With Rogue One: A Star Wars Story coming to theaters
in just a few weeks, Lucasfilm will see if their gamble to deviate from the
well known episodic structure of the main series with a spinoff or film yields
a positive enough result that allows them to make a key creative and financial
decision on the future of the franchise.
Speaking to EW, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy
revealed that Star Wars creator George Lucas was actually the one who came up
with the notion of anthology films.
"George talked to me about doing this when I
first came aboard. He had often thought about doing it and he had actually
written down three or four thoughts and ideas, directions you could go.
Obviously inside the mythology there were lots of opportunities. So that was
the first conversation I had… We talked a lot about the Jedi and the
foundational ideas that George had thought about when he created the mythology.
It was sort of spit-balling ideas."
In addition to Gareth Edwards' Rogue One, which takes
place just prior to the events of A New Hope, Lucasfilm also has in the
pipeline a young Han Solo spinoff from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller,
which Kennedy sais wasn't part of Lucas' plans.
Lucasfilm was also working on a Boba Fett spinoff with
Josh Trank set to steer, and EW claims that a teaser reel was meant to debut at
Star Wars Celebration 2015, but Trank left/fired and the project has since been
dormant.
So what does the future holds for the Star Wars
franchise?
"There are [possible movies] that we have been
talking a lot about. But we are planning to sit down in January, since we will
have had The Force Awakens released, now Rogue One, and we’ve
finished shooting Episode VIII. We have enough information where we can step
back a little bit and say, What are we doing? What do we feel is exciting? And
what are some of the things we want to explore?"
…and who will be attending the "sit down"?
Well, J.J. Abrams, Gareth Edwards, Colin Trevorrow,
Phil Lord, and Chris Miller presumably, as Kennedy adds that the group will be
composed of "the story team and the trust,
and the visual effects team" as well as "the directors and the
writers that have been a part of these other three movies."
For now, Trevorrow's 2019 Star Wars: Episode IX is the last film in the schedule, however, both Kennedy and her
group will have to make a decision as to whether continue to tell the Skywalker
story, or further explore all of the galaxy far, far away's nooks and crannies
with more anthology movies. But, can the franchise subsist on just spinoffs?
"That’s a conversation going on right
now, too. I have to honestly tell you, could we [do nothing but
stand-alones]? Sure. But I don’t know. We are looking at all of that."
Personally I think it would be a mistake to forsaken
the main series to focus on just spinoffs, since those (Rogue One, Han
Solo spinoff) stories/characters come from the main film series, but it
all comes down to the box office and audience reception.
Source - EW
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