Should The Sequel Trilogy Have Been Four Movies ?

Screenwriter Chris Terrio once said in an interview that when writing The Rise of Skywalker he could have easily split it into two movies. In many ways, it appeared to come off that way. Palpatine's return and Ben Solo’s redemption already took up much of the movie. What about Rose and Finn's story? What about Poe? Then of course, there was Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order. There were so many plot threads to continue and sadly not even the longest of movies could follow them all. After all, a trilogy had its limits.

Looking at the history of Star Wars, one could see a pattern where the trilogy format limited the story the creator wanted to tell. Whenever we got to the third film there was always the critique that there was a rush to get to the end. All the plot points set up in the previous two films needed to come together by the end of the film, and sometimes certain plot threads got dropped entirely, much to the disappointment of fans. When developing Return of the Jedi, George Lucas originally planned one more trilogy that would deal with Luke finding his long lost sister on the other side of the galaxy and then defeating the Emperor. The critically acclaimed Clone Wars series did not consist of three films, but rather seven seasons. It begged the question if the trilogy format actually worked after all.

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Going back to what Chris Terrio had said, did the Star Wars sequel trilogy have room for two more movies? How would that work and what would that look like? Perhaps the answer lay in unused scripts for The Rise of Skywalker, and began with with Colin Trevorrow’s version of Episode IX, Duel of the Fates.

One of the big sticking points about The Rise of Skywalker concerned Kylo Ren's fate. Would he remain a villain, or would he be redeemed? If there were two movies after The Last Jedi, instead of one, we could follow both threads. Episode IX would follow Duel of the Fates ideas where Kylo Ren became Supreme Leader of the First Order and must be defeated by Rey and the Resistance. There would also be room to show Finn and Rose leading an uprising on Coruscant, and Poe rebuilding the Resistance. Kylo Ren would be defeated in the end, but instead of dying, he would be injured or broken.

Then, we would get into a hypothetical Episode X, which would be a grand finale to the saga. The same story beats from The Rise of Skywalker could continue with the search for Exegol, Palpatine's return, and the Sith Eternal's Xyston fleet. There would even be room for creator to make controversial decisions like making Rey a Palpatine. Obviously, certain plot points would have to be stretched out or changed depending on what happened in the hypothetical Episode IX. If Kylo Ren was defeated as a main villain in the previous movie, then there would be a redemption arc for him at the beginning of the hypothetical Episode X. The movie could show Ben Solo interacting with the heroes of the Resistance as well as the fallout from their stories in Episode IX as well. In defeating the common enemy in Palpatine, Rey and Ben would finally put a satisfying end to one of the most crucial villains of the Star Wars saga.

It is beneficial to have more time to stretch things out without limiting and condensing the story to the traditional trilogy format. A story should take as long as it needs to be told. Be it one chapter, two chapters, three chapters, or even twelve chapters. Tell a story naturally and the length will come naturally as well.

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Written By Joel Davis

Source: CinemaBlend

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