With little over a month until Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi is released Disney announced this week that the film’s director Rian Johnson has been put at the helm of a new Star Wars trilogy. Little else has been revealed about this new set of films except that it will move away from the Skywalker Saga and will feature “new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.”
Of course Star Wars has divulged from the Skywalkers on the big and small screen already with last year’s Rogue One and the upcoming Han Solo movie and the animated Rebels TV Show. Giving Johnson control over not just one movie but a whole new trilogy must be encouraging for Star Wars fans with regards to The Last Jedi and with the Star Wars galaxy being so vast and large there is a lot to work with, perhaps even using material or idea from the defunct Expanded Universe.
Here are five ideas for Star Wars trilogies that Johnson could attempt.
Formation of the Jedi Order Trilogy
Let’s go thousands of years in to the past, before Luke, before The Clone Wars, even before the birth of Yoda. A quite obvious place to start would be how the Jedi came to be. We know little about they started, just that the Jedi are ancient. The trilogy could start thousands of years before the events of the existing movies when people first began to discover the force and wield it.
Conversely the trilogy would also see the birth of the Sith and how the two became enemies. Perhaps from a fallen or corrupted Jedi or someone with different ideas and beliefs. Of course being set that far in the past… an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away, it would have to look completely different to what we know. Somehow looking older while still having pretty advanced technology by our standards which would look pretty interesting.
A Yoda Origin Story Trilogy
Ok, origin stories are played out. We’ve had one for every superhero that has had a movie made about them in the last 10 years and we are getting one about Han Solo. In Star Wars we have already seen the beginnings of Luke and Anakin Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine and while Obi Wan Kenobi is an interesting character I doubt a trilogy of his time before The Phantom Menace or between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope could be justified. Perhaps one movie for each period. And I really would like to see Ewan McGregor play the role in a good Star Wars movie.
Yoda though, we know very little about the little green fella. He is 900 years old when he dies, old but not as old as the Jedi. George Lucas intentionally kept his backstory shrouded in mystery, not even the name of his species is known.
In fact with 900 years to span the films would not even have to follow on from one another directly and could be spaced hundreds of years apart.
The Teen Lit Trilogy
Not overly what I want to see, but one I could see the studio going for, although the idea is not very Rian Johnson.
Something Hunger Games style. Perhaps the Emperor rounds up a load of force sensitive teenagers and he pits them in a big old death match against each other.
Palpatine looks to get himself a worthy champion and credible asset. The winner(s) come to see how how corrupt he and the Empire are and begin to rebel, eventually joining the burgeoning rebellion.
So basically a Star Wars version of Maze Runner et al.
The Crime Syndicate Trilogy
There are two big crime syndicates in the Star Wars universe. The Hutts, Jabba et al. And Black Sun, who had a huge role in the old Expanded Universe but are still canon post Disney’s take over.
Plus there are many bounty hunters, warlords, smugglers and criminals throughout the galaxy so there is a rich tapestry to tap in to.
It could be essentially two crime ‘families’ mentioned above against each other, each looking to exert influence over the galaxy and make the most ill gotten gains. There would be crooked storm troopers taking bribes, imperials trying to crack down on the gangs. Think Space Sopranos or Godfather Galaxy (I am not actually proposing them as titles by the way).
The Prequel Trilogy
It is no secret. Episodes I-III were poor. Boring plots about the senate and trade blockades, Jar Jar Binks, and too much CGI. Oh and Hayden Christensen.
But there were some interesting concepts and ideas in there. Qui Gon Jinn and Count Dooku really could have been fleshed out so much more. A pair of Jedi who have gone against the order to varying degrees due to the Jedi becoming blinkered is something that would have been well worth exploring.
Darth Maul was a genuinely intimidating bad guy and Darth Sidious/Palpatine, played by Ian McDiarmid, is always great in an over the top way.
Done properly a prequel trilogy could really tell the Anakin origin and fall of the Jedi story in a much more engaging way.
Of course this would be the hardest to pull off with the current prequel trilogy so ingrained in to canon now.