Idea: Reworking the sequel trilogy

First of all, I understand that what I can do is severely limited, but.
So, I’m considering a fan edit of the sequel trilogy.
I feel jaded watching them.
Would it be worth my time to do this?

All I have access to is a handful of deleted scenes, and the ability to trim out dialogue.
So, from what I gather, once the final film is released on bluray, how could I trim it out.
I figure that the best I can do for 7 is to reincorporate some deleted scenes, and trim some other shit.

With 8 and 9, what can I do?
Most of the work I feel comes down to how I can rework 8 and 9.
I watched Plinkett’s review of TLJ and a seperate review of 8 and it described perfectly what I felt about it.
Still haven’t seen 9, as I’m really afraid of how much of a disgrace it’s going to be.
So, I’m curious if I can trim 8 down to the 1:45 minute mark, and trim out most of the crap.
Then merge the remaining footage from 8, after Snoke’s death into episode 9?
While trimming the shit out of episode 9.

I’m not a fan of the sequel trilogy, but I’d at least like to turn them into tolerable films.

I think there’s only so much you can do. You probably can make them more tolerable on their own, yes, but they will still only exist to undermine the rest of the saga. That’s intrinsic to their plot and thus not something you can change. I don’t personally believe that it’s worth it (especially having seen 9), but if you want to attempt it then go right ahead.

I agree with THEYFLYNOW that simply polishing the films to be more “tolerable” might not really be worthwhile, unless you have some ideas that you are really excited for.

I wonder if the ST footage could be re-purposed to tell a different and more satisfying story, perhaps not as a fanedit trilogy but something shorter.

I had one idea called epilogue, where I just took footage of the original cast from these films, in order to tell what happened to Luke, Han and Leia.

The other idea was to repurpose Rey, as a more Revan type character.
She’s a sith with her mind wiped at the beginning.
The other proposal is to wait and create footage when deepfakes, Voice emulation (a vocal deepfake) and realtime raytracing advance more, don’t hold your breath.
With that I feel it’s a matter of properly layering it, a 3d tracked model so as to get the proper shape of the head, a lot of the work will be automated, but it will still be difficult to do, at that point, I don’t know if these films are worth it.

I’ve been through this myself over and over again in my head. Without a rewrite, using vfx to create new scenes, maybe background replacement to move characters around to new locations, etc…

At what point do I just say “forget it” and move on. Even if it were possible to get these movies to some sort of workable state within cannon, I can’t see myself liking them a whole lot more due to the ending of 6. Whatever the story I can drag out of the ST, it just wouldn’t be worth the watch.

Maybe it might be fun as a test of editing/vfx skills but I still wouldn’t consider it canon after.

I’ve got a ton of ideas though that I might post later.

My main goal is to try and honor the performances that Mark, Carrie, Peter, Billy and Harrison gave.
We can’t get the surviving cast together again, and Carrie and Peter Mayhew are gone.
I just want there to be a way to bring honor to those performances.
Nothing makes me sadder than watching Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in TLJ.

Well, you say that you want to use deepfakes, Voice emulation and realtime raytracing. If you feel that honouring their performances is worth that much effort, I’d wish you luck.

Obviously you’d have to do a ton of preplanning before starting something to that scale. I personally wouldn’t and scale way back.

If I were to ever tackle it, I’d look to turn the ST into one or two movies and make as much use of the crawls as possible to construct a new starting narrative.

You can use the lack of originality in the ST to your advantage. For example, the multiple forest planets/desert planets can be mashed together to create one. Rey can arrive at the forest planet with finn to meet the resistance, get the lightsaber from Maz and get training from Leia, all on the same planet before heading off to meet Luke. Just an example.

I think the most difficult part would be creating a new ending as, for me, I’d hate to put sideous in it at all. It’s nonsense. But I don’t know what would work in place of it. Big issue for me there. Just my thoughts on it.

More basic vfx can be used where needed.

Sidious’ presence in the expanded universe isn’t unprecedented post ROTJ, so it’s not the dumbest idea from the sequels.
I’d love to see some actual character development for Mary Sue, and some serious development for Finn, I expected Finn to be a vietnam vet type character, with some serious conflict going on in his person.
The other issue comes in with Leia.
I hate to mention the feminist problem, but, alot of these so called male feminists have no idea how to write or develop a strong female character, and then they rail for diversity, the tragedy is, to them diversity is only skin deep.
The fact that they’re dumb, and think they’re geniuses, then get mad when you point out that they aren’t speaks volumes about the problems plaguing this franchise.
After I fell asleep 3 times trying to watch TLJ, I felt jaded, and I still am.
I don’t care about the future.
Sure the Mandalorian is okay, I just wish that Disney hadn’t blown it with this trilogy.
TFA was too goofy.
TLJ was too stupid and political, wasting Carrie Fisher.
Rise of Skywalker, I can’t even abreviate, seemingly is two movies rolled into one, Abrams too cowardly to retcon TLJ.
I just wish I could save these films.

