If anyone should be celebrating Star Wars Day, it's J.J. Abrams. The unofficial holiday, sprung from the fact that "May the Fourth" sounds like "May the Force...," has become a rallying point for Star Wars fans worldwide in recent years. As one of those fans, it's only right that the director of the movie franchise's next installment should get in on the action—and stir up fan fervor.
Abrams and writing partner Lawrence Kasdan appeared in a short—under 30 seconds!—video (above) yesterday that sparked tons of speculation, with the director promising that casting announcements for Star Wars: Episode VII would "continue," despite last week's official announcement of "the cast" of the movie according to Lucasfilm. (Worth noting: Lucasfilm issued a new call for extras for the movie this weekend.)
Kasdan also noted in the video that he and Abrams were in London "working on the next Star Wars script," which launched even more debate. Did that mean that the script for Episode VII was unfinished despite filming being just weeks away from its official start? Or was he referring to the script for the Star Wars film that follows Episode VII? You might find it hard to believe that 23 seconds of shaky cell-phone footage, "a video selfie" if you will, about a movie could cause such concern on the internet, until you remember that it's Star Wars, and it's the internet.
In other Star Wars Day happenings, Abrams and Kasdan's boss, Walt Disney Company CEO and chairman Bob Iger showed up on the official Star Wars Instagram account with a selfie taken with Chewbacca, captioned "Chairman's new co-pilot" (below). Sadly, this is unlikely to actually mean that the Wookiee will be taking on official duties at Disney, although we can doubtless assume that Lumpawaroo will appreciate his father being around the house a little more as a result.
For those hungry for actual Star Wars content, there was some of that as well, with the first official trailer (below) for Star Wars Rebels—the new animated series set to debut on Disney XD this fall—hitting the web and introducing Sabine, Kanan, and the rest of the kid-friendly crew of characters taking up arms against the Galactic Empire.
But perhaps the best video to come out of the Star Wars Day celebrations was a quick bit of footage linking fictional space adventure with the real thing, courtesy of Rick Mastracchio. The NASA flight engineer teamed up with R2-D2 to send a special transmission: "to everyone on Earth, from the International Space Station: May the Fourth be with you."
The video (below) was short, sweet, and a nice reminder that the fans of George Lucas' franchise can one day find themselves actually in a galaxy far, far away (or at least in low Earth orbit). The ancient worlds in Lucas' mind may have Jedi Knights, TIE Fighters, and Ewoks, but that doesn't make the real-life achievements of everyone involved with space programs around the globe any less breathtaking. Force strongest with them, it is.
