Entertainment Weekly caught up with Timothy Zahn to talk about the week’s big announcement and the amount of mainstream attention that the Thrawn trilogy has been getting due to all the speculation – and what he knew of possible plans for a trilogy after Return of the Jedi.
That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”
But years ago, he was briefed on Lucas’ plans for sequels, and how the Thrawn books would fit in. “The original idea as I understood it— and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now – but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him [in the prequels], and if there was another 7th, 8th, or 9th film, it would be Luke’s children. The Thrawn Trilogy really would have fit into the gap,” the author said.
Tim talks – vaguely! – about what kind of things he’d like to see in the new films.
I really do love the idea of a new generation of faces to see. I’d be much much more comfortable with that, instead of starting where RotJ left off and then ruining nearly 20 years of fiction.
considering that the prequel trilogy and original trilogy have nearly two decades of in-universe time in between them, the precedent has been set for a sequel trilogy to also jump forward in time, and not just pick up where the last trilogy left off.
I hope they at least work within what the EU has done. They don’t need to film Thrawn (but Jeremy Irons needs to play him if they do!!!), but they should at least try to play in the established sandbox. There’s still plenty of time to cover.
James: Indeed.
I like the idea of the Thrawn trilogy being preserved in continuity… the rest I could let go of without too many tears, but those books were very special to me.
Wraith Squadron may also survive more or less uncontradicted as they steer far from the Skywalker clan.
Hm…yeah, I could lose everything 20 years after New Hope in the EU…could lose that easily…and with great rejoicing…