DBWI: Star Wars gets a movie sequel

Star Wars(1977) was a cult hit, however it wasn't as successful as George Lucas hoped. He was never able to make the sequel movie, and the franchise continued in the Marvel comics and a book series starting with "Splinter In The Mind's Eye". Many Star Wars nerds have wondered what might have happened if it performed well enough for a movie sequel, and how Star Wars II may have been different from Splinter In the Mind's Eye. How might this have affected the science fiction genre going forward into the eighties? What changes would've happened to George Lucas and the major actors of Star Wars?
 
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was written with the idea that it could be turned into a movie fairly easily so any sequel is probably based on that book.

If Lucas goes that route it probably enjoys modest success but that’s it. Enough to satisfy the fan base but not enough to justify further movies.

I realize rumors have existed for years that Lucas began concept work on something much more ambitious but that’s all they are rumors and they have about as much credibility as Bigfoot sightings.
 
Honestly, I always felt that star wars is more meant as a self contained modern reimanging of the classic fantasy tale, and most of the stuff on closer examination doesn't really make much sense, which will most certainly occur if sequels were made and the universe gets fleshed out. It's a simple story, and even with those supplementary materials some people were already looking way too deeply into it.

Admittedly I never read the comics and other supplementary materials and only watched the movie because I already watched a bunch of movies with Alec Guinness (The Bridge on the River Kawi, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Cromwell) and figured it would be at least a somewhat enjoyable film.
 
Eh, I never was very impressed with Star Wars, and Im not quite sure how such a simple enclosed story could have been effectively continued in cinimatic form. I mean, they already jumped the shark in terms of "Space Opera" by destroying the Empire's superweapon... what could they do that was more dramatic than that while keeping the tone still serious? As for the Sci-fi genere, we probably see a greater focus on graphical spectical: the visual effects were really what caused Star Wars to stand out over, say,A Space Odassy and Star Treck, as opposed to it's more "deep thought" route that it went IOTL. That kind of over the top action stuff has always been Lucas's fortee

Now, I think the bigger impact would be from George shifting his focus into that genre rather than the Pulp Adventure films and games LucasArts is known for. Would he have pursued the Indiana Jones and Monkey Island movies if Star Wars was a successful franchise? Im a huge fan of the later, though I don't know if Hamil would have been used to his full potential if he continued to have to play as blank a character as Luke vs. the more flamboyant Guybrush.
 
One of the joys of the internet is that there are bits and pieces of a proposed sequel that Lucas was shopping around out there. Supposedly, it was meant to delve into a deeper philosophical meaning with the force. It was also supposed to be a darker film than the first. The bit that I read included a weird scene involving Darth Vader getting his head cut off in what turned out to be a hallucination and it being the protagonist's face under the mask. There were also rumors that the rest of script included betrayal, torture and dismemberment. You think the public would really go for that?
 
Eh, I never was very impressed with Star Wars, and Im not quite sure how such a simple enclosed story could have been effectively continued in cinimatic form. I mean, they already jumped the shark in terms of "Space Opera" by destroying the Empire's superweapon... what could they do that was more dramatic than that while keeping the tone still serious? As for the Sci-fi genere, we probably see a greater focus on graphical spectical: the visual effects were really what caused Star Wars to stand out over, say,A Space Odassy and Star Treck, as opposed to it's more "deep thought" route that it went IOTL. That kind of over the top action stuff has always been Lucas's fortee

Now, I think the bigger impact would be from George shifting his focus into that genre rather than the Pulp Adventure films and games LucasArts is known for. Would he have pursued the Indiana Jones and Monkey Island movies if Star Wars was a successful franchise? Im a huge fan of the later, though I don't know if Hamil would have been used to his full potential if he continued to have to play as blank a character as Luke vs. the more flamboyant Guybrush.

The special effects really were the big thing. Even today they still hold up pretty well but beyond that the story is pretty cookie cutter. The villains are outsized, the good guys are up against the wall, the hero saves the day, the rogue redeems himself and the hero gets the girl. Beyond that there wasn't much. Plus, the story wrapped up nicely at the end, there really wasn't much in the way of sequel material. Darth Vader escaping was a nice touch at the end but it was not enough.
 
One of the joys of the internet is that there are bits and pieces of a proposed sequel that Lucas was shopping around out there. Supposedly, it was meant to delve into a deeper philosophical meaning with the force. It was also supposed to be a darker film than the first. The bit that I read included a weird scene involving Darth Vader getting his head cut off in what turned out to be a hallucination and it being the protagonist's face under the mask. There were also rumors that the rest of script included betrayal, torture and dismemberment. You think the public would really go for that?

