I prefer the worldbuilding and general premise of this trilogy over the sequels we got, by a large margin. However, bringing Maul back would have been a big mistake and would’ve been very confusing for people who are only familiar with the movies. He’d been absent since Episode I, as far as most people are concerned. Him showing up again, and audiences having to watch an animated series to fill in the gap, would be very off-putting for people.
In a way, I’m glad George’s sequel trilogy didn’t get made, since if it was written and created by the man himself, it would be harder to disregard. And he didn’t seem to have a firm idea of what he even wanted the sequels to be (though neither did Disney and Lucasfilm, to be fair). I think a sequel trilogy was something George would toy with and write notes on every few years, but I doubt he ever would have gone through with it, since he’s getting up there in years, wants to spend time with his family, and ultimately, he had more of a story to tell going backwards in time than forwards.
It reminds me of how J.R.R. Tolkien actually started writing a sequel to Lord of the Rings. He wrote the first couple chapters, then scrapped the project when he realized
a) It was depressing and ruined the bittersweet ending he had created
b) It wouldn’t contribute anything substantial or insightful to the Middle-earth mythology. The story was complete. Anything post-LotR would have been anti-climactic.
I think, on some level, George knew his sequel trilogy was never going to happen by his own hand. It was all just ideas and notes. But he did certainly feel blindsided when he realized Disney wasn’t using his treatments (whatever those treatments entailed). Bob Iger himself made that clear, and I’m sure he softened George’s reaction when he described it. I imagine George was fuming. The fact is, Disney didn’t want to spend any time pondering or formulating what their sequel trilogy was going to be. They wanted to push it out as quickly as possible. It was never about the story to them.
I totally agree. Moreover, from 2005 onwards George constantly repeated that the Skywalker Saga was over, that Return of the Jedi was the conclusion, that he didn’t want to write post-ROTJ stories because the Expanded Universe authors had already done that with comics and novels, and that basically Revenge of the Sith would be the last film in the Saga. So, I really doubt that he would have made any more films. Maybe he could have created some spin-off not related to the Skywalker family, but he certainly wouldn’t have created any more Skywalker-based movies, because he constantly repeated for years that there would be no Episode VII, and that the main Star Wars saga is the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker, which begins with The Phantom Menace and ends with Return of the Jedi. The fact that he developed ideas for the Sequel Trilogy doesn’t mean that he would put them into practice. To be honest, I’m glad none of this has ever been put into practice. From a Lore perspective, I like the ideas that George was developing (Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order, Leia becomes the Chancellor of the New Republic, the criminal syndacates try to overthrow the New Republic and make their own interests, etc.). But making Leia the Chosen One is an abomination in my opinion, and bringing Darth Maul back is a colossal idiocy, which I never liked even in TCW. I greatly prefer the Old Expanded Universe post-ROTJ stories over this.
The same for me. I find it interesting that Lucas was in favour of others doing the Sequels in novel and comic book form.
In fact, Lucas is on record as suggesting doing the New Jedi Order books as Sequels. Years later Lucas contradicted himself and claimed that was not the way he would have done it. And then, rather hypocritically, years later Lucas actually used some of those early NJO ideas for his own ST film treatments:
Don’t forget the version of the Sequels… that were novels (back in 1999):-
In 1999, an interview with George Lucas in Wired magazine, titled ‘Grand Illusion’… just a few months before the ‘Vector Prime’ book (from the ‘New Jedi Order’ series of novels) - began being heavily promoted (with tv advert and poster campaigns), a series of novels which Lucas himself was involved in and contributed to…
^ Grand Illusion - the full article at Wired.
A little more background info can be found here:-
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/hr1tnz/behind_the_scenes_the_making_of_the_new_jedi
and the interview with George below from 2008:
When George later changed his mind and decided to try his hand on the Sequels film, his own treatments were based some of early New Jedi Order novel ideas discussed in the article below, notably the conception of the NJO and aspects of other familiar EU stories. George himself had also contributed to the NJO books, having a number of meetings with the authors, instigating changes to the plot and characters, giving feedback, and making suggestions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/hr1tnz/behind_the_scenes_the_making_of_the_new_jedi
The text in the above article is a ‘spoiler’. To see the text appear onscreen, double-click on the blank space where the text should be. Or click here for a screenshot of the article: https://i.imgur.com/6n1rNdM.png
In Summary…
In 1999:
Interviewer: “What about the reports that Episodes 7, 8, and 9 - which exist in novel form - will never reach the screen?”
George Lucas: “The sequels were never really going to get made anyway, unlike 1, 2, and 3, where the stories have existed for 20 years. The idea of 7, 8, and 9 actually came from people asking me about sequels, and I said, “I don’t know. Maybe someday.” Then when the licensing people came and asked, “Can we do novels?” I said do sequels, because I’ll probably never do sequels.”
George also contributed to the New Jedi Order books, having a number of meetings with the authors, instigating changes to the plot and characters, giving feedback, and making a number of other suggestions implemented by the NJO writers.
In 2008:
George Lucas: "And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn’t at all what I would have done it.”
Around 2011-12:
When George later changes his mind and decides to now try his hand at the Sequel Trilogy, his own later treatments are based some on those same novel ideas, notably the conception of the New Jedi Order, and also some other aspects of familiar EU stories.