The long conjectured third Star Wars trilogy has kept fans guessing for decades, and may even have a few numerologists working on their mysteries. George Lucas’ shifting feelings about future Star Wars trilogies have consistently clouded the picture. Given the difficulties associated with the birth of Star Wars in 1977, it’s no wonder that Lucas’s ideas kaleidoscoped. When trying to get such a big undertaking up and running and out the door, visions of the future are understandably hazy. But, as of October 30, 2012, Episodes VII, VIII and IX have been announced as real and soon to be tangible — but they’ve existed as gossamer spirits for nearly 40 years.
On December 29, 1975, in conversation with Alan Dean Foster per the novelization of Star Wars, Lucas mentioned the prequel trilogy along with what would become Episodes V and VI: “I want to have Luke kiss the Princess in the second book. In the third book, I want the story just about the soap opera of the Skywalker family, which ends with the destruction of the Empire. Then someday I want to do the back story of Kenobi as a young man – a story of the Jedi and how the Emperor eventually takes over and turns the whole thing from a Republic into an Empire, and tricks all the Jedi and kills them. The whole battle where Luke’s father gets killed. That would be impossible to do, but it’s great to dream about.”
As Lucas came to terms with Twentieth Century-Fox during the making of Star Wars, he secured the legal rights to his sequels, though they remained undefined at the time. On location for the first phase of principal photography in Tunisia in March 1976, Lucas began a long tradition of talking with close collaborators, voicing his ideas for these other episodes and trilogies, much as Walt Disney would do of his projects.
“You know, when I first did this, it was four trilogies,” Mark Hamill recalled in 2004, speaking of their conversation in 1976. “Twelve movies! Out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing… ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ ‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’ […] I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi-Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.’”
In 1978, a Time magazine article reported that the Star Wars Corporation (a subsidiary Lucas had formed for Star Wars) would be producing “Star Wars II [Empire], and then, count them, 10 other planned sequels.” At that time Lucas consistently mentioned 12 films and even created a barebones outline to that effect.
In it, the original trilogy occupied Episodes VI, VII, and VIII; a Clone Wars trilogy took up Episodes II, III, and IV, while Episode I was a “prelude,” Episodes IX through XI were simply left blank – and Episode XII was the “conclusion.”
In 1979, however, Lucas said in an interview on the set of Empire, “The first script was one of six original stories I had written in the form of two trilogies. After the success of Star Wars, I added another trilogy. So now there are nine stories. The original two trilogies were conceived of as six films of which the first film was number four.”
While in postproduction in early 1980, Lucas used to kick back from time to time with ILM manager Jim Bloom and muse about the bigger story. “The first trilogy is about the young Ben Kenobi and the early life of Luke’s father when Luke is a little boy,” Lucas said. “This trilogy takes place some 20 years before the second trilogy, which includes Star Wars and Empire. About a year or two passes between each story of the trilogy and about 20 years between the trilogies. The entire saga spans about 55 years. I’m still left with three trilogies of nine films. At two hours each, that’s about eighteen hours of film!”
While Empire was originally part of a 12-film plan, by the time it was released, the number had clearly been reduced to nine. “The prequel stories exist — where Darth Vader came from, the whole story about Darth and Ben Kenobi — and it all takes place before Luke was born,” Lucas explained at the time. “The other one — what happens to Luke afterward — is much more ethereal. I have a tiny notebook full of notes on that. If I’m really ambitious, I could proceed to figure out what would have happened to Luke.”
Lucas mentioned these notebooks — or one big book — to me, a few years ago. I asked if I could see it, but he declined. My feeling is that this big book or these notebooks are private, though Lucas has occasionally sent me via an assistant miscellaneous handwritten notes from the period 1976-1983 to help in the writing of the making-of books.
But two years later while filming Jedi, for many reasons, Lucas was burning out, tired of the whole enterprise: “I’m only doing this because I started it and now I have to finish it,” he adds. “The next trilogy will be all someone else’s vision.”
