Is Episode 7 Getting Bumped..Up?

We are going to present our case in the best legalistic fashion that we’ve learned from watching courtroom movies.

Exhibit A:  Disney is not going to compete with itself

Avengers 2, another Disney property, has a confirmed release date of May 1st, 2015.  Disney will not be releasing Episode VII anywhere near that window because they’d just be stealing business from themselves.  Tent pole movies tend to have long runs.  The first Avengers movie was crushing lesser movies right up until The Dark Knight rises in late July.  Disney could release Episode VII later in the summer just as Warner Brothers released The Dark Knight Rises late in the summer of 2012, but unlike the more mature Batman trilogy, Star Wars will need to capitalize on the youngsters.  Late July does not leave a lot of summer left.  Disney could delay until the holidays of 2015, but after shelling out billions, are they really going to wait over three years to start ringing the LFL cash register?

Exhibit B:  J.J. Abrams is not committed to the 2015 release date

According to this report J.J. Abrams is not committed to 2015.  But look very carefully at the quote:

“Episode VII is set for release in 2015, but sources say Abrams has not committed to that release date, meaning the date could be changed if the development process requires it.”

Note they said the date could be “changed”, not delayed.  Usually people say “delay” when they mean “delay”.  J.J Abrams is committed to Mission Impossible 5 in 2015 and also Star Trek 3 beyond that.  It seems delaying Episode VII would cause more scheduling headaches than it would solve.  However, accelerating Episode VII seems to work nicely into Abrams’ availability window.  Next, Joss Whedon, a rabid Star Wars fan, wanted the directing gig for Episode VII, but his schedule conflict with Avengers 2 prevented him from helming the film.  After having already made billions for Disney, how would he feel if Disney were willing to delay Episode VII for Abrams but not for him?  Doesn’t seem to make sense.  If the release date is in play, it sure seems like there is only one logical direction for it to move: up.

Exhibit C:  The 3D Release of Episodes II and III were canceled to free up resource for Episode VII

What???  Movies that were supposed to be out in under a year (and one of them was originally supposed to be out NOW) and getting shelved to clear up resources for a movie that hasn’t even begun principal photography yet. On a scale of 1 to 10, that makes 0.0 sense to us.  Maybe the real reason is the lackluster performance of Episode I 3D and that reasoning was a smoke screen.  Maybe the folks at Disney are great humanitarians and they realize the Prequel Trilogy deserves the same fate as the Holiday Special.  Or maybe they really do need the ILM modellers cranking on some new designs pronto.

Thanks to Sean “Ruadh” for donning the tin foil hat with me on this one.