Imagine you are sitting in the theatre getting ready to watch Episode 7. There's been more than 30 years since ROTJ, so there's a ton of backstory to explain, and all of the books aren't going to released by then, so we still don't know all of what happened - Why the resistance isn't in complete power, why the first order isn't simply called "The Empire", etc.

I'm assuming the opening crawl will attempt to summarize much of this - but how much do you think will be left unspoken? Do you think there will be bits of dialouge that explain things that seem unnecessary? Example:

Leia says to Han :"You KNOW I can't go with you, Ever Since Mon Mothma's death at the hands of Admiral Ackbar, I've been chained to this basement because I was framed for her murder!"

Obviously this sentence is exxagerated - but I kind of hate it when movies really try to spell things out for us like this - because while it may explain a few things, it feels contrived, and then when you re-watch it, it feels even more out of place. Imagine watching ROTJ and C-3PO says to R2 the entire plan to rescue Han Solo and that Lando is undercover, and that Luke has been working on a new lightsaber and trying to complete his training, etc. It would feel really dumb.

So do you think the opening crawl will be enough to bring us up to speed?

There is supposedly a few flashbacks.

Given that the Lucasfilm Story Group is taking great pains to ensure that all the new media formats are consistent and tell the same story, be it books, comics, etc...they can get away with leaving the minutiae out of the films if it doesn't serve the immediate narrative the film is trying to tell. They can fill in those gaps with a book, comic, or even an Anthology movie. Likewise, it isn't as though Episode 7 is a one-shot. There are two other films to fill out that arc, as well as who knows what else after that.

Just remember back to that first viewing of A New Hope - there's hardly any backstory at all - in fact, the most backstory we get is for Vader really and it is precious little - and as it turns out, also a lie.

We don't need to know all the history and even motivations for a space opera characters painted via large archetypes. This is a bad guy - he's bad because he's supposed to be bad. Enjoy the ride.

I don't mean minutia. I'm talking about the BIG questions.

1) Why aren't the Rebels in power?

1a) Why aren't they called "Rebels" or "New Republic"?

1b) Why are they now called "The Resistance"?

2) What happened to the KEY players that aren't on screen. IE Lando, Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar?

3) Where has Luke gone? (This is a big one. I know they are obviously going to explain it, but I'm wondering if it will be in a silly way, IE Leia tells Han "... Like I've told you a thousand times before, my brother now searches the wastelands for the Valley of the Jedi", or if it will be in the opening crawl, or if they will explain to the new person, like Finn perhaps.

I'm just thinking about when you re-watch the film years down the road. I want it to flow smoothly and I want to look back on it and think to myself "yup, they did it well".

I don't imagine they'll go into the backstory a huge amount in the new film - maybe a couple of flashbacks, maybe a few references to the "stories" (like we saw in the trailer).

However, that said, I'm bracing myself for a full-on multimedia advertising blitz in the run up to release. Documentaries. "Making of"'s. "The Story So Far"'s. Screenings of the originals. Storyboards. Interviews. Developer diaries. News reports. Across TV, cinema, social media, print and more, with the full financial weight of The Mouse behind it.

By the time the new film rolls into the cinema, we're going to be nose-deep. You're not going to be able to leave the house without seeing Star Wars.

I don't mean minutia. I'm talking about the BIG questions.

1) Why aren't the Rebels in power?

1a) Why aren't they called "Rebels" or "New Republic"?

1b) Why are they now called "The Resistance"?

2) What happened to the KEY players that aren't on screen. IE Lando, Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar?

3) Where has Luke gone? (This is a big one. I know they are obviously going to explain it, but I'm wondering if it will be in a silly way, IE Leia tells Han "... Like I've told you a thousand times before, my brother now searches the wastelands for the Valley of the Jedi", or if it will be in the opening crawl, or if they will explain to the new person, like Finn perhaps.

I'm just thinking about when you re-watch the film years down the road. I want it to flow smoothly and I want to look back on it and think to myself "yup, they did it well".

1 and its sub-questions have been mostly answered in the canon post Return of the Jedi material. So has part of 2, and 3 will probably be answered in the movie itself.

By the time the new film rolls into the cinema, we're going to be nose-deep. You're not going to be able to leave the house without seeing Star Wars.

As opposed to not (going?) to be able to leave the house without seeing Star Wars?

.

I don't mean minutia. I'm talking about the BIG questions.

