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George Lucas's Sequel Trilogy

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Greetings all! It’s been awhile. Further details of George’s Sequels leaked from the upcoming book “The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005”.

Here George gives a greater context to the story of the trilogy he wanted to tell beyond what we’ve heard with regards to the Whills, Luke being in exile to find his spark again in Episode VII, and the son of Han and Leia falling to the Dark Side.

THE CHOSEN ONE

George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.

Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.

George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.

Paul Duncan: When was that?

George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.

Paul Duncan: Really?

George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.

Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.

George Lucas: How do you know what they are?

Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?

George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.

They fought, but they weren’t very good at what they did.

Paul Duncan: That’s why they kept missing.

George Lucas: That’s why they kept missing. Then after the Rebels won, there were no more stormtroopers in my version of the third trilogy.

I had planned for the first trilogy to be about the father, the second trilogy to be about the son, and the third trilogy to be about the daughter and the grandchildren.

Episode VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War. “Okay, you fought the war, you killed everybody, now what are you going to do?” Rebuilding afterwards is harder than starting a rebellion or fighting the war. When you win the war and you disband the opposing army, what do they do? The stormtroopers would be like Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist fighters that joined ISIS and kept on fighting. The stormtroopers refuse to give up when the Republic win.

They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country and their own rebellion.

There’s a power vacuum so gangsters, like the Hutts, are taking advantage of the situation, and there is chaos. The key person is Darth Maul, who had been resurrected in The Clone Wars cartoons—he brings all the gangs together.

Paul Duncan: Was Darth Maul the main villain?

George Lucas: Yeah, but he’s very old, and we have two versions of him. One is with a set of cybernetic legs like a spider, and then later on he has metal legs and he was a little bit bigger, more of a superhero. We did all this in the animated series, he was in a bunch of episodes.

Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.

The movies are about how Leia—I mean, who else is going to be the leader?—is trying to build the Republic. They still have the apparatus of the Republic but they have to get it under control from the gangsters. That was the main story.

It starts out a few years after Return of the Jedi and we establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld, there are these offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi. He puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left. The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two- and three-year-olds, and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi.

By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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So Lucas wanted to do his own version of the EU. Sounds like with some edits like Luke neither being married or having any children. No wonder Disney threw those treatments in the trash. None of these are new or original stories or ideas he was just cribbing EU characters and plots. Maybe even worse than Disney in a way, more lazy at least for the most part Disney didn’t use the EU as a template.

Darth Maul being the main villain is a joke.

This isn’t what we waited 35 years to see. We waited for the continuation of the OT characters and their story where it left off, as original stories. Not some weird amalgamation of Filoni Clone Wars and EU.

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This along with the Whills is uhm, interesting. It seems like the Prequels on steroids.

Use the Force, Joh Yowza.

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I’m probably in the minority here but I actually prefer this to what we got completely. It feels like a natural progression from the Original Trilogy. I especially love the underworld and crime syndicates trying to undermine the New Republic to gain control. I was a bit unsure about Darth Maul at first but I like it a lot the more I think about it as he’s no longer a Sith. It doesn’t undermine Anakin’s legacy but adds to it with having Leia be the “Chosen One” elected Supreme Chancellor. I don’t think he meant it literally but it makes sense that Anakin’s children and grandchildren are the ones to restore the New Republic. It calls back beautifully to Padme in The Phantom Menace giving away democracy to Palpatine and ends with her daughter being elected where she was wrong. Plus Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order!

I’m very curious how the grandchildren and Whills figured into the story. At the very least it seems to be implied we have Luke training his niece and his nephew being corrupted to join Darth Talon and Darth Maul’s Sith Crime Syndicate. As well as the Whills would’ve at least seemed to have given us answers to Anakin’s origins as George talked to StarWars.com about.

So all and all, I prefer this story. It respects what came before while giving us something new and exciting with crime syndicates and the Whills.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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The sequel trilogy is not perfect, and I’m not saying no one could have done better, but I’ve yet to hear any idea I think would have been better, so I’m thankful we got what we did.

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The Sequel Trilogy obviously should’ve been 284 minutes of Elvis sitting on his ass, marathoning the PT/SE.

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Why did I hear somewhere that George was going to use digital de-aging tech on the OT actors? He mentions grandchildren in the interview. Was VII going to take place only a few short years after RotJ and then we jump way ahead PT-style for VIII and IX?

Anyway, what I find interesting here is how several aspects are in direct opposition to where the ST ended up going. Instead of stormtroopers that never quit, we got Finn’s storyline. Instead of Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order, he decides it’s time for it to end. Instead of the Emperor returning, it’s Darth Maul.

I don’t know how much of that thirty years between RotJ and TFA has been filled in yet outside of The Mandalorian, but I totally expect Lucasfilm to use at least some of these ideas for their future projects.

