Greetings, Rebelscum fans! This week on the site we’re diving into the epic battle between the First Order and the Resistance on the fearsome Starkiller Base during the climax of The Force Awakens. Stay tuned throughout the week for more articles, insights, videos, and merchandising information for collectors.


A Star Wars sequel trilogy had been endlessly rumored about for literally decades. Lucas hinted as early as the ‘70s that he was interested in telling a “trilogy of trilogies” with a nine picture saga, but following the release of Revenge of the Sith he was insistent that the “Anakin Skywalker story” would only be six films and that he was concluded with the saga. Lucas worked on getting some of the Star Wars television projects off the ground while he prepared other films including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and his passion project Red Tails.


Although Lucas had initially thought about directing a seventh film himself, he ultimately decided that the franchise and its future belonged to the next generation who he could pass the torch to. The announcement that Walt Disney Studios would be purchasing Lucasfilm would have been shocking in its own right, but fans were flabbergasted when news broke that the long discussed sequel trilogy was finally coming.


Screenwriter Michael Arndt, acclaimed for his work on Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, was brought in to pen the first draft of the script, but the search for a director became a popular topic of Internet conversation immediately following the project’s announcement. J.J. Abrams was actually brought in early on, but initially passed on the opportunity due to the overwhelming nature of the project.


Kathleen Kennedy and The Force Awakens producers met with any other potential filmmakers. Brad Bird, who had shown his skills outside of animation with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, was approached, but turned it down due to his commitments to his passion project Tomorrowland. The eccentric Matthew Vaughn of X-Men: First Class and Kingsman fame had his own story ideas, but ultimately passed for creative differences. Other top rate filmmakers including David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, Jon Faverau, Ben Affleck, and Colin Trevorrow were considered.


Ultimately, Abrams was suggested again as an option upon a suggestion by Steven Spielberg himself to Kennedy. Abrams had shown his expertise in telling long form storytelling with Lost, Felicity, and Alias, and as a cinematic filmmaker he’d helmed successful reinventions of popular franchises. He righted the course on Tom Cruise’s action series with Mission: Impossible III and spawned a new generation of Trekkies with the reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Abrams’s passion project Super 8 was set in the 1970s and contained many references to Star Wars.


Abrams worked with legendary The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan on a new version of the script, and one of their first tasks was re-imagining the Star Wars galaxy with a new major conflict. In the place of the Empire lies the fascist extremist group the First Order, and the New Republic’s Resistance became underdogs when their new opponent unveiled a monstrous new battle station: Starkiller Base.

What do you think, Rebelscum fans? What are some of your favorite Starkiller Base toys? Would you side with the Resistance or the First Order? Let us know in the forums, and as always, may the Force be with you!

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