Hello TORWarriors and Star Wars fans! After last weeks barrage of Star Wars film news this week has been a bit quieter so I thought we should take advantage of that pause to discuss the particulars of the upcoming Star Wars trilogy and get some feedback on what sort of expectations you might have as a fan. Namely, what do you want new Star Wars films to be about and which era are you interested in seeing films about? Who do you want to see in those roles?
You want who to play what?!?
First off, what era are you looking to see some new Star Wars films take place in? Do we pick up where we left off or go back even further in time and explore the the Old Republic? I would love to see the Revan story brought to the big screen and it might give us a chance to see the world of Star Wars:The Old Republic visualized in all its big screen glory. It’s probably a given that the new trilogy will take place after the events of Episode III but that doesn’t necessarily mean immediately after. Lots of ideas are being tossed around and fans seem pretty evenly divided over the next set of films picking up immediately after Return of the Jedi or something a generation later.
If the story was to pick up right after the defeat of the second death star it seems like we’d be looking at something more like Episodes I and II where the story features lots of behind the scenes political wrangling and and jockeying for position. The destruction of the death star doesn’t mean that the Empire just suddenly ceases to exist. After the cake and fireworks are over our heroes would be faced with some pretty significant decisions.
It’s a big galaxy and regardless of how oppressive you find the Empire – or not, maybe you’re a fan – someone has to be in charge. After all the main motivation of the Empire doesn’t really seem to be wanton destruction or evil, it merely wants “order”. With a power vacuum at the top who’s going to ensure that the regular folks are safe from things like Hutt-controlled organized crime and that taxes get collected and the trash gets picked up on schedule and so on? And then there are those pesky regional governors who have direct control over territories. Who’s to say one of them doesn’t have aspirations of grandeur and fancies himself a new throne?
All kidding aside there’s a lot to think about in terms of where the story goes and it’s not just the story. What about the actors? If we have a story that picks up right after the end of Episode III we’re faced with some pretty monumental decisions about who’s going to play our favorite characters. We all want to have our Star Wars cake and eat it too but lets be honest, Mark Hamill is looking a little doughy these days and I don’t really see him coming back to pull off his Luke Skywalker role in a film that picks up where we last left our intrepid heroes.
Not as spry as they used to be, are they.
This means it’s likely that we’ll see these roles go to younger, contemporary actors and that opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms. Does Disney go with established young actors or do they present us with some new faces? How will fans react to having new faces take over the roles of their favorite characters? Do you have some ideas or favorite actors that you’d like to see in these roles? This is likely to be a controversial and hotly debated topic once we know a little more about what the new creators of Star Wars intend.
There is however, another way to go that could give us the best of both worlds. What if the next trilogy picks up a generation later? This would allow the actors that we loved in Episodes IV through VI to reprise their roles, but as mentors to a new generation of characters that could move the story forward. It’d be nice to see how things have shaped up 20 or 30 years later. A new Jedi academy? Our heroes have families? An old mostly forgotten evil lurks in the shadows and the new generation of Solos and Skywalkers are thrown into turmoil and must step up to save the galaxy? I would love to see a story that centers around a female Jedi (Jaina Solo anyone?) How awesome would it be to see new characters saving the galaxy alongside our old favorites?
The best of all worlds?
Every fan who’s acquainted with the larger Star Wars universe has favorite characters and story lines. I personally would love to see some Chiss in my Star Wars films. (I swear, even though my main in Star Wars: The Old Republic is a Chiss Imperial Agent, I’m not biased or anything!) The Thrawn trilogy is one of my all time favorites. Another is the Legacy of the Force series which takes place around 40 years after Episode IV and features almost every character from the original trilogy alongside their offspring. Doing a trilogy here would also leave things wide open for the now confirmed spinoff films to go back and explore other stories and background for how we got to where we are in the new era.
What are some of your favorite characters and story lines? If it was up to you, what era would you make a new trilogy in? What story and characters would you explore? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts on this subject!
Around the Galaxyis a regular feature where we make a slight detour from Star Wars: The Old Republic and offer up news and opinion about all things Star Wars. In addition to news about development of official Star Wars projects we curate related news and items of interest from the community. I’m always looking for interesting things to share with the community so if you see something that you’d like me to share here don’t hesitate to contact me via TORWars or on Twitter @HolyCrapItsLate.
As always we love hearing from you! Please leave constructive comments and feedback below.
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Its all about X-Wing for me, I think those books would make phenomenal movies, lots of dogfighting, good comedy, and great characters and development.
I agree; not for Episodes VII-IX but for the additional movies Disney mentioned they were going to develop. (I would also rather see a treatment of Dark Horse’s Boba Fett series over a Yoda movie.)
I really liked the Wraith Squadron books more–reminded me of WWII caper movies like Kelly’s Heroes or Dirty Dozen–but the Rogue Squadron series did a nice job of fleshing out secondary and tertiary characters from the main saga.
I agree with both of you guys up there^^ – both of these stories would make excellent stand-alone films. As I re-read some of the older EU stuff and think more about the possibilities for more Star Wars I’m leaning more and more towards something set in the Legacy of the Force era if for no other reason than it gives a lot of leeway for side projects.
Episode VII is going to be 20-30 years after VI, according to the reports when it was announced. It’s also an original story rather than an adaptation of anything from the Expanded Universe. How much if any of the current continuity it’s going to respect is currently an open question.
God, I’d love to see the original cast reprise their roles for a legacy of the force – fate of the jedi and beyond series of films. I’d love to see Jacen Solo’s fall. Not to mention the relationship between Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai: ex-lovers on the opposite side of the Jedi/Sith divide…
I think they could do a nice political movie from the darth plaguis book – I loved that one. Fett would be a big hit with me as a stand alone movie. Otherwise they could easily do a trilogy or two about Revan as I see it. There is so much to choose from hehe. Story of darth bane? The youth of ben kenobi? – also a favorite of mine.
For episode 7-9 i hope they do some adaption of the dark empire seires.
I don’t want to be that guy, but I’m going to go ahead and say it. Let the old cast go, start something new and creative. There’s so much lore in Star Wars, why continue a story that has a great conclusion.
A lot of people rave about the Thrawn trilogy, but I find it hardly in comparison to Reven’s experience. Do something new and novel Disney.
I think the Legacy of the Force era is perfect, but I don’t really want to see that adapted. Given they have said they won’t be adapting any story, we still can hope they stay in the LotF timeframe. To do it earlier doesn’t make sense given the age of the actors. I just hope they don’t completely contradict everything in the EU done over the past 20 or so years. I would be SOOO pissed if they just ignored that.