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George Lucas's Terrible Idea for Star Wars Episodes 7-9 (indiewire.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the meet-the-midi-chlorians dept.

In an interview with James Cameron, George Lucas reveals what he'd planed for the final three Star Wars films: "[The next three 'Star Wars' films] were going to get into a microbiotic world," he told Cameron. "There's this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force...." In terms of his storytelling, Lucas regarded individuals as "vehicles for the Whills to travel around in... And the conduit is the midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians are the ones that communicate with the Whills. The Whills, in a general sense, they are the Force."

Lucas is confident that had he kept his company, the Whills-focused films "would have been done. Of course, a lot of the fans would have hated it, just like they did 'Phantom Menace' and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would be told."
Lucas acknowledges in the interview that "Everybody hated it in 'Phantom Menace' [when] we started talking about midi-chlorians," prompting one Ars Technica editor to add "Because it was a really dumb idea." He speculates that if the final three Star Wars movies followed Lucas's original plan, "Imagine, if you can, our heroes shrinking down like the Fantastic Voyage to go meet some midi-chlorians."

Knowing Lucas's plans for the franchise "should make every Star Wars fan send a note of gratitude to whoever at Disney decided to buy the franchise and take it away and out from under Lucas' control."

18 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To be sure, it's a pretty stupid idea. But one can almost understand where he was coming from. Anything else, including the Extended Universe, would just have been variations on the pre-existing themes. New dark lord and/or war lord rises, picks up where Palpatine and Vader left off, and a ragtag band of rebels goes to war again.

    You know, just like what's actually happening in the main Episode films.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Hmmm... by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

      As far as I can see it, George Lucas has two skills:

      1) Making memorable characters/scenes. Face it, one of the most vivid characters of all time is Jar Jar Binks.

      2) Making people happy when they leave the theater. Even the prequels, when people left the theater, they were happy.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Hmmm... by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When you've got an entire universe where plenty of stuff has happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I think it would have been better to tell an entirely new and different story within that universe largely disconnected from the original trilogy. Part of the problem with the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy is that they're too beholden to a story created in the original trilogy that didn't need to imagine what exactly had occurred before or what would happen after it ended.

      When writing the original Star Wars do you suppose Lucas had any real idea what the Clone Wars were other than something that sounded cool and to establish a relationship between Ben and Luke's father? Do you suppose when everyone was celebrating on Endor (or it's moon if you want to be that pedantic) that Lucas had given any thought as to the ramifications of what had just occurred to the political situation in the galaxy and what it might mean going forward? Of course he didn't, because those things were unimportant to the story being told.

      However, if some time later you decide to make sequels or prequels to that story, you're beholden to offhand remarks or comments that weren't well fleshed out because you didn't sit down to write or plan out those in advance of your initial story. Tell new stories in that universe that have nothing to do with the characters or events in the original and you might be able to get something narratively satisfying. You can still drop a few references in as subtle winks to the audience if you want, but you won't be so restricted.

      Look at Tolkien's work for an example of stories spanning ages and only being connected by tiny threads. You can certainly find them between the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings, but they're largely unconcerned with one and other and enjoyment of one doesn't depend on having read the other. I suspect that this is the same reason that the Hobbit movies weren't good (apart from trying to make them tonally something that the story wasn't) as they tried to tie it to Lord of the Rings more than it needed to be.

    3. Re:Hmmm... by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Making people happy when they leave the theater.

      People are happy when they leave the dentist's chair.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:Hmmm... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I like the concept behind the preqels and sequels, even if they were not always executed very well.

      We see the fall of the Jedi order, the flaws in it laid bare. Then the rebels fight back and eventually defeat the empire, but with no Jedi to maintain order and only evil force users the First Order rises out of the ashes.

      Now it looks like they are going to conclude with how the rebellion and the good guys can survive in a post-Jedi universe, where the Force is unbound by the old religious dogma. Obviously there will be a showdown between Ray and Kylo Ren, echoing Return of the Jedi but surely with a different outcome.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Bullshit. Disney is just as horrible. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The first two were made with passion. The rest are chasing dollars and it shows.

    1. Re:Bullshit. Disney is just as horrible. by skoskav · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ehh, the kamikaze scene sure is impressive in visuals and audio, but the scene is ruined within minutes(!) as Rose prevents a main character from doing it again, even though the kamikaze was the single most helpful act in the film.

      Plot woes also arise because X-wings are faster-than-light capable, making jihad a tactically obvious option for the Rebels. I prefer it when the universe's physics demands 16th century battleship tactics to be the optimal solution.

