Star Wars Episode VII Producer: Without the Story and Characters, The Effects Mean Nothing

Kathleen Kennedy, the Lucasfilm executive who will serve as a producer on the forthcoming trilogy of new Star Wars movies, stayed pretty mum this weekend at Star Wars Celebration Europe with regard to the company's plans for the sequels. Besides confirming that John Williams will return to score the films, not much else came out, in spite of being at a show where much of the cast of Return of the Jedi was on-hand and ready for any prospective announcements to be made. One thing she did say--which should give fans some hope in light of the slickly-made prequel trilogy which remains unpopular with many of the viewers--is that the special effects aren't being discussed yet because all of the pre-production efforts at the moment are being focused on making a story and characters that people want to watch. "The story and characters are all we're talking about right now," Kennedy said, according to IGN. "We have an amazing team at ILM, who can create fantastic effects, but if we don't have a great story and characters, the effects mean nothing. I do think making huge popular culture – and I've had the good fortune to be a part of a lot it – is really hard to do and get right. And if you don't spend the time you need on developing characters, and finding stories, complicated stories, the audience gets tired because they think they're seeing the same thing again and again." Star Wars Episode VII is expected in theaters in 2015.