George Lucas's 1981 plans for the Prequel Trilogy

[Jay 46,242]

Turns out the prequels we got didn't deviate too far from his original plan

Entire article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/star-wars-prequels-return-of-the-jedi_n_3313793.html

Excerpt:

Lucas: Anakin Skywalker starting hanging out with the Emperor, who at this point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official.

Kasdan: Was he a Jedi?

Lucas: No, he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. He sucked Luke’s father into the dark side.

Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?

Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.

Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?

Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.

Marquand: They use it as a technique.

Lucas: Like yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate. Also another misconception is that Yoda teaches Jedi, but he is like a guru; he doesn’t go out and fight anybody.

Kasdan: A Jedi Master is a Jedi isn’t he?

Lucas: Well, he is a teacher, not a real Jedi. Understand that?

Kasdan: I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it; I am in shock.

Lucas: It’s true, absolutely true, not that it makes any difference to the story.

Kasdan: You mean he wouldn’t be any good in a fight?

Lucas: Not with Darth Vader he wouldn’t.

Kasdan: I accept it, but I don’t like it.

Lucas: Well, anyway, Luke’s father gets subverted by the Emperor. He gets a little weird at home and his wife begins to figure out that things are going wrong and she confides in Ben, who is his mentor. On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed—and it’s because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down. The president is turning into an Emperor and Luke’s mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up.

Now, when he falls into the pit, his other arm goes and his leg and there is hardly anything left of him by the time the Emperor’s troops fish him out of the drink. Then when Ben finds out that Vader has been fished out and is in the hands of the Empire, he is worried about it. He goes back to Vader’s wife and explains that Anakin is the bad guy, the one killing all the Jedi.

When he goes back his wife, Mrs. Skywalker has had the kids, the twins, so she has these two little babies who are six months old or so. So everybody has to go into hiding. The Skywalker line is very strong with the Force, so Ben says, “I think we should protect the kids, because they may be able to help us right the wrong that your husband has created in the universe.” And so Ben takes one and gives him to a couple out there on Tatooine and he gets his little hideout in the hills and he watches him grow. Ben can’t raise Luke himself, because he’s a wanted man. Leia and Luke’s mother go to Alderaan and are taken in by the king there, who is a friend of Ben’s. She dies shortly thereafter and Leia is brought up by her foster parents. She knows that her real mother died.

Kasdan: She does know that?

Lucas: Yes, so we can bring that out when Luke is talking to her; she can say that her mother died when “I was two years old.”

[stewdog1 50]

Very interesting.

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[Jay 46,242]

Biggest difference was making Yoda into a fighter instead of just a teacher

[stewdog1 50]

He was originally a lover, not a fighter.

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[Giftheck 1,219]

I wonder why he changed his mind about Anakin's change to Darth Vader? Here, I see it would have been more believable as it looks like it was something that occured more slowly. Plus, I wonder why he killed Padme off earlier than he originally planned?

[Jay 46,242]

The prequels would have been alot better if Anakin slowly turned to the darkside, and if nobody knew he was evil for a while.

Instead he killed off a roomful of kids 5 seconds after deciding to side with the emperor, and everyone knew he was evil 5 minutes later

[Wojo 2,458]

Not only that, but the timing of the births of the twins, and Ben telling Mrs. Skywalker about Anakin's evil. That conversation has Ben telling her after the duel, and he hides the family after the twins are born. That allows Leia to remember her birth mother, in accordance with ROTJ.

[stewdog1 50]

The prequels would have been alot better if Anakin slowly turned to the darkside, and if nobody knew he was evil for a while.

Instead he killed off a roomful of kids 5 seconds after deciding to side with the emperor, and everyone knew he was evil 5 minutes later

It should have never been a young anakin. TPM anakin should have been AOTC aged.

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[Jay 46,242]

Yes.

[Uni 307]

Yes again.

It should've happened more gradually, and for far better motivational reasons. (The idea of a true Jedi Knight turning evil and killing children in order to save his wife is self-defeating and ridiculous.) Really, we should've been treated to two fun Star Wars adventures in which Ben meets Anakin—yes, at an older age—and trains him, and they become friends and work together to investigate the dark mystery growing in the Old Republic and influencing the Senate. Palpatine influences Anakin very quietly and subtly during this time (nothing outwardly evil, to be sure). Padme falls for Anakin while he's protecting her, though he's resistant to their relationship because he's serious about being a Jedi, and he values his work and friendship with Obi-wan more, at least to start with. He lets his guard down eventually, however, because she's pure in heart and a total hottie. (This is both more believable and more appealing.)

