ST Behind the Scenes of the Sequel Trilogy

I wonder if there's footage out there of Colin Trevorrow working on early EpIX drafts.

 

Probably pulling his hair out.

 

Not a draft, but here's him with a model of a new TIE variant his film would have featured:

 

#ReleasetheTrevorrowCut

 

Where does this Remnant get such wonderful toys?!?!?

 

DOTF is truly one of the biggest what-if scenarios of all, because two years of work went into it before Trevorrow left and they basically restarted with Abrams. It's not like the Lucas scenario where Iger made clear that Disney and Lucasfilm were under no obligation to follow his treatments. Nor is it like Solo which still retained much of the world building and narrative established by Lord, Miller and the Kasdans. Kennedy herself said that there was an agreed upon direction for Trevorrow's film before Fisher passed.

 

Kennedy's interview with Vanity Fair in 2017 indicates how much Fisher's passing changed the direction of Episode IX.

And sure, judging by that first draft of DOTF, Leia wasn't quite as involved as Han was in TFA or Luke was TLJ. But it was certainly her biggest role of the ST to date, especially in the third act. And so it seems Trevorrow couldn't figure out a way to keep Leia in the narrative after Fisher's death. Subsequent drafts allegedly had her die by the end of the first act, thus removing the possibility of her connecting with Ben, and I can't imagine that scenario was ever going to fly. Leia's role in redeeming Ben seemed to be an agreed upon narrative resolution as far back as 2014 (per the Art of TROS).

And yeah, additional random villains to counter Kylo also didn't help, although it's worth noting Tor Valum was already a factor in the first draft.

 

i think there was a lot more Leia in Collins version

 

I think it's worth keeping in mind of course that Trevorrow and Connolly still have story credits on TROS, which is kind of funny. Clearly there were broad narrative elements they introduced in DOTF that took different shape in TROS (Leia reaching out to Ben, Force "draining" vs healing, Finn fighting alongside ex-stormtroopers, Kylo on Mustafar, a fleet of ships led by Lando saving the day in Act 3).

And even the villain to counter Kylo basically turned into Palpatine. If I remember correctly, Trevorrow even credited Abrams for that idea.

 

Terrio said Palps was KK’s idea. And ID said he was only contacted to play Palps in 2017 or so.

 

I think Disney plotted a course for the future in 2012 and 2015 which drastically by mid-2017.

I think after The Force Awakens’ mega success, Disney was toying with the idea of another Trilogy that would be the further adventures of Rey that Leia would still be alive for. And Palpatine would return in this story. And it would have gone into production not long after the Sequel Trilogy concluded.

But then lots of things changed. The death of Carrie Fisher, plus the successful purchase 20th Century Fox, and the decision for Disney to change course to go all in on Disney+ radically altered their future. Owning Avatar meant Disney needed a lot less Star Wars movies. Disney+ meant more longer form series content.

 

I think anyone can see that Carrie Fisher (unfortunately) was not a well woman in both TFA and TLJ... I can't believe this was lost on Lucasfilm/KK/Abrams et al. I don't know if they purposely underwrote Carrie's part in TFA/TLJ, but the idea that she would have a more substantial role in the 3rd film is, IMO, wishful thinking.

 

Okay, so then I guess my question is if Palps was KK's idea, wouldn't she have suggested that to Trevorrow first? Of course, there were more issues with DOTF than just Kylo's arc.

 

Maybe she did suggest it to CT first.

 

Well really carrie looked better in TFA than she had in the years previously. lost weight for sure. they likely got these actors to get into the best shape they could health wise. and she lived to that point. so there was no reason to assume her life was gonna be cut short in a few years.

 

I'll never forget this KK interview:

Geez, how about you communicate the "general sense of where the story was going" to your Episode 9 director. This quote is one of the best ones to highlight the incredible stupidity of the ST development process.

 

I'd think Trevorrow would have given that a shot though, right? Especially since Palps had a cameo in DOTF as an old hologram message in Vader's castle.

 

Wow, never seen that one. Truly pathetic.

 

I forgot that quote. Link didn't work so I googled the quote. One of the early returns was when it was first posted here in an oldie but goodie thread (I Have A Bad Feeling About This - The "Haters" Sanctuary).

https://boards.theforce.net/threads...ut-this-the-haters-sanctuary.50052573/page-68

2 years later and the "Haters" were right about the cluster we got.

 

If it was just a suggestion, he could decide to try out something different first.
...but she could have suggested it after he'd turned in the draft we've seen, because she might then have realized that she really wanted a stronger main villain.

 

It's clear that after GL's treatments were trashed the focus of the ST was to make deadlines, not telling a competent story.

JJ used that opportunity to try to redo ANH.
RJ used to do it to get on his own soapbox.
CT tried to make sense of it and couldn't.
Iger calls in the favor to JJ to complete what he started.
JJ came in, blamed the mess on RJ.
Studio got more involved with TROS because they were hoping to avoid the mistakes of leaving someone alone like they did in TLJ because of the timeline.
Think tank over people who really understand SW used a blockbuster formula to try to mask the lack of cohesion.