Given thatStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkeris being billed asthe conclusion of the Skywalker saga, it’s only fair that those making the film consulted the guy who started it all.George Lucasfamously first conceived of, wrote, produced, and directedStar Wars: A New Hope, changing the faces of cinema and fandom forever. And while Lucas oversaw the original trilogy and then returned to the well in the late 90s to bring his prequel trilogy to fruition (to somewhat mixed results…), the third and final trilogy in hisStar Warsfranchise moved ahead without his direct involvement.
To recap, Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, settingKathleen Kennedyas the new head of Lucasfilm and handing over his treatments forEpisode VII,Episode VIII, andEpisode IX—the final three films in his Skywalker saga. Kennedy andJ.J. Abramsreportedly threw out much of what Lucas handed over (much to theStar Warsdirector’s chagrin) in favor of charting their own path, and Lucas has been pretty mum on the new direction ofStar Warsunder Disney thus far—save forhigh praise heaped onRogue Oneanda visit to the set ofSoloafterRon Howardtook over the director’s chair.
But it appears everything has come full circle, as Abrams revealed atStar WarsCelebration in an interview withIGNthat when he signed on to directStar Wars 9, he consulted Lucas before beginning work on the script:
“This movie had a very, very specific challenge, which was to take eight films and give an ending to three trilogies, and so we had to look at, what is the bigger story? We had conversations amongst ourselves, we met with George Lucas before writing the script,” Abrams revealed. “These were things that were in real, not debate, but looking at the vastness of the story and trying to figure out, what is the way to conclude this? But it has to work on its own as a movie, it has to be its own thing, it has to be surprising and funny and you have to understand it.”
When Abrams signed on to directStar Wars 9, the film had an existing script byColin TrevorrowandDerek Connolly, which Trevorrow intended to directbefore departing the film over creative differences. But we’ve since learned that Abrams started from scratch when he came aboard, co-writing a new screenplay withChris Terrio(Argo)and it appears one of his first orders of business was speaking with Lucas himself.
Having seen theStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkertrailer, this makes sense. The film looks to be leaningheavilyon the original trilogy given the inclusion of that medal, the Death Star, and of course the return of Emperor Palpatine. And given Abrams’ comments here, it sounds like he was very strongly thinking aboutStar Wars 9as a conclusion to the entireStar Warssaga.
What exactly that means, we won’t know until the film hits theaters in December, but I would be mighty curious to find out what Lucas had to say during that meeting. What werehisinitial plans for ending the series? How did he feel aboutThe Last Jedi? We’ll probably never find out, but a guy can dream.
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