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Do you think Disney will remake the prequels?

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I’d personally like to see someone have another go at it, they couldn’t do any worse.

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Considering remaking the prequels would fall under the category of “things that would make Disney a fresh ton of money”, I would say yes, eventually they will. But I can’t imagine them ever doing something that seemingly controversial in a long, long time, not for another good 20 years. The prequel era is something that I think Disney will shy away from indefinitely at this point because of how much of a risk it is, returning to the spot that the creator of Star Wars himself failed miserably in.

Also, you’ve got to factor in George’s “Vision”, and how there was probably something in the contract that prevented it from being tampered with. If Disney’s having a tough time releasing the OUT, you can bet they won’t be altering the backstory anytime soon.

While I can see them retrying the backstory, I can’t see them doing it the same way, Episodes I, II, and III in theaters, again. In 1999 it made sense; not so much in a future era that would grow up with the sequel trilogy. Looking back, this whole Star Wars nonsense would be increasingly confusing for a newcomer. What was once a a straight 1 to 6 Saga would become twelve main movies, six of which are alternate trilogies, and then add a zillion spin offs riddled over all of that. Well, I shouldn’t say ‘would become’ because that’s already the direction we’re headed.

Seeking only the most natural looking colors for Star Wars '77

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I totally agree but just one epic film (3 hour), doesn’t have to be three, just one that does justice to how Darth Vader came to be, new script, actors, characters. They’d need to do it before Ian McDiarmid/Dave Prowse kick the bucket. It really bugged me how his identity was totally lost in ROTS, looked way to small in costume as well.

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The problem is more people than not are at least content with the existence of the prequels. A reboot would be terribly difficult to market, and may make a great deal of people upset who thought at least episode III was fine. It’s far less confusing and easier to pop out a spin off every other year. Disney does what they think will make them the most money in the most feasible manner, and the OT and its imagery is ten times the money-maker the prequel-era will ever be.

What I could see them doing are a series of movies based on Obi-Wan’s time in exile in between III and IV. I mean, you’ve got twenty years of stories to tell there, and if you really wanted, you could sprinkle in flashbacks to the prequel era with Haden and Ewan, and lift their characters up higher to what they were suppose to be (for example, show a scene where Anakin looks at his lightsaber admirably and boasts that one day his children will take it up and carry on the Skywalker legacy, or something like that). That would at least aid the cause to “fix” the damage caused by the PT.

Seeking only the most natural looking colors for Star Wars '77

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Even more reason to produce a decent back story/script with characters synonymous with the OT, commercially it would be a winner “The film(s) that should have been made”. They could bastardise John William’s epic score, that’s about it!

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timdiggerm said:

Not until George is dead.

And even then, do you want that? If they remake the PT, the OT is next/

OT just needs reinstating…it’s perfect.

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That’s not how executives will see it in fifteen years or however long we’re talking. Honestly, it would set a dangerous precedent that in no way would be worth it. Better to focus on making the new movies good than pouring energy into a do-over of something most audiences are content to just ignore.

And that’s without even getting into the continuity nightmare it would be. It would be one thing if Disney had been completely abstaining from producing anything set before the OT since the reboot, but the fact is the prequels are already load-bearing elements in the new canon. The Tarkin novel, the Rebels cartoon, the Kanan comic, the Vader comic, the upcoming Obi-Wan and Anakin comic, and the five-and-a-half seasons of still-canonical Clone Wars cartoons would make it impossible without splitting the timeline and creating an alternate continuity, and we saw how well people reacted to that with JJ’s Trek. It would be extremely risky and an enormous amount of work for something that ultimately isn’t terribly important one way or the other. Never going to happen.

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joefavs said:

That’s not how executives will see it in fifteen years or however long we’re talking. Honestly, it would set a dangerous precedent that in no way would be worth it. Better to focus on making the new movies good than pouring energy into a do-over of something most audiences are content to just ignore.

It’s difficult to ignore that the OT has a dark (or not so dark) shadow hanging over it. If it were to be revisited and completely remade to tie in with the OT (in terms of continuity) it’d be brilliant. If I had Disney money I’d definitely make it happen.

