What Happened To The Sequel Trilogy - Star Wars

so let's talk about some star wars there's nothing more important than knowing where you're going and there are projects that i've worked on where we had some ideas but we we hadn't worked through them enough we had some sometimes we had some ideas but then we weren't allowed to do them the way we wanted to we had i mean i've had all sorts of situations where you you plan things in in a certain way and you suddenly find yourself doing something that's 180 degrees different and then sometimes it works really well and you feel like wow that really came together and other times you think oh my god i can't believe this is where we are and sometimes when it's not working out it's because it's what you plan and other times when it's not working out it's because it didn't it's like you just you you never really know but but having a plan you know i have learned in some cases the hard way um is the most you know critical thing because otherwise you don't know what you're setting up you don't know what your you know uh what to emphasize because if you don't know the inevitable of the story you know you're just as good as your last you know sequence or or effect or joke or whatever but you want to be leading to something inevitable jj abrams did an interview where he talked about the sequel trilogy and the reaction from a lot of star wars fans have been divisive i get away this these days when anyone talks about the sickle children to begin with it's pretty clear jj didn't want the sequels to end up the way they ended up and honestly even though i'm not a fan of the last jedi and have my complaints with do all the fates in the rise of skywalker i'm sure no one from colin travail to ryan johnson intended for the reception of the sequel trilogy to be an endless bloodlust war between fans until the sun envelops us all and kills every single living thing in the entire spectrum of reality at least i hope so and like i always say if you love the sequel trilogy regardless of if it's just one movie or all of the movies cheers i'll drink to that bro so this brings me to the point of reflection though looking back at the sequel trilogy and wondering how the hell did we get here well you got me by all accounts it doesn't make sense they looked at the stories and they said we want to make something for the fans so i said all i wanted to do was tell a story of what happened you know it started here and it went there it's all about generations and it's about you know the issues of fathers and sons and grandfathers and it's a family soap opera i mean ultimately i mean we call it space opera but people realize it's actually a soap opera and it's all about family problems and that it's not about spaceships so they decided they didn't want to use those stories they decided they were going to go do their own thing and so i decided fine but basically i'm not going to try to they weren't that keen to have me involved anyway but at the same time i said i'm not gonna if i get in there i'm just gonna cause trouble because they're not gonna do what i want to do so and i don't have the control to do that anymore and all i would do is muck everything up so i said okay i will go my way and i'll let them go their way first we had george lucas and his treatments which he was going to turn into scripts for the single trilogy with michael ardnaught till disney and george had a falling out before jj ryan and colin were even hired though of course when things are announced versus when they actually happen are two entirely different things that we the public will never know non-disclosure agreements and all that being a thing how many other lies have i been told by the council this habit of basically reusing concepts is something at first i blamed on lucasfilm but i can't even ignore disney's habit of remaking everything and rewriting history if you look at disney's recent track record of remaking and reimagining their own catalog of anime films into live action stories it's not hard to imagine their mission statement for the sequel trilogy was repackage and resell we're like nba 2k we just copy and paste we don't really change much okay but you love [Music] and again no shade it's just kind of a visible strategy they use for all their movies these days that aren't associated with pixar or the mcu which looking back at the single trojan movies it is clear that all of them yes all of them including the last jedi borrow visual and narrative beats from the original trilogy [Music] artna did not work on a proper script about luke han and leia's kids rather arthur was first hired to write a long treatment based on george lucas's story ideas then a script with him that story was dumped shortly after the buyout was announced then george lucas walked from then on arden was tasked with writing something completely different he began in november 2012 and he worked on this story for nine months approximately one year after the buyout arno told lucasfilm that he needed 18 more months to finish the script for episode vii that was way too much time for a movie disney wanted in theaters in 2015. okay so we finally have a release date star wars episode 7 will be hitting theaters on december 18 2015. but for a moment there we were all a little worried about star wars oscar winner and hunger games catching fire screenwriter michael arndt bowed out of the project leaving jj abrams and co-writer lawrence kasdan to finish the script for the film which apparently isn't even completed yet and even though 2015 seems like a reasonable amount of time to make a movie a year and a half flies by especially when you're trying to make one of the biggest movies in hollywood abrams and lucasfilm head kathleen kennedy wanted to push the release date to 2016 but disney wouldn't budge and settle with them on a very late 2015 release date now when abrams was asked about having to jump on board to co-write the script he basically said that the decision was because they were working with such a short timeline he said quote it became clear that given the time frame and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be the larry he is referring to is of course the empire strikes back in return of the jedi writer lawrence kasdan and enters jj abrams and lauren's cast in sets costumes and visual effects were already being prepared all based around arnold's story that he had worked on with the story group jj and casting drafted the third act of michael arnot's uncompleted script then went back and rewrote the rest tweaking character motivations rerunning dialogue etc that being said any changes they made couldn't be too liberal and lucasfilm still had to have input into everything they did so things like the resistance starkiller base luke's temple getting burned and hanumla being broken up really couldn't be changed at that point in time because again pre-production was restarting for episode 7 lawrence and jj initially wanted to start from scratch but there was just no time and that's a phrase i want you to remember as this video goes on no time specifically disney giving their directors and writers no time which if you're a fan of solo a star wars story you'll remember the troll production and how instead of pushing back the release of the film until december disney was insistent that it kept its may release date even though most of the film had to be re-shot with the entirely new director after the original directors were let go and ron howard had come in to replace them then there was the impression that jj was going to do the entire sequel trilogy himself but that notion was debunked with