Will Episodes 7, 8 and 9 be made after all?

That's pretty much what I thought. Although Spielberg has considerably more clout now than he had 25 years ago. He might be able to swing a fine or something instead of giving up his membership.

It's also pathetic that a lot of the problem stemmed from the fact that the credits were only at the end of the film and not also at the beginning. How petty can you get?

 

Yeah, I would. I don't believe it will happen though. The days of big-screen Star Wars ended as of 2005, sad to say.

 

Yeah, Episodes Seven through Nine would be great to see. But it'd never happen. George Lucas is too old and these things take THREE friggen years each to make. And eeew, Kevin Smith directing a Star Wars film?! With Ben Afleck as a Jedi?

 

We will see!

 

Welcome to the world of unions.

 

I would love to see episodes 7-9, but seriously if there are gonna be no Sith then whats the point? You gotta have a lightsaber fight in these movies between a Jedi and Sith/Dark Jedi.

Because if there are Sith in the movie doesn't that just screw up the Chosen One story? What would be the point of Anakin killing the Emperor (Sith) if there are gonna be more sith after him?

Having a Thrawn bad guy is cool, but then there are no Saber fights.

 

You have a good point here. However, GL must have something in mind since rough treatments do exist, and I'm sure he would have something in mind that none of us has thought of. Everything that has appeared in EU novels and comics has been authorized and apparently do not deal with whatever he has in mind if these movies ultimately happen.

 

The rough treatments you speak of were combined into what became Return of the Jedi. Most everything else was dropped and wouldn't make sense anymore, like Luke searching the galaxy for Leia etc.

 

Yeah the ORIGINAL 7-9 would of been sweet. But that was all compressed into Return of the Jedi.

I would LOVE to see luke as a Jedi Master (Yoda type) But if there are no Sith whats the point? Yeah i'd love to see New Jedi Academy. Luke as the head Jedi and all. Leia and Han. But any great movie needs a great villain. And no admiral can equal the greatness of Emperor, Vader, Maul, or Dooku.

You have to have a Sith.

 

The only option I see, and I don't necessarily like it, is Luke heading a New Jedi Order and training Jedi. Some would have to stray and there would be the New Sith. But I don't know about that for a three-movie story. Especially since this Saga is really about Anakin.

 

Why not a trilogy dealing with the war against the Sith and the formation of the Republic a thousand years before Star Wars?

All that's known about it is that the Sith ruled the galaxy and the Jedi came along and defeated them, leading to the birth of the Republic...take that vague outline and focus on a few characters within that setting and you have your trilogy, complete with lightsaber duels, dogfight and potentially a massive Jedi vs Sith battle with hundreds on each side. By the third movie, the rule of 2 would have come in, with the Sith relying on droids to fight the Jedi since there are only 2 Sith left. The prophecy could even be foretold in one of the films.

Granted it would completely destroy 25,000 years of EU history but any potential sequels would do the same thing.

 

I actually would love to see this. EU can be rewritten, thats no biggy .

I would like to see it be unique from the OT or the PT though.

A new style is good.

 

That is actually the basic story of my fan film trilogy idea...unfortunately I have no money, no equipment, no actors, no knowledge of shooting film, no production crew, no locations, no props, no costumes to actually go and make it, all I have is an outline and a force fx lightsaber that I overpaid for

 

I also like the idea of a pre-Republic movie or trilogy. This era would be a whole new setting with lots of potential. Also, it wouldn't negate the climax of the saga or the accomplishments of Anakin and Luke. It would be fun to watch a powerful Sith army combating the Jedi for control over the galaxy while destroying itself with internal conflict and betrayal.

 

Actually, you're wrong on several points:

There wasn't ever going to be 4th season of Star Trek. Rather, Roddenberry was working on a reboot of the franchise called Star Trek: Phase 2 which was to be the flagship series on the proposed Paramount television network. Sets were built, costumes designed, and test footage shot, but when plans for the proposed network fell through, rather than letting the preproduction work for Phase 2 go to waste, Paramount gave Roddenberry the go ahead to make a feature film using the original cast. The pilot script for Phase 2 was reworked and became what we know as Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The other point you're wrong about is that the film sucked. On the contrary, it's nothing short of a classic.

 

If we did Thrawn, we'd have the Lightsaber fight tanks to Joruus C'Boath and Luuke.

