The “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” panel presentation at the just concluded ComicCon 2015 in San Diego was one of the most anticipated events during the convention.
Apart from wanting to confirm straight from the cast members and production team the initial details about the movie that have been swirling around the internet, fans also would like to know if Harrison Ford is well in good after his airplane accident in April.
So when Han Solo showed up and joined the panel, he drew screams and a standing ovation from the estimated 7,000 crowd that gathered in the venue to listen to what the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” panel had to say.
The convention has a strict no-standing rule but apparently the “Star Wars” panel was an exception as nearly everybody stood up and clapped their hands upon knowing that Harrison Ford is around and is okay.
Happy to be back
The actor acknowledged the attention of the fans and said that he was okay. He also thanked the host for asking if he is already back in harness.
The veteran actor talked about what prompted him to return to the film franchise after 32 years. He said he never thought that the franchise would still come back to bless him rather than haunt him. So when he got the chance to read the script of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” he felt gratified and really thought that it was remarkable and well-written, notes The Guardian.
Ford also noted the very intriguing developments that the writers put into the seventh installment of the film that drew his interest. Thus, he was quite happy when he was made as part of the story.
Carrie Fisher refers to her return to the franchise as like a flashback, even saying that it came to her like the so-called acid flashbacks. She added that when she came back to the set and seeing all her fellow actors back, she said that it was like the same thing as before, but they already looked melted, in a good way.
For his part, Mark Hamill said the promotion of films has radically changed since the first “Star Wars” movie released in 1977. He said that back then, they only had photographs and no video footage at all. R2D2 was just a prop and there was nobody in C3PO then. He added that it was not easy for the film to describe what the movie wants to say, but these days, everything is out there in the open and all fans needed to do is to watch it in the theater and enjoy the experience.
Enjoying the costume
One of the lighter moments during the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ComicCon panel was how British comedy actor Simon Pegg expressed how he enjoyed himself playing a costumed alien character of some sort in the movie.
He was not the highlight of the new trailer of the movie, set to be shown on worldwide theaters on December 18, but the actor nonetheless described the latest movie teaser in one word – awesomeness, notes C/Net.
While the seventh installment to the “Star Wars” saga is a little over five months away from its worldwide showing financial analysts are already predicting that the movie will join the prestigious and elite billion dollar club.
Benjamin Swinburne, analyst for Morgan Stanley, projects that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will earn at least $1.03 billion in profit against a gross of about $1.67 billion, which shall make it the third highest grossing movie of all time next only to “Avatar” at No. 1 with $2.79 billion and “Titanic” with $2.19 billion.
Disney Pictures will reportedly shell out about $423 million to produce and market the film in addition to other expense and thus netting revenue of $1.03 billion.