the announcement that ryan johnson and kyle devera would be homing the next two sequels to the force awakens respectively and it's understandable why jj didn't want to helm the sequel trilogy himself disney wanted these films out way too quickly for one director to do especially when that one director was producing a handful of other projects unrelated to star wars and had a contract with paramount pictures a contract that would literally take 10 million dollars to free up jj to do episode 9 after colin parted ways with the production but i'm getting ahead of myself but wait dashboard ryan johnson writes his own movie before even meeting jj and when the two do get in touch ryan is requesting things to be changed from the force awakens so it fits with the last jedi some things jj says yes on others according to jj he says no jj leaves behind an outline the outline is thrown out then we have the last jedi and love or hate that movie that's not what we're here to discuss from the way ryan talks and daisy saying that jj's outline was thrown out whatever jj wanted from the sequel trilogy it seems lucasfilm didn't want that and that's no shade against anyone studios do do that from time to time though it is very rare for a studio to do that when the first film of a trilogy was very successful well successful at least by the audience and critical reception as well as the force awakens being the highest grossing film of all time in north america to this day but things happen [Music] yet this is where problems initially came from because once you introduce a different narrative a different vision especially when the original vision was favored by many people you create a dilemma where some of your audience members will start preferring one vision over the other this is what did happen because jj abrams and ryan johnson are very two different filmmakers with their own very unique styles now things get even more complicated when episode 9 director contravero and co-writer derek connolly part ways with lucasfilm after several rewrites of duel of the fades the last draft colin and derrick worked on was leaked to the public eventually but the draft of duel the fates that jack thorne worked on after colin's departure has not leaked yet at least publicly the big problem with khan's departure is that just as jj was setting things up for the secret trojan with the force awakens in his outline which were thrown out ryan and colin have been working with each other and not just in the films if you look at the eu which was already a mess due to all the retcons i had to do from the transitionary period from the eu that was set up in the force awakens era to the last jedi era it became even more of a mess post the last jedi because duel of the fates was supposed to be the next film and much of the eu reflected that and later that eu became pretty worthless due to the fact of duel the fates wasn't getting made finally we reached the rise of skywalker with returning director jj abrams and co-writer chris theriot it's at this point even the actors like carrie russell are expressing fears that the story would be changed before reshoots for the rise of skywalker even started i feel like he embraces it and knows how to do it so well he's not trying to change it to be something else or he really respects what it is is what i'm trying to say and um and i just think he has a lot of heart and when i read his script that he wrote i cried i really i mean who knows what it will turn out to be and i hope it remained true to what he originally wanted how could this happen and this fear related to a giant fandom fear as well no one knew what the story of episode 9 was going to be about there were talks from mark campbell about different scripts being flown out to him and then later taken away and replaced chris terry had stated that he rewrote the film more than any other script in his entire career reddit leaguers began spelling the entire story months in advance which made it seem like the rise of skywalker was constantly being rewritten which according to christario it actually was and i'm not here to point any fingers at any one director or producer this seems like it was just a problem disney lucasfilm had since parting ways with george lucas they announced something they change it they rush it change it some more then ignore it so they pick it up again years later and as much as this seems like a crazy conspiracy thing this is honestly just how the film industry goes for a lot of major studios from warner brothers to sony to disney lucasfilm itself the mcu is a very rare different animal honestly because of kevin feige love or hate the mcu movies kevin knows how to run a tight ship production wise and disney gives him a lot of trust to do what he wants to do the mcu has been going on since 2008 disney lucasfilm only started pushing out films by 2015. by all reports they needed bad robot to get the job done in the small time frame disney gave them due to being so new like i said earlier in the video time is a key factor in all this time is something disney never gave these films disney never took the time to think about if parting ways with george lucas and his treatments was a good idea if disregarding jj's outline having ryan write a middle movie before even meeting jj allowing colin to part ways with luka's film even though it was his story that the last jedi was leading into or constantly forcing changes or roadblocking jj's plans in the rise of skywalker was a good idea at the time of me writing this it's rather unknown what happened with the production of the rise of skywalker there were studio demands to bring back dead villains there were fandom demands all over the place for redemptions trio dynamics and concepts that weren't properly developed already multiple rewrites reshoots no deleted scenes no director's commentary and a complete 180 from the cast after the reshoots were over and an early screening was shown to them so that leads us to where we are now looking back at the sequel trilogy and as much as certain parties in the fandom would like to make this a witch hunt if you follow the production of the sequel trilogy from the beginning till now there really is no boogeyman making everything bad at least not publicly you never know what happens behind closed doors [Music] what we have is a lot of people with a lot of different intentions ideas and even some stories but no commitment to one vision one plan we have george lucas and his treatments and it's unknown how these treatments would have turned out after they returned into scripts and considering there's a lot of different stories and narratives about what was going to happen i'm just going to leave links in the description of what people have reported and you guys can tell me what you think because i'd rather avoid that argument we have jj abrams with his setup in the force awakens and his outline which was thrown out and the only thing we know about what jj wanted is that mark hamill daisy ridley john boyega and m driver were on board with this and knew from the start what jj was going to do you were in the documentary you were very vocal on your distaste for mr johnson's take on your character luke and it wasn't no it's not just taste at all it's just a loop that i didn't really understand i mean obviously a lot happened between but i had to like i say make up back stories that besides picking you know thinking that kylo ren you know picking the the new hitler to be the next hope that's on me but there had to be more to me to justify even cutting off my telepathic uh communication with my sister so i mean but that's my