I’m currently working on a rough draft of a VERY radical edit of the sequel trilogy taking place in an alternate timeline where Luke actually struck down Palpatine in anger during Return of the Jedi, and then killed Vader in the following duel in a fit of rage, before disappearing and leaving Han and Leia behind to do the spirit of the Emperor’s bidding and fully embrace the dark side.
Basically continuing from the ending of The Man Behind The Mask’s “War of the Stars” edit, if you’ve seen them (probably my favorite Star Wars edits of all time).
I think the idea of the sequels taking place in an alternate dark timeline could make them feel a lot more cohesive and fix the problem of the constant character assassination and disrespect to the original trilogy.
Han becoming a smuggler again and Leia abandoning the New Republic to fight a rebellion again, and stuff like that that felt out of character for these character now makes a lot more sense if they knew Luke disappeared and fell to the dark side, doesn’t it?
I’m not quite to the point of storyboarding the actual sequels and what I want to do with them yet because I’m working on the first part I have planned first.
So picture this, I’m going to open up the first movie with mostly scenes from the Mandalorian, not the Force Awakens. I’ve already found a great way to cut down all the filler and show the main arc of Mando finding, recusing, and growing attached Grogu in a fast, streamlined way. Then skip ahead as fast as possible to introduce Moff Gideon and get to the end of season 2 as quick as I can.
The kicker though is going to be the ending. We’ve just spent the majority of the story getting attached to Mando and his quest with Grogu, they’re facing impossible odds surrounded by Dark Troopers with all hope lost, until a single X-wing seems to show up out of nowhere with a Jedi stepping out to save the day.
Except this Jedi’s lightsaber is crimson red and something about his demeaner seems off. He’s not here to recuse them.
Din asks “Are you a Jedi?”.
“No.” Luke then slaughters everyone in the room. (not sure how feasible this would be able to pull off lol but I’m sure something could work, even if it’s just an outside POV from the closed door as we hear screams as a last resort)
We see the perspective of different planets and people reacting to Holoscreens suddenly flickering.
Palpatine’s broadcast about his return plays as the galaxy’s people’s react in fright and dispair.
End of the first movie.
The second movie will take place after a large time skip and focus on setting up Rey and co., and everything else.
Kind of just disjointed rambling here lmao but I’m curious if anyone has any thoughts on this idea on paper as it is, I’ll share an actual rough draft of the first half of my edit soon. I’m about 40% into editing it.