Has George Lucas actually said....????

[phase pistol]

Personally I'm fascinated by roads not taken, so I eat up stuff like the "Secret History" book. But yeah, Lucas has admitted that he raided his entire sprawling "saga" for cool stuff to put into the first movie - since it was not clear at the time that there would ever be a second film. "Star Wars" was very nearly a disaster. Probably a lot of credit goes to Lucas' then-wife Marcia, for her heroic re-edit of the film which she spearheaded. Silk purses from sow's ears! :lol

But apparently Marcia kept an emotional center in the film, which is ultimately why it was so successful. George was at the time more interested in making "conceptual art films" such as THX-1138.

K

 

[HAL9000]

There definitely was a plan for 9 (and even maybe 12) films at one point.

This ceased to be viable when there was alot of 180-ing of the Jedi script
which closed many of the doors which would have been left less tied up.

Also, I am fairly sure that there was some talk of the droids being the central
focus of the 9 films and that the stories happened 'around them'

 

[Mike Rush]

As LonePigeon stated, Lucas says no.

On the day Revenge of the Sith opened in London in May 2005, there was a six-film marathon at the Empire Leicester Square. Afterwards Lucas (and McCallum, and McDiarmid, and others) made an appearance. The audience began chanting "we want nine!"

Lucas told us right there (sorry I can't quote directly), No, that's all there is. It was the story of Anakin. It begins when he's a child and ends when he dies. There is no more.

So that's an example of one time he's said it.

 

[Rotwang]

Lucas made it up as he went along. He may have had some vague ideas to do 7-9, but nothing concrete and threw it out a few times as a bone to the fans but in the end gave up on the whole idea. People started to take it as if it was written on stone tables and it grew from there.

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future the movies (both trillogies) will be remade/reimagined/rehashed, probably when somebody risks to lose the rights, like Disney does with their direct to video sequels. May even happen in our lifetimes, unless Lucas states explicitly that Star Wars dies with him, in which case it may take a few years longer. The property is too damn big not to try to milk it for all it is worth.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised that if the live action series works out and there is enough momentum (say the new Star Wars online game beats WOW) there will be more Star Wars movies and not just a few cartoons slapped together, but probably not the 7-9 most people had in mind.

 

[Egon Spengler]

I hope he never makes a new trilogy. I used to love the idea but then came the prequels.

 

[Solo4114]

For the "future" of the Star Wars series, you can always read the books. S ure they're subject to being retconned at a moment's notice, and sure, the bulk of them are CRAP, but they're there for the reading if you want. PErsonally, I recommend the first six books: the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, and the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson. The Zahn books ARE Star Wars. The Anderson books are pretty good, but nothing amazing. Still, they're a damnsight better than anything else. I'd stop reading after that point.


As for Lucas, I think he definitely made it up as he went along. What ticks me off about the guy, though, is that he seems compelled to try to convince everyone that he was right, that he never made a mistake, and that this was all part of his grand plan all along when CLEARLY it wasn't anywhere near as defined. When he says things like "I mean, I ALWAYS intended this to be Anakin's story" you can't help but want to smack him in the face with stuff Gary Kurtz has said in interviews, or that HE HIMSELF has said in interviews in the past which DIRECTLY contradict what he's saying.

If he just came out and said "Yeah, I toyed with the idea at one point, but the direction the story ended up taking, I just don't really see a 7-9 really fitting. The discussions about doing 7-9 were more when we had way more material than what we ended up using, and we thought we needed to do three trilogies just to tell it all. Then we figured it was a much better idea if we cut out a lot of the extraneous stuff, and just do it in a single trilogy. I ended up doing the prequels mostly because I'd just become so fascinated with Anakin as a character when doing all the backstory stuff for the original films that I really just wanted to tell his story."

If he made it clear that it was an evolutionary process, rather than repeatedly saying stuff like "I always intended...." followed by directly contradictory statements, I think the public would think much better of him.

It's the rigid insistence on "No, no, you see, I was right all along. I've ALWAYS been right. I'm NEVER wrong. Everyone ELSE got it wrong by misinterpreting me..." that pisses me off the most.