job i mean i'm not the one that and there was there there were practical things because jj had a much different vision for what was gonna happen in aid the first thing i said to ryan is i said why am i how are we gonna explain me being in my jedi ceremonial robes when when i first meet ray you know um things like that to make sure that uh you know there was a flow the thing that that jj said to me when we first met um first meeting the first time was that i imagine a journey of a character where it's almost the opposite just isolating the original trilogy that uh the journey of someone who the opposite of vader where he vader starts the most confident the most experienced and over the course of three films is chipped away till he's his most vulnerable and he had the idea of starting someone at that place and doing almost the exact opposite at the start of the third movie i didn't know at that point we how the third movie ended but someone who almost starts the most vulnerable and the most susceptible and kind of gradually becomes more and more hardened with uh experience he's had gets deeper and deeper into the dark side and it's debatable if that was going to be good or bad but at the very least it would have been consistent to what jj already set up in regards to mark hamill who signed on to the secret trilogy when george lucas was still going to be doing the entire thing and john mueller who signed on to the sequel trilogy when jj abrams made the force awakens and left his outline it seems like the single trilogy did not turn out the way they originally intended to from when they started which is just something that happens when it comes to studios and contracts like when patty jenkins parted ways with the mcu and exid thor too even though everything she was setting up for the story is what chris hemsworth natalie portman and all the other stars were aware of when they signed on to do that movie but again contracts and studios this is what happens we have ryan johnson with his middle chapter the last jedi which compared to everyone else ryan was lucky enough to get the most time with crafting his film and as much as people like to say ryan wrote his story in stone and jj just didn't commit to anything ryan himself said that everything was still ambiguous for his film and up to the director of nine to decide which as we know was going to be colin who had been working with ryan during the production of the last jedi we have colin's ending chapter with duel defeats that i have many mixed feelings on but aesthetically i like it but aesthetically i like a lot of concept art from the rise of skywalker and most of that doesn't even reflect the final product and it's not even in the art book fun fact there is this concept art from the rise of skywalker of a mysterious lightsaber-wilting character that isn't kylo or rey floating around the internet and as of recently the art was edited to remove the lightsaber and replace it with a blaster and i'm not trying to make a conspiracy theory here but i don't know really much consobar that ramly gets edited for a film that was released over a year ago finally we have the rise of skywalker a film that seems to have been everything at one point and i can't help but feel bad for jj who seems to be getting the most blame because it's easier to blame one director than just reflect on disney that rushed every aspect of this trilogy and another steel that struggled to commit to an idea within the chaos of being rushed to death by disney also rather strange that so many people are going to bad for disney guys i know we all consume disney products and there's literally no way to escape from them but it's disney they really don't have the moral high ground most of the time and you know they're really not someone to go to bat for i'm just saying that's just me though if you look back at this trilogy from when iger said they would be adapting george lucas's stories to where we are now you have a lot of people who said planning didn't matter you shouldn't be coming into these films with expectations but almost everyone accepts us this way of thinking about these films was a giant mistake especially considering the expectation many people had was that they would be competently made and make sense together like i said if you love these movies in spite of the troubled productions more power to you i'm happy you're happy about these films this isn't a video to rain on anyone's parade but as i'm sitting here reflecting on a trilogy that struggled to define its own story due to its story always changing visions writers and intentions jj room's getting everything from unjustified hate death threats john boyega being sidelined then getting death threats killing mary tran naomi aki daisy ridley oscar isaac adam driver and domino gleason and all the other actors being targeted by people who blame them for the writing of the films and getting way too much hate and criticism thrown their way the media and bloggers hyping up the jj versus ryan vs colin director war that drags in all of the fans a fandom split into pieces even among fans of the sequel trilogy and i can't help but think this all could have been avoided if disney just committed to one vision for the sequel trilogy and gave the creators enough time to make it real talk i would have rather had jj abrams do the entire single trilogy himself while taking notes on the story from george lucas that way jj and whatever co-writer he wanted to work with could deliver a consistent trilogy for better or worse meanwhile controversial and ryan johnson could work on their own anthology films and not have to worry about conflicting visions of this whole director vs director war ot fans love the original trilogy pg fans love the prequel trilogy polonie fans love rebels and the clone wars and basically anything with his name on it because it's all consistent with its own story with its own vision but sequel trilogy fans have so many different factions and very few of them all love the secret trilogy and you can't even blame them because this is what happens when you introduce so many different visions and narratives into one story all i'm saying is this lover hate the sequels what the films needed not just for their own sake but for the sake of the fans of the trilogy and the people working on them was consistency was a plan and that's all jj was saying from his interview about how he wished these films had a plan because he knows how it affected everyone who worked in the trilogy everyone who is fans of the sql trilogy love or hate jj abrams i would have rather at least see him do the sequel trilogy with one vision and one narrative behind him because at the very least it would have been one story like any story it would have had its fans and it would have had its critics but it would have been a consistent story and that's what the sequel trilogy needed more than anything well my friends it looks like our time is at an end thank you for stopping by the channel i hope you enjoyed today's video and if you did how would you smash that like button if you want to see more videos from me subscribe to the channel to see more what do you guys think are you content with the way things turned out for sql trilogy or would you have preferred one consistent vision from jj abrams while colin trevero and ryan johnson were able to do their own spin-offs with just one narrative and no conflicting anything let me know your thoughts in the comments below and i will see you for the next video stay safe stay healthy and may the force be with you always [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The First Okiro