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I wouldn’t mind seeing a comic book or a trilogy of Disney+ animated movies with George’s version, but otherwise, maybe it’s just time to let the Skywalker saga go. The Mandalorian has made big strides in showing us fun Star Wars stories don’t even need to feature these characters.

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Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose, eh? I think you’re right. We’re in the spinoff show era now.

At the same time, I WOULD love comic adaptions to give unused stories like Lucas’ sequels and Colin Trevorrow’s episode IX the recognition they deserve.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

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jedi_bendu said:

We’re in the spinoff show era now.

I’ll be ready for whatever the next movie is, but I’m definitely not complaining about all the potential series being talked about. I’ve been waiting DECADES for this kind of content!

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If they were to do graphic novel adaptations of Lucas treatment, they should also do one of Leigh Brackett’s Star Wars 2.

I assume people mean like THE STAR WARS, the graphic novel by Rinzler based on Lucas Rough Draft screenplay for the original film.

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I’m gonna be honest, this does not sound very good. If you’re gonna resurrect somebody, it should be Palps.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

I’m gonna be honest, this does not sound very good. If you’re gonna resurrect somebody, it should be Palps.

I disagree because it diminishes the significance of Anakin’s legacy and redemption. I’d personally go with Darth Plagueis as you can have him reveal he influenced Sifo-Dyas to order the Clone Army and ultimately created the Skywalker bloodline, only for it to be revealed by the Whills that they influenced the midi-chlorians to create Anakin. I think it really contrasts The Phantom Menace beautifully as Anakin built C-3PO out of love and purity for his mother, while Plagueis only tried to create a vessel to gain immorality and this resulted in the creation of the Chosen One and the Skywalker family who are the extension of and part of the Ones. Very much in line with what we see and learn on Mortis.

However I’m not opposed to Darth Maul returning. I was a little iffy about it at first but the more I think about it, I really like it a lot. In The Clone Wars we see him running a crime syndicate and ultimately have Palpatine imprison him. So he could be bordering along the lines of unraveling insanity when we meet him again. This contrasts the seductive and alluring Darth Talon who corrupts the grandson to join her in overthrowing him while the granddaughter tries to bring her brother back to the Light before it’s too late. I also really like the connection between Darth Maul and Luke as they both have a history with Obi-Wan.

Darth Maul is the right villain for the last link to the era lost without diminishing Anakin’s arc.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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If they use someone to turn into Darth Talon, they would either paint the actress’ nude body or put her in a red bodysuit. The acress’s hair and make-up process might be she puts her hair up and puts the wig cap on just for the head piece to be placed and the make=up artist paints her face or apply prostethics on her head before the rest of her body. She then put the contact lenses on to become a red Twi’lek Darth Talon.

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This sounds as George Lucasy as hell. I do love his crazy ideas, but this would’ve made a really bizarre movie trilogy. Bringing Maul back as a crime lord works well in TCW, because it makes sense as a side threat in that era, but it would’ve been a really weird move for the sequel trilogy. I know everyone mocks the ‘rhyming’ thing, but even the ST we got ‘rhymes’ more with the OT and ST than Leia the politician vs. Maul the crimelord (and his EU-cribbed apprentice) would’ve. The only reason I possibly can think of that I would’ve preferred seeing these movies over the VII-IX that Lucasfilm did make is that Lucas would’ve used it as an opportunity to push the boundaries of modern digital filmmaking, since that was always his passion. Maybe we’d have seen something like The Volume years earlier. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of these ideas repurposed though.

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If Maul wasn’t killed off in Rebels…

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He had decades to make further adventures of Luke Skywalker the reason it did not happen was because Lucas wasn’t interested. You read any interview after 1983 and all he talks about is wanting to do a prequel with young Obi Wan and Luke’s father. Then he spent 1994 to 2012 working on the prequel Era. In all that time he didn’t bother to write a screenplay for episode 7. And the sequel spoken of here is just a continuation of the prequels not of the OT. I’m also not convinced he did not whip this sequel treatment up very quickly to sell Lucasfilm to Disney as a sweetener, he spent years saying it was the 1-6 Saga of Darth Vader. Return of the Jedi was the end and there was no story.

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Note the absence of any comments about the Midichlorians or the microscopic Whills universe idea. In other interviews that was yet another sequel plotline.

Almost feels like he had multiple ideas and he gave this particular one to Disney, since it’s not that far off from the sequels overall.

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I still love George Lucas, but he had all the money and resources to make anything he wanted and he didn’t. He could have made more Star Wars or any of the experimental movies he always talked about. Selling to Disney was the best thing for Star Wars. Even of you don’t like the sequel trilogy, at least they have plans to continue with other ideas. The wide variety of series they have planned look promising, and I think Patty Jenkins sounds perfect to make Rogue Squadron. Should be a little something for everyone.

