Star Wars (Ep 7,8 & 9)

A million times NO.

I'm about as big a Star Wars slappy as you're going to find and even I think it should be done and over with. Regardless of Lucas' original intentions of a nine episode series, the story is now basically one of father and son. Daddy's dead. It's over.

What about getting a good chunk of the original cast (Hammil, Ford, Fisher and Lando Griffin) for the first installment, and then have them hand the torch to a new set of characters for the final two films.


i cant see how they would be 'event' films with all new characters. no-one would care.
anyway, the tv series will be out in a couple of years to console yourself with, so its hardly the end of the universe anyway.

I don't think there's really any more of the story left to tell. Despite obvious failings in several of the films, they do tell one complete story, beginning to end. Or two complete stories if you want to think of it that way. What more, really, would there be left to do with the characters and the world, at least in terms of those that Lucas himself created and fleshed out?

The revivial of the Jedi Order? Is it necessary? No, but I think it is/could be a viable storyline. Especially since the Order would basically be built from the ground up with no knowledgable Jedi Master.

How about letting it rest ?

If you want an Episode 7 to 9, go read the Timothy Zahn's books (which are not bad).

Do you really think Lucas could manage to recapture the magic ?
So far he's 3 out of 6...

Mr. Bateman... your avatar is the only reason you're not getting cockpunched, I think.


Quoted for truth.

Read the Expanded Universe.

It's really good. I swear.

Charlie, what would you recommend, beyond the Zahn trilogy (and the follow-ups, Spectre of the Past and Vision of the Future)?

I myself have been soured on any and all things SW for the forseeable future. Just burned out. When the meta-textual baggage outweighs the story being told, there's a major problem. I'm just curious though. I've heard some wretched things about the other novels, comics, etc...

Why not?

I'll see em. And I'll like em... mostly just because of everyone's bitching.

Sorry, that was actually sarcasm. The EU primarily sucks.

I'd recommend Labyrinth of Evil though, if only because it actually builds a relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin that's non-existant in the movies. The Clone Wars Adventures are good as well. It's kinda sad that all the good stuff is based around the lesser movies.

You know, usually I'm good at catching sarcasm online. This time, not so much.

I read the Zahn trilogy and the follow-ups years ago, long before SW turned into the circus it is now, and I recall they were quite good. I have a feeling nothing else comes close to those, though.

I'm not going to read anything based on/inspired by the prequels. But thanks for actually suggesting something, rather than piling on snark.

We're getting a TV series. I'll gladly take another Xbox 360 KOTOR (as long as Bioware's back at the reins). And when the 30th Anniversary box set comes, I'll empty my wallet. Otherwise, there's nothing else I'm dying to see from Star Wars.

And, yes, the EU is mostly shite.

I wouldn't mind seeing 7, 8 and 9, if Lucas weren't writing or directing. I really don't care either way, but I wouldn't be against it happening.

They'd be EU movies at this point, so I think by definition they'd be less "magical" than the original movies. But I always wanted 7, 8 and 9 more than 1, 2, and 3.

It's done. Episodes I through VI essentially cover the same story; Palpatine taking over the galaxy and eventually being brought down by the man he converted. That story is over. Starting a new story just wouldn't make sense. So to answer the question, no, I don't want to see that, any more than I want to read the books about the god damn alien invasion of the Star Wars universe. That author should be flogged.

Have you guys seen Carrie? It would depress my cock off to see Leia like that.

I'd see episodes 7, 8, & 9 on the condition that Lucas WASN'T involved. There's no problem with the Star Wars universe; just the people who choose to write bad stories that take place in that universe.

Alien invasion...

I'm intrigued, as much as I am annoyed.

Anyone care to post more information on this? I don't need a detailed synopsis, or anything. Is it aliens from another galaxy or something?

This is true for almost all fictional universes (i.e. DC and Marvel). But the thing is, the guy who owns and controls the universe happens to be the one who writes the worst stories (relative to their exposure and "canonicity" - is that a word?). It devalues the universe as a whole, in my eyes.


... I've been suckered into another SW discussion. Damn it. Been a while, though.

Some crap aliens invaded the galaxy, Chewie died and LFL made a lot of money out of stretching out bad fiction into twenty-novel series.

And thus, I feel justified in ignoring the novels and comics, in addition to the prequel trilogy.

