Ok here's a fun idea. A long time ago Lucas's original vision was to have TWELVE Star Wars films. Basically the Original Trilogy, the Prequel Trilogy, and two two sequel trilogies that continue the Original Trilogy. Now let's say you were Lucas, and the ONLY film that was created at this point was A New Hope. How would you create the other 11?
EPISODE I
Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker -- best friends and moisture farmers living on Tatooine -- leave their world to train under Yoda at his Jedi academy on Dagobah. Once there, they both end up falling in love with the same girl -- Siri Tachi -- which causes tensions to rise between the two boys.
Soon after, a strike force of Dark Jedi arrive on Dagobah and raid the Jedi academy, taking many of the students -- Ben and Anakin included -- prisoner. These Dark Jedi then take their prisoners to the Shadow Academy, a Dark Jedi training station hidden deep in interstellar space, where their master Arca Jeth pressures the students of Yoda into studying the arts of the dark side.
In the end Yoda and a number of other Jedi come to the rescue, Jeth is defeated, the Shadow Academy is destroyed, Ben and Anakin's friendship is restored, and Siri chooses Anakin as her lover with Ben's full support.
EPISODE II
Years have passed since the events of Episode II and the Clone Wars are in full swing. Anakin and Ben -- who now goes by the name of Obi-Wan for whatever reason -- are now both full-fledged Jedi Knights, fighting for the Republic against the clone shock troopers of the Mandalorian civilization.
For one reason or another, Obi-Wan eventually travels to Geonosis, a bitterly cold desert planet ruled by the Hutt Empire. There he meets Darth Vader, the young son of a sex slave who lives in bondage to the Hutts and their servitors.
Time passes, a decisive battle between the Jedi and Mandalorians is fought, and Obi-Wan takes Darth as his Jedi apprentice.
EPISODE III
Years have passed since the events of Episode III and Darth has grown into a young man with great skills as a Jedi warrior. Unfortunately for Darth, he has two problems going for him: He has never outgrown the anger he's fostered since he was a slave on Geonosis and he has an unhealthy obsession with Anakin's wife, Siri.
Eventually Darth fails in his struggle against the dark side and is consumed by it. He leaves the Jedi Order, rapes Siri, and then has a violent confrontation with Anakin, resulting in both of their (apparent) deaths.
As it turns out, Darth impregnated Siri; months later she delivers a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. When Palpatine rises to power and begins persecuting the Jedi Order, it is decided that the twins will be separated and placed into hiding; Obi-Wan will take the boy to be raised by his stepbrother Owen on Tatooine while Siri will travel to an undisclosed location to raise the daughter on her own.
EPISODE V
The same movie as TESB except that Palpatine is now physically portrayed by a beautiful woman and Han dies as a result of the carbon freezing.
EPISODE VI
Luke has his final confrontation with Darth Vader, finally consummates his love with Leia, and learns about his sister's existence from Yoda.
EPISODE VII
With Leia accompanying him, Luke travels into uncharted space in search for his sister, Nellith. Unfortunately for the young Jedi and his lover, one of Palpatine's Inquisitors is hot on their heels.
EPISODE VIII
An adventure involving Luke, Nellith, and a plot to cripple the Imperial war machine.
EPISODE IX
As the war between the Rebellion and the Empire reaches its crescendo, Luke and Nellith confront the Emperor.
EPISODE X
Years have passed since the defeat of Palpatine. The Empire is in ruins, the New Republic has become the dominant power in this region of the galaxy, and Luke and Nellith have begun to restore the Jedi Order.
Unfortunately for our heroes, the Hutt Empire wishes to expand into former Imperial space and they now have the power to do so.
EPISODE XI
The New Republic and Imperial Remnant ally together to repel the invading Hutt forces.
EPISODE XII
The Hutt War comes to an end.
The place to stick another trilogy is before the trilogy before the OT so Star Wars (1977) would be episode 7.
That way you could show a truly primitive version of the galaxy in a brutal war between Sith warlords and Jedi knights leading to the formation of the Republic.
A thousand generations later. After a chance meeting with Obi-Wan, Anakin becomes fascinated by tales of the Jedi and leaves behind his wife and brother to join the order. He seems to be killed in the Clone Wars. Darth Vader hunts down and destroys the Jedi. Anakin's wife hides on Alderaan while Owen raises Anakin's son on the distant world of Tatooine.
Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back remain the same.
Revenge of the Jedi, Civil unrest is on the rise. Luke finishes his training with Yoda. Han is rescued from the Hutt palace on a gambling/gladiatorial pleasure planet. The Emperor building a fleet of Death Stars uses Vader as a trap to capture Luke as a replacement. Vader sacrifices himself is redeemed and tells Luke about his twin sister.
The final trilogy. The civil uprising has been repressed by every world being in range of a Death Star. Luke and the Empire both search for Luke's sister who has been declared the Imperial heir by the aging dictator. The two siblings first fight and then join forces to close down the network of battlestations as the Rebel and Imperial fleets clash.
