ST "Secret History of Star Wars" Sequel Info

i was perusing the S.H.O.S.W. site and found this article about the history of the sw sequels. i thought the evolution of the sequels was pretty interesting and couldn't find a thread. check it out here...

The Secret History of Star Wars

it also links to gary kurtz's sequel info...

TheForce.Net - Latest News - Gary Kurtz Reveals Original Plans for Episodes 1-9

interesting bits..

In 1977, he was envisioning the series as not constrained by any concrete number of "episodes" but continuing indefinitely, with spin-offs and movies following new characters and time periods. In the 1977 television specialThe Making of Star Wars As Told by R2D2 And C3P0, producer Gary Kurtz remarks on the sequels being developed, "I like to consider them different adventures rather than direct sequels."

 

This was quite an ambitious plan, and a little hard to follow. With Lucas in the midst of coming up with the story of Empire Strikes Back, he seems to have never even fleshed out the plots for these films beyond broad conceptions like "Clone War trilogy" and "conclusion," which he had denoted in the margins. Meanwhile, Empire Strikes Back was being readied, and Lucas seems to have abandoned this configuration of the series. However, he still wanted to make twelve films, and he still wanted the freedom to take the series in new directions and explore different time periods and characters.

Perhaps Luke could continue to be a main character beyond the third chapter, or perhaps they could do a prequel entry at that point; this sort of structure allowed Lucas to not commit to a particular storyline, because the series could progress non-linearly. Dovetailing into the comments he made to Rolling Stone , some of the ideas for one-off films might have been incorporated into this structure, as Lucas would later speak about.

 

Since most of the issues for VII-IX were dealt with in the OT, particularly ROTJ, I believe George went back and reworked the issues X-XII were originally to deal with and now we'll see the old gang and new characters finish off George's nine part film.

 

all these things seem to correlate with the sequel trilogy and individual spin off films. more stuff...

Prevue: Do you plan to make any separate films about the characters? Like a film just about Han Solo or perhaps Chewbacca, the Clone Wars or the Jedis?

Lucas: I can answer that best by describing the history of the way Star Wars developed... As I was writing, I came up with some ideas for a film about robots, with no humans in it. When I got to working on the Wookiee, I thought of a film just about Wookiees, nothing else. So, for a time, I had a couple of odd movies with just those characters. Then, I had the other films, which were essentially split into three parts each, two trilogies. When the smoke cleared, I said, 'This is really great. I'll do another trilogy that takes place after this.' I had three trilogies of nine films, and then another couple of odd films. Essentially, there were twelve films.

Prevue: Do you still plan on producing all twelve?

Lucas: No, I've eliminated the odd movies, because they really don't have anything to do with the Star Wars saga. It gets confusing trying to explain the whole thing, but if I ever do the odd movies about the robots or the Wookiees, it'll be just about them, not necessarily about Chewbacca or Threepio--just about Wookiees and robots. It's the genre that I'm intrigued with, not necessarily the characters."

GL: Well, the next trilogy--the first one--since it's about Ben Kenobi as a young man, is the same character, just a different actor. And it's the same thing with all the characters. Luke ends up in the third film of the first trilogy just three-and-a-half years old. There is continuity with the characters in other words, but not with the actors--and the look of the films will be different."

The series at this point was no longer just about Luke, as evident by the fact that the first (and probably last) third(s) of the saga would not centre on him--which may be one reason why Lucas stopped referring to the series as The Adventures of Luke Skywalker by 1979, when this three-trilogy plan was revealed. It was three separate trilogies which told a chronological story when viewed together but followed different characters and had different styles and tones, although connected in various ways. The first trilogy was to be mainly about Obi Wan. The second trilogy was mainly about Luke. The third trilogy, then, may have followed this "Other," perhaps with Luke in the role of the mentor character, similar to Obi Wan in the middle trilogy. "The sequel is about Jedi knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned," Lucas would later say in 1983, bolstering this interpretation.

 

"In the sequel Luke would be a sixty-year-old Jedi knight. Han Solo and Leia would be together, although Lucas says, "They might be married, or not. We have never actually discussed marriage in this galaxy. I don't even know if it exists yet. Who knows what relationship they will have? I mean, they're together, let's put it that way." The sequel focuses mainly on Luke, and Lucas says Mark Hamill will have first crack at the part if he is old enough. "If the first trilogy is social and political and talks about how society evolves," Lucas says, "Star Wars is more about personal growth and self-realisation, and the third deal with moral and philosophical problems. In Star Wars, there is a very clear line drawn between good and evil. Eventually you have to face the fact that good and evil aren't that clear-cut and the real issue is trying to understand the difference. The sequel is about Jedi knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned."

It appears that Lucas developed a somewhat alternate version of the Sequel Trilogy by this point, likely just in case he still felt like making it one day. This version also takes place much farther into the future, roughly forty years after Return of the Jedi, as opposed to twenty (Luke is said to be in his 60s), and is more centred around the gimmick of re-uniting the aged original cast. However, it is possible that much of the thematic content of the original plan remained intact,

A June 1980 interview with Rolling Stone has him claiming to have twelve-page outlines for all sevenremaining films. He also addresses the "Other," but his comments are so vague that it is impossible to precisely gather if it is indicating he had decided to write in Leia as the Other by this point:​

​

What is your deal with Fox?

They have first refusal on every Star Wars film I want to make.

