ST Behind the Scenes of the Sequel Trilogy

Just read the supposed Lucas ideas for the ST. Some interesting ideas in there but like a lot of Lucas would need some serious treatment to make it work.

 

Thinking more about the matter, I would have liked Ep.7 to include younger versions of the Luke, Han and Leia. Having the first movie of the trilogy being an adventure with him and the 14-ish Solo siblings sounds quite good actually.

At least better than ANH hommage.

 

If we were to have younger version then it be a recast witch i don't see even Lucas doing to his old cast.

 

Lucas again said it was Vader's grandchildren in the new book. He pairs them with Leia as the focus. I don't doubt it was her children given her importance.

George Lucas quotes

George Lucas: "When you’ve lined [all the SW episodes] up, [Leia]’s the main character, for God’s sake." (2018)

George Lucas: "By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One." (2020)

 

Yeah Leia was always the most improtant one. But GL chnaged his mind on the jedi and Luke, maybe he did so to with Leia and her children, also in this version she be Leia's daughter.

 

They didn't nail the stuff down. So Rey's background according to the whims of the director and the story. According to Daisy Ridley, Abrams was thinking of having her be related to Obi-Wan. So from the start: he wanted to have her be connected to the PT/OT. But Rian Johnson didn't know any of this. He basically started from square one and was not informed of their ideas for Rey. Instead he worked from a shooting script of TFA to get to Rey Nobody. And of course Abrams returns and retcons her being a Palpatine. The problem is that Abrams/RJ had dueling visions of who Rey was regarding her lineage. And Abrams himself seems to not have a concrete idea of Rey's background moving from Obi-Wan to Palpatine in TROS.

I think it shows that there was just not a solid idea behind ST. Instead they largely tried to do the ST as the OT 2.0.

GL's idea is very similar to Mandalorian in that it tries to open up new avenues and spend a trilogy to explore the outlaw/underworld corner of the GFFA much like how the PT explored the Jedi/Sith and the OT explored the Rebels/Empire. I think the LFL people were more interested in redoing the same ideas from the OT (Empire v Rebellion, the redemption of a dark jedi character and the main character's arc mostly being about becoming a Jedi)

 

I wonder too if Leia playing a role in her son's redemption was also a major factor in Lucas' ST. It certainly seemed to be a consistent throughline throughout the existing ST (and even Trevorrow's first draft).

 

Are we even sure Lucas script included Skylar Solo falling to the Dark Side? He looked like a Han Solo type of character, not a Jedi like Thea.

 

We know from his later drafts.

 

It's been stated that Talon was initially the one to seduce the Solo son to the dark side.

 

Man, this is so damn juicy. I swear I'm having so much more fun dissecting the BTS drama of the sequels than watching the films themselves.

These newest reveals in particular have made LFL's focus on Maul outside of the main saga make far more sense than I thought, and I can't help but imagine how dope it would've been for stuff like Rogue One/Solo/Clone Wars to be actually setting up plot points and conflicts explored in the sequels.

That connectivity is what it seemed people were hoping for from Disney in a post-Avengers 2012 landscape, but we ended up with a mess instead.

 

The reason the development of the ST is more interesting is because of all the changes that it went along the way: Lucas, Kennedy, Arndt, Abrams, Kasdan, Johnson, Trevorrow, and Terrio were all major creative players. Whereas with the other two trilogies it's basically Lucas calling all the shots (with creative input from Kershner, Kasdan, and Marquand in the OT).

 

Leia becoming supreme chancellor in charge of everything and therefore the chosen one seems strange at first. As if she was, in Lucas' mind, some kind of Palpatine. He was evil, she is not, but both would embody the FS mentor and political leader aspects. After all, Palpatine unbalanced the GFFA by being both a sorcerer and a chancellor.

There are traces of it in the ST. Leia is
a) Rey's mentor. Some kind of fairy godmother, in Disney terms.
b) Poe's mentor. General.
c) Royalty. That, I'd guess, is closer to the 'chancellor' aspect. And also to Padme's legacy.

'Without the jedi there can be no balance in the force', says San Tekka. So the jedi are a necessary condition for balance, but not a sufficient one. Balance has to be restored in a self-sustainable way. That's democracy; a chancellor.

Now, Rey is the Leia that never was (Leia Skywalker, Leia the jedi) and it's Rey the one who's told 'bring back the balance Rey, as I did'. That would place her in the Anakin>Luke lineage. Closer to Lucas' ST Luke, and not to Leia. Her father's legacy.

