With the news of Star Wars changing hands we now look forward to the future of the franchise and the new movies that will come from it. To some, Disney buying LucasFilm is saving a dying franchise in hopes of making a good Star Wars film, arguably something that hasn't been done in decades. To others, it's a disturbing opportunity for a large company to walk in and ruin their childhood and walk out with bags of money. Disney has to find a subtle balance between offering up fan service but also putting their own mark on the Star Wars franchise. To best understand where to go from here you have to find out where this all came from.
If you go back and watch documentaries or behind the scenes footage or commentaries about the very first Star Wars film, now called A New Hope, they shed a very ugly light on the film's making. It was a mess. Lucas' vision didn't match what the studio wanted and soon his film went over budget and over time. It turned into a muddled science fiction movie barely saved by crafty editing, groundbreaking special effects, and an unforgettable score. All of the faults and mistakes lay in the lap of series de-facto director and writer George Lucas, but so do its victories. He sat in the editing bay pouring over different cuts, he formed the companies that invented those new special effects and sounds, and he was the only man forcing this space opera on everybody who just said no.
Empire Strikes Back then blew everything out of the water. A movie that set the world on fire returned but without its now seminal director and instead was helmed by Irvin Kershner. Lucas was mainly a creative coordinator and producer, ensuring the movie didn't go off the deep end, and no character grew in the wrong direction or change his story. Return of the Jedi also didn't have Lucas at it's helm but found him more in control with this trilogy's production waning, but also personally saw the end of his marriage at the same time.
Years later the prequels came about, some would say to make money Lucas lost in his divorce years ago. Others would argue it was to finish Darth Vader's story arc from promising Jedi Knight to terrifying and sad Sith Lord. All this makes Star Wars what it is. The strange back stories of Lucas watching Buck Rogers serials that formed into a behemoth on film. And now that story continues for the first time in the hands of Mickey Mouse.
Disney is a giant among content creators. Pixar, Marvel, and a deluge of Disney intellectual properties and parks that place itself in a unique opportunity to have a chance to make a good Star Wars film. But what makes a Star Wars film great? What quality can create Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi and what absence of said quality creates Attack of the Clones?
Calling the new film Episode 7 already implies a lot. I assume this means it takes place post Return of the Jedi and that means no Darth Vader (spoilers!). But does this mean there will be Luke Skywalker? Han Solo? Perhaps even Leia and Han's kids? Maybe even a clone Emperor (actually happens)? The story already has a treatment, written by Lucas, and a lot of those stories have already been written in books, comics, and video games. The most important question is what should we see. What content will make Episode 7 successful? What will make it a redefining experience for everyone who goes to movies like the original was?
The first answer is one that avoids all the problems and make this numbered as a sequel, a prequel. Go back hundreds or thousands of years and set the movie in a time when both Jedi and Sith numbered more than two. Imagine a war between nothing but force users and lightsaber wielders. You keep the keys to any Star Wars universe: the force, lightsabers, the fight between good and evil. With so much of the time before the movies unexplored, especially when compared to the time after the movies, you could place the movies where you want. You can invent your own story, characters, and with some help make it all fit in the existing massive Star Wars universe.
A problem still exists however. Those of us who were kids when the original films were released no film afterward will ever replace the nostalgia that you remember so fondly. No film that doesn't have Ben Kenobi, or Chewbacca, or Boba Fett isn't worth your time or money. Those of us who were kids between the original set and the prequels were told of the lore of Star Wars and if you were like me the prequels felt like your own Star Wars films made just for you, with or without disappointment. The things that make Star Wars would be missing by zapping the story back centuries.
The second answer is to overlay it within the current set of films. If you played Shadow of the Empire, a video game for the N64 system, you know that there are some stories to tell within and between the movies. I can recall the line "bounty hunter on Ord Mandell" from one of the films, referring to something that happened between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Telling those stories, misadventures of the Rebellion, could be something the old fans would enjoy. But that means casting a Luke (assuming he's in the story), spotting the Millennium Falcon fly off in the background, and horrible potential for gaudy crossover with the other films. A little bit of knowing nods to super fans is a thin line that needs to be walked carefully and is easy to trip over.
There is no clear answer anymore. There are too many sets of fans, too many points of entry, too many "this is my Star Wars or nothing is" to make something like the original or prequel trilogy ever again. The best solution that will still only have you fall short and have blogs filled with your mistakes, is to gather a room with a small team of dedicated Star Wars writers. Let them spit something out within context of the universe that can still feel like it's own thing.
Disney buying LucasFilm is a great business decision and nearly a bargain. But to deal with the legion of fans and hope to only market the property to kids is a mistake. This franchise isn't a park maker, it's a movie savior. So let's see if the mouse has what it takes when the man who made it all couldn't.
I've never understood the mind set of "this is my Star Wars or nothing is". It's all Star Wars you just like one part over the other.
The implications that Lucas's fabled third trilogy treatment ruining the extended unit continuity is being over blown a bit. In the end this is all works of fiction just deal with it. Going back to the time of the Old Republic or forward in time to Cade Skywalker and the Star Wars Legacy setting seem like the best bets. Both settings allow for a Republic/Empire dynamic and varying degree in the number of Jedi/Sith. A Darth Revan trilogy would be AWESOME.