Ultimately I would've worked it so that Anakin turns to the dark side after learning of Padme's death—which would've been because of something to do with the Clone Wars. She may not even really be dead at that point. Perhaps it's a miscommunication, or maybe something Palpatine tells him to push him over the edge. Either way, Palpatine would use this to sway him over. It makes infinitely more sense than her dying at Anakin's hands (invisible or otherwise), given that he supposedly was turning in order to save her.

I still spend my idle time noodling about how I would've told the story. Episode I is pretty cool, actually. It's like a real Star Wars movie. (Who woulda thought?) Following this, Episode II could've followed a pretty similar path to the actual movie, only with better dialogue and some roles switched around. The whole thing's a pointless exercise, I suppose, but it passes the time.

- Uni

[Quintus 6,495]

Wait, George actually had a plan? So why does the PT feel like it was thrown together by youth workers on a Job Seekers Allowance training scheme?

[Jay 46,242]

Because somewhere between 1981 and 1997 George Lucas lost his mind

[Giftheck 1,219]

Because somewhere between 1981 and 1997 George Lucas lost his mind

Indeed. Just look at Howard The Duck.

[Uni 307]

Wait, George actually had a plan? So why does the PT feel like it was thrown together by youth workers on a Job Seekers Allowance training scheme?

Because George Lucas can write a good script like my ass can chew gum. He can have all the plans in the world behind him, but the man is a terrible, terrible writer. Everything fun, entertaining, humorous, and compelling from the original film was added by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, and other writers would follow suit in the later films. His original drafts for The Adventures of the Starkiller were just plain, laughably awful. (One of my favorite script lines ever: "Try the bum-bum extract. It's very mild.")

He didn't accept writerly help for the prequels, and therefore we finally got to see what a bad writer can do to a good film franchise. It's as simple as that.

- Uni

[crocodile 9,724]

I don't have a problem with a general "synopsis" of the prequel trilogy and that includes kid Anakin. I get what Lucas wanted to do. There are some good ideas in there, actually. Not necessarily the most popular ones, but at least something else than the old trilogy. Unfortunately, Lucas doesn't seem to know how to translate his ideas into a good script and film.

Karol

[Ollie 1,375]

I remember thinking that Lucas cut the wrong scenes from AOTC. There wasn't much to save that film but I believe there were scenes of Portman taking Anakin to her family's home and a scene that actually explained who Dooku was.

I'll go one further and say that Vader never shhould have been Luke's father. When Yoda says "there is another" I always thought and hoped he was refering to Luke's father who was still alive and in hiding.

[Wojo 2,458]

Episode VII needs to show that while we were watching the prequels, Bobby Ewing was just in the shower, and those movies were only dreams.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

The prequels would have been alot better if Anakin slowly turned to the darkside, and if nobody knew he was evil for a while.

Instead he killed off a roomful of kids 5 seconds after deciding to side with the emperor, and everyone knew he was evil 5 minutes later

It should have never been a young anakin. TPM anakin should have been AOTC aged.

Yes, if only because Natalie Portman doesn't age at all while Anakin jumps up 10 years so it's not rape.

[publicist 4,650]

There's still no Han Solo character in all this. Making Anakin the devil-may-care rouser who turns bitter and humorless could've been a concept but the most practical solution would be Obi-Wan in the Solo role. Without a character like this, these movies fall apart.

[Pieter Boelen 1,032]

Carbon-copying characters isn't the best idea either, is it? I wouldn't want a Han Solo stand-in in the prequels if it is not Han Solo himself; there should be new characters.

On the other hand, the characters should be good and be fun to watch together.

[publicist 4,650]

Han Solo is just a short-hand for a likeable rogue providing snappy repartee. I'm not going at those dreaded prequels again, but they perfectly illustrated what happens if you are left without any character like it (aka humour-free cringeworthiness).

[Quintus 6,495]

But Jar Jar was hilarious!

He got electrocuted by a pod racer and licked up an apple during dinner!

[publicist 4,650]

Yeah, hence the cringeworthiness.

[A24 5,156]

Han Solo was a character that gave the first movie a very interesting dynamic. Unlike Luke, Ben or the two andoids, he wasn't clear-cut, he could punch you on the nose or betray you for his own self-interest (he even ran away when they needed him the most ... beautiful!). Later he became quite dull, especially in ROTJ. Well, everybody was dull in that movie, but still!

Alex

[Luke Skywalker 2,383]

Qui gon jinn was rogueish. Maybe Obi wan should have been like him.

[BloodBoal 8,711]

[publicist 4,650]

It would be a notch above Jar jar, that's for sure.

[Wojo 2,458]

Han Solo also worked, in a way, as the outsider, the normal guy without magic powers. The prequels had very few relatable characters. The queen's bodyguards weren't interesting enough.