In other words, the chancellor-as-chosen-one position has been left vacant. Leia died and Rey became a jedi. Poe and Finn are not royalty.
One wonders about Leia's ring. And also about the prince aspect in Ben, who has not reappeared (just like those dice. As if they were

Spoiler

his japor snippet object at the moment. Anakin and Padme died together in ROTS, so maybe the prince (Padme) and the jedi (Anakin) aspects could be made to return in the same individual, either figuratively,as a 'rhyme', or by reincarnation or memories of past lives)

'Without the jedi there can be no balance in the force', says San Tekka. So the jedi are a necessary condition for balance, but not a sufficient one. Balance has to be restored in a self-sustainable way. That's democracy; a chancellor.

In OT terms, this is where TROS ends:

Spoiler

So, maybe there are some gangster(s)/pirates ahead, followed by war and rebuilding or restoration.

 

I see Lucas referring to Leia as the Chosen One as somewhat tongue in cheek, as in being the Supreme Chancellor, she is the "chosen one", to lead the galaxy. He's been very explicit before that Anakin is the Chosen One to balance the Force. I like the ideas of his ST plans that Luke and Leia, along with the grandchildren, would help to preserve and complete Anakin's legacy as well as the Skywalker heritage and name.

 

The only person who could even attempt to undermine the prophecy would be Lucas. He'd probably handwave it away by saying that it's the duty of the Skywalker's to maintain the balance that Anakin created.

 

Not sure why JJ Abrams didn't see that Darth Maul would have been a better big bad than Snoke. Even if you just make that one switch, the ST, IMO, becomes a thousand times better. A) We know who Maul is, and we understand where he came from and how he became the main villain, B) He could still have been killed by Kylo at the end of 8, and C) then the arrival of Palpatine as the ultimate bad guy behind the scenes would have made more sense. The villains in Ep 1 would be the villains in Ep 7-8-9. A good story should come back to its beginning and tie things all together.

Iger, Kennedy, Abrams and Johnson really let us all down with the ST.

It is still just mind-blowing to me that Lucas gave them a treatment, and the chose to throw it away, not because they had a better idea, but instead they decided to make it up as they go. That part is just so hard to understand, I feel like perhaps it wasn't about the story at all...and perhaps it was more about disconnecting from Lucas.

 

Something that know one is mentioning is most likely even if George’s ideas had been followed more closely - they still would had to finish the trilogy without Carrie Fisher.

 

I wouldn't say that's a given, since we can't know if all the circumstances involving Carrie outside of these movies would've been the same in that alternate reality (though it might be likely, as you say)... but, assuming she had died, how would George have dealt with the absence of Carrie when making EpIX? If he'd also been in charge?
My guess is he would have written her out of it - possibly with an early death scene and a subsequent funeral - and found some way for Leia's death to unite the galaxy.

 

Lucas had the right idea keeping stormtroopers away from his story. They’re super played out and the worst thing about this new trilogy was the Empire vs rebels rehash. What Disney did to George Lucas is a disgrace.

 

While I love hearing George's ideas, ultimately, it's all a moot point. Any idea can work if executed well... and any idea can fail if executed poorly.

Personally, I loved how TFA kicked things off - I just didn't like where they led. In my mind, the ST would have been amazing with Rey Kenobi, Snoke=Plagueis, and a Force-sensitive Finn. There's a reason so many fan theories gravitated that way - it's what TFA's mystery boxes set up!

But even after TLJ took things in a different direction, Trevorrow and Connolly's Duel of the Fates script would have concluded the saga in a very satisfying manner. Take out the Rey/Poe romance and it's just about perfect.

 

They probably figured that PT imagery in a movie was doomed to fail.

 

They could have made the sequel trilogy in 1999 instead of the prequels and insert maul there, Leia being in Padme's shoes in being royalty, Luke training an apprentice ala Qui Gon. But honestly I wouldn't change it now. I'm fine with the prequels.

 

I just read Anakin's birth from GL transcripts and holy **** it's bad. I get that GL is one weird guy with midi-chlorians stuff but with all this stuff of orgasim with the force and have be by the act of God that birthed Anakin into existance. Noo like many people have said in the past i like my force with little mystism and all this sci-fi stuff. I can see why Disney didn't want to touch it and not looking at George like a crazy person. Even JJ jokes about his midi-chlorian stuff and i can see why, talk about PT then ST hate, it's nowhere near what GL ST would get.





Also seems like The ST, GL ST would involve the grandchild of Palpatine like The ST, maybe thats one of the things GL and JJ talked about with TFA or TROS. So seems like what people didn't like about Rey and Palpatine might have come directly from GL. So without the Force midi-chlorian stuff and Maul and Talon. Most of what GL would do, happenned in the ST. They used a lot of his core ideas throughout the entire Sequel Trilogy, including a lot of things people hate- The main character being a young woman, Luke being in exile, and disillusioned with both The Jedi and The Force, and Han and Leia's son being a Dark-Sider.