Views: 143,367

Keywords: Star Wars, The First Okiro, What, Happened, To, The, Sequel, Trilogy, Rey Skywalker, Finn, Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, JJ Abrams, Sequel Trilogy Plans, jj abrams interview, The Rise Of Skywalker, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Duel of the Fates, Rian Johnson, video essay, What Happened to the Sequels - Star Wars, what happened to the sequel trilogy - Star Wars

Id: gi93Mb3NqiQ

Length: 22min 41sec (1361 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021

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[u/Gandamack]

"Terrible" production schedules. Curse the inability to edit titles of posts.

[u/Collective_Insanity]

A pretty reasonable summary of events.

I'm not sure entirely how culpable Alan Horn is. From what I can tell, he has more of a reputation for simply being a stock-standard "yes man". So long as as a proposed project isn't too controversial and staying within budget, he'll approve it. Fairly hands-off approach.

​

But the general idea of the films being rushed out the gate ASAP (likely because of Bob Iger specifically) seems consistent with what we've seen and heard from various interviews from most people involved.

If you had to point a finger at just one person, it would probably be Bob first and foremost. With KK being #2.

As much disdain as I might have for several of the ST writers, they didn't hire themselves and they didn't impose the strict timelines on themselves.

[u/BensenMum]

Lucas had three outlines for them to go off of

Iger ignored it and said “it’s OUR” brand.

You now have three overly produced messes with needless cultural wars.