 

In the immortal words of Triumph, "It was a classic
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................for me to **** on!"

 

Exactly JML. Wasn't the whole point of ROTJ not to bring about the saga's conclusion? That's it! No more! Finally all the bad guy's are dead (i.e. Vader/Palpatine) so what would be the point of continuing the story if there aren't any viable antagonists? It just seems to me that the entire premise of the saga (Anakin/Chosen One) would be undermined. That's why I have such a difficult time getting into the whole EU thing...

 

Keep in mind that up until TPM there was no chosen one and the entire saga wasn't about Anakin's fall and redemption. It was "From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" and 1-3 were the back story to how things got to be in 4. Anakin didn't even get redeemed for the first several drafts of Jedi, Luke just killed him. So obviously there are stories to tell from Lucas' mind. The Time Magazine Lucas interview from 1983 explicitly states that 7-9 would be similar to 1-3 in tone/political intrigue as opposed to the adventure of 4-6, with emphasis on making the right moral choices and how that affects the galaxy. Then at the end of 9 it would be revealed that all 9 episodes were told by R2 and 3PO. This interview is from around the release of Jedi and after thhe supposed condensing that Kurtz talks about.

 

Good point TR.

I just don't know where the story can go from here. Apparantly that's why I'm not a film maker.

 

O.K. I have posted this before but I will just post it one more time for the record. I am one of the few people that really actually is quite positive that episodes 7-9 will be made and I will list my reasons why now. To begin, lets take a look at the past of these rumors....

Background:

1) Perhaps the most credible but least relevant piece of information is way back in the 80's Lucas talked on more than one occasion that this story was a 9 episode saga. Even Mark Hammill talked about how he had talked to him about coming back for those movies in a "minor role" to the story.

2) The Peter Mayhew article in Hot Dog Magazine which came out about 4 months prior to the Episode 3 release. An article which went almost unnoticed. For those of you not familiar, in the article Mayhew was asked about how he liked taking on the role of Chewbacca for one last film. His response, inadvertantly, was that he had not just been signed on for episode 3 but episodes 7-9 as well (the article was even posted on this site). Following this article everyone was talking about it, even people at Lucasfilm until the time of my next point.

3) The non-disclosure agreements - Following the article (roughly 2 to 3 months) employees at Lucasfilm were made to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding anything related to episodes 7-9. At this point Lucas began denying that it was even a possibility. Though the question never answered was, "If there is no episodes 7-9 than why would there be a need to have Lucasfilm employees sign a non-disclosure agreement in the first place?". It was at this point that all talk of further episodes in the saga suddenly stopped (wow, what a coincidence). All we have been left with since is Lucas's denials and utter silence from the Lucasfilm community.

4) During this time Lucasfilm purchased the Presidio, a large former military base outside of San Francisco. This new home for Lucasfilm comes equipped with everything Skywalker ranch had previously. However, it also has something that the ranch did not (soundstages). This addition gives Lucasfilm the ability to actually make a large-scale motion picture on its own property and go virtually un-noticed (something Lucas tried with ROTJ and was unsuccessful, during this time Lucas said he was making a horror movie called "Blue Harvest" which did work for a little while until they shot the desert scenes for Tatooine in Tunisia and a "spy" took pictures of the sets which made it rather obvious it was really Star Wars).

So now you have the background of the stories regarding episodes 7-9, coming soon some interesting facts/"coincidences" which point to the fact that the more movies in the Star Wars saga may be coming sooner rather than later.

To Be Continued....

 

Which wasn't the original premise of the Saga(at least in the public knowledge, who knows what Lucas thought) and the Prequels changed that, so there's no problem with Sequels changing it again.

The original premise was "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker", it was even the original name of the series.

 

Please do continue! You have eloquently stated many of the factors this column was started for in the first place. The only thing I would add is what I've stated before - that they've had a pattern of heavy denials followed by an eventual announcement when they're finally ready to announce. I don't think GL likes answering the same questions over and over from rabid fans. It is easier just to deny they're going to be made keeping everyone (or most everyone) off track until you're ready to announce it. I really can't blame them for this.

 

As far as Ep 7-9 go, I often wonder if maybe they've already been made made. It was a long time from ROTJ to TPM. I also like the idea of a trilogy of Star Wars that takes place at the time of the formation of the Republic and the defeat of the Sith. Perhaps it could feature a young/padawan Yoda.