I know we’ll never see Fisher portray Leia again, but it’d sure be swell to see an animated show set in between 6 and 7, focussing on Luke, perhaps bringing in some of the Expanded Universe canon like the Thrawn trilogy.
I’d be happy with that at this point.

My ideal trilogy.

The new republic and the empire are in a kind of cold war.
All stockpiling death star type super weapons.
I’d love to take this trilogy into a hybrid of the prior two trilogies.
Alot of it being small scale, but we’d get a glimpse of larger war scenarios like in 3.
I wouldn’t ignore all of Lucas’ innovations in the prequels.

I’d love to see at least one timeless issue be brought up.
In the republic, a man with no importance can rise to the occasion, not because he has important blood.
But, I’d love to explore Luke’s new direction for his Jedi order.
It would be more grey, Luke would be as much a diplomat as well as knight.
Luke would be fair, the thing I’d love to see in Luke is maturity, not as a jaded hermit.
But more Theodore Roosevelt.
It would be interesting to explore the Empire as a kind of Soviet style state, where it falls and becomes a second republic.
We’re not in the WW2 stage anymore, but US proxy war type situation.
The Republic is directly involved, but the Empire always fights with proxys.

What would be interesting would having Thrawn be the major villain.
I’d certainly have kept Luke falling to the dark side once in his history canon, that’s why he’s grey.
The Emperor clone did happen, but in the past.
It wouldn’t be the present thing.

Luke would probably explore the relationship with the Whills, and how he’s like a car to them.
Perhaps an interesting take would be keeping Rey as Palpatine’s grand daughter, but recycling a character from clone wars, she’s obsessed with becoming Palpatine.
What would be interesting would be her seductive capability.
She would easily be able to seduce Ben to the dark side.
But, she’d need to be a bad bitch.

Leia’s evolution would have to allow her to be more hardcore, but with a soft spot, not just for her family, but with the values of the republic.
She knows the toll this takes on her soldiers.
What would be interesting would be to actually give her the mindset of a true general.
She’s like Douglas MaCarther.
She doesn’t micromanage, but she knows how to run a battlefield, perhaps one of the finest generals in the galaxy and it would be no surprise that her and Thrawn would be engaged in a kind of tactical rivalry.
It’s a game of wits between her and Thrawn.

I’d like to see the stormtroopers be portrayed in a more effective way to.
They wouldn’t be clumsy or bad shots, they’d be competent at taking over ships.
I’d love to see the kind of things we saw in Rogue One for the space battles.

I’d also love to see an updated X wing, something that pays tribute to the original, but also looks a little sleeker, not a leftover X wing, but a Republic model X wing.
The MonCalamari have real influence in republic design.
Perhaps their designs would reflect a lot of their traditions, as well as celebrate the designs of the ships that won the Republic it’s independence.
They might have designed a fighter ship that looks similar to the Millenium Falcon, a Corellian freighter that has their designs on it.
They’ve advanced a lot, their ships are tactically impressive, not cobbled like in OT.
That’s something Thrawn takes notice of.

It would be interesting to explore Thrawn’s relationship with the budding sith, perhaps he would want an order of force users of his own, but he’s critical of force users.
critical of Vader, and of Palpatine.
He respects what came before him, but he’s not a dumbass.
Not quick to anger.
In my ideal trilogy, I’d have John Hamm play Thrawn.
I’d want their to be a lot of Naval themes within this.
I have a lot I’d like to explore.

CaveDoctor said:

I hate to mention the feminist problem, but, alot of these so called male feminists have no idea how to write or develop a strong female character, and then they rail for diversity, the tragedy is, to them diversity is only skin deep.
The fact that they’re dumb, and think they’re geniuses, then get mad when you point out that they aren’t speaks volumes about the problems plaguing this franchise.

I consider myself a male feminist, but I tend to agree. People like Wes Craven, J. Michael Straczynski, and the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine knew how to do strong female characters right; good luck finding anyone of their calibre in present Hollyweird.

So, where would Finn be?
He’d be the man from nothing.

Poe Dameron would be interesting as well, but I wouldn’t want him to be a total dunce, which is what he was.
He’s a dunce.

