J.J. Abrams on Maz Kanata’s Backstory in Star Wars: The Force Awakens!

MazIn their latest exclusive article on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Entertainment Weekly spoke with J.J. Abrams, discussing the mysterious character Maz Kanata, played by Lupita Nyong’o, who also narrates the full trailer and the first TV spot…

 

 

Excerpt from Entertainment Weekly:

“That’s Maz,” says director J.J. Abrams. Although we don’t know who she’s addressing directly in this narration, the footage focuses heavily on Daisy Ridley’s Rey. It actually reveals a lot more about Maz than we realize.

Her eyes have special meaning and power. “I had some specific ideas about how she would work and what she would do,” Abrams says. “I had this pitch about these goggles that she wore. Her eyes are an important aspect of her character, and you’ll see how it plays out.”

Lupita

Abrams was willing to go a little further and reveal some of the backstory behind Kanata and the castle she inhabits with a court of misfits and miscreants. “Her history is that she was a pirate for a long time,” he says. “She’s 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.”

What kind of species is she? What is her homeworld? “All that backstory will be forthcoming,” Abrams says. “In the movie, you don’t learn these things, but I know that these are things that are coming out in other venues.” So keep your own eyes out for more of Maz’s past to be fleshed out in books or games.

Maz

Maz seems to serve as this movie’s wise, ancient alien with connections to the mystical side of the galaxy. “I wanted to do the creature as a puppet originally, but once we figured out the things that she was required to do, it felt like [performance capture] was the way to go,” Abrams said.

Maz is one of the few creatures in her court who is not a real-life, practical effect, and Abrams said the digital artists had a high standard to meet to make her blend in.  

“Maz needed to look and feel and be just like one of those creatures. And given her mobility, and given the role that she played, it became clear that that was one creature where we should use the tool of CG,” he says. “But the performance was all Lupita. She was there on set, and we did capture sessions afterwards as well, and I can’t say enough about working with her.”

 

Entertainment Weekly promises more interesting info later today, including “why is Luke Skywalker missing, and more on Supreme Leader Snoke”!

 

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Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

104 thoughts on “J.J. Abrams on Maz Kanata’s Backstory in Star Wars: The Force Awakens!

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:32 pm
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    Yoda 2.0 for sure.

    I am hoping this is just “The Hero’s Journey” mandated mentor character. A lot of things coming out make this seem like a soft reboot of the original trilogy. What will make it stand apart?

    • November 12, 2015 at 5:34 pm
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      I had the exact thought, that Maz could be very Yoda-like.

    • November 12, 2015 at 5:37 pm
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      She seems more like a guide at a fork in the road to me.

      • November 12, 2015 at 5:45 pm
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        Isn’t this Yoda’s exact role in ESB? Luke, struggling with his Jedi identity, goes to Yoda to train. While there he is faced with the choice to try and save his friends at Cloud City, or listen to Yoda and continue to train.

        • November 12, 2015 at 6:11 pm
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          Yoda had a bigger role in grand story. He had a part in the grand story prior to ESB, although we didn’t know about it, and Luke went back to him after the fork.

          I think Maz will not be part of the grand story of new trilogy, aside from a guide at this particular fork.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:58 pm
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      I think it’s very much intended to be a “soft reboot.” With the mess that was the Prequel trilogy, this new movie needs to feel more familiar to set off the new trilogy on the right foot.

    • November 12, 2015 at 8:23 pm
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      Episodes VIII and IX. They reboot, re-establishing the familiar and then can go different places.

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:34 pm
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    She will be one of the best thing about this movie. One of the main problems I have noticed is people are afraid to expand on star wars, In the books and expanded universe it feels like 1/5th of the people are “smugglers.” Offshoots of Jabba and everyone else.

    I hope she is something new, a pirate/force person sounds awesome.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:57 pm
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      Yep. The sheer number of bounty hunters running around the Star Wars galaxy is astounding. Either there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of wanted persons or there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of hungry bounty hunters.

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:00 pm
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        Without a central law enforcement body…that’s probably what we’d have too.

        Think of them as private security outfits.

