A new interview with George Lucas has unearthed some interesting facts about his original plans for the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Lucas was the creative vision behind the original Star Wars trilogy from 1977 to 1983, as well as the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005. But when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he gave up his rights to the franchise and the House of Mouse created the sequel trilogy without him.
That trilogy, which ran from 2015 to 2019, received mixed reviews from fans and critics. But it turns out Lucas had a very different vision for the sequel movies in mind, one which sadly never made its way to the big screen.
A new interview with Lucas in Star Wars Archives: Episode I-III, a collectible hardcover release from art book publisher Taschen, shines a light on some of the ways he would’ve made a sequel trilogy different from Disney’s version of the movies.
Darth Maul and Darth Talon were the original villains
A page of the book has been shared on Reddit, and one of the most interesting revelations is that the two villains of the trilogy would have been Darth Maul and Darth Talon. Lucas explains that Maul would have eventually become “the godfather of crime” in the Star Wars universe.
“Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice,” he explained. “She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy.”
Luke Skywalker would have rebuilt the Jedi Order
The trilogy would have started a few years after Return of the Jedi, with Luke Skywalker trying to restart the Jedi Order. He reunites the 50 to 100 survivors of Order 66 and trains them over the next 20 years, until a new generation of Jedi is ready to fight.
“We establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld,” Lucas explained. “There are these offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi. He puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left.
“The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two- and three-year-olds and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi.”
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Leia was originally the Chosen One
Another big difference in Lucas’ original plans for the sequel trilogy is that Leia would have been revealed as the Chosen One who ends up in charge as the Supreme Chancellor.
“The movies are about how Leia – I mean, who else is going to be the leader? – is trying to build the Republic. They still have the apparatus of the Republic but they have to get it under control from the gangsters. That was the main story,” Lucas said.
“By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.”
Paul Duncan, who interviewed George Lucas last year for the new book, has since tweeted that these were some of the Star Wars creator’s ideas while he was prepping for the sequel trilogy in 2012, before he sold the rights to Disney.
These were some of his ideas when prepping the films in 2012, before he sold to Disney, as related to me by George in an interview last year.
— Paul Duncan (@kershed) November 10, 2020
While the Star Wars sequel trilogy may be over and done with, there’s plenty more coming to Disney+ over the next couple of years. There’s a Rogue One prequel series, an Obi-Wan series, an untitled female-led series, and the animated Star Wars: The Bad Batch series to look forward to.
In the meantime, you can catch new episodes of The Mandalorian Season 2 on Disney+ every Friday.