And just like that, years and years of hopes, dreams, patience, speculation, and more on the part of Star Wars' immense fanbase has finally come to an end with this weekend's arrival of The Force Awakens. Barely a few days into its release, the film has begun shattering box office records, earned loads of critical praise, and - most importantly - won the hearts of fans, many of whom were still reeling from the prequel trilogy and well aware of what getting their hopes up again could mean had Episode VII been a failure. In attempting to lay the foundation for a new era in the franchise while honoring what made the original trilogy so endearing, The Force Awakens roped together the old and the new into a nostalgic package rife with potential, ensuring that future films are free to go anywhere now that the baton has truly been passed along. With characters audiences have loved for decades appearing in the film, like Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO, perhaps the project's biggest hurdle was always going to be injecting new blood into the franchise worthy of standing alongside them - literally and figuratively - that can carry the films going forward. To that end, a host of new heroes and villains have now been fully introduced to the world after an extended, heavily-anticipated build up. Now that the film is out, let's take a spoiler-filled look at the new blood to stack up which characters didn't quite live up to the hype (and why) and which ones have already earned their place in the franchise...
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