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:35 pm
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    Yoda crossed with Jabba lol

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:46 pm
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    What bothers me is that she is a pirate so many centuries…..I wonder if she´s comfortable to do this job all that time. If she has no goals to achieve and retire. If she´s doing the same thing almost thousand years. I don´t believe she´s force sensitive, otherwise Yoda or the jedi across the centuries would know about her. She have special eyes….does she use it for the piracy? Does everyone from her species this power-eyes? This millenium longevity bring some tricky questions…

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:13 pm
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      Maybe she literally SEES the force?

      • November 12, 2015 at 6:28 pm
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        This is my theory based on Abrams’ comments.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:55 pm
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      There are very few things that I could do for 1,000 years. That being said, I’d assume that the psychology of a being that can live that long is in many ways fundamentally different from ours. If we encountered sentient life that enjoyed only a 10 year lifespan, they’d have equally different mentalities.

      I think it’s completely possible for her to have evaded Yoda’s attention. As I stated in an above post, galaxies are very large places. Crazy large. I’m not completely sure how the Force works, but I really dislike the idea that Jedi can someone simply detect others around the galaxy that might be Force sensitive. They can detect and feel certain things, that much is certain.

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:47 pm
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    May the CGI be strong with this one.

    I hate when everything else nails it and then there is that one glaring fake thing in the center. Makes me glad post has had this long to get it right. *Fingers crossed*

    • November 12, 2015 at 5:51 pm
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      I remember when I watched The Two Towers and Return of the Kind and was blown away with Gollum. It was the first time a CG character felt real, felt made with the right technic.
      Watto was another character I truly enjoyed, specially in The Phantom Menace, where the quality of the CG was higher thanks to the fewer CG shots to produce, comparing with the following films.

      I have a good feeling about this.

      • November 13, 2015 at 3:47 am
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        Gollum was what finally sold me on CG. Granted, not all CG is created equal. We’ve all seen some very bad examples of it. But good CG characters can most certainly pull their own weight. I wasn’t crazy about Watto, but he looked great.

        I’m moving away from the topic a bit but Gollum really saved the LOTR movies for me. I’ve been reading Tolkien for 30 years and there was a lot about the films that I didn’t like. That being said, pulling off Gollum was the single trickiest thing they had to do and they pretty much pulled it off wonderfully. I’d be raked over the coals if some of my fellow Tolkien enthusiast heard this, but in some ways, I found Jackson’s Gollum superior to Tolkien’s. Gollum was always supposed to strike a balance between revulsion and pity. I never took much pity in Tolkien’s Gollum but I did with Jacksons. I know this is probably a misreading on my part, but it is what it is. Okay. Back to Star Wars. : )

  • November 12, 2015 at 5:53 pm
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    1000 years…this means that she knows the stories of the Jedi and Sith and has personally experienced those times. This explains much.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:27 pm
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      And if she’s force sensitive she’ll know who else is I guess.

    • November 13, 2015 at 6:47 am
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      She could be Lucasfilm device to reintroduce the Old Replublic era into canon. Maybe not in this film (though it would be cool if there is some reference to it, especially related to the Knights of Ren), but also in other new canon media, like the novels and comics.

  • November 12, 2015 at 6:04 pm
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    Maz Kanata is Yoda’s mom, because everyone is related to someone in the GFFA. Or She is Yoda’s master, because everyone is somebody’s Padawan or Master relation in GFFA. In all jest, I am looking forward to her character and Lupita’s performance.

  • November 12, 2015 at 6:13 pm
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    Based on previous things we have heard about this character she will be force sensitive. This raises the question, since she’s 1000 years old, has she met Yoda since he died at 900 something years old? Did the jedi know she was force sensitive? As a pirate one would think the jedi would have come across her at some point and so why was she allowed to continue pirating? Was she ever offered recruitment into the jedi temple? Perhaps she was too old to learn their ways by that time? I wonder if Yoda ever attempted to train her or recruit her…and this begs the question, how come she’s never been involved in any of the past star wars events? If she’s a pirate she must be a very secretive and intelligent one to have never been on anyone’s radar. Maybe she only raids morally ambiguous people and their ships and stays far far away from anything jedi/sith related? As for her eyes…what if she is able to SEE the force? SEE the energy field all around and SEE it in people and those goggles are to take that intense edge from her sight? Or maybe her eyes very much resemble those of someone else we know or know of? Hmm

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:26 pm
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      Good questions. I think a lot of them can be answered by keeping in mind how incredibly large the Star Wars galaxy is. I know Star Wars tends toward the whole “small galaxy” trope with characters and situations that consistently (and often, honestly, unrealistically) bump elbows with one another, but it’s still certainly worth considering. It always seemed to me that with around 10,000 Jedi, the vast majority of folks not living in the Core would never see one in person. Heck, unless you’re living in the vicinity of the Temple on Coruscant, you’d probably never see one.