1) Why aren't the Rebels in power?

1a) Why aren't they called "Rebels" or "New Republic"?

1b) Why are they now called "The Resistance"?

2) What happened to the KEY players that aren't on screen. IE Lando, Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar?

3) Where has Luke gone? (This is a big one. I know they are obviously going to explain it, but I'm wondering if it will be in a silly way, IE Leia tells Han "... Like I've told you a thousand times before, my brother now searches the wastelands for the Valley of the Jedi", or if it will be in the opening crawl, or if they will explain to the new person, like Finn perhaps.

I'm just thinking about when you re-watch the film years down the road. I want it to flow smoothly and I want to look back on it and think to myself "yup, they did it well".

1 and its sub-questions have been mostly answered in the canon post Return of the Jedi material. So has part of 2, and 3 will probably be answered in the movie itself.

I don't know about 1 and it's sub Q's. I'm mostly up to speed on the comics and have read Aftermath - The rebellion calls itself the New Republic - and the Empire isn't called "The First Order" at all. The Rebellion is pretty much in power, or are at least tied with the remnants of the Empire at that point, and we KNOW that the Empire is going to lose it's Super Star Destroyer at the battle of Jakku - so it LOOKS like the New Republic becomes the fully cemented dominant force. Which means all of my (1) questions are still pretty valid - because if they are going to be called "The Resistance", that implies they are not in power, and they are resisting those who ARE in power.

What specific new canon sources are you referencing?

I suspect because the Resistence isn't officially part of the New Republic. The First Order is just one of the splinters of the Empire.

I highly doubt you are going to get the indepth answers you are looking for in the opening crawl. Just a quick state of the galaxy.

I think answers about the important stuff won't show up until episode 9. Mostly:

Why is there no Jedi academy?

What has Luke been doing?

What caused this awakening?

So do you think the opening crawl will be enough to bring us up to speed?

The movie will be 100 minutes of opening scrawll followed by 20 minutes of action.

By the time the new film rolls into the cinema, we're going to be nose-deep. You're not going to be able to leave the house without seeing Star Wars.

As opposed to not (going?) to be able to leave the house without seeing Star Wars?

.

It's already happening: star wars stuff left and right, Duracell comercials with lightsabers . We're gonna be swamped before x-mass rolls around.

We don't know where ep7 takes place except for jakku. We know from Aftermath that Jakku is on the extreme outer reaches of the known galaxy. I say known, b/c if you look at the maps of the SW galaxy, the known portion is only about half the galaxy.

If the remnants of the empire went into the unknown regions (which they hinted at in aftermath, if they werent there already), then the start of their return encroachment would start with jakku. The 'resistance' might be on worlds in the beyond that the first order took over.

I'm not saying that's how it is, but there's definitely room for that. There's no real reason to believe that the New Republic failed and is now the resistance.

Anyways back to the topic, I imagine there will be some backstory, but for the most part, its not really needed. To the non-SW fan (which probably makes >75% of the targeted audience), do they care who Mon Mothma is? Ackbar? Probably not. As long as the big pieces like Luke and Han get filled it, they'll be satisfied. The smaller details (the ones the fans want) can be filled in with alternate media like books and comics.

But like they do in Marvel movies, I'm sure there will be small lines here and there that refer to the gap that only SW fans will pick up on.

I don't mean minutia. I'm talking about the BIG questions.

1) Why aren't the Rebels in power?

1a) Why aren't they called "Rebels" or "New Republic"?

1b) Why are they now called "The Resistance"?

2) What happened to the KEY players that aren't on screen. IE Lando, Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar?

3) Where has Luke gone? (This is a big one. I know they are obviously going to explain it, but I'm wondering if it will be in a silly way, IE Leia tells Han "... Like I've told you a thousand times before, my brother now searches the wastelands for the Valley of the Jedi", or if it will be in the opening crawl, or if they will explain to the new person, like Finn perhaps.

I'm just thinking about when you re-watch the film years down the road. I want it to flow smoothly and I want to look back on it and think to myself "yup, they did it well".

1 and its sub-questions have been mostly answered in the canon post Return of the Jedi material. So has part of 2, and 3 will probably be answered in the movie itself.

'Has been'? No it has not.

I'm sure that it will be. But right now, we're still future tense on that knowledge.

ETA: The opening crawl will have to explain how we got from the destruction of the second Death Star, the extermination of the Sith, to the "present day".

