BREAKING NEWS: Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Star Wars 7 Scheduled for 2015

>>I agree with you, too, that Luke should be cast in the Obi-Wan role, but it would be interesting to see whether he was ever able to curb his impetuous nature. As the last Jedi/first Jedi Master of the New Republic, he has a huge responsibility to assume.<<

And it could be interesting if one of Luke's students, especially his own nephew, turns to the Dark Side and Luke is left to deal with "Did I fail him?" Or "Was I not ready to start teaching the next Jedi Order?"

>>Though I'm sure other Jedis will be popping up from hiding, with mixed results.<<

The plural of Jedi is Jedi.

>>I don't know what Harrison Ford's got against Han Solo. I mean, he really shouldn't get up on too high a Tauntaun, here--after all, he did bring Indiana Jones out of mothballs and let him climb into a nuke-proof refrigerator...sharks have been jumped. Get on board and enjoy the ride. That ranch of his can't be cheap to keep.<<

Harrison Ford has long said that he's never understood Star Wars and that he's felt that Han Solo was two-dimensional. That said, he's not opposed to doing it, he just wants Han Solo to have a good cap on the character. Basically, he wants Han to have some significance. Han Solo was never supposed to have been resurrected from the Carbonite. Had Han died it would have been a touching and significant death. He just wants what he was promised 30 years ago: significance.

>>All they'd need to do is reprise their roles almost as cameos to pass the lightsaber on to a younger generation of characters.<<

First off, I love the "Passing the lightsaber" term.

What I would prefer, would be to see Han Solo and Princess Leia in a semi-limited capacity, more than a cameo but less than a starring role. Luke Skywalker, however, I would prefer to see in a more full-on supporting role capacity. I would like to see Luke Skywalker in the Obi-Wan Kenobi role, guiding the new generation of Jedi. It would also be cool to see the films focus on Han and Leia's kids, Jacen and Jaina, who are both Jedi. The problem there is that Jacen turns to the Dark Side, so we don't want to tread Anakin/Vader ground. It could be cool, though, to have Jacen turn in Episode VII and then make Jaina the hero who has to deal with this Sith Lord who is her brother. But again, you're treading familiar ground.

What I would REALLY love to see is not a sequel trilogy but another sort of prequel trilogy that's really unrelated to the episodes 1-6 story at all. I want to see an adaptatio of the Exar Kun/Ulic Qel-Droma story from Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War, Redemption). The story takes place 1,000 before the Battle of Yavin (Episode 4: A New Hope) and the world is really interesting because it's something of an ancient Star Wars universe. Anyway, that's my preference but I'll be happy with whatever they do as long as it's good.

I wonder if this merger means that Dark Horse is going to lose their Star Wars comics rights and Marvel is going to start publishing Star Wars.

It appears that Episode 7 will feature the original cast playing their original characters. Harrison Ford is on board, provided Han Solo is given the epic death scene he was promised in Return of the Jedi. I don't think this is a Bill Murray "Venkman has to die so I'm not asked to do this anymore" kind of a thing, but I think Ford really just wants to give Han a good button to go out on. He has said that the decision to not kill Han in Return was because Lucas felt that killing Han would cause toy sales for that character to plummet.

>>But prepare for the legal mess because many authors have contributed to the universe.<<

That is completely irrelevant. Any stories in the expanded universe are owned by Lucasbooks, a division of Lucasfilm and now Disney, and thus the original authors have no legal claims to those stories. That's the price you pay for writing a franchise story and playing in someone else's sandbox. So yeah, the idea of legal issues is absurd.