      Do we know for a fact that she’s Force sensitive? If so, I missed that somewhere. It’s possible she’s just old, wise, and intuitive. At any rate, I think it’s quite possible for a long time pirate, even a Force sensitive one, not to have had any direct interactions with Yoda or the larger Jedi body. As far as other Star Wars events go, as I pirate I’m sure she operated much as before: evading whatever authorities were in place at the time and doing what she does.

      • November 12, 2015 at 6:34 pm
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        True this is very true and I really wouldn’t mind the explanation being that the galaxy is so large she’s never bumped into a jedi or sith. Most inhabitants of the galaxy use the same hyperspace ducts or whatever so she could have also avoided those.

        But yes she is force sensitive. At least it’s implied in an early interview about her when they said they used string or something to make objects float and it was implied she was the one to do that. Could have been misdirection or whatever but who knows

        • November 12, 2015 at 6:44 pm
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          Ah. Got ya. I definitely didn’t read that. Well, that being said, I sort of like the idea. To me, it’s pretty unrealistic to assume that every Force sensitive being kicking around the galaxy is able to be identified. Anakin wasn’t until he was a bit older. Qui-Gon says something to that effect to Shmi: that Anakin would have been “identified early” if he was born in the Republic.

          But taking that idea too far would be dangerous. I think it would dilute the story if slews of Force sensitive beings were sort of darting around everywhere. To me, the Force should be something that rarely, very rarely manifests itself. I mean, 10,000 Jedi in a galaxy is nothing.

          An idea I like much better that is there are some Force sensitives here and there who don’t really have the ability to use the Force as a Jedi (or Sith) would but rather it works through them in ways that we might interpret as being lucky, influencial, wise, or intuitive.

          • November 12, 2015 at 6:50 pm
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            Maybe, but you’d think someone that old would surpass the mediocre and passive functions of the force.

            What do you think of my goggles theory about her eyes?

          • November 12, 2015 at 7:33 pm
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            That’s assuming she in fact can surpass those things. I’ve always sort of understood the phrase, “the Force is strong with you” as implying that the Force manifests itself in beings to differing degrees. Yoda, being particularly attuned to the Force is simply going to be more powerful than someone who isn’t. Training can channel and hone those abilities, but they’re sort of hard wired into the person and someone who’s not as powerful with the Force is never going to reach Yoda levels, no matter how dedicated they are. I know nothing was quite explained this way in the Star Wars canon, but it’s just sort of how I’ve always read it.

            I have no idea regarding her goggles. To be quite honest, I really never noticed them until a very recent glance at the poster. Neat theory, however!

          • November 12, 2015 at 6:56 pm
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            Yeah, more like a Force psychic. Someone who can sense the Force and understands it, but can’t really use it.

        • November 12, 2015 at 7:43 pm
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          JJ just said she is very powerful. Just didn’t say how. It doesn’t mean she’s force sensitive.

      • November 12, 2015 at 8:14 pm
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        Just because someone is force sensitive, doesn’t mean that they have to be a Jedi. In order to be a Jedi, you have to live under their rules. Maybe she likes to party? Under the old Jedi Order that would not fly. Maybe she was an apprentice that bailed.

        Personally I think it would be really cool if when Luke does start the new Jedi Order, it is like the books, and Jedi can live normal lives.

        • November 12, 2015 at 9:17 pm
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          I wouldn’t much like that. Anakin tried to do that and it ended up having disastrous consequences. There were certainly other things that contributed to his fall, but I can’t imagine that helped.

          Again, I’m theorizing here…

          Force-trained beings wield incredible power and when they turn bad, the consequences are dire. In short, they are dangerous people and they’re aware of it. The potential for disaster has guided their Order toward a near monastic existence in order to quell the sorts of passions that drag one toward the precipice of the Dark Side. Imagine how often the normal person exhibits, in their lifetimes, the sort of emotions that would lead us away from the Light Side: we get jealous, we get ticked, we lose our tempers. Training someone to wield the Force is rightly done under fairly controlled conditions.