Han’s relationship with Leia was strained due to ambitions and differences.
The relationship fell apart because of Leia’s dedication to her role as general.
Han couldn’t hold the family together on his own, and Han never liked war.
Chewy would be more than a cheaffeur.
Kashyyk would be where I’d set the first movie.
We’d see the industrialization and colonization of Kashyyk as something key to the Republic’s agenda.
Perhaps Chewbacca is a general at this point.
Liberating Kashyyk from a fractured Empire would be a plot point.

Luke has tried negotiation but failed.
Thrawn allows the budding Sith a chance in the field.
Her and Luke have a duel, a game of sorts.
Perhaps we don’t see Han Solo until part two.
That would be interesting.
I really don’t know what to do with Han.

He would have matured as well, perhaps he’s another high ranking general.
But him falling back into smuggling would be interesting.
Perhaps him and Chewey have to liberate Kashyyk.

The question then becomes how to kill him off in an emotional way in the first or second films.

Luke has to die in part 9, Leia has to be alive at the end of part 9.
Thrawn would have to be as menacing as the Emperor, but without the Emperor’s power.
Even if Thrawn could be manipulated by a force user, it can’t be the emperor, and it has to be by an actor that scares the audience.
Suspense needs to be a major part of these movies.
the villains need gravitas.

DuracellEnergizer said:

CaveDoctor said:

I hate to mention the feminist problem, but, alot of these so called male feminists have no idea how to write or develop a strong female character, and then they rail for diversity, the tragedy is, to them diversity is only skin deep.
The fact that they’re dumb, and think they’re geniuses, then get mad when you point out that they aren’t speaks volumes about the problems plaguing this franchise.

I consider myself a male feminist, but I tend to agree. People like Wes Craven, J. Michael Straczynski, and the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine knew how to do strong female characters right; good luck finding anyone of their calibre in present Hollyweird.

There is a difference between 2nd wave and (3rd and 4th wave) feminists.
Ridley Scott gave us a badass in the first Alien, with a very minimal script.
DS9 had Nerys.
Fringe had Olivia Dunham.
I’m not opposed to strong female characters or feminist themes.
But there is a major discrepancy between the classic variety and the modern variety.

I’m sure a lot of people would find my ideal trilogy bad.
But, what I have to work with is garbage.
No idea if it will ever happen.
I’m pretty content with

Kotor 1 and 2
Some prequel fan edits
Tartakovsky’s clone Wars
Clone Wars
Rebels
OT
The Mandalorian
Some of Marvel’s new graphic Novels.
Some of Legends.
And the Mandalorian

As the Canon I’m stuck with.
Not a fan of what Disney did, they really fucked up.
I’m not sure if the sequels can be saved.
It is a lesson in not letting your ambitions overwrite what the story needs.
Rian Johnson is no Nicholas Meyer, I’m afraid.
He didn’t bless us with Star Wars’ answer to ‘Wrath of Khan’.
He gave us Space Vacation.

To me, the sequel trilogy in it’s current state, is not Star Wars, and it doesn’t seem that it ever could be.
I don’t know what it is.
It’s unrecognizable.
Like fan series based on Star Trek.
It’s bad fan fiction.
What really makes me sad, is Rian Johnson’s right hand man called Luke “Obi” in TLJ.
How?
He’s obviously Yoda, not “Obi”.
Obi didn’t exile himself, and lose his purpose in despair.
Obi had a purpose, and so did Yoda for that matter.
All Johnson did was bastardize the second film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRbbvsxXaBs

This is interesting, it follows one of my other ideas.
At the very least using the models from EA games to at least machinima out the scenes I’d like.
I’d still need better voice actors though.

If the horsepower becomes available on my limited budget, I’d like to render in Blender, enhance some rigging of faces, and then use deepfakes to replace the faces.
perhaps recreate some of the matte paintings in 2.5d.
I’d still need to learn to compile the voice changing software though.

Another thing that pisses me off is the Yoda puppet from TLJ.
Rian Johnson had the original crew who built the first Yoda puppet at his disposal.
Instead we got that lime green abomination.

At the very least it’s half workable.
Machinima out the scenes with the models from the games.
Edit the true footage around those.

Polish and trim the true footage.
One goal in particular, save as much of the original cast footage as possible.
Use deepfakes to enhance the facial animations.
figure out what advanced rendering techniques are at our disposal.
Reintegration of a handful of deleted scenes.

Stage one,
a borderless film.
We have to look at the trilogy as one whole three act structure, and see what to remove.
Integrate a new trilogy from the old.
For now I can either call this redux, or STdraft2.

For the digital aspect of this, that will be categorized as Digital Dream.