I know he did originally plan to do 9 movies but after episode 6 and once the prequel was done he called it quits. Cause obviously after the death of the emporer and vader the empire just gives up. LOL.
There once was a plan for twelve movies even. Before they started on Empire ANH was even considered Episode 5 for a while. There's be a trilogy of the Clone Wars, prologue movies, epilogue movies etc.
But this was not a promise, they were vague plans. Lucas wrote down CLone Wars because he had a vague idea about it. At the time of ESB Clones weren't even soldiers. There were a 'race'... even Lando in an early stage was once identified one of these Clone People....
Don't think Lucas had all of this mapped out... He had big plans and even though he didn't make nine or twelve movies, his big plans did become reality I think.
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The story always ended at Return of the Jedi. What he 'skipped', assuming you give credence to his grand plan, were the three films between ESB and ROTJ.
So he's already finished it; he did the last part. There is not a story afterwards to tell. All we missed was a longer struggle between Rebels and Empire and Luke's search for his sister; they just made the sister Leia instead.
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But that was the plan. The OT trilogy would be about LUke finding out about his father and defeating Darth vader at the end of the trilogy.
After that the search for his sister (not Leia) would commence and his move against the Emperor as ultimate foe to be destroyed in ep9 or even later. GL wrapped all of that up in one movie.
But mind you, these were just ideas. There wasn't a detailed or even outlined plan. In writing ESB there was first a line by Yoda saying: We must find another... I don't think they had a sisterplot worked out by then... It doesn't seem so anyway.
But as for the episodes: they were broad strokes. It was intended to be a kind of serial.
I remember watching in one of the specials on TPM, the narrator said something about possibly doing episodes 7, 8, and 9. This was said as GL was sitting in his home, at his desk, where he told the interviewer/camera about the process he did to write TPM. He was facing towards the left side of the screen (left, for the viewer) while looking at the camera for the left side of his body. Anyone remember the name of that piece or internvgiew...or have any information on that?
Because I heard that, I read all info on 7 8 and 9 (and even read the thrawn trilogy), thinking he was going to take a break after episode III and then start working on Episode 7.
Also, I found, using google, a reference that sounds slightly similar to what was stated in that recording:
"If the first trilogy is social and political and talks about how society evolves, Star Wars is more about personal growth and self realization, and the third deals with moral and philosophical problems. The sequel is about Jedi Knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned."
But that's not quite what I remember being stated, but it's similar.
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Last edited by dadudemon on Feb 1st, 2011 at 01:04 PM
He speculated at one time there would be a trilogy that would follow the OT - as he chose to do the OT first because it was the 'middle' story - but now he sees it all as the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin/Darth Vader, so it wouldn't make sense. It has a beginning and an end as it stands.
The LOTR crew is doing their own prequel series now with The Hobbit, but like the OT they know it's not interesting after Sauron is finally destroyed (just like the Emperor.) So no going further after ROTK.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
And they work from Tolkien's source material. In case of SW, Lucas IS the source material. And he's been playing with making more episodes since the mid-70s. So that's nothing new really.
Thing is, since it's accepted by Lucas that the expanded universe post-Jedi is canon, where to go with a story. Even further in years than the books have gone? Because he wouldn't adapt someone else's source material.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
Feb 1st, 2011 01:44 AM