The prequels have grown on me, but Rogue One an The Mandalorian are closer to the sort of Star Wars content I want. I thank George so much for creating the sandbox, but I’m glad others are getting to play in it now.

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Almost feels like he had multiple ideas and he gave this particular one to Disney, since it’s not that far off from the sequels overall.

Like Jaded Skywalker said, I don’t think he bothered coming up with a pitch for Sequels until the last minute, so I don’t think there’s a bunch of different versions floating around, besides the pre-RotJ version which would’ve basically been an extension of the OT and closed out with RotJ. I think the midichlorians stuff is just another aspect of the Darth Maul pitch which is in turn the one he gave to Disney. All these ideas he’s telling us after the buyout so I don’t see how they could still be in flux. Besides, the Maul pitch aligns closely with early concept art for TFA, namely Darth Talon. Okay, admittedly that’s the only real commonality, but it’s a pretty significant one. Regardless, Lucas would never have made Sequels. He clearly saw RotJ as the end of the Saga.

The prequels have grown on me, but Rogue One an The Mandalorian are closer to the sort of Star Wars content I want. I thank George so much for creating the sandbox, but I’m glad others are getting to play in it now.

Well said.

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George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.

Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.

George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.

Paul Duncan: When was that?

George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.

Paul Duncan: Really?

George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.

Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.

George Lucas: How do you know what they are?

Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?

George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.

This is so strange to me. Are aliens and clones not people to George? Besides, what about everyone Luke blew up with the Death Star? I guess as long as we don’t see their faces, their death doesn’t count. And what about the good dozen Rebels gunned down by Stormtroopers in the first scene, or Captain Antilles who had his neck crushed, or crispy Owen and Beru…

Like, I don’t want to say this flippantly, but this seems like an artist in willful denial of the content of his art.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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NeverarGreat said:

George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.

Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.

George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.

Paul Duncan: When was that?

George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.

Paul Duncan: Really?

George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.

Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.

George Lucas: How do you know what they are?

Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?

George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.

This is so strange to me. Are aliens and clones not people to George? Besides, what about everyone Luke blew up with the Death Star? I guess as long as we don’t see their faces, their death doesn’t count. And what about the good dozen Rebels gunned down by Stormtroopers in the first scene, or Captain Antilles who had his neck crushed, or crispy Owen and Beru…

Like, I don’t want to say this flippantly, but this seems like an artist in willful denial of the content of his art.

The guards do not fire at all, and one of them doesn’t even pull his gun out of the holster. He doesn’t remember anything about them because he doesn’t care. To be fair, he shouldn’t, because they came out 40 years ago, but he MAKES us care by changing it every few years.

Star Wars Revisited Wordpress

Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress

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thebluefrog said:

Note the absence of any comments about the Midichlorians or the microscopic Whills universe idea. In other interviews that was yet another sequel plotline.

Almost feels like he had multiple ideas and he gave this particular one to Disney, since it’s not that far off from the sequels overall.

Lucas has had, like, five or six contradictory sequel trilogy ideas over the years. The Whills universe idea and this one are entirely separate, and the idea he pitched to Disney is a third entirely separate idea.

NeverarGreat said:

George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.

Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.

George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.

Paul Duncan: When was that?

George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.

Paul Duncan: Really?

George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.

Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.

George Lucas: How do you know what they are?

Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?

George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.

This is so strange to me. Are aliens and clones not people to George? Besides, what about everyone Luke blew up with the Death Star? I guess as long as we don’t see their faces, their death doesn’t count. And what about the good dozen Rebels gunned down by Stormtroopers in the first scene, or Captain Antilles who had his neck crushed, or crispy Owen and Beru…

Like, I don’t want to say this flippantly, but this seems like an artist in willful denial of the content of his art.

George Lucas? Denial of reality? Never!

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Whose to say they’re seperate treatments? They could be part of the same story treatment as the Whills storyline but he didn’t feel the need to address it further since he already discussed it with James Cameron.

Paul Duncan also addressed this indirectly with Rick Worley when he said that he looked to ask George new questions instead of ones that already had answers.

This new information is only a fraction of a greater whole as we still don’t have information about the grandchildren, Han’s role in Episode VII other than he dies, and loads more. The book also has more information than has been shared on the internet. So we’re only seeing a broader picture of the story.

The only really “contradictory” thing he seems to have stated over the years with the Sequels is Luke would have a love interest but even that hasn’t been confirmed or denied to be a thing. Nothing else he’s said really contradicts any of his other Sequel ideas as we just don’t know all the details. He’s a creative though. Creatives change their mind.

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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I love George and thank him immensely for creating something that’s brought me so much joy my whole life, but in my opinion Star Wars is at its best the more other people are allowed to play in his sandbox.