What was the original plot for Episodes 7-9?

Ive heard many stories on this, but does anyone know from the horse Lucas' mouth?

 

It was going to be about Lukes search for his twin sister on the other side of the galaxy. He made Leia his sister instead.

 

The way I understand it, ROTJ is really just a very very very VERY short vesion of the plots for ep. 7-9

"Of cause Dead Star ARE known to make mistakes..... Form time to time."

 

would it have been straght after ROTJ, or ages after?

 

Probably strait after.

 

George Lucas has stated that Ep. 7-9 were in ROTJ so there won't be anymore movies. At the time Star Wars was released in 1977 we heard it was a 9 part series. The rumor was that only C-3PO and R2-D2 would be in all 9 episodes. Ep. 7-9 were supposed to take place in the future. Obviously things have changed since 1977.

 

In an interview with Gary Kurtz, producer of ANH and ESB, the following question was asked. The interview was done after TPM.

"Q: Finally, were there plans for a third Star Wars trilogy and were there any ideas generated for those three films?

A: Yes, it was very vague. It was Luke's journey really up to becoming sort of the premiere Jedi knight in the Obi-Wan Kenobi mold and his ultimate confrontation with the emperor. That was the outline of it and all that happens."


My analysis:

I know the Emperor was never supposed to be in ROTJ and believe that Vader was never to have turned back to good. "Once you begin down the dark path, forever will it rule your destiny." I also remember that OB1 was suppose to have been the main character in the PT. I think that by changing the ending, GL had to shift the focus of the PT from OB1 to Anakin. OB1's origional role in the PT got split into two characters and thus you got QGJ. Anakin is now "the chosen one".

I am pretty sure OB1 and Luke (and Luke's sister who was not Leia) were suppose to be the heroes in GL's origional vision. Now, with the redemption of Vader as a quick end to SW because he got tired of making these movies, the hero has shifted to Anakin. It would be really sweet to see GL's origional outline.

 

Kurtz gave TPM a mixed review as he was clouded by plans made for Episode 1 back in the early 70s. As someone involved with Star Wars from the initial concepts, Kurtz revealed the original intentions for the nine films as they were laid out BEFORE 1980. Very interesting.

EPISODE 1: Was to focus on the origins of the Jedi Knights and how they are initiated and trained
EPISODE 2: Introduction and development of Obi-Wan Kenobi
EPISODE 3: Introduction and life of Vader
EPISODE 4: There were seven different drafts of the film. At one point, they pursued buying the rights to Hidden Fortress because of the strong similarities. At one point, Luke was a female, Han was Luke's brother, Luke's father was the one in prison (interesting point for some debates) and the film featured 40 wookies
EPISODE 5: Once written, the screenplay of Empire is almost exactly what is seen on screen. The only cut scenes were those involving wampas in the rebel base (cut because of time and unsolved technical glitches) and about two minutes of Luke/Yoda Jedi training with no real dialog.
EPISODE 6: Leia was to be elected "Queen of her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.
EPISODE 7: Third trilogy was to focus on Luke's life as a Jedi, with very few details planned out.
EPISODE 8: Luke's sister (not Leia) appears from another part of the galaxy.
EPISODE 9: First appearance of the Emperor.

-Interview with Gary Kurtz, May 26 1999, Theforce.net Holonet news

 

...and nobody cares?!

 

I care Thrawn. It would have been cool to see all those movies. They sound kind of stretched, and 7-9 sound like they could have been really dark! EP6, too, if Han really died. I like the ideas about the prequels, too.

(sigh) What could have been...

 

Well, ROTJ is a heavily condensed verion of the ST.

And my fanfilm will have many of the same themes and ideas.

 

Thanks for the reference Thrawn.

 

Good info Thrawn.

 

Thank you, thank you.

 

Wow.... I had no idea! Yes, Thrawn, very good info. Thank you! I can't believe I didn't hear about this. 1999 interview? I like the way the movies turned out though. The original plot sounds rather...unhappy. Everyone's off by themselves, with no relation to each other.

Sooo...I wonder if Leia would've still been Force-sensitive then? If ESB was almost exactly like what was onscreen....?

 

If ROTJ was just a summary of Epi.7-9 then what was ROTJ's original story about?

 

EPISODE 6: Leia was to be elected "Queen of her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.

That's the original idea for ROTJ.

There were 2 Death Stars, being built over the planet Had Abbadon (The Imperial Capitol - now called Coruscant) and the 'Green Moon' (Endor, which orbited Had Abbadon as well) was home to a Rebel base. The Rebels took out the Death Stars. I'm not sure what else was going to happen.

 

LSUgrad97 wrote: "I am pretty sure Obi-wan and Luke (and Luke's sister who was not Leia) were suppose to be the heroes in GL's origional vision. Now, with the redemption of Vader as a quick end to SW because he got tired of making these movies, the hero has shifted to Anakin. It would be really sweet to see GL's original outline."

It is very sad that GL turned Anakin into the hero and central character of the saga. The central figure and hero of episodes 4-9 should be Luke Skywalker, while the central figure and hero of episodes 1-3 should be Obi-wan Kenobi.

 

I'm glad GL scrapped ep7-9. After 6 films the audience would probably get sick of the characters, and GL would run out of ideas. Plus the actors would get sick of doing the films.

Also I don't know why he would kill off Han Solo so early. He's possibly the most popular character in the series. Already alot of people complain there is no "Han Solo" type character in the PT. Of course Lucas may have gotten tired of paying Harrison Ford's salary.

I do agree that the PT should focus a bit more on OB1 as the hero who failed with Anikan.

 

actually, back then, harrison ford's salary wasnt really bigger than mark hamills or carrie fishers..

 

I think GL would have killed Han because Harrison Ford didn't sign a contract with GL that guarenteed him playing Han's role in the next SW movies when ANH was being made. That was the whole reason why he put that being frozen in carbonite scene just in case Ford wasn't going to show up for ROTJ. It was just a cheap excuse to the people who were wondering what happened to Han if Ford didn't want to act it out.

Fan One: Hey what happened to that Han dude?

Fan Two: Don't you remember? He got frozen in Carbonite in the second movie, must have never made it out of there. Poor guy.

Fan One: Oh right!

( Above scene is a what if type thing. )

And if GL actually did decide to make the ST, Leia and Han would have had very poor roles since the whole focus of SW was about the Jedi and the Force, so either they would have been pushed to the side like they were in NJO or they could have been killed off.

 

And I told ya Aerica

//immature kiddy voice

Nyah Nyah!!!


Seriously, to answer your question, I don't believe Leia would have been Force sensative because if she was not the sister then why have three Force sensitives in the movies? After all it would dumb down Luke's role even more and dumb down Luke's potential sister's role as well and make Yoda and Ben's lines seem ridiculous.

And Leia being able to hear Luke wasn't really surprising to me when I saw ESB the first time and had no idea that she was Luke's sister. What Luke did to Leia was a more nicer version of what Ben did to the Storm Troopers in ANH. He just reached out with his mind and was able to speak with Leia.

 

LOL, Jade Angel! Nice to see you again! I had forgotten about that whole argument we had....

Okay, okay. So you're right. But can't I just stay in denial? Please?

 

*shrugs*

Nothing wrong about denial.

 

society is built on denial.