 

[rad1701]

Here's a link to the old Rolling Stone interview with Lucas - era 1977. Great read!

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7330268/the_force_behind_star_wars

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

...unless Lucas states explicitly that Star Wars dies with him...

Pretty sure he said this in the interview I referred to, also.

 

[Macrossmaster]

2 thoughts: If he decides tomorrow to do them, they'll be just as bad as the prequels.

The second is an exchange from my comedic fanfilm from college which 3 people total saw:

Darth Holio: George never told you what was going to happen in Episodes 7, 8 & 9!

Me: He told me enough! He told me he wasn't going to make them!

Darth Holio: No, KEVIN J. ANDERSON is making them!

Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

 

[Ghost Host]

Frankly only 2 out of the 6 films were any good... not a great track record IMHO, so it's probably best to leave well-enough alone these days. But for the record, I too recall very clearly discussion of the films originally centering around the droids... not so much Vader...

 

[Solo4114]

They centered around the droids, they centered around Luke Starkiller, they centered around the Skywalker family, now they center around Anakin (well, except they don't). Lucas' own sense of the films and his plans for the films has clearly changed and evolved over time (for better or worse). I don't think that is (or at least it shouldn't be) in dispute. I mean, if you watch the old "From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga" documentary, he says on film that he originally thought he'd make the primitive people in the 3rd film as wookiees, but then decided wookiees were too advanced (since Chewie could fly a ship and stuff), so he made them marketable teddy bears instead. Well, HE said "ewoks" but I heard "Marketable teddy bears." Anyway, my point is, he admits when things change IF it seems to suit his "This is a good idea and here's why" argument. Anything that might be connected to criticism, though, he deflects as "Not what I said" or "A misunderstanding" or "rumor" or whatever.

THAT's what really galls me about the guy. It's like he just can't stand to say "OK! OK! I admit it. I screwed up. But I like the newer stuff better. Sue me." That or it's like anything that might smack of him changing his mind somehow taints his authority or undermines his alleged genius or whatever. So, instead, it's "What he had always planned but couldn't do."

Now, in fairness, maybe he's actually telling the truth. Maybe waaaaaaaay early on, he had the idea we now see in the prequels, but he feels like he was forced by circumstances and people who said "Wow, that's really freakin' stupid, George. No. We can't do that" into making the "imperfect" OT films. So, he now tries to unring the bell by remolding the OT into something that kinda sorta connects to the PT, which is actually what he always intended to do, but couldn't due to this or that limitation.

 

[Tan Djarka]

I think the plan was to make a trilogy of trilogies, but by the time he got to ROTJ he was tired of making movies. Everything that would have happened in 7-9 eneded up in Ep 6, wrapping up the saga. No matter what he originally intended, it became the story of Anakin Skywalker. It's done.

I think there's plenty of room in the Star Wars universe for more movies, just not featuring Luke and the gang.

 

[Carson Dyle]

If he made it clear that it was an evolutionary process, rather than repeatedly saying stuff like "I always intended...." followed by directly contradictory statements, I think the public would think much better of him.

Lucas needn't lose any sleep over what "the public" thinks of him. Along with Disney and Spielberg he's achieved "beloved icon" status, and that's unlikely to change any time soon (unless, you know, he goes and does some really stupid a la Mel Gibson, Tiger Woods or OJ Simpson).

Let's face it, most people could care less about what the man who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones may or may not have said in a forty-year-old interview. It's us fanboys who obsess about this stuff; general audiences couldn't care less.

 

[Solo4114]

Lucas needn't lose any sleep over what "the public" thinks of him. Along with Disney and Spielberg he's achieved "beloved icon" status, and that's unlikely to change any time soon (unless, you know, he goes and does some really stupid a la Mel Gibson, Tiger Woods or OJ Simpson).

Let's face it, most people could care less about what the man who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones may or may not have said in a forty-year-old interview. It's us fanboys who obsess about this stuff; general audiences couldn't care less.

True, which is pretty much why he wouldn't and doesn't seem to give a crap. I'm just saying that for all the longtime fans out there who are really pissed about this particular issue, if he came forward and said "Look, it evolved over time. And yeah, I changed my mind. But this is the story I want to tell now" instead of trying to portray himself as the grand architect who brought a single vision into being in exactly the shape he always intended (rather than that vision evolving over time), SOME of the fans at least would cut him some slack.