How many is that?

Seven left.

Let's get back to The Empire Strikes Back for a moment. In the movie, Ben says Luke is the last hope andYoda says no, there is another.

Yes. [Smiling] There is another, and has been for a long time. You have to remember, we're starting in the middle of this whole story. There are six hours' worth of events before Star Wars, and in those six hours, the 'Other' becomes apparent, and after the third film, the 'Other' becomes apparent quite a bit.

What will happen to Luke?

I can't say. In the next film everything gets resolved one way or the other...

Do you have story lines for the seven Star Wars movies left to be done?

Yes, twelve-page outlines.

In any case, by 1983 Lucas is speaking of following the aged cast of the originals in a Sequel Trilogy

 

But what of the Ewoks?!?!?!
They need some closure to finalize the Ewok Trilogy.

 

Crazy cool stuff here!

 

So it seems GL was trying to purposely give the PT an entirely new look, rather than continuing with the OT style. I wonder if they'll change it up again, giving the ST a distinct new look or just trying to ape the OT in terms of cinematography and visual design.

Perhaps this is a clue to the fact that Han and Leia WILL be together in Ep VII, assuming they're sticking to GL's notes and haven't changed it. And now we know that marriage does exist in the GFFA, as we've seen Anakin and Padme married.

 

I'd be all for Chewbacca and Droids standalones. Just make sure there is enough dialogue in the Wookiee movie to avoid another Holiday Special.

 

of course the pt was supposed to look different. everyone knows that. that's why i hope the st has it's own look and designs.

 

Reading those brief notes from uncle George on the ST, wish I could time travel into that era [before the dark times, before the internet] just to know how it feeled to be a fan in the early years of the saga, discovering that he was planning a lifetime 12-pieces journey to the GFFA... sigh!

 

I just read this same thing last night. It makes it very clear than the original idea was to use the prequels to tell the story of a young Obi-Wan, with Anakin as the villain and grown up. The OT would be about Luke, VII-IX will continue the adventures of Luke searching for his sister, and fighting the emperor, and X-XII would tell the story of the ST, with the Big 3 in their 60s and new heroes. So, intially the saga was not going to be about the Skywalkers, but after the shift of Vader being Anakin, Lucas decided to tell the story of the family in the galaxy.

I wonder if the treatments we wrote included the Skywalker offspring or the new lead would be just Luke´s padawan.

 

we don't know yet.

 

Well, in other interviews he's said Luke never gets married or has kids so I doubt it. Maybe Leia and Han did.

 

Great stuff of course. Pieces of it could make for great stuff in the sequels. However, I am not sure how much can be useful in figuring out the plot for Eps 7-9 simply because a lot of it has either been erased (Leia is Luke's sister so Luke doesn't have a sister to search for) or compressed into ROTJ.

Still, often times, writers take pieces from drafts and change the roles around and switch things here and there. Lucas has done that quite a bit so there's every reason to believe some of the notes went into whatever story outlines he had or gave to Kennedy and Ardnt that may have evolved into what JJ and LK came up with.

This part seems to be what follows us wherever we go. The idea of a ST being about philisophy and the good/evil lines. For that reason, the "bad guys" are kind of secondary and the idea of rebuilding the Republic and the Jedi order will be the main goals. Along the way, those who seem good and those who seem evil may not be what we think. The idea of how to use the Force and what the roles of Jedi are in the developing Republic will be pondered and create inner conflict. This will still create personal growth and self-actualization for several characters but, with a cast so large in Ep7, it opens the door to more organizational disputes and how to tackle the problems facing the galaxy. Could be very exciting!

 

Why would he? Hes a galaxy wide hero with a galaxy full of women to enjoy. Everyone knows the girls cant resist a jedi.

 

True. he never said anything about. But it looks like he had in mind the Luke´s padawan. This role could be perfect for Boyega or Ridley.

 

Maybe Luke was so freaked out about getting kissed by his sister that he didn't feel like taking any more chances.

 

Those are the more likely scenarios. I think all the "passing of the torch" comments Lucas has made over the years support the idea that Luke becomes a spiritual father figure rather than a biological one. In the end it really doesn't matter who the sperm donor was. It's about fulfilling Yoda and Obi-Wan's lessons about passing on what he has learned.

 

The real reason the first Jedi created the "No Attachment" rule, to avoid paying child support.

 

I'd like to know what the writing on the flip side is.

 

Lucas in those interviews is blantantly making stuff up. He had no idea where the story was going. I'm convinced that what we know as Episode IV was the entire condensed plot of his original trilogy idea. Due to budget and time constraints (and maybe a handful of folks who could still tell him ' that's a bad idea George ') he had to chop out tons of stuff that he wanted to do and accidentally wound up with Star Wars.

The twelve page write ups for all the remaining movies are pure fiction, otherwise there wouldn't be so many continuity errors in the OT.

I don't know where the plot for the ST is going, but I sure wouldn't put any faith in anything George said in an interview 30 years ago.

 

There's a very real possibility that Luke and Leia settled down together at that point in the plot's development. Considering Leia wasn't even Luke's sister early on.

 

shewt I wouldn't put an stock in something GL said last week about Star Wars, he's so tipsy turvey about Star Wars

 

Some movie makers retcon material in a film series, George Lucas has retconned his professional life... but hey if it wasn't for George many people's lives would be a hell of a lot more boring.