George Lucas comes up with the idea for Star Wars in 2018

What would have happened if George Lucas came up with the script for A New Hope in 2018? Would the movie get off the ground, and would it be as spectacular as it was in 1977?

Include all butterflies occurring from the movie not coming out in 1977. Assume the same script as IOTL.
 
What would have happened if George Lucas came up with the script for A New Hope in 2018? Would the movie get off the ground, and would it be as spectacular as it was in 1977?

Include all butterflies occurring from the movie not coming out in 1977. Assume the same script as IOTL.
There a lot of poors butterflies killed with that premise....what will lucas do in the meanwhile?
 


From this 2016 bio of George, he wanted an "old Universe" for Star Wars. And I think he succeeded.

The special effects although arguably primitive, were good enough. I don't remember people talking about howlers and things which really visibly stood out at all.

And then he wanted the big space battle scene at the end to have fast craft and fast lasers. This was really new for the time.

============

If it's made in 2018, a lot of the "new" aspects won't be new. It will still be a good story. The congruence of factors and "perfect storm" which led to really big success OTL won't exist. I guess we can call this "regression to the mean"? A 2018 version is likely to have much more middling success (many more ways to end up in the middle than at either extreme)
 
If Lucas had his way in the seventies, there would be no Star Wars story. He wanted to do a modern Flash Gordon, with all the new lights and bluescreen effects, but couldn't get the license. Star Wars was the result, and it borrowed features from Flash Gordon, such as a desert planet, an ice planet, a jungle planet, a floating city complex and a princess. Keep in mind the original impact of the original Star Wars was the collection of special effects. Lucas did not even decide that Darth Vader was Luke's father until The Empire Strikes Back.

Many fictional worlds do not progress through generations. Lucas might not have had that idea if he started with Flash Gordon.
 
What would have happened if George Lucas came up with the script for A New Hope in 2018? Would the movie get off the ground, and would it be as spectacular as it was in 1977?

Probably (and let's avoid all the unavoidable butterflies). He'd be known as the guy who did American Grafitti and Indiana Jones. If Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gets butterflied, then that's a pretty solid legacy. So he could probably get the movie made.

The problem is what happens next? First, it obviously attracts an infinite amount of comparisons to Star Trek due to the title. Then when it comes out, it's probably regarded as an average film, but somewhat forgettable. The plot is criticised as being formulaic (it is the Hero's Journey after all), but the whole high fantasy-in-space setting might be regarded as an interesting take on an otherwise cliche setting. I could see a cult fanbase for the movie developing, but the box office returns probably won't justify a sequel being made.
 
What would have happened if George Lucas came up with the script for A New Hope in 2018? Would the movie get off the ground, and would it be as spectacular as it was in 1977?

Include all butterflies occurring from the movie not coming out in 1977. Assume the same script as IOTL.
Okay first you need to go into what a prolonged trucking craze would do to American culture.
 
Okay first you need to go into what a prolonged trucking craze would do to American culture.

EAST BOUND AND DOOOOOOOOOWN
LOADED UP AND TRUCKIN'
WE'RE GONNA DO WHAT THEY SAY CAN'T BE DONE
WE'VE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO
AND A SHORT TIME TO GET THERE
I'M EAST BOUND JUST
WATCH OL' BANDIT RUUUUUUN
 
The dialogue and acting direction would have to be way better - the rest of the movie is good enough to carry the flaws but those flaws are there. It's been funny watching some of the more ardent fanboy criticism of the new films when the exact same issues are evident in the earlier films.
 
The dialogue and acting direction would have to be way better - the rest of the movie is good enough to carry the flaws but those flaws are there. It's been funny watching some of the more ardent fanboy criticism of the new films when the exact same issues are evident in the earlier films.
there would not be fans, GL fans but not SW fans as the movies just started oday
 

Indiana Beach Crow

Monthly Donor
Okay first you need to go into what a prolonged trucking craze would do to American culture.

EAST BOUND AND DOOOOOOOOOWN
LOADED UP AND TRUCKIN'
WE'RE GONNA DO WHAT THEY SAY CAN'T BE DONE
WE'VE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO
AND A SHORT TIME TO GET THERE
I'M EAST BOUND JUST
WATCH OL' BANDIT RUUUUUUN

[20th Century Fox Executive Suite, 1975]

"George, I just don't see the appeal of a movie set in space. I mean, just listen to what the kids are hearing on the radio and tell me how your picture is going to relate to that (Turns on radio, Convoy by CW McCall is playing)"

"Well it's not just about space battles and laser sword fights... (Thinks furiously) There's... there's also a freighter captain!"