[BloodBoal 8,711]

[Incanus 5,890]

It is really interesting how close to the finished films Lucas' original concept actually is. The outline of the story isn't bad, the execution just faltered quite a bit.

Also Lucas' visions on the Jedi Knights and Force were very different back then.

[Jay 46,242]

Yea, first time I've ever heard it said that anyone could use the force if they practiced

I kinda like that better, actually

[Incanus 5,890]

Yea, first time I've ever heard it said that anyone could use the force if they practiced

But of course you would have to have a high midichlorian count.

[BloodBoal 8,711]

[Incanus 5,890]

Did you miss the part where he said you can buy midichlorians? His whole idea was to have a midichlorians market in Coruscant, where Sith would buy thousands of them to become more powerful.

That would have been awesome!

Palpatine: "I want 3000 of the black midichlorians, extra-evil, thank you. No what do you mean if I am going to use them for evil ends. What a silly thought. I am just an elected Republic official from Naboo."

[Luke Skywalker 2,383]

It is really interesting how close to the finished films Lucas' original concept actually is. The outline of the story isn't bad, the execution just faltered quite a bit.

Also Lucas' visions on the Jedi Knights and Force were very different back then.

I think everyone thought like that...

until the prequels came and the whole tight jedi order monks were created.

Which is cool on it's own...but collides greatly with the ideologistic crusaders obi wan talks about in SW.

But he also said they were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy...so some 'order' to things must had exist.. I suppose his original idea was to have an order of knights like the templars or something.

[crocodile 9,724]

until the prequels came and the whole tight jedi order monks were created.

Actually this is kind of a plot point of the prequel trilogy. Jedi Order becomes so institutionalized and stiff that it stops to serve its original purpose. One of the reason Anakin went bad. It's something a lot of fans were disappointed with and thought of as a weak element, but, I think, that was Lucas' intention. It's not a bad idea.

Karol

[Uni 307]

There's still no Han Solo character in all this. Making Anakin the devil-may-care rouser who turns bitter and humorless could've been a concept but the most practical solution would be Obi-Wan in the Solo role. Without a character like this, these movies fall apart.

Absolutely. The first thing I added to my noodled version was just this type of character (but with a twist. . . .).

Along the same lines, in order to be a true Star Wars film it needed more dirty, banged-up ships. The original movie was truck-stop science fiction. That made it distinctive in a time when sci-fi had gone all shiny and gleaming (because it's the future!). Lucas was right to get away from that originally, and very wrong to stray back to it with the prequels.

The queen's bodyguards weren't interesting enough.

What are you talking about? Captain Panaka is badass!

Hi, I'm Captain Panaka, and I stand for truth, justice, and the Naboo way.

Oh, please. "This is a battle I do not think that we can win . . . at least not until someone changes my diapee."

Did you miss the part where he said you can buy midichlorians? His whole idea was to have a midichlorians market in Coruscant, where Sith would buy thousands of them to become more powerful.

That would have been awesome!

Palpatine: "I want 3000 of the black midichlorians, extra-evil, thank you. No what do you mean if I am going to use them for evil ends. What a silly thought. I am just an elected Republic official from Naboo."

And then, like, the Senate gets split 'n' stuff over the issue of midichlorian background checks, which starts the Clone Wars. Anakin turns because he doesn't support legalizing them, and thinks there should be a tougher crackdown on back-alley midichlorian commerce.

- Uni

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

Ric Olie is much more manly than Pancakea!

[tarasis 1]

Fascinating.

[Xander Harris 9,674]

I don't see why anyone would have a problem with Yoda not being a fighter. It makes perfect sense.

1980:

2002:

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[Trent B 354]

A lot of stuff in the Prequels definitely contradicts the Original Trilogy. I wish Lucas would have let someone else handle them and he only be there as I guess final decision maker.

Regarding anyone using the force with the training... that reminds me of Stargate Atlantis, before they developed the gene therapy where everyone could use the Ancient technology, those that actually had the gene, with concentration and training could make it work. Although with John Sheppard it was natural for him since the gene was extremely active in his body.

I don't mind Yoda being a fighter. Yoda: "Do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor". That implied to me that he was not only referring to Anakin but that he fought Palpatine. MAYBE similar to how it happened in ROTS...but I also agree that Anakin should have been AOTC age in TPM.

Regarding Jar Jar....I just assumed he was on Alderaan when the planet was blown up by the Death Star. That creature annoyed me.

[gkgyver 1,647]

What George Lucas says there makes all perfect sense, and I like it completely. Like others have said before, though, he just had too big an ego to realise he needed professional help on these sequels.