If you've seen recent interviews with JJ, he's exhausted. Not Joss Whedon/Avengers 2 exhausted; but tired and needing a break none the less. Also it's best to get a fresh set of eyes for each movie. You don't want to stay at the party for too long. Plus...JJ has definitely learned and taken feedback from the Star Trek movies on what should be the best move for this particular franchise. He has a huge passion for Star Wars and knew how to approach it the right way while pleasing fans and introducing newcomers at the same time. Even though I liked them; I will admit he knocked it out the park with the Force Awakens. Lucasfilm has a huge story team already set in motion with Simon Kimberg whose worked on the X-Men movies as well as Larry Kasdan. With Rian Johnson, you know you are in good hands. Yes both JJ and Kathelyn Kennedy (who is George Lucas's successor) picked him. That doesn't mean he's completely done with the franchise; but the way Lucasfilm and Disney are looking at it is that they want each movie to be it's own while continuing the story left off by the previous one besides the spin off "Anthology" films which take place in different time periods. Which allows the director to have a little more freedom in order to work with the characters as they please with following what JJ has already established with Episode 7. He will still be a producer and creative consultant on the other Episodic movies. He will look over them. The third one, Episode 9/lX will be directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World). Kinda wanted Spielberg or Matthew Vaughn; but I'm optimistic about the pick. Rian Johnson will still co-write and produce that movie too. No they are not going to split Episode 9 into 2 movies. The second part movie will be Episode 10 if they want to make more, then 11, 12, and so on. These movies are a passing of the torch with Episode 7 being the last time you'll see the original trio on the big screen again. So by Episode 9, 10, whoever is still alive and kicking in those movies will be the big face or faces of the franchise here on out. From what I saw with 7/The Force Awakens, I want to see more from Finn, Rey, Poe, Chewie, BB-8, more R2, and of course Luke fucking Skywalker. Hopefully more development from them as well as General Leia.

People seem to forget George Lucas before turning over Lucasfilm to Bob Iger, Kathelyn Kennedy, and Disney he gave treatments to 7, 8, and 9 before a full script was written. But...he also had concepts for Episodes 10, 11, and 12 that were written years ago. They didn't use his ideas and probably won't for the rest of the franchise; but they can always cherry pick if they ever need to for their TV shows or future films. It's all on the table. I mean they cherry picked Expanded Universe material for the new movies, the Clone Wars, and Rebels. Since that material is no longer canon and is under the "Legends" division. They just give research credits to those who wrote some of those ideas with the new Lucasfilm story group, the main screenwriters, etc etc. Abrams and Kasdan did use the original screen writer, Micheal Ardnt's ("Toy Story 3") first rough draft for Episode 7 for certain story elements and character traits. Which he got a screenplay credit for in the final version.

Merry Christmas everybody! Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow where ever you are.

Ya know I always go back and forth with Empire and Jedi. I love both of them; so some days I like one over the other. It's been awhile since I've watched them. Probably will go do that when I get some free time away from other projects. I get what you are saying with Revenge since I truly believe if Lucas swallowed his pride and got Kasdan to come back and do a re-write on some scenes then that movie would of been even stronger and left more of an impact on the audience as well as critics. Even though I could give less of a shit what critics think of Star Wars and certain movies now. I've heard great things about the novelization as well. Hope both you and BLS enjoy the flick. I might see it again sometime later this week.

I watched this awhile ago. Some beautiful playing from