DBWI: Lucas makes prequels instead of sequels

samcster94

Banned
In the mid 90's, Lucas announced he would postpone the prequels after he failed to work out a good story for them(which occurred shortly after Rick McCallum, his producer, died in a car accident in 1996). The script for his Episode 1 leaked(OOC: this is the first draft in 1996, not the 1999 film). He instead decided to direct, but not write, a sequel trilogy based on the Thrawn trilogy. Said movies were underwhelming, albeit watchable(OOC:the reception is more like the Hobbit films TTL), and got a backlash, but they are now seen as films ahead of their time. Sony bought Star Wars and made more movies later, including a standalone Clone Wars film about Mandalorians(it did not feature or directly mention Anakin, Obi Wan, or Palpatine, given Lucas made them legally unable to make the story of Vader in his deal), and a trilogy set before Episode 4 dealing with a reckless female rebel starfighter plot(OOC: Katee Sachoff's Kara Thrace in Star Wars is who his character is) and her and her comrades futile battle against the Empire(Han Solo cameoes in it). What if Lucas actually made prequels instead, given the sequels were so underwhelming as films that the only they were good at was not being terrible?
 
That Lucas had nine episodes of Star Wars worked out is a myth created by Lucas himself. "Star Wars" was a space opera, not a Tokeinesque legendarium, and the plot possibilities were really exhausted in the first two movies. That is why the sequels Lucas did attempt were underwhelming.

Between them Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back created a problem for the sequels with the whole idea of Darth Vader being Luke's father, not the villain who killed Luke's father. So is Dark Vader (Anakin Skywalker) a good guy or not? If he is a good guy, why does he support the Emperor and betrays the Jedi? Maybe the Dark Side is not really that dark, but that introduces complexity that was just missing from the Star Wars trilogy and really you need a completely different approach. The story of the downfall of the Republic is potentially interesting, but maybe if Lucas handed the whole thing off to someone else (David Lynch?), which I don't see him doing. There are also some more minor plot problems like the idea of Obi Wan hiding Vader's son on Vader's home planet, near Vader's family, that would have to be addressed creatively.

And I don't see Lucas jeopardizing the merchandising revenue by taking many risks, so you would get something half-assed, though maybe parts would be interesting. You would also need to do a really good job of casting Vader to even have a chance of nailing it.

Incidentally, there are lots of internet fan treatments of possible Star Wars prequels but none manage to be both coherent and compelling.
 
Prequels should also work backwards, to deal with the issue of you already know how things are going to turn out, but whether they would have is another matter. The story of how the rebels got the Death Star plans in the first place would work well as a "first" prequel movie if you are doing them backwards.
 

samcster94

Banned
That Lucas had nine episodes of Star Wars worked out is a myth created by Lucas himself. "Star Wars" was a space opera, not a Tokeinesque legendarium, and the plot possibilities were really exhausted in the first two movies. That is why the sequels Lucas did attempt were underwhelming.

Between them Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back created a problem for the sequels with the whole idea of Darth Vader being Luke's father, not the villain who killed Luke's father. So is Dark Vader (Anakin Skywalker) a good guy or not? If he is a good guy, why does he support the Emperor and betrays the Jedi? Maybe the Dark Side is not really that dark, but that introduces complexity that was just missing from the Star Wars trilogy and really you need a completely different approach. The story of the downfall of the Republic is potentially interesting, but maybe if Lucas handed the whole thing off to someone else (David Lynch?), which I don't see him doing. There are also some more minor plot problems like the idea of Obi Wan hiding Vader's son on Vader's home planet, near Vader's family, that would have to be addressed creatively.

And I don't see Lucas jeopardizing the merchandising revenue by taking many risks, so you would get something half-assed, though maybe parts would be interesting. You would also need to do a really good job of casting Vader to even have a chance of nailing it.

Incidentally, there are lots of internet fan treatments of possible Star Wars prequels but none manage to be both coherent and compelling.
ROTJ is likely the closest we'll ever get to prequels, as it show the end of Vader's rule and the scene where he is unmasked is emotionally potent. The sequels did have a few cool sequences against the Vong though and Mara Jade was a potentially interesting character, but was screwed given she was the love interest of Luke and Mark Hamill's lack of range showed a lot in these films.
 

samcster94

Banned
Prequels should also work backwards, to deal with the issue of you already know how things are going to turn out, but whether they would have is another matter. The story of how the rebels got the Death Star plans in the first place would work well as a "first" prequel movie if you are doing them backwards.
We did at least get other peeps doing stories before Episode IV(and that plot was mentioned in passing once in the Mandalorian movie, where a half finished Death Star appears in one shot at the end).
 
That Lucas had nine episodes of Star Wars worked out is a myth created by Lucas himself. "Star Wars" was a space opera, not a Tokeinesque legendarium, and the plot possibilities were really exhausted in the first two movies. That is why the sequels Lucas did attempt were underwhelming.

Isn't there an interview floating around where Lucas says that Star Wars was initially planned as a one off but the studio liked the idea so much after the success of Episode IV that they wanted more?

Its just that one of the ones I drink with refuses to acknowledge the existence of anything other than Episode IV because of that interview...which I have sen but cannot find again...

