Entertainment

George Lucas' Star Wars Sequels Would Have Been VERY Different Than The New Trilogy

by Nathan Diller
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Have you ever wondered how the most recent Star Wars trilogy might have been different if George Lucas had been involved? While it was previously reported that he had unspecified ideas for the sequels, we finally know what Lucas' Star Wars sequels would have been like, and his ideas have some fans actually relieved that he decided to leave the franchise.

On Monday night, @LivioRamondelli tweeted an excerpt from a companion book to the AMC series, James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction, in which Lucas detailed his plans for the new Star Wars trilogy for the first time, which were never realized. Bustle reached out to the book's publisher, Insight Editions, who confirmed the authenticity of the quotes.

"[The next three Star Wars films] were going to get into a microbiotic world," Lucas said, according to an excerpt provided to Bustle by Insight Editions. "But there's this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed of the Force."

Lucas, who sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, also joked that it was probably for the best that the new team at Lucasfilm went in another direction, stating that "a lot of the fans would have hated it, like they did Phantom Menace and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would be told."

Excerpt provided by Insight Editions from James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction. © 2018 AMC Network Entertainment LLC. All rights reserved.

Though not included in the tweet, Lucas goes on to say that, generally speaking, the Whills are the Force, and the midi-chlorians mentioned by Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in previous films, are the conduit through which Jedi to communicate with it. (Think of midi-chlorians as the atomic particles of the Force.)

While interesting, not every fan was particularly excited by the idea of delving deeper into the midi-chlorian mythology. In fact, some were delighted to hear that Lucas' vision for the Star Wars sequels was never realized. @MrTedLouis tweeted, "2018 is a rolling dumpster fire of corruption and despair, but at least George Lucas will never get to make and entire trilogy about fucking midichlorians" and @garth_hamilton wrote,

"I'm so glad these #StarWars Episodes 7-9 didn't happen. Thank you, George Lucas, for making the movies that made my childhood... But even after our reaction to your prequel trilogy, you still seem to be unaware of what made those movies so magical for us."

@konnor79 also said, "Next time I hear 'Disney is ruining Star Wars' I am going to laugh hysterically as I pull up this story. George Lucas's plans for a sequel trilogy were laughably ridiculous".

As fans now know, Disney took the movies in a drastically different direction and released 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017. While both films were box office successes — raking in $248 million and $220 million in their opening weekends, respectively, according to Variety — and were received well by critics, audience reactions to the movies differed.

While The Force Awakens, which was directed by J.J. Abrams, was met with a mostly positive reaction from fans, The Last Jedi, helmed by Rian Johnson polarized viewers, with some citing Johnson's disregard for fan theories and its treatment of older Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker as some reasons for their dissatisfaction. Still, it sounds like maybe some disgruntled fans could be changing their tune now that Lucas' original ideas for the new Star Wars movies is out in the open.

Star Wars: Episode 9 is currently in the works, and only time will tell what reception to the film will be like upon its release. And while Lucas unofficially offers input here and there — in May, Solo director Ron Howard said he visited the set and helped him nail down a detail about the character, according to Deadline — his decision to take a step back from Star Wars means his biology-inspired versions of the sequels will probably never come to be.