"A freighter captain?"

"Yeah, a freighter captain! And he's pretty much just like a modern day trucker. He's nobody's boss but his own, with a heart of gold underneath a jaded exterior."

"... interesting. You get me a treatment in two weeks, and we'll talk more about this."


[Wipe cut to Wikipedia page, 2018]

"Star Wars is a film by director George Lucas. Set in a galaxy that, as the title card says is "long ago and far away", it features a down on his luck 'pod racer' and freighter captain Han Solo (A mustachioed Harrison Ford) hired by wealthy client to smuggle a bootleg shipment of Trandoshan ale across a star system via a route called the Kessel Run, in 12 parsecs or less. Gathering up his friend and co-pilot Drew 'Chew' Bacca (Jerry Reed) and his trusty ship the Millennium Bandit, he proceeds across the galaxy one step ahead of Imperial Police Officer Darth T. Vader (played by David Prowse, voiced by Jackie Gleason). Along the way he picks up a Princess (Carrie Fisher) looking for a ride to anywhere else in the galaxy, but who has her own past history with Vader.

7th highest grossing film of 1977."
 
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[20th Century Fox Executive Suite, 1975]

"George, I just don't see the appeal of a movie set in space. I mean, just listen to what the kids are hearing on the radio and tell me how your picture is going to relate to that (Turns on radio, Convoy by CW McCall is playing)"

"Well it's not just about space battles and laser sword fights... (Thinks furiously) There's... there's also a freighter captain!"

"A freighter captain?"

"Yeah, a freighter captain! And he's pretty much just like a modern day trucker. He's nobody's boss but his own, with a heart of gold underneath a jaded exterior."

"... interesting. You get me a treatment in two weeks, and we'll talk more about this."


[Wipe cut to Wikipedia page, 2018]

"Star Wars is a film by director George Lucas. Set in a galaxy that, as the title card says is "long ago and far away", it features a down on his luck 'pod racer' and freighter captain Han Solo (A mustachioed Harrison Ford) hired by wealthy client to smuggle a bootleg shipment of Trandoshan ale across a star system via a route called the Kessel Run, in 12 parsecs or less. Gathering up his friend and co-pilot Drew 'Chew' Bacca (Jerry Reed) and his trusty ship the Millennium Bandit, he proceeds across the galaxy one step ahead of Imperial Police Officer Darth T. Vader (played by David Prowse, voiced by Jackie Gleason). Along the way he picks up a Princess (Carrie Fisher) looking for a ride to anywhere else in the galaxy, but who has her own past history with Vader.

7th highest grossing film of 1977."
Screw causality and any time paradoxes we need to invent time travel just to get this.

EDIT: "Sally Field as Carrie" That settles it.
 
If the Star Wars were made today then from the beginning George Lucas would be expected to create a franchise. If the Marvel Cinematic Universe exists then Star Wars will be the competition or “ the next big thing”.
I could see Rogue One being released in 2019 as a filler before Episode V sort of like OTL. It would set up how the Empire operates and why Darth Vader is The Big Bad. Princess Leia would have a bigger role rather than just a cameo.

Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is split into two films. Part I is basically a condensed version of the OTL film. The difference is that Luke returns to Dagobah to heal and finish training.
Part II is the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba The Hut without Luke. It establishes Leia and Lando both as bad ass characters. We get the reveal that Leia is a Skywalker. Leia begins to exhibit more Jedi powers.
Return of the Jedi is all about Battle of Endor.
 
If the Star Wars were made today then from the beginning George Lucas would be expected to create a franchise. If the Marvel Cinematic Universe exists then Star Wars will be the competition or “ the next big thing”.
I could see Rogue One being released in 2019 as a filler before Episode V sort of like OTL. It would set up how the Empire operates and why Darth Vader is The Big Bad. Princess Leia would have a bigger role rather than just a cameo.

Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is split into two films. Part I is basically a condensed version of the OTL film. The difference is that Luke returns to Dagobah to heal and finish training.
Part II is the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba The Hut without Luke. It establishes Leia and Lando both as bad ass characters. We get the reveal that Leia is a Skywalker. Leia begins to exhibit more Jedi powers.
Return of the Jedi is all about Battle of Endor.

Nobody would expect a random science fiction movie to compete with the MCU. I don't even think they'd expect a sequel. Something like Pacific Rim was never meant to have a sequel after all.
 
Nobody would expect a random science fiction movie to compete with the MCU. I don't even think they'd expect a sequel. Something like Pacific Rim was never meant to have a sequel after all.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here and say that Uprising was absolute shit and shouldn't have been made
 
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