Two new Star Wars: Episode VII rumors have hit the web today and one of them has me a bit bummed out while the other one is quite promising. Where to begin? Well, for a while now, fans have wondered how the Star Wars Extended Universe will play into the new trilogy, if at all. Characters? Worlds? Ships? There are several storylines in the EU that some fans hold as canon and thankfully for those fans, we’re now hearing that the EU characters will appear in the new film, but only sort of.
Apparently, there will be characters in the upcoming trilogy (including Episode VII) that are based on those we’ve met from the EU. For instance, we may see a wife for Luke Skywalker, but she will not be Mara Jade. Han Solo might have his daughter with him, but her name won’t be Jaina. They’ll be close, but not the same. As a fanboy, this definitely bums me out a bit as I was kind of hoping we’d get to see characters like Kyle Katarn. It’s not a big deal, I know, but still.
Next, rumor has it that Michael Arndt will pen the script for Episode VIII, which is great news if true. He’s already been involved with the new trilogy, writing the story treatment for Episode VII before J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan took over, and now it looks like they might give him a screenplay all his own.
While all this is exciting news, keep in mind that we’re playing with speculation here. Unfortunately, with Star Wars: Episode VII‘s release date more than a year away, we really have no idea how things will turn out at this point. As always though, we’ll be sure to keep you posted when we hear more.