ST Behind the Scenes of the Sequel Trilogy

I don't remember Lucas ever stating such a thing. That line about the chosen one was just something people took completely out of context. Leia was the "chosen one" in that she was the one to lead to New Republic back to the Republic's former glory. That doesn't somehow make her the one who destroys the Sith and brings balance to the force.

It's like taking Lucas' comment to Spielberg that the Battledroids from TPM were the new stormtroopers to mean that they were literally stormtroopers. Sometimes he just explains things in a certain way which people take way too literally. Just like they did when he spoke about the sale to Disney and his feelings about what happened afterwards. He was speaking figuratively, and somehow everyone tried to take it literally to make a big story out of it.

 

GL does not change who the Chosen One is - its very clearly Anakin.
TCW goes in depth with the prophecy, something that Filoni has continued in Rebels. Anakin returning for Ahsoka hints to me Filoni is continuing that story.

 

I mean, that’s apparently what GL intended as per his archivest. GL didnt shrink from retcons.

 

It was discussed pretty heavily back when the Star Wars Archives for the PT was released last year, but for those that need the source on Lucas making Leia the Chosen One:

 

I too ignored what he was doing with TCW for a long time and just looked at his post-ROTJ words.

But what he sanctioned on screen means more.

 

Except that what he would have done with the ST would have been done post-TCW. It’s not either-or, and the TCW canon doesn’t disprove that George would have changed direction personally later on.

And while ofc TCW remains canon and Legends doesn’t, and the latter farther removed from him, George OKing something he wasn’t personally making doesn’t mean *that* much. He ok’d Luke marrying Mara Jade but that didn’t mean he approved of her.

 

We know Filoni has a stronger idea of what GL wanted than anyone else. He has countless hours talking and working with GL - which still continues. GL wouldn't be hanging out as much as he does on Mandalorian set without giving input and general approval.

Until GL gives any indication that his former padawan is disappointing him (and GL has no problem making his feelings known) then I see no reason to doubt the influence in his story.

TCW to Rebels proved that. Many dislike the Mortis Arc but it's one of the biggest Force related concepts by GL and Filoni has continued it.

Everyone of course has their own ideas of how the story should go but the person in charge of the SW stories are going to have the clearest picture of what GL envisioned than just about anyone else in the world.

You mention Mara Jade - I talked to Timothy Zahn. He made it clear he trusts Filono with his characters as GL would have intended. I've shared my proof with mods so I can say that.

Filoni has the keys and he and Favreau are telling story arcs that GL embraces (at the very least far, far more than the ST).

LFL now posts this with pride

 

You mean was a Skywalker by blood, either Luke or Leia’s child.

 

Where's that from? Anyway, that kind of story would've made a good bit of sense.

 

From The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005. See also: [QUOTES] George Lucas for more.

 

Yeah, this has been a subject of some debate since the book came out, as can be seen in this tweet thread. I think a good point is made that in the context of the interview, this is a reference to Leia being the main actor in bringing galactic society back into balance, not the Force.

The phrase “chosen one” has a general meaning and it has the meaning given to it in the prequels. The prequels focus on their specific prophecy, which only Anakin fulfilled. But in the general sense, Leia is the “chosen one” of the sequel trilogy. The capitalization is the author’s own, not Lucas’s. And like others have said, he’s well known to speak in a less-than-literal sense.

Having said that, I’ve never really cared for the prophecy, or for prophecies as a story element in general. So I would’ve loved for the sequels to recognize Anakin’s heroism but not necessarily double down on using prophecy as a limit for what can or can’t happen. I mean, we never even really knew what the imbalance was to begin with.

 

Only the keys he is given.

 

Theres no doubt GL knows or at least has an idea of whats planned going forward for the SW Universe. He knows the impact that both Filoni and favreau have had on his universe and trusts them as much as he can trust anyone. Hes been on the Mandalorian set no doubt giving his opinion on it.

 

Knowing what George wanted and wanting what George wanted is not the same. Just because two creatives collaborated for a long time and knew each other well does not make their visions, approaches, etc the same. Filoni is not George. He has also, to my knowledge, never claimed that he is carrying out George's specific vision, or that the major creative decisions he makes have been pre-approved by George.

Essentially, it sounds like you believe that Filoni is acting as George's creative agent. Aside from extremely vague PR-speak, I've seen no claim to that effect.

Why on earth would George be such an a-hole as to publicly express unhappiness with his friend? George is fine expressing disappointment with a huge corporation; I can't see him throwing his friend under the bus over a franchise he no longer has any real involvement in. George's failure to be a nasty drama king =/= he delights in every decision Filoni makes. You seem to be making far-reaching assumptions over nothing.

Proved what? That Filoni was merely working from a detailed outline George left him? I'm not sure what your claim is. You often conflate "influence" with "exactly what George wanted Filoni to do" so it's hard for me to respond without accidently straw-manning.

I'm not saying George had no influence over Filoni. But George has influenced *thousands* of creatives. "Influence" is an exceptionally general concept.

I...don't think we knew enough about George's personal relationships to say that. I also don't think we have an actual clear and unbiased insight into Filoni's vision vs George's. Again - "friends, collaborators, mentorship" =/= "Filoni is a mini-George and we know everything he does is George's will."

The fact that George wanted Ahsoka to die and Filoni kept her alive anyway is....a pretty gigantic signal that Filoni and George have meaningful creative differences.

I believe you.

I also don't think anything Zahn may have told you was relevant to this discussion, based on what you've reported.

I don't think "George doesn't dislike this thing as much as the ST" is much of an endorsement. I'm sure he also thinks apple pie is superior to the ST. Millions of things are.

That...is pursuant to crediting rules and contractual agreements. Nothing to do with "pride."

Also, "based on Star Wars and characters created by George Lucas" could = DLF canon or it could = a SW fanfic I wrote 20 years ago.

 

@JoJoPenelli - I'm not going to get in a back and forth of the possibilities of what something can or cannot mean and all the many scenarios and what if.

I stated my observations.

 

Interesting quotes by PH. I still find most of what I read about GL's ideas for the ST way more interesting than the crap we ended up with. It looks like Lucas ST would have been quite Solo-centric. The son falling to the dark side, the daughter as the lead character, Han and Leia potentially surviving the trilogy... All this while the poor Luke died after being cast away on a distant planet.

Well, at least he would have had his moment of glory in the first two movies, I have no doubts about that.

 

I will never understand why some think Rey Skywalker was a narrative necessity, maybe you’d prefer she was Luke’s daughter, but TFA makes that difficult to explain. I see TFA as establishing what The Last Jedi said, Rey’s parents abandoned her on Jakku because they didn’t want to raise her.

 

I don’t disagree that it would be better if Rey Skywalker was the character. But in The Force Awakens as released, I always thought there was more reason to assume her parents were something like “filthy junk traders who sold her off for drinking money” than her being secretly the daughter of Luke left on Jakku by some convoluted sequence of events. As for the mystery bait about who her parents were, it’s clear that JJ Abrams didn’t decide the answer and left it intentionally open, thinking a subsequent filmmaker could make it any hokey reveal they wanted, including Rey Kenobi or Palpatine. If he wanted her to be Luke’s daughter he should have written her story with that in mind and gave that to Rian Johnson.

 

He knew who she was.

It would have been impossible to determine what was going on with the OT3 or Kylo otherwise.

But obviously once they decided on the “no plan” narrative (which, one might have noticed, was not always the party line) they weren’t going to say so explicitly.

 

Not a Solo daughter, no.

Carry on