I suspect because the Resistence isn't officially part of the New Republic. The First Order is just one of the splinters of the Empire.

I highly doubt you are going to get the indepth answers you are looking for in the opening crawl. Just a quick state of the galaxy.

This certainly fits with what we have heard. The New Republic and Imperials sign a treaty ending the war officially. Perhaps the Resistance is formed those native to the regions granted to the Empire who are opposed to Imperial rule. If the Republic isn't willing to fight a full scale war with the remains of the Empire it could still supply weapons, vehicles and advisers for the Resistance fighters much like the proxy wars during the Cold War.

I'm sure the opening crawl will give us the current political situation. To be honest I am shocked it hadn't been leaked already.

We learn about Jakku and the battle in 'Lost Stars' - it happens about a year after Endor. Really - it does seem like many of the questions and details will be intentionally filled via supplementary materials (Rebels, books, comics) - it will take a brain change to consider these things canon now and not just fun 'what-ifs'. if you are a lore complete-ist, these things are essential reading / viewing.

Founded on nothing other than reading most of the new stuff (which still means nothing )

My guess is that there is still a New Republic but it is weak and / or fearful of entering into another engagement with this splinter group the First Order. Because of this - the First Order seizes power or at least dominance via terrorist type activities and there is a group of NR leadership that seeks to appease them whereas Leia and crew say 'f-that - we fought and sacrificed too much to hear that noise' so they setup a .... Resistance.

What caused this awakening?

Darth Revan.

I don't mean minutia. I'm talking about the BIG questions.

1) Why aren't the Rebels in power?

1a) Why aren't they called "Rebels" or "New Republic"?

1b) Why are they now called "The Resistance"?

2) What happened to the KEY players that aren't on screen. IE Lando, Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar?

3) Where has Luke gone? (This is a big one. I know they are obviously going to explain it, but I'm wondering if it will be in a silly way, IE Leia tells Han "... Like I've told you a thousand times before, my brother now searches the wastelands for the Valley of the Jedi", or if it will be in the opening crawl, or if they will explain to the new person, like Finn perhaps.

I'm just thinking about when you re-watch the film years down the road. I want it to flow smoothly and I want to look back on it and think to myself "yup, they did it well".

Isn't Ackbar allegedly supposed to be in Episode 7?

I don't know how I'll live without Wedge ;-;

I'm sure the opening crawl will give us the current political situation. To be honest I am shocked it hadn't been leaked already.

I'm sure it will be something like this:

Episode VII

The Force Awakens

Threatening decades of of peace, the First Order strikes out from a hidden base beyond the boarders of the New Republic.

Freedom fighters of the Resistence wage a valiant but small insurgency on the worlds conquered by the agents of the First Order.

The Galaxy and its heroes both old and new are now rising to challenges yet unforeseen and unwanted.

Or something like that. You get the gist. Kind of vague, throws out some names here and there. If it opens with Poe being captured that will be mentioned. If it opens with Kylo Ren invading some poor planet the. It will mention that.

There have been images posted of the Ackbar mask and he seems to be a player as of Aftermath anyway so good bet he is in the movie (unless he hits the cutting room floor)

There have been images posted of the Ackbar mask and he seems to be a player as of Aftermath anyway so good bet he is in the movie (unless he hits the cutting room floor)

IT'S A CUT!!

1 and its sub-questions have been mostly answered in the canon post Return of the Jedi material. So has part of 2, and 3 will probably be answered in the movie itself.

That's nice for the tiny group that has kept itself up to speed, but for the vast majority of the untold tens of millions who will be watching this movie that is meaningless.

The movies must stand on their own, you can't presume any knowledge of outside sources.

There's no need for a lengthy backstory exposition dump. A few lines here and there will suffice to set the mood, and that's all he movie needs. Did we need to see everything that happened between RotS and ANH? Nope, even tho plenty did happen as we see in Rebels and other media. I guess we've been spoiled with the vast amounts of secondary media attempting (bad usually failing) to fill in all the gaps between the movies over the decades, so it seems we need to be hand held and given a cheat sheet for the past 30 years of SW story time. I think it works best as a mystery with a few hints sprinkled all over.

And if the actors are still worth a **** they will be able to portray the hells the characters lived through when the projector lights up that screen, just by facial expressions, mannerisms and tone of voice.

You don't even get to see what happened in the years between ANH and ESB.