Rumor: Lucas Planning New Star Wars Trilogy

[Superhyperactiveman]

George Lucas. Why do you hate everything you've created? Why can't you just let your creations rest in peace? Why do you have to keep murdering them and urinating on their corpses?

 

[kuolonen]

Snip

Yeah the so called canon star wars is set for something like 300 years? I dont remember exactly. So maybe the next part is set even further in to the future? Who knows.

As for the fanrage that's apparently over 9000, why so serious? Nobodys forces you to go watch these if they are excrement of the century. Wait for review census from rottentomatoes or something. I know thats what Im gonna do. Wait till there's reviews, see if its atleast above average, then go see movie.

If 99 out of 100 agree, that its the winner of poo-poo olympics, just ignore it.

 

[camazotz]

I'd love to see a new trilogy, but i hope they recruit some A grade writers to help Lucas with is script...and maybe a few directors as well. That's why TESB was so good; it was a complete rewrite by Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett (noted SF author here) and directed by the awesome Irving Kirchner. If Lucas accepts that getting Cameron-level Star Wars means, possibly, hiring Cameron, then we will probably see some seriously good stuff....

 

[camazotz]

I don't think this would end well. The fact that some many people rally behind Star Wars despite all of the problems they have is part of the problem, and why I think the quality of the prequels was so badly lacking in so many areas.

Also I'll be honest in saying that while he might be thinking of this, it would require him to make another move against people he sold the continuity to yet again. Right now we have at least *3* versions of the future of the Star Wars universe all of which were canon when he sold the rights. We have the young adult books future "Glove Of Darth Vader" and the like which involved the Grand Moffs putting an imposter "heir" of Papaltines on the throne as a new Emperor, We have the "Expanded Universe", and we have the "Dark Horse Comics" future.

A lot of this stuff is absolutly horrendous as well, written by people who have no idea how the universe is supposed to work, yet someone were able to write canon. While popular with some of the fans the whole "Yu'zan Vong" plotline is a good example of something created and written by people who literally didn't have the first clue about the nature of the Star Wars universe or how things work.

That is to say that the universe works in cycles. Good gets a chance to rule, followed by a period of balance, and then a period of evil. The Force dictates these cycles. This is why the Sith in the prequels were so powerful seeming, and why the Jedi found the Force was "cloudy" for them. This was literally an assasination as it was time for the reign of good to end. Anakin was the harbinger of the balance, and Papaltine made the mistake of thinking that he was going to get to rule the new era of evil, when in reality he missed out on the whole "balance" aspect of things.

The idea of Force invisible aliens and things like that miss the entire point of how the universe is supposed to work.

At any rate, the only real way that a sequel could be done at this point is if it was set so far in the future that it was time for the new reign of evil to end. You'd see how all of the things from the original triology went bad in the long run, and you'd have Sith ruling the univese, only to find The Force turn cloudy for them and these "Jedi" guys who they barely remember from the distant past coming out of nowhere and start whooping up on them big time.

The problem with doing that though is of course legal. It comes down to contracts, and quite possibily if the legal system is going to allow George Lucas to violate his own agreements again to gain control of his continuity, since really it can be argued he doesn't own the rights to the future of the Star Wars universe anymore, no matter how far ahead he sets things. So far he has sold those rights three times... right up there with the con artists who sold the Eiffel Tower twice.

I believe this is why he said back when the Prequels came out that he would probably never tough sequels (although he never explained himself). If he really is thinking about doing it, it means that he's obviously got some kind of legal angle he wants to push I'd think.

Lucas has not sold the rights to anyone; also, all the EU content, regardless of continuity, gets approved through a specific process and a series of individuals who are hired for the purpose of coordinating licensed tie-ins. Licensed products do not hand over the continuity rights to the licensees....they just let that particular publisher dabble in the Star Wars franchise in exchange for a hefty percentage of sales, and the publisher still has to conform to and get approval from Lucas's staff assigned to the job. Essentially, expanded universe stuff is never official canon, until it gets adopted by Lucas Films in the movies.

Lucas is also often noted as being very business savy when it comes to tie-in merchandise; his original contract on Star Wars insured he had control of and got all profits to the merchandise and toys sold as a restult of the movie; film companies never do that anymore, as a direct result of Star Wars's massive success and all the profits they lost out on as a result of this. This works, as I understand it, such that all the tie-in content anyone ever sees out there is ultimately owned by Lucas; yeah, Dark Horse may write those comics and sell them, but Lucas ultimately owns all of it.