          There’s a much less interesting, real-world analogy: If you teach a bunch of people every known form of deadly combat, you’d do yourself a favor making sure they’re sound of mind and operating on an even-keel.

          But I never saw this as meaning that Jedi can’t have a bit of fun now and again. They’re Jedi, not Catholic priests. We see them drink, we see them flirt a bit, and they even skirt the edges of romance once in a while. So far, I’ve seen nothing to suggest that they endure forced celibacy or anything of that nature.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:32 pm
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      Don’t know if anyone has made the connection yet, but she is most likely going to be very similar to Talon Karrde in Zahn’s novels. I’m seeing a lot of parallels.

      • November 12, 2015 at 6:41 pm
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        The only connection I see is the pirate/smuggler status. Other than that Maz is 1000 years old, most likely force sensitive, and isn’t even human. But you never know

      • November 12, 2015 at 6:48 pm
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        Other than how she makes (or used to make) her living, I’m not seeing anything else even remotely similar.

  • November 12, 2015 at 6:26 pm
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    So pirate Yoda in a Castle Mos Eisley Cantina.

    As much as I am looking forward to this, the repeated lack of originality in so much of what we’ve seen is beginning to frustrate me. They’re definitely going for the “give fans what they think they want” angle.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:30 pm
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      Which is what people complained about them not doing during the Prequel era. No matter what this movie offers, people will complain. At that point, it just turns into noise.

      And it’s a fictional galaxy. No matter what sort of creature, setting, or situation is devised, someone is going to draw a comparison to something in one of the existing Star Wars movies, novels, or comics.

      Don’t get me wrong. If this movie truly does run like a rehash of A New Hope, I’ll be pretty disappointed. But I don’t think it will. I’m confident that those in charge would not fall into such a trap. It’s also fairly obvious that those in charge are being very, very selective about what is known about this movie prior to its release.

      • November 12, 2015 at 6:56 pm
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        I say this a lot….but the space opera genre is always repetitive. All of our heroes always get captured and have to make an escape in every single movie except mayyyybe ROTS.

        Its about our love of Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie vs. the near hilarity of Anakin-Padme ‘love story’ and hope for more Obi-Wan. That’s what separates the 2 trilogies. But we like to get caught up in nitpicking for nitpicking sake because we’re psychopaths for Star Wars.

        • November 12, 2015 at 7:06 pm
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          In Game of Thrones I am pretty sure Tyrion has been captured 5 times, All the characters are captured and there have been 5 trial by combat and 17 quests all of which had encounters with bad guys along the way.

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:57 pm
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        Do you assume I am complaining?

        I actually think that George had the right idea to be super creative on the prequels. It was brave and daring, it was just the execution that let him down.

        • November 12, 2015 at 9:01 pm
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          I never said that. I said that a lot of people complained about that very thing. And they did.

          I think the overall outline for the Prequels was great. It was a fantastic story. But like you, they suffered in execution.

        • November 13, 2015 at 12:13 am
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          I feel the overall story was fine. It was the dialogue, the chemistry between some actors, and some of the pacing in the film that didn’t work for the prequels.

          • November 13, 2015 at 11:42 am
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            Yep.

        • November 13, 2015 at 1:54 am
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          Yeah, you are complaining in almost each of your reply on this post. You’re expressing your high distaste for a movie you haven’t even seen yet. This is one of your replies from above:

          “As much as I am
          looking forward to this, the repeated lack of originality in so much of
          what we’ve seen is beginning to frustrate me. They’re definitely going
          for the “give fans what they think they want” angle.”

          Pretty much complaining.

          • November 13, 2015 at 11:42 am
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            “Yeah, you are complaining in almost each of your reply on this post.
            You’re expressing your high distaste for a movie you haven’t even seen
            yet.”

            An idioticv comment. I have also said repeatedly that I am looking forward to the movie. Where does that sit with your “complaining”?

        • November 13, 2015 at 7:17 am
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          Yet, even George wanted them to ‘rhyme’.

          But he executed so poorly, we credit it with being ‘super creative’? The only risk he took was Jar Jar Binks, trying to use a 10 year old actor, and to have a cheesy traditional romance.

          He recycled Boba Fett on a meta-level, had Star Destroyers looking things, things that looked like X-Wings and Tie Fighters, and had to throw in the Death Star as a plot device in 2 of the 3 prequels (yes, a version of it appears in 4 of the movies).

