Planned 'Star Wars' Movies We'll Never Get To See

What Could Have Been

By Culture SlatePublished 3 years ago • 8 min read

The cinematic part of Star Wars is on hiatus right now, until Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron hits theaters Christmas of 2023. But between May 25, 1977 and December 20, 2019, there have been twelve canonical Star Wars movies released on the big screen. Apart from the nine films of the Skywalker saga, there were two standalone movies (Rogue One in 2016 and Solo in 2018), as well as The Clone Wars movie from 2008. Additionally, the two made-for-TV Ewok movies from the '80s have been released in cinemas in Europe. Over the decades there have been plans for or at least rumors about a number of additional Star Wars movies that were never made and most probably will never see the light of day, as detailed below.

George Lucas’ Sequel and Sequel-Sequel Films

Back in the '70s, when George Lucas started to work on early drafts for his space opera, his ideas involved not only the events shown in Episode IV or the original trilogy, but also other ideas he wrote into his notorious yellow notebook that would cover the time before Luke met Ben Kenobi, as well as after he became a Jedi.

After the success of Star Wars, Lucas considered making 11 additional movies that took place in the galaxy far, far away, three of which would take place before A New Hope while the other 8 would be set after the Rebels blew up the Death Star. All in all, four trilogies. Lucas later admitted that the last three movies would have been quite ethereal, dealing only with droids and Wookiees. He later abandoned that idea, conceiving a saga of nine films.

But like the early concepts for the original and the prequel trilogy, the scope and the content of these sequels changed quite radically. Many of the ideas that Lucas had for Episodes VII – IX were later condensed into Return of the Jedi, like Luke confronting the Emperor only in Episode IX. In VII and VIII he would have gone on a search for his lost sister (who wasn’t Leia at that time), found her, trained her as a Jedi, and then taken on the Emperor together with her.

But even after Episode VI had come out and these early ideas obviously couldn’t unfold anymore, Lucas continued to have plans for movies that would deal with what happened after the Battle of Endor. These movies would have taken place 20-40 years after Return of the Jedi, where Han and Leia would be a couple. The stories would have dealt with rebuilding the Republic and the passing on of what Luke had learned about the Jedi and the Force.

After the negative fan reaction that Lucas had to deal with after the release of the prequel trilogy, he publicly stated that there would be no third trilogy, as the saga was the story of Anakin Skywalker, which obviously ended with Episode VI.

But when Lucas started preparations to sell his company to Disney, he changed his mind again and started to write outlines for Episodes VII to IX. He even hired Michael Arndt to write the script for Episode VII based on his ideas. Little is known about what Lucas’ ideas would have been for this sequel trilogy, but it seems that Darth Maul and Darth Talon would have been the main antagonists and that the main hero would have been a young girl. But on the other hand, he also told James Cameron that the midi-chlorians would have played a major role. So who knows?

Ultimately, Disney decided not to use Lucas’ ideas or Arndt’s script, but it seems that some of the ides of the maker can still be found in the sequel trilogy that we got in the cinemas.

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye

Back when Lucas was shooting the first Star Wars movie, he was not that convinced that the film would ultimately be a success at the box office. And so in the case that the movie would at least make some of its money back, he hired Alan Dean Forster to write a low-budget sequel that would only take place on one planet and include only Luke and Leia, along with the droids, as the main characters, as Harrison Ford had not signed a contract for a second movie. In the end, the result of this effort was not a movie, but the first book of the Expanded Universe (although, of course, it was not called that back then). Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was released in February of 1978, when Star Wars was already a big hit.

Boba Fett Standalone Film

When Disney bought Lucasfilm in October of 2012, they had plans to release a new Star Wars movie every year. The three saga films would come out every other year starting in 2015, and then there would be three so called “anthology” or standalone movies, slated to come out in 2016, 2018, and 2020. The first one would show how the rebels got the plans for the first Death Star, the third movie would tell the origin story of a young Han Solo, while the second spin-off would be a story about Boba Fett. The plan was for Josh Trank to direct this standalone movie, and there were even plans to announce the movie at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015. Shortly before the event, he left (or had to leave) the project due to “creatives differences.” So, the Solo story was moved forward to 2018, but Disney still wanted a third standalone movie for 2020, and for a time James Mangold was associated with the Boba Fett film.

This movie obviously didn’t happen, but fans a still got their fair share of the notorious bounty hunter in The Mandalorian and are going to get even more in the upcoming The Book of Boba Fett series.

Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX

Until September 2017, Colin Trevorrow was intended to write and to direct the last film of the Skywalker saga. But then he and Lucasfilm parted ways, again officially because of “creative differences.” Not only did Trevorrow’s Episode IX – called Duel of The Fates – leak post-Episode IX release, but so did quite a few pre-production painting that give quite an impression of how this final saga film would have looked. Trevorrow’s script differs vastly from what we finally got on the big screen, with Kylo Ren staying a villain, a big fight between him and Rey happening on Mortis, and the young Jedi even dying, but ultimately returning form the Netherworlds of the Force to train a future generation of Jedi.

David Benioff & D.B. Weiss’ Films

In 2018, Lucasfilm announced that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the masterminds behind the Game of Thrones TV series, would work on three Star Wars movies, specifically not worded to be a trilogy and supposedly set far apart from the Skywalker saga. Not much was revealed about these movies, but based on what the duo of creators had done with Game of Thrones, many fans and also the media quickly came to the conclusion that the films would have been set in the Old Republic. Then in October of 2019, it was announced that Benioff and Weiss had entered into a contract with Netflix, and due to this commitment, they would be unable to work on their Star Wars projects.

Other Movies (Maybe) Never Made

Obi-Wan Kenobi movie: Ever since Ewan McGregor expressed his interest to return as the Jedi Master, there have been rumors about a standalone movie that would take place during the time when Obi-Wan was on Tatooine. Stephen Daldry was even at one point reported to be in talks to direct. Although this movie didn’t come to fruition, fans are finally going to get the adventures of Obi-Wan as a hermit in the upcoming streaming series for Disney+.

Yoda movie: For some time after die Disney acquisition, there were actual rumors about a planned Yoda origin story.

Jabba the Hutt movie: As strange as it might seem, there were rumors about a Star Wars movie, that would focus on the slimy gangster boss. Guillermo Del Toro even said he would like to make one.

Mos Eisley movie: Another report dealt with a planned film that would take place in Mos Eisley, probably chronicling the stories of some of the cantina’s patrons. There even seem to have been reservations at Pinewood studios for this project.

Rian Johnson’s trilogy: Before the release of The Last Jedi, Kathleen Kennedy announced that Rian Johnson would write and direct a Star Wars trilogy, also set apart from the Skywalker story. After the fan backlash for Episode VIII, not much was heard about these films anymore, although Johnson confirms from time to time that they are still on his plate. But even if we are someday going to see this trilogy, it is probably still many years away.

Written By Gerald Petschk

Source(s): Screen Rant

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