It really seems odd to me that it has been 10 years since Episode III. I mean rationally I knew it was quite awhile ago, but I think the overall lack of relevance to anything else meant it was easy to simply ignore. I was interested in Episode III when it came out and certainly saw it opening day, but wasn't particularly motivated by any of the merchandise and even among friends we did not discuss it much afterwards other than laughing about dying of a broken heart and abandoning your kids...
I got the "Making of..." book for Episode III, but only because I had gotten all the others over the years and really enjoyed seeing the concept art and pondering what might have been. For X-mas I got the Art book for Episode VII and I have been pouring over that sucker for the last couple of days just soaking all the different ideas that they had in play at one time. I have a feeling that several of those concepts will make some kind of appearance later on and certainly a few of them already showed up in Rebels, but I am just much more eager to know more about the world of Episode VII than I have been in ages. Much of that has to do with the quality of the movie I am sure, but also the sense of being in terra incognita for the first time since 1983. No matter what happened in Episode I-III we knew where we were going ultimately and that diffused a good portion of the mystery and suspense. Now we don't have that sense of certainty and it offers up a rich opportunity for speculation.
I also have to credit the Clone Wars and to a slightly lesser degree Rebels for carrying the torch over the last half decade. There was some truly stellar storytelling done with the Clone Wars series and part of me wonders if there isnt an excellent opportunity now to have a new animated series that bridges ROTJ and TFA.