    2. Re:Bullshit. Disney is just as horrible. by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why even bother with suicide missions, simply have a droid drive the ship. Or build FTL torpedoes. As impressive as the scene was, it invalidated pretty much everything we have learned about space battle tactics and strategy from the other movies. That’s one thing people disliked about the new Disney movies. The midichlorian rubbish was bad but at least is was an attempt to explain what we were already familiar with, instead of totally ignoring it.

      Still, all of this is still a sight better than Lucas’ pitch for the 3rd trilogy. I mean, it might conceivably result in halfway decent movies, but would it still be Star Wars? Ideally you’d want these trilogies tied together by the universe and a long story arc, with some overlap in characters. Not set in a completely different environment, with the only tie-in being the characters and some plot points the got shoehorned in. At least that’s what his pitch sounded like.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  3. Call me crazy... by Drakster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Call me crazy, but I have a (morbid?) fascination of giving George Lucas a budget, isolating him from the fan community and press, and simply leaving him to his own devices to produce the Star Wars movies he visions.

    Judging by the changes he's made to them already, I wouldn't expect them to be good, but nonetheless, it would certainly be interesting to see.

    1. Re:Call me crazy... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

      Call me crazy, but I have a (morbid?) fascination of giving George Lucas a budget, isolating him from the fan community and press, and simply leaving him to his own devices to produce the Star Wars movies he visions.

      Call me crazy, but I have a (morbid?) fascination of giving George Lucas a budget, isolating him from the fan community and press, and simply leaving him to his own devices to produce the THX 1138 movies he visions.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  4. planed for the final three Star Wars films by ChoGGi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    subtle dig at the boring natural of the new movies, or just bad editing...

  5. I wish Star Wars ended after original trilogy by walterbyrd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Everything since then has been total crap.

    1. Re:I wish Star Wars ended after original trilogy by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What are you talking about? It did.

      Just like there was only a singnle Matrix and Men in Black movie. Anybody who says differently is just a evil heretic trying to deceive you and needs to drink much more than they already have.

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  6. Yeah - it's dumb. by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's dumb in the same way the ending to Mass Effect 3 was dumb - introducing new elements into the storyline, right at the end, and shoehorning them in as some great answer to the conflict you created, without actually resolving the conflicts themselves - just dissolving them behind this lame new scrappy-do thought you just had.

    The question is though... why did they commit the same error several times over with the NEW sequels also? Turning the tables upside down over and over, never actually explaining the philosophies, but just shaming any previous understanding and flippantly killing characters for drama. The premadonna Mary Sue character suddenly inventing lightspeed warfare, out of all the galaxy. Malus ex machina at every turn.

    Listen - I understand that Star Wars isn't high cinema. I know it comes inspired from cheesy serial films, and pulpy hammy sci-fi hero stories. But for a film series worth THAT many billions of dollars, you'd think they'd at least want to hold to the odd integrity of the characters at least a little.

    But for some reason, every writer that picks up the series wants to mind-swap the characters with some passion play for their favorite philosophical idea - make Luke and Han REALLY be talking about economic theory, or transcendence or whatever.

    I definitely empathize with Mark Hamill leaving the role in open disgust. There were an endless number of ways any of this could have played out - it's just annoying to never see any sense of the original characters playing out, just their image used as crude tools to give a feeling, then switch message.

    That's kind of how things roll out in big business though. Those that best posturing about being able to produce a thing are usually going to outmaneuver those that have a better plan, but are posturing less.

    That's show business.

    Ryan Fenton

  7. Original Titles, Episodes 7 through 9 by Alan+R+Light · · Score: 5, Funny

    Episode VII: The Whills To Power

    Episode VIII: Triumph of the Whills

    Episode IX: The Last Whills and Testaments

  8. Re: Reality surpassed sci-fi long ago! by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Science Fiction was badly damaged by the space cowboy shit that Lucas and his gang brought. The new wave SF of the 70s was awesome: Ellison, Pohl, Ballard, Sturgeon, LeGuin, etc.

    The Star Wars crap sucked the oxygen out of the SF subculture. It took decades to recover (Meiville, Vandermeer, etc.)

  9. Jar Jar Power! [Re:Prequels] by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry, but I'm a Jar Jar fan. The Force channels power through his clumsiness. That's rare in cinema. (Scooby Doo & Shaggy don't count because not backed by supernatural powers.)

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  10. Stop Knocking the Idea Itself by Zamphatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm tired of people saying this would've been horrible. Bad ideas are turned into good stories just as easily as good ideas are turned into bad stories. Hppens all the time. It's all about the writing & ability to make something enjoyable. A good director and screenwriter can make any idea work for a large audience. Personally I would like to have seen how this would've played out. Would've taken Star Wars in a fresh new direction, even if it didn't seem like Star Wars. Couldn't have been worse than The Last Jedi.