Thank you.

I've read ALOT of the EU - mostly when I was younger and not so discerning in my tastes ("It says Star Wars?? It has to be good!"). The real stand outs after reading 50 or so novels are all of Timothy Zahn's stuff (including his one prequel novel, Outbound Flight) and Matthew Stover's three books.

Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization is 100x better than the movie (and I enjoyed the movie), Shatterpoint is good, and Traitor is the best Star Wars EU novel written, in my opinion. The only problem is that it's sandwiched in the middle of the 20-novel New Jedi Order, and doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense without reading the novels that came before (and only about 4 of the 20 are any good).

I've read a few good Star Wars comics, and really liked the Quinlin Vos/ Aayla Secura series. I don't remember the names of all of them but they were by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema (Rite of Passage and Twilight are two of the names I remember).

The same team is working on a series set 100 years after Return of the Jedi that I wasn't interested in until I heard they were behind it. There's a new Empire and a new Sith order.

It makes the movies a bit more tragic when you read the EU and realize that the Rebel Alliance put together a pretty sucky government that was constantly at war for all of its existence and didn't survive more then about 40 years. Of course, that is longer then the Empire survived.

Honestly, I like Allston's and Stackpole's books as well, mostly because they have interesting characters and they seem to actually know how to develop stories.

Agreed. It's a shame that the NJO arc is a waste as a whole. I might have even stopped with that one and I don't think I ever bothered to find out how it all ended.

3 more movies will happen one day, its just a matter of time. and itll be awhile.

Given that Star Wars has the epic scope of a new mythology, any further stories with the established characters would take away the impact of the events of the six films. It was supposed to be the greatest evil threat the galaxy faced in a thousand years, and defeating that threat should earn the galaxy a thousand years of peace-- a New Republic, free of the petty squabbles and lite-version retreads of conflict found in the EU. That all just waters down the Star Wars universe, belittles the struggles and sacrifices of the films' heroes, and renders Lucas' story almost pointless.

The only thing I want to see is a film series telling the tale of the war with the Sith a thousand years prior, resulting in their near destruction, preserved only by Darth Bane and his rule of two. But not as it plays out in the comics. That's one big ret-conned mess. Just follow the simple outline of the history of the Sith found in the Phantom Menace novelization and flesh it out from there.

I ignore pretty much everything from the EU. I don't feel like it's properly part of the story.

EU gets unfairly pissed on, I think. Sure, most of it reads like glorified fan-fiction, but some of the books are pretty good, and a lot of fun. Zahn's novels and the Han Solo trilogy come to mind, and the comics aren't bad. (Also, the EU isn't just books. Knights of the Old Republic is EU as well, and I don't recall anyone bitching about that)

Though I kind agree with Chris Hill; I'm a bit selective about what of the EU I acknowledge -- A lot of it is just stupid and poorly conceived. A clone emperor? Countless "even worse than the DEATH STAR!" superweapons? The NJO series? Yeah, I'll give you that.

You know, I stuck with the NJO through 15 of the 20 books. Some were great in my eyes (Star by Star, Traitor) and some... weren't (Dark Journey). But the moment Admiral Pellaeon spouted, "It doesn't matter what you do, the empire will always strike back," I just didn't feel the urge to read on any further.

I think it's lame fan fiction that doesn't feel anything like Star Wars paired with a Sith Lord with a head like a badger, but I could keep quiet if you want!

It's also one of the only Star Wars games worth playing for more than 5 minutes. Your silence is appreciated.

I'd say Battlefront II has that honour, but only in small text...

Hey. I still play that too occasionally...until 3 AM. Is that bad?

"Still" play? It came out less than a year ago, man!

I do the same. It's a fine game to just kick back on. Out of all my Xbox games, I think it gets the most play.

Yeah, but I never hear anyone talk about it. I assumed it was just me and a few other SW geeks that still played the thing. In an attempt to bring it back to topic, the appeal of that one is that there is no story to it. The online version, anyway. KOTOR's okay, but I kind of agree with Charlie in that's it's not very Star Wars-y. I'm not sure any of the EU is barring the first Zahn trilogy. The book that pagoda mentioned, Traitor, really is very good, but feels out of place with the SW universe. Maybe that's why it's good. I don't know.

