Still a cop out. Adapting and aging up characters could still be done.

Except the EU books also focus on the original trilogy characters, and the point of the sequel trilogy was to introduce new characters to carry on the film series, with the older cast coming on to pass on the torch, as it were. Disney was looking well past the initial 3 films. It doesn't make sense to tie the future of the franchise to the older actors, especially considering one of them likely didn't want to come back for more than one film, and only then if they kill his character off. The fact that one of the OT actors actually died during the filming of those 3 films illustrates another reason why Disney likely wasn't keen on focusing on the OT cast.

It's not an excuse for a bad script, it was just explaining the difficulties.

Except they had new source material...they had George Lucas himself. Say what you want about the PT but this universe is his baby. He knew where he wanted the ST to go, he had the Underworld series, use the asset that you have standing there in front of you.

They had an outline, which isn't that much better for crafting an original script than nothing.

Also, her comments were made between TLJ and TRoS, so Lucas' outline had already been scrapped. Except, they had incorporated parts of those outlines into the sequel trilogy, as the video above details.

Not to mention that some of those ideas were fucking OUT THERE, if not downright terrible. If Disney adapted the Whills controlling everything through midichlorians, how do you think fans honestly would have reacted? It wouldn't have mattered that Lucas came up with the idea, because audiences would have 1. Blamed Disney for coming up with it anyways or 2. blamed Disney for not ditching Lucas' ideas (remember that he was more or less a pariah at this point and it was before Gen Z attempted to stump for the PT).

And I'm sorry, we have to get off of this idea that Lucas is some genius storyteller. He has, no doubt, very interesting ideas and young Lucas was an outsider firebrand who was able to cobble together his favorite comic books and movies into a cinema-reinventing work. He did it with TONS of help from his actors, his musicians, his editors and his writers and directors in the next couple installments. Lucas has remained someone whose intense interest in the technology of moviemaking is admirable (similar to Zemeckis) and I applaud his left-leaning anti-establishment views that filter into his work. But is he the sole creative force in Star Wars? No. Is he the one who made Star Wars into a workable, engaging film? No. Is he adept at dialogue and actors and the human element of storytelling? No. Can he even write a script that makes sense plot-wise? Not really.

So miss me with that "What would Lucas think? It's his baby" bullshit. Who fucking cares what he thinks? He had three shots in the modern era to make a decent movie and he blew it every time. Why? Because he was surrounded by yes-men who thought "it's his baby". Auteur Theory is flat out wrong and diminishes the collaborative nature of making great films.

I’m not saying Lucas is the end all be all. I’m saying he is the source material. The entire Marvel catalog is filled with as many hits as misses but Fiege had people that translated the good stuff. Kennedy has done the opposite, she distanced herself feo
Lucas and really the only good thing she did was find Faveau (Fiege did similar to start as well)

And he has his own source material that he drew upon and that can just be done again without him. Mandalorian was great with the Seven Samurai and Sorcerer riffs. TLJ had Rashomon elements. I wish the ST incorporated MORE of that stuff, as I've said many times in this thread. Marvel comics aren't all done by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko and their input has not been needed for decades. In fact, when aspects of their general approach ARE implemented, people today decry them as "bad writing" or even "woke". Just like I said would happen if Disney followed with Lucas' ideas (which they partially did, as Jay G. pointed out).

You could still take story concepts, character ideas and adapt them to a new core cast. It doesn't have to be Luke and Han did this mission on Planet Q and discovered a new threat to the New Republic because Book 9 of Whatever series dictated it. It could very well be Poe and Finn did this mission on Planet Q and discovered a new threat to the New Republic. Or combine it with a comic book story of Luke & Han rescuing a POW on planet Z who becomes a new ally. So now it's Poe & Finn rescuing a POW on Planet R and discovers a new threat to the New Republic.

Point being there is plenty of content they could have pulled story, concepts and character ideas from and incorporated them.

I've honestly lost track of who's arguing for what at this point. My take: the ST could probably have been salvaged IF 1)Carrie Fisher hadn't died and 2) they stuck with what they laid out in TLJ and followed through with Trevorrow's plan and actually made Duel of the Fates. As it stands, the ST wound up a complete mess because they didn't have a plan. Was the PT perfect, hell no. But, at least Lucas was able to take the story he was going to tell and give us beginning, middle, and end that didn't have one episode nullifying the previous one. I think the PT was a good story full of great ideas, it just lacked in execution of said ideas. Give me a flawed singular vision over a hodge-podge of stuff that had to be changed on the fly any day.