Yeah bits and pieces of Lucas' old shopping lists, nonsense he wrote on a notepad when he was drunk, or third hand accounts of conversations he had with his garbage man. One of the sillier ideas I've heard was that Luke and Leia were in fact supposed to be brother and sister and that would be revealed in a later movie. Supposedly Obi Wan Kenobi knew this and that was why he tried to recruit Luke for his rescue mission, hence the line, "I need your help Luke, she needs your help."

Besides being not very believable, it undermines one of the key aspects of the genre - the hero gets the girl, and it makes a couple of scenes downright creepy.
 
Yeah bits and pieces of Lucas' old shopping lists, nonsense he wrote on a notepad when he was drunk, or third hand accounts of conversations he had with his garbage man. One of the sillier ideas I've heard was that Luke and Leia were in fact supposed to be brother and sister and that would be revealed in a later movie. Supposedly Obi Wan Kenobi knew this and that was why he tried to recruit Luke for his rescue mission, hence the line, "I need your help Luke, she needs your help."

Besides being not very believable, it undermines one of the key aspects of the genre - the hero gets the girl, and it makes a couple of scenes downright creepy.

Lucas' later works show though that he wasn't above bucking trends and adopting darker aspects though. Look at Raiders of the Lost Ark and it's in-depth look at Nazism and the whole face-melting scene, Temple of Doom with it's near case of child sacrifice and use of human organs, or the cannibalism and dismemberment depected in Secret of Monkey Island (albet as "black humor" that'd get turned into increasingly light hearted jokes later on). I wouldn't put that past him.
 
OK. So, if that's true and Darth would know this, why would he not know where Luke is? Unless uncle Owen and aunt Beru were really foster parents pretending to be his aunt and uncle, which would beg the question of who put them up to it and why the didn't seem like more than simple farmers and how they could be killed off offscreen so trivially?
 
Gonna throw a curve ball here, Darth Vader reveals that Luke is his son. Thoughts?

If Lucas had any aspirations of this being a series like the old serials that he said he was inspired by that would have killed it right there. That is so far over the top that it would shred every bit of credibility the series had to that point.
 
Gonna throw a curve ball here, Darth Vader reveals that Luke is his son. Thoughts?
From what little exists of Lucas's notes Anakin Skywalker was to have been a major character in a future film, providing Luke with the motivation to keep going and the like. It would be a bit difficult to make Luke talk to his father if said father was the villain.

The whole focus on Vader is odd since he was never important. Sure he was a big imposing threat, but he got beaten by Luke and Leia during Splinter, he failed to kill Luke in the movie, heck his only win was killing an old man who let him win. Being imposing is all Vader ever was.
 
Lucas is fairly old. His estate will be motivated to sell the remaining rights for cash. Marvel has been reviving every second & third tier super hero, and their elementary school teacher for a movie. Its inevitable the Marvel Comics version of Star Wars will be floated for a remake or sequel.
 
I guess George Lucas just didn't have time to revisit his earlier stuff following the phenomenal success of his Willow and Howard the Duck movie franchises in the 80s.

Maybe he can give his blessing to a younger filmmaker to do a remake and reintroduce it to a new generation.
 
What’s he going to write it about? They blew up the Death Star. Darth Vader obviously died in that fighter plane. What else is there? Star Wars was a nice lark through space about a guy in a shithole who discovers some great new tricks and takes down an evil empire. It accomplished what it set out to, and that was that. I mean, what’s next, a sequel to Back to the Future?
 
What’s he going to write it about? They blew up the Death Star. Darth Vader obviously died in that fighter plane. What else is there? Star Wars was a nice lark through space about a guy in a shithole who discovers some great new tricks and takes down an evil empire. It accomplished what it set out to, and that was that. I mean, what’s next, a sequel to Back to the Future?
Rehash the same damn things of course, just with bigger budget and better special effects! Or you know how most cash grab sequels these days work.

So obviously another bigger death star for a start...
 
They blew up the Death Star. Darth Vader obviously died in that fighter plane. What else is there? Star Wars was a nice lark through space about a guy in a shithole who discovers some great new tricks and takes down an evil empire.
...so the later comics and Splinter, which was explicitly supposed to be the basis of a tv show just don't exist in your mind then?
 
In Lucas's career retrospective he was pretty open about Star Wars being structured around the Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth. If that is the case, then Luke's father--whether Anakin, Vader, or combining them into one character (Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker--not really sure how I feel about that idea) would most definitely play a larger role in any sequel given the monomythic cycle explicit inclusion of a stage for "Atonement with the Father."

If
Lucas could maintain the power of the myth and pair it with a good script (I mean, really, even Alec Guinness said his Star Wars dialogue was almost un-readable), and somehow get enough money for a high-quality production at least equal to, if not exceeding, that of Star Wars, then--maybe--it will be a good sequel. In the end, given the mediocre box-office performance of Star Wars I just don't see any studio or distributor taking a risk on something that would have to have so many things work out just right.
 
Top