It has been the source of some quite loud 'discussions' in the pub.
 
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Toraach

Banned
I am too afraid to think about what plots he could have created for the prequels, some known early drafts involve 6 years old Anakin Skywalker, who singlehandely built C3PO and R2D2 from scrap parts obtained on a junkyyard, and if I'm correct somewhat about him as a pod racer prodigy. That's just too stupid to even exists, I'm not suprised that it wasn't filmed.
 
I am too afraid to think about what plots he could have created for the prequels, some known early drafts involve 6 years old Anakin Skywalker, who singlehandely built C3PO and R2D2 from scrap parts obtained on a junkyyard, and if I'm correct somewhat about him as a pod racer prodigy. That's just too stupid to even exists, I'm not suprised that it wasn't filmed.

You also forgot to mention how he was immaculately conceived by Force mitochondria or somesuch...
 
You also forgot to mention how he was immaculately conceived by Force mitochondria or somesuch...

Yeah, but that was just speculation. Mind you, seeing the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker would be interesting. Epsecially since some of the few btis of supplementary material painted him as this pretty good kid set on the path of byronic heroism and then we heard of some big War that causes PTSD.
 
Yeah, but that was just speculation. Mind you, seeing the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker would be interesting. Epsecially since some of the few btis of supplementary material painted him as this pretty good kid set on the path of byronic heroism and then we heard of some big War that causes PTSD.
I wouldn't say his fall was caused by PTSD, rather I'd think Anakin would begin performing progressively eviler and eviler acts, maybe torturing someone to extract military plans, and bombing civilians. If he gets born into the Clone Wars, I can see him "dying" and becoming Darth Vader to end them. At any cost.
I can also see a tie in with the fall of the Jedi. Yoda says that wars don't make one great, but he is introduced as a great warrior. Perhaps the war caused the Jedi to lose their way, which is way Yoda taught Luke the way he did. Abandoning age old values to end the war, or letting themselves become political instruments, and being gradually weakened and eventually destroyed by the Emperor and Vader.
I sadly doubt Lucas would be able to portray something like this accurately though. I'm not really sure any director would. It's kinda like making a movie about the rise of Hitler. Just so many subtle things and moving parts.
And the format of 3 movies doesn't do any favors. 6 hours of runtime just doesn't seem enough, especially for something this complex and large. An animated series would be best, especially for making sci-fi effects, but there's a attitude that American animation is for kids or adult humor. Lucas was inspired heavily by Japanese cinema, so he might still be interested in modern Japanese works like anime. Maybe a collaboration with Genndy Tartakovsky.
 
I wouldn't say his fall was caused by PTSD, rather I'd think Anakin would begin performing progressively eviler and eviler acts, maybe torturing someone to extract military plans, and bombing civilians. If he gets born into the Clone Wars, I can see him "dying" and becoming Darth Vader to end them. At any cost.
I can also see a tie in with the fall of the Jedi. Yoda says that wars don't make one great, but he is introduced as a great warrior. Perhaps the war caused the Jedi to lose their way, which is way Yoda taught Luke the way he did. Abandoning age old values to end the war, or letting themselves become political instruments, and being gradually weakened and eventually destroyed by the Emperor and Vader.
I sadly doubt Lucas would be able to portray something like this accurately though. I'm not really sure any director would. It's kinda like making a movie about the rise of Hitler. Just so many subtle things and moving parts.
And the format of 3 movies doesn't do any favors. 6 hours of runtime just doesn't seem enough, especially for something this complex and large. An animated series would be best, especially for making sci-fi effects, but there's a attitude that American animation is for kids or adult humor. Lucas was inspired heavily by Japanese cinema, so he might still be interested in modern Japanese works like anime. Maybe a collaboration with Genndy Tartakovsky.

I actually figured an animated series and film could work together. The films are the big events of the life of Anakin and animated series' act as fill in between. Speaking of, one prequel idea I thought was interesting was a character named Jar Jar. He was a Gungun, which would've been itneresting to see sooner, but he was kinda a clown. But the plans was to have him reveal himself as the puppetmaster of the Sith and the one who worked with the emperor... kinda like an anti-Yoda.
 
I actually figured an animated series and film could work together. The films are the big events of the life of Anakin and animated series' act as fill in between.
I feel like Lucas would make kinda lack luster films, then pursue the animated series as a sort of self-funded passion project to fill in the holes later. The series could even run at a loss, if Lucas felt like telling the story was important enough.
 

samcster94

Banned
I actually figured an animated series and film could work together. The films are the big events of the life of Anakin and animated series' act as fill in between. Speaking of, one prequel idea I thought was interesting was a character named Jar Jar. He was a Gungun, which would've been itneresting to see sooner, but he was kinda a clown. But the plans was to have him reveal himself as the puppetmaster of the Sith and the one who worked with the emperor... kinda like an anti-Yoda.
None of that would have worked. I was a big fan of that spin off trilogy made by Sony where Diana(OOC:the Kara Thrace type pilot) had mounted an earlier attack on the Empire(Pre ANH) with a crew of smugglers but failed even if they came close at one point. Lucas's prequels look rather dull in comparison. If he had given the rights to the prequels to someone else, maybe.
 
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