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Swazzy said:

The problem is more people than not are at least content with the existence of the prequels. A reboot would be terribly difficult to market, and may make a great deal of people upset who thought at least episode III was fine. It’s far less confusing and easier to pop out a spin off every other year. Disney does what they think will make them the most money in the most feasible manner, and the OT and its imagery is ten times the money-maker the prequel-era will ever be.

What I could see them doing are a series of movies based on Obi-Wan’s time in exile in between III and IV. I mean, you’ve got twenty years of stories to tell there, and if you really wanted, you could sprinkle in flashbacks to the prequel era with Haden and Ewan, and lift their characters up higher to what they were suppose to be (for example, show a scene where Anakin looks at his lightsaber admirably and boasts that one day his children will take it up and carry on the Skywalker legacy, or something like that). That would at least aid the cause to “fix” the damage caused by the PT.

I completely agree with you, but I’m sure they will reboot Star Wars eventually: considering today’s movie industry’s trend, I’d say 30-50 years from now (when the “saga” may be considered “complete” to its original fans or “too old” for the audience) Disney will be very eager to completely reboot the franchise to milk it some more. I understand that Disney got this strange illness that drains all creativity, just like all the other major studios. Fortunately, they won’t risk to be infected by Competition so long as only these (very few) studios together have enough capital to control the industry 😄

The Original Trilogy’s Timeline Reconstruction: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Implied-starting-date-of-the-Empire-from-OT-dialogue/post/786201/#TopicPost786201

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A reboot of both the PT and the OT is likely within the next 50 years or so, definitely.

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I don’t think they will remake the existing prequels but I think through their spinoffs they may well make prequel films which could be accepted as replacements by those fans who don’t like the current PT.

Rogue One is a direct prequel to ANH you could even count it as a new Episode III if you like. It covers events mentioned in the open crawl of the first official film made in much the same way that ESB refers to the Death Star being destroyed in ANH.

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My opinions have fluctuated on this topic. I used to think it might be a good idea for Disney to reboot and remake the Prequel Trilogy but then something occurred to me. Whether we like it or not, they do exist. They happened. A rather large generation of kids grew up on them as their introduction to STAR WARS. Most certainly as those kids age into adults they will probably take a critical view of those three films and largely embrace the Original Trilogy.

As I say, the Prequel Trilogy does exist, they happened. And just as much as we have all hated the changes that were made to the Original Trilogy and dearly want to have easy access to the theatrical versions of those films (furthermore, making the theatrical films THE films again would be nice); there are likely some Prequel Trilogy fans or, forgive me, “apologists” that would scoff at the idea of blowing them up and starting over. And out of respect (albeit a slight thread) for those films and their admirers, I would like them to just be.

Ideally, in another 5-10 years (perhaps much sooner), the theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy will be re-introduced to the cosmos and the ‘altered’ versions will be treated as what they should be: an alternate viewing experience. Even if having the theatrical versions as THE versions again finally means some inconsistencies with the Prequel Trilogy. That’s fine. It doesn’t all have to be nice and neat and have a through-line that makes perfect sense. If people want that, they can go watch STAR TREK.

“This will begin to make things right.” Lor San Tekka

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TK428 said:

Even if having the theatrical versions as THE versions again finally means some inconsistencies with the Prequel Trilogy. That’s fine.

What inconsistencies are there, really though? The 2004-11 SEs certainly made some harder links to the PT, but generally weren’t ‘fixing’ things.

There’s the Emperor’s look. But his face doesn’t really look anything like his RoTJ face, even in the SE. And the dialogue kind of breaks the logic of the film’s premise. So, I think that cancels out. There’s Boba’s voice. But developing a different accent is possible. Even two of the three clones shown in Rebels had unique voices, I think.

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towne32 said:

There’s Boba’s voice. But developing a different accent is possible.

I always just assumed Fett’s voice was mechanically altered by the mask, just like Vader’s and Leia’s/Boussche’s–even before “knowing” that he was “always supposed to be” a clone of some stilted kiwi.
I mean, is James Earl Jones’s voice “inconsistent” with Hayden’s? (Please don’t give LucasFilm any more ideas!!!)

