How George Lucas’ Sequel Trilogy Ideas Could Be Adapted

By now, you may have heard some recent tidbits about what George Lucas' sequel trilogy ideas would have included. We knew that he came up with the idea of Luke being in exile and dying in the middle chapter, as well as the idea of a young female Jedi being at the center of it all. But here are the key points we learned more recently: Leia would have been the Chosen One and the Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic, Luke would have started to rebuild the Jedi Order at some point, stormtroopers would have holed up on their own planets, and Darth Maul would have returned with Darth Talon as an apprentice.

Given that Darth Talon is originally from the Star Wars: Legacy comics, which were set over a century after the films, this story would not have fit in Legends. Especially given how Luke and Leia's lives after the Battle of Endor were already fleshed out. But would these ideas fit within canon? Well, as they are presented here, no, given that Maul dies prior to the original trilogy and Leia has clearly never been a Supreme Chancellor prior to the sequel trilogy. But that has not stopped Inverse from suggesting how elements of it could be adapted into canon if these ideas were ever considered for possibly a miniseries of sorts.

One of the things they suggested was that instead of having Maul physically there, he could appear as a ghost. He stopped being a Sith, which, they suggest, could open possibilities to what his fate after death could be. Darth Talon could still be a main threat in some sort of story set closer to the post-Battle of Endor galaxy. After all, much of that era is fair game as far as the Skywalkers are concerned. Thinking about this, I could imagine, theoretically, that Maul could have trained Darth Talon sometime between the Clone Wars and where we see him in Rebels. There is a lot of time to work with there. I think that Darth Talon would have to be changed a bit to fit the image that Star Wars under Disney might prefer, but she could still be a threat.

However, I strongly dislike the idea of Maul returning as a ghost. His end in "Twin Suns" is a poignant end, and I would not want something as ridiculous as this to undercut that. Of course, there is also the possibility of Maul having been cloned, something that Lucas suggested when Red Fly were developing a Darth Maul video game and toyed with the idea of setting it in the far future since Lucas wanted Maul and Talon to team up. But again, something like this would be ridiculous, in my opinion.

Inverse also suggested that Luke and Leia's stories could still play out similarly to how Lucas' ideas present them, though they would have to be recast. If it had to be live-action, I think that would be a given whether this story were to be set closer to the Battle of Endor or closer to when the sequel trilogy we actually got is set. An easier route might be to do this in animation, thus making any recast easier to for fans to accept.

However, even in animated form, I would not want a story like this to be set within canon. I would be interested in seeing these ideas play out somewhat like Lucas intended, but there is no way that they could be a perfect fit within canon. As such, I am more of a fan of the idea of presenting this story as something in the vein of Marvel's What If? This series is exactly how it sounds. Marvel has featured alternate scenarios in comics, and this idea will be used in an upcoming Disney+ Marvel animated series of the same name. Star Wars dabbled in this via the Infinites comics back in the Dark Horse days. Heck, apart from that, Dark Horse even adapted George Lucas' original draft of the very first film and released it as an eight-issue miniseries titled The Star Wars. I think it would be interesting for Marvel to do something like this with George Lucas' sequel trilogy ideas.

But if it were to be adapted for the screen, I would prefer animation, and an animation style that has not been used for canon. If it were in live-action or a familiar style of animation, it could potentially confuse fans. I would want an animated adaptation to get very experimental and not have to conform to the styles that came before. DC has released a bunch of animated films set in different continuities, and I think it would be fun if Star Wars was able to experiment with something like that, perhaps even adapting some favorite Legends storylines.

As it stands, I am certain that we will never get George Lucas' sequel trilogy made as live-action films. As flawed as the sequel trilogy that we got is, I would rather Lucasfilm use their live-action resources for newer stories rather than trying to redo something in a different fashion.

Written By Steven Shinder

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