to more closely resemble the aesthetic of the original trilogy.

 Additional Information, From Wikipedia

The teaser only intensified my excitement for the film, and I proudly admit my nerdiness by saying I cried the first ten times I watched it when the Millennium Falcon zoomed across the screen. The cinematography of that moment is so perfect, taking the brilliant swoops and turns of the ship from the Battle of Endor and updating them for the modern day without losing that authenticity. Using that as a metaphor for what the whole film could be is an exhilarating thought.

Honestly at this point my only concern is that this dude Rian is directing Episodes VIII and IX. I would hope that if JJ's debut kills it they'll have him finish the trilogy. Or at least Rian has to, that he does as well, if not better. #fingerscrossed

I'm all for bringing back the classic special affects, but I'm seriously disappointed if they really choose to use nothing from the EU. I never expected them to use the same story plots or anything, but I was at least hoping that individual characters and names would crop up as a homage of sorts. I don't think I'll ever adjust if the kids aren't named Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, and Ben.

And I think we are going to be pleasently surprised with the expanded uiverse. It's not going to be an adaptation of any previous material, but we are going to get a lot of stuff directly out of the expanded universe, like the lightsaber and Kylo Ren's name.

I'm not really sure how this is supposed to please EU fans. It might have been possible to back track and weave some of the changes from Ep VII~IX into the old EU but it's looking more and more like this is a complete retcon. I'm open enough that I'll say it's not necessarily a bad thing, but don't try to say that brand new EU material based off these movies would somehow make up for the gutting of the old stories. As they continue to make new movies and likely maintain a similar level of secrecy, any EU writers would be effectively handicapped and be trying to write with their hands tied behind their backs.

I'm still holding out some hope that "Rey" is just a pseudonym and will eventually be revealed as Jaina, but it's probably just wishful thinking.