Not me, of course, but some of them.

 

[GINO]

Here is my #1 gripe about the PT.
Who gives a damn about stories where you already know the ending?!!
I think no matter how awesome or horrible the PT was written, it already had that going against it from the beginning. No huge surprises. Total snore fest.
No moments where you just were on the edge of your seat wondering what was going to happen to your beloved characters. Would they live, die? We already knew those answers before pen went to paper on the Ep. 1 script.
What we got was a trilogy about Anakin's journey. Boring. Already know what happens to him (and every other character for that matter).

That being said...

Now a sequel trilogy is what we always really wanted in the first place.
The OT is undoubtedly about Luke's journey. I want to know what happens with Luke beyond ROTJ. Perhaps the emperor wasn't truly destroyed?
I don't know. They have writers for that. I'm sure you would not have to look very far for someone to come up with an incredibly interesting story that takes place 30 yeasr after ROTJ (with the original actors).
Luke is the hero of SW. Always has and always will be.

Here's to hoping Lucas will change his mind before he dies.
He's made a new set of films for himself, how about a new set aimed at long time loyal fans.

And don't get me started on the EU crap. It is crap you know. Bush league.


.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Who gives a damn about stories where you already know the ending?!!

In the case of Titanic quite a few people gave a damn.

Ditto The Longest Day, Lawrence of Arabia, Day of the Jackel, and scores of other popular films featuring forgone conclusions.

Hell, Citizen Kane begins with the death of the titular character, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the story leading up to his death.

Surprise endings can be fun, but they're not required for a good story. Sometimes there's nothing more compelling than the inevitable.

 

[upandatom]

Doesn't anyone think that, with the release and success of Avatar, Lucas will be tempted to play with the new 3-D technology, with the new advances in CG and eventually do something new for the big screen?

Whether or not it's Eps. 7,8, and 9 or an Old Republic story or something completely different, I think that, eventually, the itch will be too much and he'll come back to SW on the big screen.

Fingers crossed he lets someone else direct them, though!

 

[GINO]

In the case of Titanic quite a few people gave a damn.

A lot of 13 year old girls.

Surprise endings can be fun, but they're not required for a good story.

I agree, not required. But certainly better in my opinion.
And especially regarding Star Wars specifically.

.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I agree, not required. But certainly better in my opinion. And especially regarding Star Wars specifically.

Yeah, the destruction of the Death Star caught you by surprise did it?

If Vader had killed Luke during the trench run, that would have been a surprise. I'm not sure how satisfying the surprise would have been, but I think it's safe to say not a lot of people would have seen that coming.

 

[Solo4114]

Now hang on a second. Star Wars does NOT have any surprise endings. It has things that are revealed throughout the original trilogy that the audience is unaware of, but it's hardly a surprise ending. MAYBE Empire has a surprise ending, but not if you know your Joseph Campbell heroic myth tropes. Was there ever ANY doubt in the first and third Star Wars movie that the good guys would triumph?


All we REALLY knew about the PT era were the following:

- Anakin became Darth Vader after turning to the Dark Side.
- Anakin was Obi-Wan's apprentice, and Obi-Wan failed to train him effectively.
- Anakin was a starpilot, and one of the best.
- The old republic crumbled, and Palpatine took over to create the Empire.
- The Clone Wars happened.


Logically, we could figure that various characters were born/created or existed during the time period, but that's about it.


The more important thing, the stuff we DIDN'T know, was the HOW or the WHY. If you disregard everything outside the films, we had NO idea how or why any of this came to pass. In fact, it's exactly the "how" and "why" that left people so disappointed. Wait, THIS is how the Republic fell? There were three votes and it all just went to hell? THIS is why Anakin went evil and killed the jedi? Because he had separation anxiety?! THIS is what the Clone Wars were? A bunch of goofy droids shooting at disposable clones of Boba Fett's father (who's actually his clone template)??! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!


So, in a sense, we GOT the surprise story you may have wanted. It's just that it was more like "Surprise! It sucks!"