"After Sean Connery." You forgot to add that.
Heh. No I didn't.
If I had to wager money, I'd say that the new movies will take place a generation or two after RotJ. Some of the original actors will have minor roles introducing and sending off the new characters. There will be some inspiration from the EU, but it will mostly be new stuff.
Exactly how the Star Wars post-Jedi homebrew game I'm in currently is being run. If it were me, I'd push it even further away in time, and make the events of the Original Trilogy semi-legendary. Sort of like how we tell stories about George Washington and the cherry-tree kinda stuff.
Already conceptualized by
Amy Mebberson on tumblr -- both
Princess Padme and
Princess Leia. (The drawings are five years old? She did those five years ago? Was Disney planning this purchase that long ago, or was Amy just that wishful/prescient?)
Disney and Lucasfilm have for years had a long relationship. Ever ridden the Star Tours ride, or seen the Indiana Jones stunt show? Ever picked up the Mickey as a jedi stuffed animals or pins? It almost seems like formalizing something that kinda existed already.
As for biggest plot holes, I think the whole secret marriage between Padme and Anakin is up there very high. They've been together in Sith for something like 3 years, and nobody suspects anything, especially since Obi-Wan seemed to pick up on Anakin's feelings in AotC? The Jedi really were getting pretty dense.
To me, the most irksome plot holes have to do with the Jedi order themselves, and their monumental inconsistency and self-righteous justification of whatever they want to do anyway. One small example of which is Anakin being told that he'll be kicked out of the order if he abandons pursuit of Dooku to save Padme... and then ten minutes later, Yoda abandons pursuit of Dooku to save Anakin and Obiwan. I find it the most irksome because if it were intentional, it would actually be one of the
most interesting plot elements out there. If Anakin were somewhat
justified in turning against the Jedi, his fall would actually be interesting. If the Jedi were clearly in need of a major house-cleaning of individuals, rules and practices. But it's clearly
not intentional, and the Jedi aren't supposed to be shades of gray, they're clearly meant to be the the unadulterated good guys.
Even though Luke is totally right, Obiwan and Yoda are both wrong, and it's his
compassion for his father, and not his Jedi
dispassion that allows him to succeed, that's never explored. We're expected to believe Luke was actually wrong, paid the price by losing his hand and nearly falling to the dark side himself, and that he really only succeeded due to dramatic necessity. Oh, wait. We're supposed to be praising the Original Trilogy and condeming the Prequel Trilogy, right?
Still, I think that there's the elements of great story-telling in there, given the tension between the Jedi as explained to Luke, the Jedi as they actually are in the Prequels, and the new perspective that watching the OT with the knowledge of the prequels in the back of your mind gives you. But mostly,
it's all accidental and Lucas was trying to tell a straight-forward, black and white, good vs. evil story. Seen that way, it's full of idiotic plot holes and inconsistencies. Seen as a deeper story with shades of gray, it's got potential that it never quite manages to reach.