As of today, Lucas has given his new co-chairman Kathleen Kennedy several ideas and is really going into semi-retirement. Now, in a relatively short time, compared to the decades of speculation, fans will learn the secrets of Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Star Wars has risen again!
Lucasfilm executive editor J. W. Rinzler is the author of The Making of Star Wars and The Complete Making of Indiana Jones. He is now writing The Making of Return of the Jedi (and really looking forward to finishing it) for a fall 2013 release. You can visit jwrinzler.com for more info.
Tags: episode vii, future of star wars
I think that if the film is not going to be based off of books from the expanded universe it should at least still compliment the universe. If you are going to have the movie take place 20 years after ROTJ then by all means create a new story, but 20 years after ROTJ should mean that it would take place around the time of the jedi academy trilogy and the young jedi knights saga. So this Trilogy should include some of the main characters from this time. Mara Jade, Jaina and Jacen Solo, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, Coran Horn, Kyp Duron, and Kyle Katarn all come to my mind around this time frame. These are some of the characters that should be considered. So what if Lucas had a different vision of the universe originally, he still had a hand in the creation of these characters and should still consider the way the Star Wars Universe has unraveled instead of disregarding the universe that he helped create. JMT
I totally agree having read them all. And they are so part of the bigger picture to me.
I feel that if it is going 20 years to the future, a good story would be one in which Luke has gone to coruscant where the old Jedi temple is (left as a symbol of the emperors dominance as well as a place to hide info regarding the force) and discovered holocrons hidden there. Jedi and sith information alike stored on them. Using the Jedi ones he helps to establish a new Jedi order. At the same time han and Leia (now married) establish the republic to its former glory. Han and leias children are being trained among the first batch of new Jedi. The story progresses as they become more powerful Jedi (possibly we get to see Jedi go through the trials obtaining crystals for there lightsabers, maybe going to dagobah to the spot that’s “strong with the dark side” in which Luke battled an image of vader) at the same time Luke begins delving into the sith holocrons and turning to the dark side forcing his nephew or niece to stop him (would keep the story in the family so to speak)
I am new to the SW universe and have watched all the movies, but i ask Disney to please not put Jar Jar binks in episode VII unless he’s going to die, you should also do something with the Ewoks. maybe Starkiller from the SW unleashed games. I don’t know if it would work there only ideas
mesa think it should have the feel like the origonal triligy witch to me is beter than the episodes because it is origonal
Will they make The Thrawn Trilogy? If they need any actors, call me!
If they do make The Thrawn Trilogy, does that mean they will do chapter 5 in The Last Command? Oh..
Okay here we go.
Episode VII
The Dark Jedi
Thirty or so years after Return of the Jedi. Luke has built a Jedi academy on Yavin IV. Han and Leia are living on coruscant and helping the Republic run smoothly.
Things have gone well the last 30 years with very little strife. The last remnants of the Empire were swept away with mostly ease (unlike the Thrawn Trilogy). The Republic has brought back democracy and ended slavery all over the galaxy.
Over the last Thirty years the New Republic thanks to Luke’s ever increasing powers with the force and acting as a galactic peacekeeper.
The New Republic is a sort of a utopia. There is no currency and every being in the galaxy has equal rights.
The Republic system has worked because Luke has trained jedi and placed them on planets to keep the peace.
C3PO is even leading a movement for droids rights.
Luke has sent a group who is exploring the galaxy. This group comes across a planet that could be the origin of the jedi. On this planet are many dark jedi. These dark jedi use crystals to enhance their powers.
The group consist of as young group of jedi two males a female and an alien. Those will be your new characters and the focus of the movie. In the end Luke shows up with Han and Chewie and they save the young jedi.
[...] a saga Star Wars composta de doze filmes! Isso foi diminuindo, e no fim só foram lançados seis (J.W. Rinzler, Blog Star Wars). Ou seja, algum material sobre estas sequências titio George deve ter entregado nas mãos da [...]
i’m a huge fan of the expanded universe and i’m sure that most real star wars fans are too because that is the only material we’ve had between and after the movies, any other story line I think would crush the real fans, I couldn’t imagine a post ROTJ world without Jacen and Jaina, or Ben Skywalker, or Mara Jade, or Kyp Durron and so forth.