Also, Lucas never planned to do sequels (according to his last statements on the matter) because the process was too time consuming and gruelling, and he didn't (at the time) have a sufficiently strong vision of what a sequel series would be about. That, it seems, has changed.

EDIT: It is now about beating Avatar in box office sales, it seems!

 

[Otaku13]

I actually like the prequel trilogy for the most part. yeah a few nitpicks here and there but thats besides the point. I would love to see a new trilogy, and if it set a few thousands years into the future, then i can see this becoming really good, espically if it gives lucas room to not step on any toes. I would like a few movies closer to the original trilogy so that way Thrawn and Kyle Katarn could be in them, but i dont think it would be wise, we dont exactly need cgi clones of luke and the others running around, just for the sake of another movie.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Hmm... I don't know what to think of this. One part of my brain (the cynical part) is letting out that knowing sigh and telling me how this is just another cash-grab to squeeze a little more out of the goose that lays the golden eggs. Plus the prequels weren't the best. I didn't like Ep 1, Ep 2 was okay, and Ep 3 was actually pretty good in my opinion; but I'm still worried that this new trilogy will come down with a case of what I like to call "'Sequel' decay".

Then there is the other part of my (the more hopeful and fanboyish part) that is pretty excited about this anouncement. It sounds like Lucas may have realized his mistake with the prequeals and plans on making some more interesting Star Wars films by seperating them from the original 3. I'm interested to see whether he goes forward or backwards in time in relation to "New Hope". Backwords seems more likely due to the fact that the article said it wouldn't focus on any Skywalkers (or Solos I'd imagine), but put it far enough ahead and perhaps the Skywalker-Solo clan would decrease in influence (they don't really seem to be surviving that well anyway). Plus its Star Wars! Woohoo!

 

[Danpascooch]

He gave his wife the scripts as an anniversary present and said he wouldn't touch them unless she gave him permission because of how upset she was at how much time the movies took of his life. I doubt she folded so quickly. This is probably wrong.

Why does he need the scripts?

He is making NEW movies, and any of the old scripts he could easily just get online, I'm sure hundreds of geeks put all the Star Wars movie dialogue into text.

Anyway, FUCK YOU LUCAS!

 

[Enkidu88]

He also may die before he gets around to this.

We can only hope...

 

[qbanknight]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's fake anyways, they keep denying it will happen and hope it will never be

 

[Korey Von Doom]

Star Wars has been milked so much that it will never be worth a shit again.

 

[Drudgelmir]

Dear George lucas,
If you do this I WIll Kill you.
Yours,
Drudgelmir.

 

[Imbechile]

Another trilogy? [http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/]

Hahhahaaa. Where the hell did you find that ?
OT: A KOTOR trilogy would be sweet

 

[Anachronism]

Not only that, but the new films will apparently not focus on anyone named Skywalker.

...

if these rumors are actually true, it could actually be wonderful news.

They could well be good films, but I'll be extremely reluctant to consider them Star Wars films. Whatever your opinion of the prequels, the Star Wars saga currently consists of an organic whole which tells a complete, consistent story: the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. That is what the films have been about, and since that story is now inarguably over, any further films are entirely thematically unnecessary. Even if they were to focus on a Skywalker, they still wouldn't make sense from a storytelling perspective. The fact that they're apparently going to be completely detached from the other films makes one wonder why they'd bother even calling them Star Wars. Apart from the fact that they'll make enormous amounts of money, of course.

 

[Quaxar]

So... he's going to set the story thousand years in the future to avoid references to the films?
Great, but how's he going to deal with all the EU? Clearly, people still remember things like the Galactic Empire's reign of terror, the New Republic or the Yuuzhan-Vong.

Also, what the hell, GL?
This guy needs to drink more, maybe he'd have less time to hate his own franchise then.

 

[I_am_acting]

this rumor again? i thought mr. lucas said he was done with directing new star wars movies....

 

[razing32]

Let's not get hyped up.

