Get Ready, Star Wars Is Almost Here

The Midphase office is giddy with the anticipation of the next movie in the epic Star Wars series. Here are some of the whisperings of what we can all expect…
***Note: This blog post will feel much more authentic if you play this clip in the background while you read it.
Star Wars fever has arrived and the whole world is anxiously waiting for the next instalment in the Star Wars legacy. Even Google has jumped on board by hiding an awesome Easter egg when searching “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away”. Go ahead and try it if you haven’t yet!
The Star Wars brand, now owned by Disney, has taken the world by storm and shows no signs of stopping. Disney bought the LucasFilms enterprise in 2012 for $4 billion, and since then the Star Wars passion has ‘awakened’ all over again.
Social media lit up like a Christmas tree for the release of the Episode 7: The Force Awakens trailer, and after a lengthy wait it’s hard to believe the release is just around the corner. The movie trailer – which could actually be viewed as a call to action luring potential viewers into parting with their ticket money – has everyone from here to Tatooine excited for the December 18th premiere. This isn’t to say that Star Wars lovers don’t have good reason as the movie includes many of our favorites from earlier films, albeit all grown up now.

Star Wars fans have been scrambling for any scraps of information, anything to bolster the Star Wars mania that has taken over the world. Let us offer one piece of advice for all the Star Wars lovers out there: don’t burn out too quickly, there are reportedly many, many more Star Wars episodes coming our way.   
According to Adam Rogers from WIRED Magazine, The Force Awakens is the next installment of an endless supply of Star Wars releases. He writes in his blog posts entitled “You Won’t Live To See The Final Star Wars Movie” that:
“These new movies won’t just be sequels. That’s not the way the transnational entertainment business works anymore. Forget finite sequences; now it’s about infinite series. Disney also owns Marvel Comics, and over the next decade you can expect 17 more interrelated movies about Iron Man and his amazing friends.”
What we know about The Force Awakens so far:
As Star Wars fans we have also been tucking away snippets of information for safekeeping until the big day. We know the obvious facts, like JJ Abrams directed it and that the shooting took about six months, but there’s plenty more to find out with some good detective skills…
We also know that filming took place in exciting locations such as  Abu Dhabi and Irish island Skellig Michael, but the majority of filming was done at Pinewood Studios in the UK. Pinewood Studios is the exact location where Harrison Ford sprained his ankle while shooting scenes for the film (on the Millennium Falcon no less!).
So this is the obvious stuff, but here are a few more Star Wars facts you may not have known to amp up your excitement for the next release:

• The Force Awakens is rated PG-13 due to ‘sci-fi violence’. Don’t worry about nudity or the random f-bomb, the MPAA felt that some of the fight scenes might be a little too intense for all ages. The Force Awakens is the second Star Wars episode to receive the higher rating. Revenge of the Sith was the first.
• The storyline is set 30 years in the future. That’s right, Luke and Leia are in their 50s (53 to be exact), which also means that Hans Solo is in his 60s. Do you feel old yet? Nothing has been reported as to the actual age of Chewbacca.
• Lawrence Kasdan originally directed Empire Strikes Back and has returned to write the script for The Force Awakens.  
• The bad guys, aka ‘The Empire’, are back, and they look intense. The army is composed of row after row of Darth Vader-esque soldiers who appear to be causing mayhem, with the potential to blow up many planets.
• There have been rumors of a new Jedi. John Boyega, a new addition to the film, is seen in the trailer using a lightsaber. Rumor has it that Boyega’s character, Finn, is a former stormtrooper who turns away from the dark side to battle the Empire.

While many of the intricacies have been been kept under wraps and much of this is still speculation, we can be sure that The Force Awakens is going to be the movie of the year. So far estimations project that the movie could make up to $180 million in the United States alone. No matter how much the movie makes we know that we will be mega-excited come opening day!

What Star Wars The Force Awakens rumors did we leave out? Let us know on Twitter @Midphase