Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an upcoming American epic space opera[discuss] film directed, co-produced, and co-written by J. J. Abrams. The seventh installment in the main Star Wars film series, it stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow. The story is set approximately 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983).
The Force Awakens is the first film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, announced after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012. The film is produced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams, and his long-time collaborator Bryan Burk. Abrams co-wrote the film with Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the original trilogy films The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi. Abrams and Kasdan rewrote an initial script by Michael Arndt. John Williams, composer and conductor of the previous six films, returns to compose the film score. Star Wars creator George Lucas served as creative consultant during the film's early production stages.
The Force Awakens is produced by Lucasfilm and Abrams' Bad Robot Productions and will be distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Filming began in April 2014 in Abu Dhabi and Iceland, with principal photography also taking place in Ireland and Pinewood Studios in England. Disney has backed the film with an extensive marketing campaign, and it is expected to break box office records with projected profits exceeding $1 billion. The Force Awakens will be released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D on December 18, 2015, more than ten years following the release of the franchise's last installment, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Cast
- Harrison Ford as Han Solo.[8] Ford said Han "does not aspire to the position of Obi-Wan, nor do I aspire to be some New Age Alec Guinness. His development is consistent with the character, and there are emotional elements which have occasioned his growth ... There's a lot of the rogue still left in Solo. Some things don't change."[9]
- Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.[8] Regarding Luke, Han and Leia, Abrams stated: "They'd be as old and as mythic as the tale of King Arthur. They would be characters who they may have heard of, but maybe not. They'd be characters who they might believe existed, or just sounded like a fairy tale."[10]
- Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa.[11] She is referred to as General Organa, rather than Princess Leia.[12] After the events of Return of the Jedi, she is described as "a little more battle weary, a little more broken hearted."[13] Fisher described Leia as "solitary. Under a lot of pressure. Committed as ever to her cause, but I would imagine feeling somewhat defeated, tired, and pissed." Abrams said: "The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there's not much goofing around where Leia's concerned".[14]
- Adam Driver[8] as Kylo Ren, a dark warrior strong with the Force, originally a member of the Knights of Ren, and commander of the First Order.[15][16]
- Daisy Ridley as Rey,[8][17] a scavenger on the desert planet Jakku.[18] Ridley said: "She's completely self-sufficient and does everything for herself, until she meets [Finn] and an adventure begins."[18]
- John Boyega as Finn,[8][17] a redeemed First Order stormtrooper.[18][19] Boyega said that he learned he obtained the part "over a nice breakfast in Mayfair" where Abrams told him: "John, you're the new star of Star Wars."[20] Boyega said: "When we find Finn, he's in incredible danger. And the way he reacts to this danger changes his life, and launches him into the Star Wars universe in a very unique way."[18] He said in another interview: "He's been taught about [Luke], he knows about his history. For him it's like joining the army and then learning about one of the great enemies of your country."[21] He is in possession of the lightsaber that belonged to Luke and Anakin before him.[10]
- Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron,[8][17] a Resistance X-wing fighter pilot.[18][22] Isaac said: "He's the best freaking pilot in the galaxy... He's been sent on a mission by a certain princess, and he ends up coming up across [Finn], and their fates are forever intertwined."[18]
- Lupita Nyong'o[23] as Maz Kanata, a pirate.[22] Nyong'o said Kanata has "lived over a thousand years. She's had this watering hole for about a century, and it's like another bar that you'd find in a corner of the Star Wars universe."[24]
- Andy Serkis[8] as Supreme Leader Snoke,[25] Kylo Ren's master and a powerful figure of the dark side.[26] Serkis described Snoke as "quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful [...] He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design – you couldn't have gotten there with prosthetics [...] Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone and facial structure."[27]
- Domhnall Gleeson[8] as General Hux, leader of the primary First Order base, Starkiller Base.[28] Gleeson described him as "pretty ruthless. A strong disciplinarian would be a mild way of putting it [...] He's kind of opposite Kylo Ren. They have their own relationship, which is individual and unusual. One of them is strong in different ways than the other. They're both vying for power."[29]
- Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.[8] Daniels communicated that the piece was open to experimentation from the actors, to which he stated, "[Abrams] made a field, a playpen where you were allowed to take your time and suggest things [...]"[30]
- Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca[8]
- Max von Sydow as Lor San Tekka[8][31]
Release
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is scheduled to premiere in Los Angeles on December 14, 2015.[145] It will be released in France, Italy and other European nations on December 16, in Germany and the United Kingdom on December 17, and in the United States and Japan on December 18,[146][147] in 3D and IMAX 3D.[148] The film is set to be released approximately 390 IMAX screens in the United States and Canada,[149] and over 400 screens internationally. Beginning from December 18, 2015, it will occupy the whole of IMAX screens in North America for four straight weeks up to January 14, 2016 making it a rare occurrence for a single film to dominate the whole of IMAX screens for a long time. Warner Bros. Pictures' The Hobbit trilogy were the last films to receive such a release.[150] The film is also scheduled to be released in the Dolby Vision format (High dynamic range, Rec. 2020 color) in Dolby Cinema in North America.[151]
On November 6, 2014, the title of the film was announced as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[152] Although the title does not include the words "Episode VII", Episode VII will be included in the opening crawl.[153] Advance ticket sales for the film began on October 19, 2015,[154] and were in strong demand, resulting in online movie ticket sites crashing.[155][156] Vue Cinemas, the U.K.'s third-largest theater chain, sold 45,000 tickets in 24 hours, 10,000 of which were sold in 90 minutes, a record for the theater.[157] It pre-sold a record breaking $6.5 million worth of IMAX ticket sales on a single day. IMAX has never previously registered more than $1 million in pre-sales on a single day.[149]
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