BTS Recycled Ideas

In the second draft of ANH, Vader dies in the Battle of Yavin. In TPM, Maul dies in the Battle of Naboo.

 

No! It not true! That's impossible! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

*dives to certain death*

 

many ideas are being used in the tv shows and new films.

 

In the first three drafts of ANH, the Imperial capital is a city in the clouds. In ESB, there's Cloud City.

 

Actually, while the Making Of Star Wars quotes Lucas as using the word/concept midichlorians, that was later mentioned as a contemporary insertion as they were putting the book together. (The author JW Rinzler talked about this on his blog.)

 

Yeah, I wasn't literally doubting it's true. Just voicing my disappointment in a corny way. Lucas came up with it in the first place, So It doesn't surprise me that he had the original idea for it long before Episode I. Doesn't make it any less obnoxious. He's no more perfect than the rest of us. Sure, he invented Star Wars, and we're all on this site dedicated to it, so that's saying something. Doesn't mean he's incapable of really bad ideas. (Not that Midicholorians are his worst idea, but it's the one that many people at least agree with me on, unlike my other unpopular opinions.)

 

Perhaps I was unclear; I'm saying that it actually isn't true, and that Rinzler mentioned that on his blog.

 

Oh! I see. I did misread it. In that case....

*Massive Celebration to Yub Nub*

 

Spoiler

Kylo Ren "finishing what [Vader] started" may be inspired the alternate ending of Return of the Jedi, in which Luke dons Vader's mask.

 

Thanks for clearing this up, I had already suspected that when I came across the name of Leia's ship (Tantive IV) in these 1977 Lucas Notes (although the name didn't exist until Brian Daley wrote the radio dramas and gave the ship a name).

But pardon my asking: "A contemporary insertion"? Isn't that a sugar cover for the fact that historical documents were actualy retroactively rewritten / faked in the worst tradition of 1984?

And it doesn't just look like a little tweak or two, the entire passage about Palpatine's rise to power looks like it has been rewritten to match the prequels! That's especially obvious when you pay attention to some details: In ANH General Taggi vocally wonders how the Emperor will maintain control without the bureaucracy (provided by the Imperial Senate).

According to the Lucas Notes' version printed in the Making of, the Emperor already had taken full control of the bureaucracy. This doesn't add up.

Some parts of these original Lucas notes were quoted in the Skywalking biography, some others may have shown up in Bantha Tracks. Does anybody have a clue where I might find the original, unaltered Lucas Notes from the summer of 1977?

 

This one's pretty obvious. Lucas probably even had more in mind at this point, but we may never know.

 

Pretty damn close to the mark, and it can't be a coincidence that Lawrence Kasdan was working on ESB when these ideas (for ROTJ) were floated, and now on TFA:

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Yes, I wasn't entirely surprised to see those broad strokes happen in the new movie.

Also, I love that some of the concept art is being recycled in the new movies/TV shows. For instance, Zeb on Rebels looks like MacQuarrie's original Chewie.

 

Recycled? It's poetry...

 

At one stage in production, Luke was a girl. Rey is essentially the female equivalent of Luke.

The bar at Maz's seems to call back to McQuarrie's design:

 

TFA:
-Hosnian Prime somehow reminds me of 'Had Abbadon' .

 

Someone mentioned Starkiller Base. Not only in terms of design, but it even borrows its functionality from McQuarrie's concept; a weapon that concentrates energy in its core to fire.


Then there's the new Stormtrooper gear:


The addition of shields were an obvious nod. Giving the lightsaber to a trooper was actually McQuarrie's idea because he figured that if the hero had it, the enemy should as well. Though George's refined concept of the lightsaber made it more of a mythical weapon and not suited for common soldiers. JJ incorporates the idea of giving the trooper a comparable weapon, and we actually finally see the lightsaber duel with a Stormtrooper onscreen.

 

Speaking of TFA designs:

Spoiler

In Maz Kanata's bar, one of the droids (referred to as "Maz's Castle droid" in the the TFA art book) is bronze-colored with glowing pinpoint eyes. A nice nod to Ralph McQuarrie's C-3PO designs for the first film, back when GL wanted Threepio to be bronze instead of gold. The art book also mentions that the droid was male in the initial sketch, but the modelers added a "female" chestplate to the actual on-set version (further invoking C-3PO's Metropolis lineage).

 

I'll never get tired of seeing that, but unused ideas aren't really like that, as they weren't in the orevious movies

 

Also, as I meant to post in this thread, in "The Star Wars", Luke is an old man with lots of facial hair and he's said to be "just a myth."

 

Been meaning to post this one, and someone made a nice graphic to show how Zeb Orrelios was based off McQuarrie's concept for Chewbacca.


And this one doesn't really count, but there were some pretty crazy ideas for how a [relatively] younger Yoda would look in the Phantom Menace:

As many know, the production crew actually went through with this design, but rejected the final product in favor of a much more subtle redesign. They ended up still using the puppet, but as a different character entirely - Yaddle:

 

Yoda with mutton chops! Hilarious. That should've been in the film for comedy value alone.

 

In the first three drafts of ANH, Tatooine is called Utapau. In ROTS, the Separatist base is on a planet called Utapau.

 

Technically, "Utapau" is the name used by locals; to the galaxy at large it's apparently known as Sullust. Like "Arrakis" and "Dune," basically.

 

Is "Sullust" used in all three drafts?