ST The Development Of The Sequel Trilogy

I think I genuinely screeched aloud in horror when I saw that bit about her being in the treatment. I will take any amount of Luke drinking green milk in an unsettling fashion over that dreadful throwback fantasy.

 

Ha! Yes!

I groaned. "Come on, George...". And then the sensual devil woman lured Ben Solo into darkness. Eesh...

 

I do belive George lead character was the sister of Skyler, not an un-related girl from a junkyard planet.

Probably that is why Pablo never talks about Rey's parentage evolution. Because Rey Random was probably suggested by Abrams initially. Which was followed by RJ.

 

It's pure fevered teen boy imaginings, isn't it?

It reminds me of when we heard about how, in the proposed Coruscant Underworld series, good ol' Palpatine's sympathetic backstory was that he was wronged by a heartless woman. I...just...no.

 

I love George, but I'm so glad he moved on.

 

Pablo's tweet is the first official confirmation that George intended Talon to seduce the Solo/Skywalker son to the dark side. This comports with Talon's EU storyline, where she captures Cade Skywalker and has a relationship with him.

There are storyboard concepts in the Art of the Force Awakens book, titled "Seduction", apparently showing Talon meeting a padawan, then seducing and killing him.


So the female Talon, who would track down and kill Jedi padawans, became the male "Jedi Killer." There is concept art showing the Jedi Killer at a market, with storm troopers, apparently searching for someone. The text explains that the attack was in Kira's hometown on the junk planet. Perhaps the Jedi Killer was seeking Kira Solo, and she was in hiding on Jakku.

 

• “[This saddens me. We were constantly told George Lucas’s outlines were still in play?] seems waaay too early to weigh in on this. Ask me again when Ep IX is out. When we’re robotweeting in our moon pants or whatever” (November 19, 2015)
• “But where’s the Internet drama in that version [where we didn’t throw out George Lucas’s ideas for the sequel trilogy]?” (December 12, 2015)
• “[As Disney are not using George’s story, I don’t think you’d mind telling us what he was planning, would you?] you’re assuming how much is and isn’t being used. So I’m not at liberty to say. Maybe when the trilogy is over.” (June 11, 2016)
• “[Is this from the fanon that Rey was a Solo until late on (as per GL’s treatment) but got changed to ‘random’?] I don’t think anyone online knows enough about that to reliably comment on it.” (August 30, 2016)
• “[In terms of long term storylines, is Rey’s family something the writers know before Ep 7 and they wait to reveal or is that left up in the air for future people to decide? And big picture stuff too etc?] Ask me when this trilogy is over. ” (November 7, 2016)
• [Reference] “[The question about continuing the ‘Skywalker’ episodes after 9 is kind of moot if one of the kids ISNT one, no?] let’s circle back in, oh, 2019.” (November 24, 2016)
• “[Will we ever get to see George’s treatments for VII,VIII & IX?] Maybe when the trilogy is over. Not my call.” (January 22, 2017)
• “[Can you tell us any other titbit about George’s sequels ideas like the Rey/Kylo type characters? Dying to know any small detail] No, that’s not for me to say. If you haven’t paged through the Art of TFA, I recommend it.” (February 2, 2017)
• “[As Disney are not using George’s story, I don’t think you’d mind telling us what he was planning, would you?] you’re assuming how much is and isn’t being used. So I’m not at liberty to say. Maybe when the trilogy is over.” (June 11, 2016)
• “[According to my ‘textual analysis,’ George Lucas VII ideas include: Jedi heroine, Skywalker grandkids (e.g. Kylo), relics, pirates, Jedi hunter.] Not a bad read, but aside from what’s in The Art of TFA I can’t add too much more.” (October 29, 2017)

He (archive) kept punting the question of Lucas's ideas to after the trilogy is over / doesn't answer this question yet. Someone else (be it movie or book) has to speak first. Story's not over yet.

 

I agree. George seemed to have a fascination with her. He even proposed a game where she would team up with Darth Maul (?).

One of the earliest changes to George's concept was changing the female Talon to the male "Jedi Killer." However, the idea of a dark side/light side relationship appears to have been retained. There is concept art showing the Jedi Killer with his arms around Kira, reminiscent of a Phantom of the Opera type storyline. The art was not included in the TFA art book, but it was released with other known official artwork.

I think Rey was originally intended to be a Solo and switched to Random when the Jedi Killer became Han and Leia's son. The idea of a nonfamilial, dark side/light side relationship was always a part of the ST.

 

Not really.

It's all in the way it's done.

Say Lucas didn't make the PT but created stories for them.

Is there ANY chance when developed by others we would have gotten anywhere near the movies that he made?

None but they would still use various plot, character and story elements but with nowhere near the design or visual thrust and world building and the galactic situations would be more like the ST has presented.

They didn't make Lucas' stories nor have the emotional and character complexities that he likes. It's easy to imagine the kind of Anakin and Padme romance they would do and it certainly would be what Lucas did nor would Anakin's turn be the complex journey. We see the way Kylo Ren is and that is their Anakin.

 

Yes, that makes sense. When did the scavenger girl come into play? Because she always seems to have been separate from the Solo kids. And wasn’t an easy concept that the scavenger’s village was destroyed by the JK so she went seeking Luke Skywalker?

 

TBF to Kennedy, that's what she said all along. It’s just that loads of people refused to believe her.

