I’d also like to ask something the strangely happened ever since The Last Jedi came out. Ever since The Force Awakens came out, fans were talking about things that could potentially happen in the future with the saga beyond the sequel trilogy. Now that The Last Jedi came out, fans are now saying that they want not only the trilogy, but the entire saga to wrap up. I know that there are many people who hate The Last Jedi, but it seems as if it just killed everybody’s excitement for the main saga all of a sudden. Why is this?
Maybe some people just want a definitive ending to the main saga? The joke going around when the new films were announced was they would be making them long after most of us are dead.
Thing is, even if they did say it was the end, we’ve been fed that line before…
I understand, but even then, George Lucas changed his mind several times in the past. When the original trilogy finished, he said he was done, and left to work on other projects, father his kids, etc. Years later, his interest in making the prequels sparked, so he decided to make the first three episodes he had thought up and wrote early drafts for when developing the original trilogy. After the prequel trilogy wrapped up, George stated that the saga (in his original vision) was complete. He did have early ideas and drafts for a possible third and fourth trilogy if he decided to make them, but at that point, he didn’t have any intentions to do so. When he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he pitched his story ideas for the sequel trilogy, but they discarded his ideas. This is why Lucas has had some distaste for the sequel trilogy, because they didn’t accept his ideas. Some elements of his ideas were kept, yet revised, such as a lead female character named Kira, who later became Rey, and Luke Skywalker would be an old Jedi hermit who abandoned his ways. You can find concept art of this early idea of Luke (with old Mark Hamill’s likeness) with milky white eyes and a Japanese-like man bun. However, it was revealed about a year ago that Lucas’ plans for the sequel trilogy would mainly deal with midi-chlorians and the creation of the Force. Considering that fans (myself included) did not like how the mystical concept of the Force was explained like super powers in the prequels, I think we can safely say that it’s good that George’s plans for VII, VIII, and IX did not happen.
As for Episode IX’s marketing, I think that it will be marketed as the last installment of the sequel trilogy, but not the main saga. I believe that Lucasfilm will give Episode IX a conclusive, yet open ending to the possibility of Episodes X, XI, and XII happening some day in the years to come. Now that George Lucas is gone, I’m sure that the same case of marketing the final installment of the trilogy as the conclusion to the overall saga will not be the case, if they have plans to continue it onwards. I believe that there is some intention of continuing the saga with a fourth trilogy in the next ten to twenty years to come.