In today’s look inside J.W. Rinzler’s Making of Return of the Jedi
over at The Huffington Post, George Lucas talks about his plans for the prequels with Lawrence Kasdan, director Richard Marquand and producer Howard Kazanjian.
7 Replies to “George Lucas discusses the prequels… In 1981”
Comments are closed.
I live for this kind of stuff. I love seeing how the story evolved, and how the skeleton was already in his head way back then.
But I’m facepalming so hard over that last exchange with Kasdan over when “Mrs. Skywalker” died. You had one job, George.
A few things that jumped out to me:
1. It’s interesting that a this point anyone could learn to use the Force, especially since the concept of a high level of midichlorians being intertwined with strength in the Force was already set down by George.
2. Those that disliked Yoda fighting can blame Kasdan for planting the seed in George’s head. :P
3. Wow, the particulars of ROTS didn’t change much, except for the timing of Padmé’s death. Even if I have my problems with the execution, I think killing her off on screen was the right call.
I know you don’t want to hear my opinion about the prequels (*coughlacklustercough*), but these so-called “plans” are exactly why they turned out the way they did. Not even these vague bits and pieces make any sense (“Anakin isn’t there, and Ben goes there, and six months pass, and now he’s the Emperor???), so what chance did 3 whole movies ever have?
Lackluster! ;-)
“a startlingly accurate preview of what would eventually become the “Star Wars” prequels”
Oh Huffpo, have you… have you seen the prequels?
There was a nice scene in the very first episode of *The Clone Wars* in which Yoda teaches some clone troopers to tap into the Force. I guess everyone has midichlorians and can do it, given the right training (as Lucas says in the transcript) . . . Anakin just has a leg up because he has so many of them?
I would say the outline Lucas gives Kasdan for Episode I-III is actually pretty well realized for being over twenty years before he got around to realizing all of it on screen. I don’t think we can really blame Lucas for things like “they go away for six months,” when he wasn’t making that stuff yet. That is the general story and what we were generally told in Episode VI. Essentially having a problem with what we see there is actually having a problem with conversation Obi-Wan and Luke have in Episode VI, because that’s the movie they were making during that conversation.
When I hear Qui-Gon out in The Phantom Menace, I don’t see it Midi-chlorians as being the force at all.
I never read Midi-chlorians as being a product of force potential as much as a ramification of having a connection between the life form and the force. Anakin has a high count, he’s a prodigy, he’s already tapped into that mainline so to speak, which is why he can race pods when other humans can’t.
If someone became magnetized, the accruing magnet dust would be akin to having a Midi-chlorian count. Mitochondria are like batteries for life, which Midi-chlorians are based off of. The part where it becomes confusing is that they “speak to you,” and that’s why people think they are the force. They aren’t. As one becomes more attuned they become more open to it and the Midi-chlorians act as a second voice for the will of the force itself.
So they’re basically indicators one has had a connection to the force itself. They’re the practical biological side of having used it.
It seems like any hero could eventually tap into the force. It does not rule out the everyday hero as someone who could use the force. To me, the whole thing is setup in a way to not allow poor choices to be made, like Han Solo becoming a Jedi or something that breaks archetype. The story function seems to have been set up to say that if you had a connection the force and were tested during the dark times, you were screwed.
But that’s just my reading of the materials placed before me. I could be wrong compared to the powers that be.
Jason,
I agree with you RE: midichlorians, I was just referring to the fact that George had already stated back in 1977 9four years before this conference) that “It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have more midi-chlorians in their cells.”.
I believe George’s conception at this time (and maybe still is today) would have been that everyone could indeed tap into the Force, just that some would be able to do so more easily.