Edit: I guess that doesn't really bring it back on topic, but still.

At this point, I really don't give a fuck about any new Star Wars developments.

Battlefront II took longer to bore me than its predecessor (mostly because I thought the Order 66 stuff was handled really well), but it still bored me. Yes, even multiplayer. 32 players in a room where only 4 people know what the hell they're doing is no fun.

But, maybe I was just unlucky online.

Derailment over.

Episodes VII, VIII, and IX would be great.

If this was 1995 and Lucas had stuck to his every three years plan.

I wonder how many classic novels and great non-fiction books are collecting dust while you guys spend hours of your lives that you'll never get back reading Star Wars novels that you actually know are bad even as you're reading them. I assume that these things do well, since they keep on coming, but I can't for the life of me imagine why anybody actually buys them.

it's just funny to see how many people have star wars avatars....did i even spell that right?

I remember a few years back reading an interview with Gary Kurtz online. Probably still up and google-able, but I'm lazy. I liked the stuff he dropped about the ideas for the 9-parter he and Lucas were spitballing around during the Empire days. They may not have gotten any farther than Obi-wan surviving Ep. IV did, but I like the idea of em.

Originally (supposedly), Leia wasn't Luke's sister; the sister was someone else entirely that was going to be revealed in Ep. VII. The Emperor wouldn't appear until Ep. IX, and his scenes and the new Death Star would play out mostly like they do in ROTJ. There'd be more storyline along the way about Vader trying to recruit Luke, but to depose the Emp and "rule as father and son" before being brought back in line. (It always bugged me, even when I was 13 in the theater, that that was dropped entirely in ROTJ.)

Ep. VI would have ended like a mash of IV and V, with Leia's coronation being the big celebration, but Luke, Han and her still being in a (non-creepy) love triangle, with Han still a scoundrel and Luke zipping off by himself to sort out his brain.

Just some of the big beats I can remember, but probably not news to anyone here. Lucas pretty much slammed the door on 7, 8 & 9 with ROTJ.

Well said. I recently came to this conclusion about myself (not SW novels, but geekery for the sake of geekery nonetheless).

I think it's fair to say that STAR WARS has far more followers than something like (no offense) GHOSTBUSTERS. But yes, you spelled "avatars" correctly.

Before the announcement of the Classic Editions on DVD, I would have seriously doubted there would be EPISODES VII, VIII and IX. Now I'm not so sure. Lucasfilm is still an all-devouring cash glutton, so they'll always need something to sell. Over the next ten years, as filmmaking technology and delivery continues to evolve (or devolve, in the latter's case), Lucas might want to fall back on a sure thing -- which the TV shows might not be, if THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES is any indication.

I would love to see them...I admit that I'm a big SW geek. We'll have to settle for the live action series and the new Clone Wars cartoons though (for now).

What I am surprised about is there is a way to have new SW movies coming out - animated ones. I keep thinking of something like the Animatrix, where different animators from all over the world create their own story based on the SW universe.

Or considering how animation now is developing, I could see full SW animated movies doing quite well.

Almost 50 posts in and no one has mention Supershadow's rumored involvement in Episodes 7-9?

As for the EU, the Rogue Squadron series is worth a read. Some of it is pretty outdated as it came pre-prequels. But the focus is on an elite fighter squadron, rather than Jedi mystical stuff. And who doesn't want to read more about Wedge? Also, Corran Horn, the best EU character created in the novels, has a prominent role in that series.

If the TV show bombs (which is probable), Lucas will lose his cash register. After the HD disc versions are released, there wont be anymore large scale release events... just the fan club and the pitiful EU. The merchandising is finished (did terribly for the prequels)... and you need movies to fuel merchandise.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Lucas goes ahead with the sequels.

The merchandising isn't finished. Sure, EP1 was a blowout and caused EP2's to be much more scaled back, but EP3's sales were pretty damn good. Not to mention the fact there's still a huge collector's market, especially for items like the Sideshow figures.

Also, I imagine ILM and Skywalker Sound bring in some pretty fine numbers.

What makes you think the TV show will fail? I think it'll be a huge success, myself. It's STAR WARS once a week for 100 weeks. Fan's will go nuts over it. Some of them can't get enough SW.

As far as 7, 8, and 9... I dunno. I think everything that needed to be said has been said.