          George was overly ambitious for the prequels, and I think we should give him credit for that, but in no way can I say it was ‘super creative’. His creativity shined more in the Clone Wars TV show cause he wasn’t limited by actors and set design and dialogue – which is why he’s always wanted to go into animation, ever since American Graffiti and THX1138.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:51 pm
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      Yoda was the HNIC of the Jedi.

      This is a pirate with some knowledge about some stuff.

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:56 pm
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        HNIC?

        • November 13, 2015 at 7:07 am
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          If ya don’t know….ya better ask somebody (nicely).

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:54 pm
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      I’m guessing the age of Maz is important. Remember, the trailer has hinted that people have become agnostic or a-Force-ist to the Force. You need someone that’s old enough to remember what it was like back when the Force was common knowledge. I love it.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:54 pm
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      Really? A mysterious female pirate leader with magical eyes who induces visions and lives in a castle on a lush forest/lake world… if you think this is too derivative, then nearly anything thematically Star Wars would feel like a rehash lol. Oh an ancient wise character… a bunch of criminals… these are archetypes, not specifically OT-recycled concepts.

      • November 12, 2015 at 11:18 pm
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        I know! And can you believe they have lightsabers in this movie? That’s so 1977… 🙂

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:56 pm
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      Agreed, while I intend to have a good time, I really see too much of the OT (the lonely hero, lives in a desert planet, finds droid which carries secret valuable, venerable, short, frog-looking old person in connection with everything, secretive emperor, et. al.)

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:54 pm
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        That’s all I’m saying. But I see the “say no wrong” sycophants has responded in force, so I suspect I should keep quiet!

    • November 12, 2015 at 8:17 pm
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      The prequels gave us new things and many have not appreciated. They just want more of the same and it seems Disney will give them.

      • November 12, 2015 at 9:05 pm
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        Yup. The prequels are many things, but not lacking on their creativity. It was the execution that let them down. People forget how different Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were from the films that preceded them. But this:-

        1) New hope on a desert planet

        2) Driod hiding a secret

        3) Ice planet with a battle

        4) Old characters back

        5) X Wing pilots and stormtroopers that basically look the same

        6) Mysterious emperor behind the scenes who gives orders to deep voiced, masked second in command with red lightsaber.

        7) Wise, short green character who has lived for nearly a millennia who sees the future

        8) X Wing. Tie Fighters. Star Destroyers. The Falcon.

        9) Recycled McQuarrie and EU designs.

        That’s just a start. Look, I really think we’ll be in for a rip-roaring ride, but if people don’t think that this isn’t derivative and designed to feed fans what they expected to see in 1999 then they’re off their heads. This directly plays to the decades long idea of what Star Wars “should” be rather based on huge amounts of nostalgia. All these comments you see saying “I cried at the trailer” What do they cry at? Seeing the old characters, the old ships, hearing the old themes. Nostalgia. But, to me, I think things should be a little more daring than that. Still, with Rian Johnson I hope that have someone who can really take it forward.

        • November 12, 2015 at 9:53 pm
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          Yeah, I think they got a bit scared of prequel haters saying “Give us proper Star Wars as we know it! This is your last chance!”, so they sticked with the nostalgia.. But hey, it got people excited and I don’t believe it would come out too similar to NH, because in JJ I trust. Plus I believe only the beginning will feel familiar and then the story will go in completely different direction, EpVIII and IX more so.

          • November 12, 2015 at 10:21 pm
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            I hope it does.

        • November 13, 2015 at 6:44 am
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          While I agree with everything you said, I also agree with Tygger. I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing for this first film in ST to copy the OT. You give everyone what they’ve wanted for 40 years, and make it a love letter to the OT, mirroring elements from not just ANH, but TESB and RotJ as well, all in this one film. Then, once everyone is on bored with the new trilogy and got the nostalgia they wanted from Episode VII, you can safely take Episodes VIII and IX in a whole new direction and have everyone gladly come along for the ride. It’s actually kind of genius if that is the reasoning behind it, and if they do give us something wholly new and different with the next two films, pushing the story forward in exciting, unexpected ways.

          • November 13, 2015 at 11:40 am
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            I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

        • November 13, 2015 at 7:10 am
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          This McQuarrie complaint is ridiculous.

