Thanks for the thoughts everyone! I’ll try to reply to everyone’s thoughts. cracks knuckles
Regarding the Epilogue
Do you plan on using Poppasketti’s version of the saber toss?
If I keep that scene I definitely will. But I’ve also been toying with the idea of skipping Rey trying to hand Luke the saber initially. Instead, I’d use the beginning of Rey’s “Jedi Steps”, but when she gets to the Jedi huts, she hears Luke’s door slam. This helps to avoid having to deal with the difference in sunlight in TFA and TLJ. Rey still offers Luke the lightsaber later during their fight in the rain, and he rejects it again, so we wouldn’t lose the idea of Luke rejecting the saber and then finally reclaiming it in the climax. It also might help keep the runtime down to skip that altogether.
RL, I think you’ve absolutely picked the best themes that you could craft into an epilogue. Good luck with that. I wonder, if you’re going to go that route then, that you could explicitly make ‘Luke handing the mantle to Rey’ your anchor more explicitly by even opening with the scene from the end of TFA with Rey approaching Luke, then an ‘X weeks earlier’ cut back to TFA, as unconventional as that is for Star Wars.
I presume we end on Luke’s death and Broom Boi - but what single act are we treating as Rey’s signature victory, that’ll demonstrate that the torch is well and truly passed?
I like your flashing back idea! I had originally pictured this as a Tarantino-inspired spiritual sequel to Pulp Empire that would’ve opened with the ending of ROTJ and then flashed forward to the sequels, sort of like you described. I even played around with rescoring the film with Morricone and the like.
https://vimeo.com/298095219
https://vimeo.com/298094852
Nothing is set in stone, but I wanted the opening to feel reminiscent to The Wizard of Oz, just like how we’re introduced to Dorothy’s ordinary world before being swept up into realm of adventure. I think I would also use Nev’s bleached Jakku look to emphasize this comparison even more.
As far as the ending goes, I think where Rey’s journey ends in TLJ is a good conclusion for her. She rejects Kylo’s offer, she lifts the rocks to save the Resistance, and she takes Luke’s broken lightsaber with the expectation that she’ll build something new from the pieces. And mostly importantly, she is with her newfound family, all together in the Falcon. A much better ending than her being alone on Tatooine. And although I probably won’t include the Canto Bight scenes, I think the ending with Broom Boy works well on its own. He is just another abandoned child like Rey, who is inspired by the story of Luke to be something more. So we start the film with one abandoned child and end with another.
Regarding the Prologue
This is all very cool. I’ll probably have more thoughts later but for now I’ll just chime in in regards to the “save the reveal” potential by saying that, if you’re hiding the fact that Anakin becomes Vader, but you still show him turning to the dark side, you’re not really “saving the reveal.” That’s at least half the twist.
Both you and Starkiller bring up excellent points regarding the purpose of the prequels and the issues of trying to save the reveal. I can’t go back and find it, but awhile back I made a long post about saving the reveal, and the pros and cons of the different directions you could go with it. Basically you have three options:
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Don’t show Anakin fall to the dark side.
Obviously this approach is best to make Obi-Wan not seem like a liar, and to keep as much of the reveal as possible. Because like Dom said, the reveal for Luke (and the audience) is really three fold. First, Vader is his father, second, his father fell to the dark side, and three, Obi-Wan lied to him. The downside is that you have to bend over backwards to try and make this work. FanEditore and NFBisms have already brought up good ideas that might help this approach, but you still have to deal with the fact that you’ll lose the entirety of the Mustafar climax, dramatically lowering your runtime. And at best, this leaves you only with Yoda vs Sidious as a climatic final battle. While it could work, it certainly doesn’t carry the same weight as Anakin vs Obi-Wan. You would likely have to do something major, such as what Nev suggested, and make it a 3-in-1 with the focus on Obi-Wan instead. -
Leave ROTS as it is.
This was Starkiller’s point of view, and even mine to a large degree. The dramatic irony of knowing that Anakin will turn to the dark side and is sort of the point of the prequels. Lucas made them assuming the audience will have already seen the original trilogy, despite saying that he feels these films are meant to be watched in chronological order… (obviously release is the way to go). -
Show Anakin still fall to the dark side, but we don’t show him become Darth Vader.
So basically you would keep the film generally the same (I think NFB’s dialogue changes could still work for this idea as well), except you cut Anakin ever being called Vader, and the last time we see Anakin is when Obi-Wan leaves him to die. While I feel this is a compromise, like Dom suggested, it feels like it compromises too much and sort of defeats the purpose of saving the reveal.
When it comes towards “Save the Reveal”, I try to picture myself showing it to a young relative who has never seen any of the Star Wars movies. While a 12-year-old could probably easily put two and two together, a 7-year-old might need something blatant to make the connection between Anakin and Vader obvious. With the 3rd option, your first time viewer might think they know the reveal, but then Vader reveals that he is Anakin, that audience might actually be surprised to learn that Anakin actually survived and became even more of a monster than when we last saw him on Mustafar. For this version, if I were to go this route, I would probably do what NFB did and have Anakin and Obi-Wan never reference their mentor/student relationship.
While the reveal isn’t wholly saved, a reveal does still exist. Your viewer might think Obi-Wan is hiding what happened to Anakin in order to protect him, and that Vader is just another minion of the Emperor, like Dooku or Grievous. So they would expect for Vader to say, “Obi-Wan killed your father” rather than what we actually get. Sure, it might seem obvious to us, but it is never confirmed until Vader says it, and like I said, a younger viewer might need that blatant connection.
And as far as what we have to sacrifice in ROTS for this to work, if you think about it, it is basically just fan service. The only things that have to be cut is Anakin ever being called “Darth Vader” and him being put in the suit. Making Anakin’s fate ambiguous in the end doesn’t really ruin the narrative structure of ROTS, unlike what a major reveal save might inevitably do. I would argue that we really don’t need to see Darth Vader in ROTS at all. So to me, you’re paying a low cost for the opportunity for a potential viewer to be surprised that Darth Vader is Anakin, even if they already knew Anakin fell to the dark side. I know that it isn’t a 100% reveal save, since a big part of the twist is is discovering that Luke’s father didn’t die a hero, but it still could work as a different kind of revelation. The audience would think they know the truth, that they’re in on the dramatic irony, only to then be taken by surprise.
Just considering how little has to be changed, I think this option would still be worth considering.
@Lifeincontext, that’s funny that we both had similar ideas! Great minds think alike! 😅