You seem very confident for someone who apparently is only speaking in hypotheticals, and can't name any actual EU story that would've worked as a sequel trilogy. Or maybe you can? Can you name a specific EU story they should've used for the sequel trilogy?

It's not like they weren't referencing the lore at all. Rian Johnson actually found a bit of lore about Force projection:
https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-rian-j...jection-canon/

As unwieldy and overwrought as the EU was -- around 150 novels and 1,000 comic books! -- it was still superior to what Disney has replaced it with.

Were in charge, I probably would have kept most of the broad strokes intact up until the wedding of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade -- probably tossing out Anakin Solo since that family tree is already crowded with the twins -- and then going off from there with the sequel trilogy focusing on the Solo twins Jacen and Jaina, and whoever Luke's offspring ended up being .I'd probably replace Ben Skywalker with a daughter like Rey since it evens the gender division among the Skywalkers equally. From there, I'd have them do an animated series filling in the gap between to OT and ST that adapted and repurposed things like Heir to the Empire and Jedi Academy to fit in with the new continuity.

I don't think I would adapt the New Jedi Order for the sequel trilogy... I'd save the Yuuzhan Vong for later films that take place long after the Skywalker dynasty has faded.

I like Star Wars.

Now there's an idea. Imagine a series of films taking place generations down the line when the Skywalkers are a feared and corrupt dynasty. You could then use that as a starting point for one of a new series of heroes setting out to restore the family name to what it was, but from there veer off into a far grander scale.

Hardly original, yes. However, a good way to reference what's come before, put a spin to things, and then move forward in a new direction.

I read them all up until they started branching into Prequel territory, but that was 25 years ago at this point. Obviously the Thrawn trilogy is memorable, Dark Empire solid. Courtship of Princess Leia is one of the best one-offs, but obviously that specific one wouldn't work. Joruus C'baoth alone would have been more interesting than Snoke or "essence of" Emperor 2.0. Even working in an external threat like the Yuuzhan Vong forcing the heroes and villains to work together would have been a unique take. Not necessarily the YV specifically, but that concept.

The whole point is they had hundreds of novels and 1000s of comics full of stories that Disney de-canonized so why not cherry pick some things that worked, adapt them to a new cast and roll with? Kennedy saying they were at a disadvantage not having a story is bullshit. Also, she's the head of a fucking studio tasked with coming up with stories. She's essentially saying she's terrible at her job.

The prequels are fine overall. Some issues, sure but compared to the sequels they are Oscar worthy. And storytelling isn’t bad coming from George either. He’s not the best but he gets the job done for my money. Any successful person is surrounded by yes men though. Look at recent films by other greats like Cameron and Ridley Scott for example. They too are getting high fives all around whilst the end product is mediocre or worse once you analyze it. What I’m saying is that Id have taken his ideas and film making capabilities over the obviously heavily-meddled with sequels and the Abram’s to Johnson back to Abram’s mess that we got.

Agree totally here. The prequels feel like one long movie versus three movies loosely tied together with desperation items shoved in. Like Palpatine returning. I liked Trevverows ideas too. Didn’t Kennedy fire him? Anyways, I’d have loved to see what else we’d have gotten for sequels had more competent people been behind them.

‘Well damn, me too! At least, the prequels, the originals and a few shows here and there.

I like Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi.

I found the widescreen trilogy DVD set in a little free library, with the Theatrical Release versions as non-anamorphic 4:3 letterboxed extras. I was fairly geeked, since I hadn't seen those versions since well-before Phantom Menace was released.

Even at that, I'll probably just 'have' them for quite a while before I can muster the interest to watch them. (I did preview the first, to see the original crawl, and it looked OK, even not too bad blown up to fit my screen.) This could also be posted in the 'Movies you love but are tired of' thread.

Yes... I found my digital theatrical editions also in a "little free library"

Anyone notice that Rogue One and The Rise of Skywalker are both missing from Disney+?

Nope

Took 10 seconds to find both under the Star Wars tab. All the movies are there.

My kid was with me when I got them ... let me get you in touch.

Kathleen Kennedy and the new Star Wars got a Trump supporting Republican and a liberal Democrat to AGREE on something. That's pretty much a testament to the overall reception .

Not for me. Both movies are missing. Heck, the timeline order excludes RO and ends with TLJ.