Disney yet to confirm leaked Star Wars Episode VII storyline
Reuters article suggests Luke Skywalker returns to Yavin 4 to build Jedi academy in forthcoming sequel. But Disney is yet to confirm
Star Wars fans are abuzz after a news agency report appeared to inadvertently reveal that the debut film in Disney's forthcoming revival of the series will feature a storyline in which Luke Skywalker returns to the planet Yavin 4 to build a Jedi knight academy.
The titbit is buried in an article by Reuters about the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, deep in the Guatemala rainforest, which George Lucas used for the location of the rebel base in 1977's Star Wars. (It is from here that the rebel assault on the first Death Star is launched.) The tourist destination has apparently become inundated with fans of the long-running space opera aiming to soak up the "end of the world" atmosphere as an era closes in the Mayan Long Count calendar this Friday.
Disney has not yet confirmed the storyline for Star Wars: Episode VII and some websites have speculated that Reuters does not have its facts straight. The usually reliable agency's story reads: "Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi knight academy."
Reuters may have confused the storyline for Episode VII with Yavin 4's involvement in the "expanded" Star Wars universe as depicted in dozens of books released in the wake of the original trilogy that hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983. Here, Yavin 4 is indeed the location for a Jedi school, but there has been no suggestion from Disney that the new films will follow the direction of the novels, which Lucas himself never entirely accepted as canonical.
Nevertheless, the story has been picked up by a number of blogs as fans of the series scurry for the tiniest morsels of information about the new trilogy of films. So far Disney has revealed only that writers Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3), Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes) will take charge of the new triptych.
Disney announced the new Star Wars films in October after buying all rights to the series through its acquisition of LucasFilm for $4.05bn, with Lucas agreeing to step aside after more than 35 years in charge. British director Matthew Vaughn has been rumoured to be in talks to helm the first film in the new trilogy, while Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg and Star Trek's JJ Abrams have all ruled themselves out. The stars of the original trilogy, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo), have all been tipped to return to the series.