I have no doubt they would have looked and felt entirely different. But we’re really talking as if Lucas had directed the film(s) himself, which was never the intention anyway. So the ST, even if they stuck 100% to what Lucas had in mind, would have always looked and felt different with different writers and filmmakers involved. That's what Lucas signed up for, so he would have apparently been fine with that. The PT, if directed and written by other people, but still working off Lucas’ story, would have looked and felt a whole lot different, but Lucas’ main ideas and beats would have been present. Not too dissimilar to TESB, actually. If Lucas had directed TESB with the exact same story, it would have still been an entirely different film no doubt.

So really, if there is more Lucas in the ST’s story beats and threads than we originally thought, it’s no different in a way. The question is just how much Lucas is in there.

 

Exactly.

Luke in exile is another good example of this. GL's general idea of it was different from what Rian eventually came up with. What they did was lift various plot points from Lucas story treatments and did their own thing with them and that is perfectly fine. But to pass this off as GL's story is disingenuous and wishful thinking.

 

The concept of Kira as a scavenger was developed after Darth Talon was switched to the Jedi Killer.

The April 2013 entry in the art book explains that "Kira was cast as a scavenger on the junk planet. An alien junk dealer was introduced into the mix, but Kira initially works in a used car lot of sorts for an elderly father figure, a former Republic pilot. Watching spaceships coming and going all day long, Kira daydreams of leaving her dusty backwater planet. A mothballed Millennium Falcon is among the ships on the lot." At this point, I'm confident that Kira was a Solo, likely hidden on Jakku to keep her safe from the Jedi Killer. The switch to Rey's more isolated, desolate existence happened late in preproduction, perhaps to better reflect her life as a Random.

Designs for Unkar Plutt were made in February 2014, and Rey's home was developed in March 2014, only three months prior to filming. One of the designers explained that they "decided to build the outpost in Abu Dhabi at the end of the mangrove swamp--the only place we could find that had a clear horizon, where it was desolate, flat as a pancake. JJ wanted the location to be a really unappealing place for her to exist. Kira's life is just miserable, and this miserable place echoes that."

BTW, one of the mysteries of the "Rey Solo" theory was why Rey would be left to such a miserable, isolated existence on Jakku. The answer is, because she wasn't intended to be a Solo when those ideas were developed. The "elderly father figure" from the first Kira concept is gone, and Rey dreams not of leaving the planet, but hopes for her family to return. The Falcon remains, however, possibly because it was too late in preproduction to put it somewhere else.

Regarding Kira's search for Luke, it appears that George had Kira finding Luke early in Episode VII and training with him. Arndt switched that concept in the spring of 2013, with Episode VII instead focusing on Kira and Sam searching for a map to Luke. The concept art below is titled "Death Star Underwater" and the caption reads: "So when the adventure's over, Kira finds a hidden map inside the Emperor's tower of the second Death Star. And the map tells you where the Jedi are and where Luke is hiding."

 

I think that the "scavenger girl/girl living alone on a far, far away planet" was always into play. From my understanding, the girl was not related to Leia or Luke.

 

That fits with the art books and feels pretty George to me.

 

“Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass,” Arndt said. “It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.”
“It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt said. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.’”

Also the Art of TLJ hinted at a much more different dynamic with the female Jedi than what we actually got. If episode VII was about Talon corrupting the son (another alien bad guy, yay! Even though considering how they presented her it was kinda obvious she was going to play the role of the seductress, much more overt than Palpatine, Maul and Dooku but I get why people would be turned off by this), then that means Luke wasn't betrayed by his nephew since he was already in exile at the start of the story. It also seems like GL's Luke didn't cut himself from the Force and was meditating about his life and didn't subscribe to the idea that the Jedi needed to end since he agreed to actually train the Jedi and progressively reclaims his vitality over the arc of the movie which is vastly different than what we got where his interaction with Rey were more confrontational and didn't really evolve much from start to finish. Uber sounds really like another bigger big bad not unlike Palpatine with Vader. If that was supposed to be the starting point, I wonder what would have been in 8 and 9. Would Luke have died in 7 or 8?

 

Good point. Was Luke going to die in 7 where Han dies now? Would he have survived into 8? 9?


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The Art of the Last Jedi includes old concept arts that "fit" the story of TLJ........it doesn't tell the whole story about what Lucas originally planned for the ST.

 

Where else did that differ, Frank? What did George have in mind that was similar, what was different, and are there any of George's ideas that we've yet to see but which may yet play out? Any ideas?

 

Didn't Pablo already say that GL's treatments for 7, 8 and 9 were actually just a brief treatment of what might end up being in 7?

 

Back when the sequel trilogy was first announced, I had immediately assumed Luke would be taken out in 7 as the mentor figure just like Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were in ANH and TPM, respectively. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas had something similar in mind.

 

I disagree. The Art of the Force Awakens book shows that the initial concept of Kira was quite different than the final version. As I stated above, the April 2013 entry in TFA's art book explains that Kira was "cast as a scavenger on the junk planet. An alien junk dealer was introduced into the mix, but Kira initially works in a used car lot of sorts for an elderly father figure, a former Republic pilot. Watching spaceships coming and going all day long, Kira daydreams of leaving her dusty backwater planet. A mothballed Millennium Falcon is among the ships on the lot."
I think at this point, Kira was a Solo. She has a caretaker looking over her, who is attached to the Republic. She works at a used car lot, rather than a hand and mouth existence for the dreaded Unkar Plutt. She dreams of leaving the planet for adventure, similar to Luke. It sounds like something you might expect if Han and Leia left her there to hide her from the Jedi Killer. The switch to Rey's more desolate existence happened much later.

 

I thought exactly the same. It wasn’t until the Skellig Luke rumours started that my thinking changed on that.

 

lol Thankfully the Darth Talon seduction/kill concept was jettisioned.