          He is the designer of all things Star Wars. All the designs and aesthetics are based off of his work on the original. Movies have ‘designers’, and he was the designer of the original movie. Everything should take cues directly from that.

          • November 13, 2015 at 11:38 am
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            Really, so this movie can’t have it’s own “designer”? Oh, and the designs ripped for this and, indeed, for Rebels, are mostly those that were rejected originally.

          • November 13, 2015 at 2:10 pm
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            Same galaxy. Same aesthetics.

            Were they rejected because they were infeasible or weren’t liked?

    • November 12, 2015 at 9:56 pm
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      Well, what did you expect, it is Jay Jay Abrams after all.

      • November 12, 2015 at 10:21 pm
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        Jar Jar Abrams surely? 😉

        • November 13, 2015 at 12:46 pm
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          No, I was referring to a Blue Jays tendency to raid and/or occupy other bird’s nests.

    • November 12, 2015 at 10:07 pm
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      Indeed, but giving fans what they want is what makes a movie commercially successful and Disney is all about money .

      • November 12, 2015 at 10:20 pm
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        Oh, that I agree with completely, that’s why they are running to the well right now to drain it dry (another mistake IMO – nobody in Hollywood seems to remember the phrase “always leave the audience wanting more”).

    • November 13, 2015 at 1:52 am
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      Lack of originality? You’re getting frustrated from 2-3 minutes of footage and very brief descriptions? Like, who are you, God? No really, it’s attitudes of “fans” like you that create “the problem”.

      • November 13, 2015 at 11:31 am
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        You’re getting too angry from their opinion.

      • November 13, 2015 at 11:42 am
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        Yes, I am God. Bow down to me.

    • November 13, 2015 at 9:00 am
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      I wish they’d ask me since I don’t want ANY of those things.

  • November 12, 2015 at 6:47 pm
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    CGI will NEVER EVER beat puppetry.

    • November 12, 2015 at 6:52 pm
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      Unless the puppet needs to move a lot, which it sounds like this one does. If this is one of the few CGI characters (as it sounds and looks like), then I expect there to be a very HIGH attention to detail. This should be much better than the Yoda CGI we got in the prequels.

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:28 pm
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        hmmmm

    • November 12, 2015 at 7:26 pm
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      Well that is wrong. Just wrong. Puppetry has limited movement, therefore you are limited to what the character can do and how you can film the character. Puppetry is nice and its pretty cool but its cleary deficient to performance capture CGI where there shouldn’t be any limitations beyond the filmmakers imagination.

      • November 12, 2015 at 7:28 pm
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        But in five years time, it will be dated. Whereas, Yoda from Empire Strikes Back still looks great because it’s REAL. And CG up against any real character, will always come off as fake.

        • November 12, 2015 at 7:37 pm
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          You don’t know what it will look like in 5 years. Some stuff from 5 years ago has yet to date, there is a lot of CGI from 2010 that holds up. Still, I take the possibility that it will look more dated over the lack of movement and limitation puppetry brings. Plus, there is a lot of stuff from the original trilogy that fans know look pretty fake, Fanboys look back through rose colored eyes.

        • November 12, 2015 at 7:39 pm
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          Then don’t watch the movie, problem solved.

        • November 12, 2015 at 8:16 pm
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          A number of puppets of the original trilogy look silly to me. Some are really good, but some are dated.

        • November 12, 2015 at 8:36 pm
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          Avatar doesn’t look dated, and that movie is 6 years old. And LotR looks great. However…. every movie will look dated at some point. EVERY movie. Hell, even the original trilogy is dated… by the hair.

        • November 13, 2015 at 1:49 am
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          Yoda from ESB still looks good? Are you kidding me? I understand some of u guys still have fond memories of having seen that movie as a child but enough is enough already. If you think Yoda in TESB looks better than the Yoda in E2 or E3 than you’re simply deluding yourself.

    • November 12, 2015 at 8:49 pm
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      This is a horrible attitude. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things and it’s different for everything. Everything has its best possible option and some things just work better than others to achieve that. Who are you to say Maz would’ve worked better for her role as a puppet vise CGI?

  • November 12, 2015 at 6:54 pm
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    She’s lived 1000 years… until this misfits come and bring the First Order with them, then she dies.