George Lucas is a great idea man and producer. Ultimately I think he has had a positive affect on film making since he just plays with new technologies and tries to make them fit his vision.
The smartest thing Disney could do with Star Wars Episode 7 is to set it many years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Mention those characters, hell maybe have C-3PO and R2-D2 around, but that's it. I don't want to see the memories I cherish from my childhood viewings of these classic films completely ruined by casting new actors in those roles. Instead, focus on something further down the scope, with new characters. I think George Lucas has made the greatest decision to take a backseat to all of this, and allow someone else to helm this new trilogy. If we can get the right script and the right actors, these might be something special, and just what we all need to see the prequel trilogy dust finally settle.
The only I don't want, seems like I won't have. Lucas directing. I don't care about his producing. That always worked. I don't even dislike the prequels. What I dislike is the dryness to the characters that was installed in the last trilogy. Everyone spoke the same. When Sam Jackson is boring it's the directors fault, and Sam Jackson was boring as hell. We've even found out that Hayden Christian can actually act. Even Liam Neeson seemed to be reading off of que cards at times. The story was there, the visuals were there, but acting was horrible. Something this article didn't mention about the original Star Wars movie was how the actors did what they wanted a lot and adlib a lot of lines. Just keep Lucas out and the films should be fine. There is so much material over the years do the movies justice.
I admit it, i liked the prequels lol
I hope at some point they remake the Prequels, but this time make actual good movies and erase that other garbage from history.
I mostly liked the prequels, and the beauty of this site is that I know that I'm not alone. I'm not really worried too much about the new movies. What I worry about is all the cool user generated stuff over the years relating to Star Wars, which has been allowed for the most part, even things that directly make fun of Lucas. Disney, god love 'em, is famous for telling children's hospitals to remove Disney characters from their walls, and is one of the main reasons copyright law is so anti-consumer these days. I'll be sad if Disney's way wins out in that arena.
I'm an amateur Star Wars fan at best; in terms of knowledge of the Expanded Universe, I enjoyed a book called The New Rebellion, but overall I need some serious help knowing all the different alien species in description. That said, I'm hardly one to comment on the best direction for an Episode VII, but I always had an interest in creative control over huge franchises, so I'll give it a shot.
Every different page across the web that I found discussing this story has had the same reaction on the comments page below: "Knights of the Old Republic!" This series to the dedicated fans are the true prequels, and with the comment that Episode VII will be an "original story" free from the constraints of the pre-existing films, I worry that the subsequent new trilogy will miss the point. KOTOR exists because of the vibrant dynamic that is the Star Wars franchise, and its ability for its fanbase to tap into it and craft their own tales. The general public, on the other hand, know very little of the EU, and to them--and basically, to me--it is about the Skywalker clan--and to a larger extent, Darth Vader himself--so I agree any feature film about a solitary individual or group going about their way in the galaxy far, far away would miss the point. The films are the backbone of the franchise, and the EU branches it out from there.
With that in mind, just looking and the material provided, the Star Wars: Legacy storyline could work out pretty well. Cade Skywalker is literally haunted by his family's legacy, getting frequent visits with Luke's blue Force ghost, and his gruff, anti-hero demeanor would be accepted in our oh-so jaded world nowadays. Add to this the bad-ass villain Darth Krayt, who not only is incredibly old--interacting with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan--but came upon accepting the Sith not through traumatic experience, but through a logical conclusion, albeit one that came about when being tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong. A loose adaptation would seem like the best direction, only because out of all this corporate buy-out stuff, I'm a little worried how a Star Wars film will be put together in roughly two years.
@oobs: Lucas did say he had the story treatments written up. So that could mean entire scripts or loose ideas. He has been iffy about what he has written in the past (used to say he wrote the first three films in one big movie but it really just had elements of the next two), so who knows.
For years, I have been wishing that Knights of the old Republic would become a Star Wars film, because it literally feels like a movie that takes place in the form of a Role-playing game. The story is very epic, and it has a good cast of characters, that resemble the ones from the original trilogy.
Now, that Disney has bought the franchise, they have the opportunity to make any Star Wars film they want to, and I think setting their film in the Old Republic universe would be undeniably awesome.
We're gonna get SW films until the end of times!!
<- actually, Yes, it can.
No matter what they don't I'll be their day one. Even if they totally drop the ball, it's hard for me to picture them making something worse than Episodes 1 & 2. Even the Transformers movies are better than those and I thought those were pretty awful at times. In some ways, I don't think it's possible for non-pet project (and by this I mean non-Star Wars) movies with budgets and legacy like Star Wars to end up as bad as the first two prequels. Episode 1 was the first SW movie I ever saw and I went with some friends who always went on and on about how awesome SW was and I remember walking out of the theater and telling this, "That's what you all have been going on about all this time?"
At worst, I think we'll get a Revenge of the Sith film where the only good thing is the action and special effects, but they pack so much action into it that the film is actually an enjoyable 3/5 quality, mediocre, middle of the road film.
Lucas really dragged the quality of Star Wars through the mud. Taking video games, cartoons, comics, novels, etc into account, Lucas may very well have crafted the worst professionally released Star Wars content ever.
I read today that the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 will be writing the script for Star Wars 7. So, depending on how you liked the dialogue and pacing in those movies will determine whether or not you might go into the next movie with hope or trepidation.