I wouldn't have had all the stories connected. To me, it is apparent with the Original Trilogy that there wasn't enough story for three films. Which, by the way, is fine. Put the story first and the audience will follow. Put the number of films first and the stories become filler.
This weird devotion to everything being A Trilogy has caused writers and directors to pad and stretch to the point of it being a detriment to the films. Tell a story. If it takes two films, fine. If you want to make more films, tell a different story. The same people can go on different adventures.
Lucas never had more than one film of story in 1977 and he sure as hell didn't have twelve films of story. Truthfully, he couldn't keep his BS straight back then either. It was 12, then 6, then 9, then 12 again, etc, etc. He started rehashing by the third film.
Letting reality influence the story didn't help either. Harrison Ford's contract status with regard to Raiders became an in-universe weirdness that drove some of the dumbest parts of the third film.
Stories\films can exist in the same universe and reference each other. Star Trek is a perfect example. So are the Indiana Jones films. James Bond and Doctor Who are also great examples. References and tangents are fine. Stretching isn't.
Lucas almost got it right when he hired Foster to write the sequel. Not sure why he abandoned his original idea of an adventure series and switched to trying to write a continuation story.
In answer to the original question, I would have done it the way Timothy Zahn has handled his novels. Some stories are continued, some stories are tangential to the previous story and characters. Brian Daley did the same.
It certainly looks like Disney is handling the franchise that way. Force Awakens is somewhat related to the 1977 story, while the stand-alones are only vaguely related.
If you can have twelve Star Trek films (some related, some not) and twenty four Bond films (some related, some not), then you can certainly have twelve Star Wars films. Just not when Lucas is involved.
Oh, I'm really interested in your prequel trilogy ideas Duracell, especially having Arca Jeth as the main villain for it. Also interesting is your Hutt trilogy, any more ideas? And anyone else? I like Bingo's final trilogy involving a Galaxy spanning fleet of Death Stars as well.
The Merchant said:
Also interesting is your Hutt trilogy, any more ideas? And anyone else?
No big ideas as of yet, really -- I just have images of Hutt slave armies pitched in open battle against joint Imperial and New Republican troops in my head. I'd probably have Luke's children serve as the primary protagonists with a Hutt like this
serving as the primary antagonist.
The Original trilogy stays the same.
The events of the prequel trilogy need not change and in fact the prequels as they exist now need not change in any way to exist happily with these revised prequels. However, the focus of the stories should be on a new group of characters, with Anakin and Obi-wan featuring in the story only briefly. The theme of the prequels is primarily one of establishing the universe of Star Wars, thus it remains quite basic. There is a war between clones and droids, yet this is merely a backdrop for a smaller struggle for survival going on throughout this tumultuous time. The story follows a crew of space pirates, reduced to scavenging the battlefields of the galactic war. One of these is a young girl who rescues Anakin who has frozen himself in carbonite to prevent a battle injury from claiming his life. Through this encounter, he instructs her in how to be a pilot, a primary theme of the trilogy. Later on, she starts to come to terms with the idea that she may in fact have some power in the force, and her psychic connection with Anakin drives much of her decision making in the films. Having rescued Anakin and rejoined her companions in Episode 1, she joins the Republic in Episode 2, flying a stunt fighter under the command of another Jedi. Then the clones turn on them with the issue of order 66, and she flees into hiding with this Jedi. Episode 3 takes place in the aftermath of the Jedi Purge, where she tests her mettle against the murderer of Anakin, Darth Vader, and there is one final stand to protect the secret location of the child of Anakin (In these, Vader is not revealed to be Anakin, the existence of Luke's twin sister is yet unknown, and Yoda is hardly if ever mentioned).
In the sequel trilogy, it is revealed that the emperor in Return of the Jedi was just a clone, drawing the Rebellion into an inescapable trap where they were almost completely wiped out after the battle of Endor. The true emperor remains at large, and Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are all dead or destroyed on Endor. Luke, Leia, and R2 flee the carnage in the Imperial shuttle, and Luke tries to train Leia in the ways of the Force.
The sequel trilogy opens with a new crew of characters, one of them being the son of Han and Leia. There are numerous revelations about the Force in this trilogy. One is that Luke and Leia are not brother and sister. Obi-wan had no knowledge of the 'other' that Yoda referred to, and so he could only trust Luke's intuition in that situation, which was wrong. Another revelation is that anyone can train in the ways of the Jedi, and the dogma that the Force runs in families is a lie perpetuated by the Jedi to keep their power consolidated within a small in-group. However, ability in the Force is fostered much more easily when a Jedi can use their powers of suggestion to make the trainee believe that they have ability, and they even use their powers to accomplish feats for the trainee. This is a closely guarded Jedi secret, one that is lost to Luke until it is too late. For he cannot train Leia to be a Jedi, as her mind is too strong to be manipulated. Here then is the great weakness of some Jedi trained later in life: they are essentially weak-minded. This is why children are taken by the Jedi at such a young age, when their mental powers are still forming, and why Luke was able to be trained even when an adult. With these revelations, Han's son embarks on his own quest to understand the Force, and these revelations will lead to a new clone war with the Force itself used as a weapon of mass destruction.
You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)