If they make it we don't go see it , they loose money and they stop at the first one.
How I wish that were true ...(snif)

 

[Neino Ranatos]

Another Star Wars? Directed by he who should not be named?

no...no! No! NO NO NO DOES NOT COMPUTE AAAAAAAAH! *impales self*

On topic:

I think its just a rumor. Lucas is just going to keep re-releasing Star wars and making kid shows with it. Who wants to bet he re-releases the CG movie in 3D?

Ever since the Ewoks of Endor, Star Wars has gone down hill [not including EU] whenever Lucas gets involved. It went from Jar-Jar to....Ahsoka....to..GAAAH! He may be the creator, but he shouldn't butcher it like this. I think someone needs to give him a slap to the face and remind him why he made Star Wars in the first place.

All in all, I doubt Lucas would make another when he could just re-release his movies once again and say "Theres your 'more Star Wars'. Make sure to get Indy 4 on the way out!!"

 

[Paksenarrion]

As long as he (or some other "famous" director) does not direct it, it'll be fine. I wonder what happened to the ones that directed the originals?

 

[Larsirius]

The post-Original trilogy Expanded Universe is such an abomination, I'd loved if he set the new trilogy right in the middle of that content, and went in a totally different direction than what the EU content does, just to kill it.

 

[Therumancer]

Lucas has not sold the rights to anyone; also, all the EU content, regardless of continuity, gets approved through a specific process and a series of individuals who are hired for the purpose of coordinating licensed tie-ins. Licensed products do not hand over the continuity rights to the licensees....they just let that particular publisher dabble in the Star Wars franchise in exchange for a hefty percentage of sales, and the publisher still has to conform to and get approval from Lucas's staff assigned to the job. Essentially, expanded universe stuff is never official canon, until it gets adopted by Lucas Films in the movies.

Lucas is also often noted as being very business savy when it comes to tie-in merchandise; his original contract on Star Wars insured he had control of and got all profits to the merchandise and toys sold as a restult of the movie; film companies never do that anymore, as a direct result of Star Wars's massive success and all the profits they lost out on as a result of this. This works, as I understand it, such that all the tie-in content anyone ever sees out there is ultimately owned by Lucas; yeah, Dark Horse may write those comics and sell them, but Lucas ultimately owns all of it.

Also, Lucas never planned to do sequels (according to his last statements on the matter) because the process was too time consuming and gruelling, and he didn't (at the time) have a sufficiently strong vision of what a sequel series would be about. That, it seems, has changed.

EDIT: It is now about beating Avatar in box office sales, it seems!

You would be incorrect here.

While it's hard to find stuff about now due to the resolution, there was a time post-Jedi when George Lucas felt he could not make any money off the franchise anymore. He sold the entire thing to Dark Horse comics flat out. No liscencing involved, sort of like how the rights to Fallout were purchused by Bethesda.

If you've ever heard of something called "Shadows Of The Empire" the big deal with it at the time was that it was one piece of the continuity that George Lucas was going to allow to remain Canon as part of the eventual settlement (such as it was, he pretty much used his influance as creator of an iconic franchise to get courts to hand it back to him irregardless of the laws... claiming he was duped or something like that. It's been many years).

The same thing happened with the young adult novels that I mentioned, the Rancor riding witches, lost city of the Jedi, and some other elements are leftovers from that. It ended similarly.

When it comes to the sequels in writing now, I don't know the legal status of them, but I am guessing he sold the rights, because a lot of writers... including some "names" like RA Salvatore (especially when he was writing Star Wars) have produced some of these books and if they didn't have the right to produce canon and control over their property I doubt they would have been involved.

I don't think the timeline really matters so much as the simple fact that George Lucas can't do anything in the future after the original trilogy without permission. The past and time period of the original triologies are one thing, but this is something else.

Now, I could of course be wrong, however I seem to remember a lot of this was being discussed back when "The Phantom Menace" was coming out and people were wondering why he was bothering with Prequels instead of sequels.

We'll see what happens, but when push comes to shove, if he declares the intent I'd be very interested in seeing where guys like RA Salvatore, and Timothy Zahn stand on it.

If George Lucas had simply been selling liscences (money in exchange for permission to produce a product) that would have been one thing, however the "Dark Horse" incident and what apparently happened with those young adult novels are not matters of liscencing as I said. Both coming fromt he fact that George Lucas pretty much sold the rights to what he saw as a dead franchise at the time.