I am a huge fan of the Star Wars Movies and I have started reading the books, I am an even bigger fan of the books. I am reading them in chronological orderand I am 15 books in. Unfortunately and fortunately I started out of order with the Thrawn Trilogy. I do not know which one they are going to use but The Thrawn Trilogy would be an excellent series to use because it has old familiar characters as well as excellent new characters to carry on the franchise.
Hey what about starting off a new cycle of characters with Ben Skywalker taking on an Obi-wan instructor role for a new generation with flashback cameos for Luke, Leia and Han etc in the Epi 7
It was allways my hope that there would be a 7, 8, 9, epps.
I hope it will begin with luke as the new ” yota ” training
a new jedi order back to its former glory ; thuss fufilling
the prof. that young anie. would restore and bring order
and ballance to the force through luke ; like yota said ( missread
and mis-interpthe prof..maybe ? )
cant wait to see what it will be !!!
A long time ago, in a Lucasfilm movie I was in as a kid -I call it “Duck Disaster”, I was a precocious child-prodigy actress/model/singer who George took under his wing and taught his personal version of “filmmaking” to, his episode order of 456, 123, 789 sequenced saga makes perfect sense to me. My identity, according to George back then, has gone from imaginary to vividly personal, and ironic in coincidence. I read the novel of empire (started in the middle -recognized Han and Leia as my long lost parents? Looked at the first pages for reference -then got impatient and skipped to the end. One reason George made sense to me…) one random conversation with George wound up with him declaring that based on my personality and traits -it was clear to him that I was Han and Leia’s long lost daughter… Which he described in the same details I had imagined -but never told about. The daughter had no name, but was my profile and personality, combined with my slow sarcastic speech and my endless mimic of my galactic parents verbal exchange. George was so insistent of this identity he said if the story progression evolved to my character being part of filming, he expected me to be cast as their daughter on screen. I was sceptical, but agreed on 2 conditions 1) I got to fly the falcon at age 9 (random choice) &2) I would get to be a Jedi knight -first female one, with my custom made purple lightsaber.
This was years ago, one of many random and eccentric exchanges that George came up with that had me lost in his imagination. Word gets around, or went through the galactic grapevine, I saw a book with “Star Wars” on the cover, inside I found myself as the daughter in such exact detail it shocked me -the only detail unfamiliar was the name, but otherwise I was unmistakably Jaina Solo. I had and have a public profile that isn’t directly linked to my name, & I’ve been an actress etc. All the details are public access and have been borrowed -Jaina is the one that’s become vividly personal. Not too long ago, after viewing my headshot -I even wound up looking like the child Han and Leia would have? They cast me in the upcoming episodes -as a possible storyline… The future of star wars hasn’t made up it’s mind regarding plot or story, I’m cast on hold, and not just in the films -among other things (which I can’t disclose at this time) I become a living Disney Princess? Now that I can do, greeting guests and singing “Princess Jaina” songs -yet unwritten, of course. I’ll have to borrow the one from Enchanted “How do you know he loves you”,
I find the first verse appropriate “its not enough to take the one you love for granted…”
Of course, this is still a maybe/maybe not undecided action.
I’m unmistakably Jaina, but if this star wars character is cast aside, I’m letting go of the fictional identity crisis and bidding the galaxy farewell… Not in any negative way, but if Jaina doesn’t need my life anymore, I’d like to live as myself?
It woud be nice to see how Starkiller ( Character from the video games TheForce Unleashed ) fits into the sequels!!!…after all, he appears in the story on both SWFU I & II and is involved with all the known characters.
[...] Lucas had written in the form of two trilogies. In 1979, creator George Lucas announced that “after the success of Star Wars, I added another trilogy. So now there are nine stories”. Most Star Wars fans were aware of the plan for a sequel trilogy, and the acquisition of Lucasfilm [...]