The prequel trilogy broke new ground with its revolutionary use of CGI to expand the scope of the Star Wars universe. Lucas and his cohorts at ILM deserve credit for their boundary-pushing innovation. However, old school Star Wars fans, and some critics, felt that prequels reliance on CGI gave the films an artificial look that robbed Star Wars of one of its greatest assets: the ability to create wholly believable alien worlds that felt authentic and lived-in. So far, reports from the set of Episode 7 indicate Abrams & co plan to bring back the practical effects that gave the alien worlds of the original trilogy a tactile feel. Recently, Rian Johnson, the director set to helm Episodes 8 and 9, revealed on a podcast that Episode 7 will employ practical effects for much of its world-building. While it is inevitable that Episode 7 will contain CGI, its very promising that Abrams intends to use practical world-building to help tell his story. When the sets that the characters of Episode 7 inhabit seem authentic, the viewers will be better able to suspend their disbelief and get lost in the features fictional galaxy. This is one of the most promising tidbits weve heard so far.