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I always figured it was reasonable that a guy who looks and sounds exactly like the clones would want to do whatever he could to change his appearance and voice in the wake of the Clone Wars. That’s why I think it would be easy to cast an actor who looks nothing like Temeura Morrison in the rumored Boba Fett movie. Just say he had reconstructive surgery and cultivated a different accent or something.

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towne32 said:

TK428 said:

Even if having the theatrical versions as THE versions again finally means some inconsistencies with the Prequel Trilogy. That’s fine.

What inconsistencies are there, really though? The 2004-11 SEs certainly made some harder links to the PT, but generally weren’t ‘fixing’ things.

There’s the Emperor’s look. But his face doesn’t really look anything like his RoTJ face, even in the SE. And the dialogue kind of breaks the logic of the film’s premise. So, I think that cancels out. There’s Boba’s voice. But developing a different accent is possible. Even two of the three clones shown in Rebels had unique voices, I think.

And to that point, there is already the inconsistency of stuff like Luke saying to Leia “Leia, do you remember your mother? Your real mother?” To which Leia says “Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.” As in - during childbirth? Whoops, George…

Sorry, back on topic. The big one for me is young Anakin as a force ghost at the end of ROTJ. He was good at the end of ROTJ or I should more accurately say, he was “saved” by Luke. Therefore, having Sebastian Shaw as the force ghost makes perfect sense. Having Hayden C. there doesn’t.

“This will begin to make things right.” Lor San Tekka

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joefavs said:

I always figured it was reasonable that a guy who looks and sounds exactly like the clones would want to do whatever he could to change his appearance and voice in the wake of the Clone Wars. That’s why I think it would be easy to cast an actor who looks nothing like Temeura Morrison in the rumored Boba Fett movie. Just say he had reconstructive surgery and cultivated a different accent or something.

For real. Anything that distances from the PT the better, in my opinion. I hate that Jason Wingreen’s voice got dubbed out of TESB. I presume the Casting Director for TESB (and Irvin Kershner) picked Wingreen for a particular reason to do the voice work for Boba. He sounds kind of sinister in the unaltered version.

“This will begin to make things right.” Lor San Tekka

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It is not really worth to remake PT since its foundations (story, characters) are crap. Replacing PT would be a good option.

真実

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I would much rather leave well enough alone. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it. I believe they are perfect as they are. Sure, there may be elements that may be better had they tried something else but the stories are written in stone so to speak.

Jason

Jason Mortimer - Jedi-Wannabe
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
www.creativewallexpression.com

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Bosk said:

It’s difficult to ignore that the OT has a dark (or not so dark) shadow hanging over it.

Not for me… I take the two and a half films I like and completely ignore the rest of the franchise.

If it were to be revisited and completely remade to tie in with the OT (in terms of continuity) it’d be brilliant.

Funny you use that term. Adywan will be doing just that soon.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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remitrom73 said:

I would much rather leave well enough alone. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it. I believe they are perfect as they are. Sure, there may be elements that may be better had they tried something else but the stories are written in stone so to speak.

Jason

I’m not saying alter or amend the current prequels. I’m hoping they have another go at the back story and give it some proper depth.

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Swazzy said:
Also, you’ve got to factor in George’s “Vision”, and how there was probably something in the contract that prevented it from being tampered with.

Disney doesn’t give someone 4 billion dollars and then allow them to dictate terms. They’ll release the theatrical versions when they reach an agreement with 20th Century Fox. George has zero say in anything Star Wars.

If I had to guess, they first want to restore the franchise and distance it from his vision, then they’ll correct his mistakes and his mistreatment of the fans.

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Anchorhead said:

If I had to guess, they first want to restore the franchise and distance it from his vision

I think that part at least is better than a guess, since it finds strong support in the tone and attitude of everything Abrams, Kasdan–and Georgie-poo–have said.
ON a side note, “vision” should always be flanked by scare quotes when Georgie is the topic.