  • November 12, 2015 at 7:48 pm
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    I bet Maz & Yoda have a love child together! 😉

  • November 12, 2015 at 8:10 pm
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    Totally disagree. Davy Jones from pirates of the Caribbean and Gollum from Lotr still hold up amazingly well. Having said that though, I watched one of the prequels recently and CG Yoda looks dreadful… Actually most of the Cg in the prequels look very ropey.

    • November 12, 2015 at 8:33 pm
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      CGI Yoda still looks better than the Episode 1 puppet Yoda…… that thing looked TERRIBLE! i think they should have just used the original yoda design, and just spruced him up to make him look 30-40 years younger.

      • November 13, 2015 at 1:50 am
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        well if you think about Yoda body did deterioate over time so ofc they used CGI and how would they do the Yoda vs Dooku battle with a puppet

        • November 13, 2015 at 2:19 am
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          Even Lucas hated the Ep 1 yoda…. they went and Made him CGI in all the subsequent versions of the Phantom menace. My point is, they botched the Ep 1 puppet. It could have been way better. He was 900 years old when he died. He wouldn’t look much different at age 860. They should have used the same puppet design, but just tweaked the paint/hair to make him look a bit younger. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a115/doubleofive/CGI%20Yoda/CGI-Yoda-Comp1.png

          • November 13, 2015 at 8:58 am
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            Empire/Jedi still and always will look the best due to the tactile feel. It’s very difficult to watch CG Yoda in 2015 as digital effects always age much faster than practical ones due to new advances being made daily.

          • November 13, 2015 at 10:15 am
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            I agree, but IMO, the CGI coverup of the Ep 1 Yoda is welcome. I never thought about it.. but perhaps we will see force Yoda in TFA ^_^ gah! too much awesomeness is in store! i would not be opposed to seeing Ewan reprise Obi-Wan either.

          • November 13, 2015 at 2:21 pm
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            I think Ewan would have been noticed by now on set but they easily could have CGed Yoda in this one and then had Frank do the ADR. We never really saw Spirit Yoda save for one scene so that would be cool long as he looks like did in Jedi.

          • November 13, 2015 at 9:08 pm
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            Knowing this movie…. doubt it would be a CGI Yoda.

          • November 14, 2015 at 11:45 am
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            They have a CG Maz and Snoak. I’m pretty sure that Frank Oz is retired from puppeting too and there would be a pretty big uproar if they replaced him. The ones who do Cookiee Monster, Grover, Bert, Fozzie, Sam the Eagle, and Mrs. Piggy are okay but you can tell it’s not him.

          • November 14, 2015 at 9:29 pm
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            Maz and Snoke are CGI because they have to be. Andy Serkis said that the scale of Snoke, and what he can do, would make it impossible for practical effects. They could easily get a puppet for a force ghost.

            I doubt there would be an uproar if they got another puppeteer to move his mouth. who knows though, but yoda could be a special surprise.

          • November 15, 2015 at 4:55 pm
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            If you compare the 60’s-80’s Muppets/Sesame Street characters played by Oz to the ones of today that now play his characters then you can tell that there are subtle differences in performances. The replacements have done a fine job of mimicry but you can tell he’s no longer operating the character. So far Yoda as a puppet has only been played by Oz but if they go back to the old ways with a younger dude then you’ll know it’s not him. Especially since he has no understudy for the character like he does on those tv shows.

          • November 16, 2015 at 12:59 pm
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            Other parts of him but Frank has always been the head one (literally) in the three films where actual puppeteering was involved.

  • November 12, 2015 at 10:49 pm
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    “Maz is an oracle-like character. She’s also a collector, which gives her a bit of a materialistic edge. She’s a very minor character, but in a way jumpstarts the entire movie. Yoda was such a lovable character that I didn’t even want to try to replicate that. But there are elements of a spiritual guide in Maz.”

  • November 13, 2015 at 8:56 am
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    I hope Lupita does a great job since this design looks like a lame thrown away concept for the alien in Men In Black and sounds like a Guinan knock-off. Maybe she looks better onscreen but this character is sort of a let down so far.

  • November 13, 2015 at 1:02 pm
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    So Maz is old enough to have witnessed Yoda’s birth?

  • November 13, 2015 at 8:23 pm
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    I knew she was gonna be a yoda type character. It’s crazy the something can live for a 1000 years. Like damn what the hell do u do for that long?

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