I am not a SW historian, but what I think was more likely based on what Lucas and others have stated.

1975 - Lucas has broad idea of huge sweeping epic. He narrows it down and writes Ep IV to pitch as he thinks this is the story that will allow the most people to follow/studio to fund/etc. He has no idea if he can get this made or if it will be succesful, he simply writes it as it's own movie.
1978 - After stupid runaway success of SW, GL decides to go ahead with a sequal, states that this is a 9 part epic. He then goes on to write ESB, with idea of where episodes VI-IX will go.
1981 - After shooting ESB and seeing all the time and creativity restraints, GL rethinks his 9 episode epic and decides to be done with SW and end it as a trilogy. He rethinks his story line and trims it down to wrap up the SW universe with RotJ.
1995 - After a decade and having not done anything constructive aside retelling the OT with SE and being a one-trick pony (well 2 if you count American Grafitti) and at the behest of his kids, or for his kids, GL decides to do the prequals.
2004 - There really is no place for the epic to go. SW has always been about a small core group of people, and droids. With a new sequal trilogy you have very little to tell or not enough to make it interesting or true enough to the OT.

I hate the whole idea of trilogy? Why does it need to be trilogy? It's not like Lord of the Rings that has all the details written down already. Lucas is making it up as he goes along. That's the problem with episode 1 to 3. I just don't feel there are enough materials there to make a trilogy. And to put each of them 3 yrs apart.

Why can't a sequel be made into one 3hr movie or 2 movies? Perhaps film it together like LOTR and release it one year apart. I really dislike this trilogy, 3 years apart, format Lucas set up.

While I have no problem with the trilogy format, I too would love for Lucas to lose the need for an arcing story, and instead allow other directors to craft their own individual Star Wars episodes. I mean, that's what I'd like to see after the prequels. I'm sure many directors would love a shot at crafting their own Star Wars movie. Though, I know, it's a pipe dream.

star wars vs lord of the rings, i'd make more money than freddy vs jason.

the last three episodes could follow the wookies and we could see what a wookie xmas is like. Maybe also have some Bea Arthur singing numbers.

Lucas could make Star Wars: Episodes -2, -1 and 0 chronicling the beginnings of Jar Jar and the Gungans - and I'd still probably take a day off from work to see the first showings on opening day.

As far as I'm concerned - there is no such thing as too much Star Wars. Bring it on.

In my opinion, limiting the Sith to only 2 (no more, no less) was a bigger mistake than putting Jar Jar in the movie. You have this total bad-ass "Lord of the Sith" from the OT and then we find out that there are only 2(!) Sith? Talk about wasted opportunities. A whole army (or at least a squad) of Darth Mauls would be incredible.

Plus, if it only takes 2 Sith to defeat the Jedi and take over the whole frickin' galaxy, doesn't that make the Jedi look like some world class *******?

I think that was the point...


I have always wanted to see sequels to the originals. I'm still trying to get past my own disappointment that the prequels aren't sequels and enjoy them on their own merits (which they do have). I just started reading Tatooine Ghost and loving the heck out of it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy being with these characters.

I also believe that at one time, I think around 1977 or 1978, Lucas claimed that this would be a 12-part saga, possibly with "Star Wars" (later renamed A New Hope) being the first part.

great, I would watch twelve. why not make it 20?

George: Go for it. It's your thing, do what you want with it. Don't listen to anyone else but yourself. You can take it in any direction you choose.

it originally was written as about that many and then lucas just shortend it down. the events of return of the jedi weren't suppose to take place till later before the re-write.

maybe this time GL will take the LOTR advice and write it all at once and shoot it at once and the do the post-production work one film at a time. it will give it more continuity than doing one film at a time.

A few years before the SE's were released I remembered that Lucas was supposed to do just that...film all the movies back to back, and release them every year...just like LOTR.

Yeah, I definitely heard he wanted to film all three back-to-back as well. Thank goodness he didn't though, or he wouldn't have been able to reduce Jar Jar's part in Episode II to appease all the outraged fans.

I hate to sound like a nerd, but I got bored one day and read up on some characters in the Extended Universe (or whatever it's called) on the starwars.com site...turns out Boba Fett escapes the Sarlacc and finds his ship and converts it into Slave II...or something to that effect.

Aside from the Zahn Trilogy--and even that some will still contest--, EU is pretty much crap and not considered canon.

Sorry,


Ain't gonna happen, at least with ILM.

Got friends of mine who work at ILM and once Episode III is over, then that's that.

No more. Even Episode III had less of a crew (at least animation-wise) than the previous prequels.

They should just take the first three Timothy Zahn novels and film them for Episodes 7-9. I thought Zahn did an incredible job and actually explained a ton of stuff in his books that were not explained in the original trilogy.

I actually like the Zahn trilogy better than the OT, as it's way deeper. Of course the Zahn trilogy wouldn't mean anything without the OT.

Why not just get Peter Jackson to direct Episodes 7-9?

Well, once again, let's put this silly rumor to rest. Joshua Griffin of TF.N is obviously pulling everyone's chain with this erroneous reporting.

From EOnline:

a rep for Lucasfilm stuck to the company line and nixed the possibility of any more films.

"The rumors are absolutely untrue," says company spokeswoman Lynn Fox, adding that no non-disclosure was ever signed pertaining to future episodes.

From George Lucas:

"When you see it in six parts, you'll understand," Lucas said at the time. "It really ends at part six."

It's obvious that Griffin is holding out hope and clinging to rumors for one simple reason. TF.N obviously gets a lot more traffic and hits when rumors like this appear, not to mention traffic to his site will drop when the films are finished.


Because there isn't going to be anymore Episodes. Besides, there are many more directors I'd rather have on a Star Wars movie than Jackson, that is if they were getting made, which they aren't.

Um, the last Indy film was in '87. So your timeline You cannot call someone who made and directed THX-1138, American Graffiti, Star Wars, and created and wrote Indy and Willow, a one trick pony. The entire notion is absurd.

No offense to Jason, but this is why we all ought to thank God Lucas pays no attention to us fans. This idea is too silly.

After LOTR, this generation's Star Wars, why would he want to take a step back?

I realize its a rumor, but I'd watch episodes 7-100 if they made them. I wouldn't care who directed them or wrote them, as long as Lucas or someone from his camp had some sort of approval rule.

You do realize how silly that statement sounds, don't you? As for LOTR being this generation's Star Wars...............no!

Why not? This is the epic that people will still be watching 25 years from now, just like Star Wars from the last gen.

LOTR might not ever be quite as popular, but it's still the SW of this gen as there's nothing else even close.