Star Wars: The Search for More Ideas

With recent rumors that the next Star Wars will be delayed because of arguments about the scripting, I’ve had a bit of a Star Wars kick. Not enough to pick up movies, but I watched the Clone Wars original animated shorts that took place before Revenge of the Sith and I’ve been doing something thinking. I’m on the side of the fence now that thinks more Star Wars cannot be good in the hands of people like Lucas or Abrams. Not because they don’t have some level of talent or creativity, but because I don’t think they’re approaching the Star Wars universe in the right way.

So here are my top ten ideas I’d love to see for future Star Wars films. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see one of these take place! 

 #10 – Space Rob Roy – I couldn’t think of a better name, but basically I want Liam Neeson to reprise his role as Qui-Gon Jinn (aka, the best Jedi in the movies thus far). And I mean that in terms of being interesting, not necessarily skill. I wouldn’t mind seeing adventures of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on their ventures to teach Obi-Wan the ways of the force. It’s kind of sad the killed off one of the best characters the newer trilogy offered up in the first bout. There was some potential for him that was thrown away right then and there.

#09 – Scare Wars: Horror Stories – No, I don’t necessarily mean another horrible movie like Attack of the Clones. I mean a horror movie set in the Star Wars universe. Yes, the fact we have working knowledge of this universe would hinder what could scare us. But the fact is we know little about the universe. We’ve spent so much time fixating on a small cast of characters on one of the most predictable stories in the universe that we haven’t really explored this universe to its fullest. And you could keep it as simple as a ship that gets lost in space is suddenly attacked by alien creatures or take it a step farther by going to some planet with horrors the likes of which the crew has never seen. It could be a one-off adventure to introduce new worlds and characters and you don’t have to waste time with sequels to it because horror sequels would be worthless anyway. Unless of course you constantly did new characters and new monsters every installment… then it would at least keep it entertaining. 

#08 – Rise of the Droids – A droid heavy film, this time it’s after Revenge of the Sith and it can be during the years in between the trilogy or AFTER the fall of the Empire. Whichever you prefer. In short, someone gets a hold of the factories that made the droids and also gets a hold of a way to control the armies of droids. They decide they want to see what would have happened had the droids been able to continue their conquest of the galaxy. With so few Jedi and the clones (Stormtroopers) basically wiped out, it should be easy. If this is during the Empire’s rule, then you could at least show the Stormtroopers being successful in combat. If this is after the Empire’s fall, this is just another test for Luke (or, again, new characters) to deal with in the hope of protecting the galaxy.

#07 – Fresh Prince of Cloud City – One of the best parts of the original trilogy was the introduction and inclusion of one Lando Calrissian. While I know this is impossible because no one could easily replace Billy D Williams’ role as Lando, but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a good group of talent make a bold attempt at this role. What do I want to see specifically? Either an origin story to Lando or perhaps what his life is like after the fall of the Empire. Where does he go? What does he do? It’d be more interesting than seeing Han Solo again, who is now tied down with Leia and Chewbacca. His days of being a swashbuckling space smuggler are over, but Lando? His may only be just beginning. 

 #06 – Droid Wars – This is not about R2-D2 and C-3P0. We’ve seen enough of them in my opinion. My idea is WAAAAY different. During the clone wars we had billions of droids locked in combat with the clones. Many of which were destroyed during the entire process and many were shut down by the end of the campaign. But I have to wonder, did some of those droids experience a level of intelligence beyond their programming? Could some of them have seen the flaw with their objectives and gone rogue? And if not, what were the “lives” of these droids like on a day to day basis? I kind of want to see a movie (it’d likely be comedic in nature, but it doesn’t have to be) about the droids of the Confederates and their side of the war. And maybe even see how a few more exception droids, capable of higher intelligence and perhaps even a level of free will, break the cycle and do something different with their artificial lives. 

#05 – Rurouni Kenobi - Think Rurouni Kenshin but with Ewan McGregor (at least for the “early years”) as the hero and space instead of Feudal Japan. You have a Jedi Knight who has lost his master, his order, his apprentice, and now seeks to find peace with his life. So basically the story of Obi-Wan after the Revenge of the Sith but before New Hope. Say what you will about showing us Anakin’s life before he became Vader, at least McGregor has some talent, he’s entertaining, and it can’t possibly be more boring than watching the romance scenes between Anakin and Padme. Not to mention this goes back to the roots where Star Wars was based off samurai films... in this case, anime. 

 #04 – Gone with the Windu – I think one of the best things to come out of the prequels other than Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan was certainly Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu. Argue if you want about cheesy dialogue or his desire to be unique with a purple lightsaber, his character was interesting in a lot of ways. His fighting style alone was one that few other Jedi (if any) replicated or could replicate because of Windu’s mastery of the force. As such, I’d like to see a movie that’s either an origin story of Windu, showing his years in training OR a brutal revenge film in which he survived his encounter with the Emperor and Anakin by some miraculous means. He knows the Jedi have fallen and the movie is about him rebuilding some new Order or rebellion to eliminate the Sith. Obviously he will have to die, but it’d be cool to see him one more time and in a main role instead of just some one-off character who got shown up by one of the most annoying characters in the series (aside from C-3P0 and JarJar). 

#03 – Survivor: Order 66 – As you recall, Revenge of the Sith killed off damn near every Jedi safe for a few. But there have been novels indicating that more than just Yoda and Obi-Wan survived and while I don’t necessarily think they should use THOSE characters specifically, I wouldn’t mind seeing a new group of Jedi in the wake of the Empire’s formation trying to deal with a new life of hiding from a Sith controlled galactic government. I wouldn’t mind seeing them change their ways to blend in and evolve the Jedi Order into something else. Why? Because something like this has to exist so Luke has people to teach and work with in the future. If he’s the last Jedi and his kids are the only ones left after that, the Jedi order will be nothing but Skywalkers and that’ll get boring really fast. 

#02 – The Land Before Jedi  – For those unfamiliar with the term “Sith Era” it refers to novels of Star Wars written long before the events of the movies when the Jedi Order and the Order of the Sith were coming into their own to be what they are today. Back then the Sith were larger in number and insanely powerful, only to be wiped out by their own because of their lust for more power. These potential bloodbaths could make for some exciting films and I would kill to see figures like Darth Bane who basically limited the Sith to what it is now kick some ass. Plus it’d get us away from all this annoying Skywalker nonsense. 

#01 – Something New Entirely – Let me just say this right now, I’ve enjoyed the basic story of Star Wars for the most part. But there’s one thing about the series I just can’t stand and it’s that we have a big massive universe here filled with an insane variety of alien species, different planets, multitudes of cultures, and stories and concepts that could fill books for ages. Yet, for six movies, we’ve basically focused on ONE story tied to ONE family within this big epic universe. Doesn’t that seem a little… depressing? I mean, had the films been called Skywalker Stories or something pertaining to these characters, I wouldn’t have been as upset by this. It’d be like being upset at the creators of StarFox for focusing on something other than the StarFox team! But when you call your series Star Wars and involve so many moving parts as this series has, I can’t help but feel like we’re only getting a small part of the otherwise big picture. Fuck the old cast. Fuck the Skywalker storyline. Just give me some new characters and new adventures to enjoy because for as great as nostalgia can be, it limits damn near everything this series can do because it hinders it from evolving into anything remotely interesting. And, instead, it circles the drain of predictability so that nothing that CAN or WILL happen has any chance of surprising us, engaging us, and recapturing that same imagination we felt when we first saw Star Wars as children.