My thing is that I just don't really care about all these movies. New trilogy? I'm all for it! But I don't need to see all these standalone movies; I'm not that big of a fan.
You have to be very careful with "Lucas said" because it changes so often, at various times he was going to make nine, then twelve, at other times he was going to do what Disney are doing and have various spin-offs directed by other people as money spinners so he could get on with making 'serious' films. The link "No there was another" was intended to be about a character we never saw who would headline one of the trilogies - that morphs into Leia later.
I completely agree with you. Maul could have very easily taken the roles that both Tyranus and Grievous filled in AOTC and ROTS. I think it would have been cool if we discovered that the leader of the Separatist movement in AOTC turned out to be the same Sith that killed Qui-Gon and nearly killed Obi-Wan in TPM; certainly more impactful than the leader being some guy we'd never heard of before. The only catch, for me, is what to do with the scene early in ROTS, when Anakin killed Tyranus at Palpatine's behest. Honestly, I felt that that scene was handled very awkwardly, and didn't show Anakin's vulnerability to the dark side as much as it did his vulnerability to suggestion from Palpatine. Maybe it could be excised completely, or something.
Well, you could always find a way to combine characters. Or have Tyranus and Maul be there together. Get rid of the damn "only 2 Sith" rule and it makes things a lot easier.
Of course, if you watch and are familiar with the lore of the Clone Wars series you know by now that Maul did indeed survive being cut in half and spent the next, oh, eleven years or thereabouts as a scarred and disturbed cybernetic abberation plotting revenge against Obi-Wan for his defeat at the Battle of Naboo. The Maul arc actually came to an end (for now anyways) last Saturday morning with what - for an animated Star Wars story aimed at least in part at a young audience - was a dark and very intense story that brought Maul and Sidious face to face for the very first time since the events of Episode I. That said, it would have been infinitely better for Maul to have returned in Episode II and even III if for no other reason than to expand his character's role and develop him into more than a one-dimensional attack dog with only a few lines. I adore Christopher Lee and like the idea of Count Dooku as a disillusioned and angry Jedi Master who leaves the order and secretly joins the Sith, but Dooku/Tyranus was never the ominous threat he should have been. Christopher Lee's portrayal was a little too sympathetic to create a truly badass, evil Sith Lord.
^Well, heck, if Maul turned into a cyborg in the TV show, perhaps in the movies he could have taken the place of General Grievous.
I thought that Darth Sideous was supposed to be the titular Phantom Menace? Which really just leads to more reason why Episode I was a failure, because they introduce Maul and then kill him, so what was the point of introducing him in the first place and etc etc... Just really overall very confusing, especially for what was essentially supposed to be a kid's movie.
Honestly, that's a problem I've had with that movie for a while. I could never figure out who "the phantom menace" was referring to!
Sidious/Palpatine was "the phantom menace," that much was clear long ago. Palpatine takes advantage of a major crisis and maneuvers to get elected Supreme Chancellor....Maul (the Sith apprentice) is defeated and believed dead....and as Yoda and Mace discuss which Sith was actually the Master there's a partial camera zoom on the profile of Palpatine as he sternly watches Qui-Gon's funeral pyre. Palpatine was behind the events in Episode I (of course it didn't hurt that the voice, lower face and chin of Darth Sidious were identical to Palpatine's ). Plus, if you collected Star Wars figures before 1999 you knew that the Emperor's name was Palpatine. So....there's that.
I was never that big of a Star Wars nerd, nor did I pay a whole lot of attention to movie details when I was a kid. I guess I just never got an ominous feel from Palpatine at the time. Obviously, now that I'm an adult, it makes a lot more sense.
I was actually surprised that Lucas and the producers were being so secretive about Darth Sidious and his true identity in the first prequel. As early as 1997 action figures of the Emperor from Return of the Jedi were marketed as "Emperor Palpatine, Galactic Ruler and Dark Lord of the Sith." Sidious was a Sith Lord. He sounded just like Senator/Chancellor Palpatine. They had the same nose, mouth and chin. Palpatine had actually been the actual name of the Emperor as far back as a comic book or strip around the beginning of the '80s although his name never made it on-screen until the prequels came along. The book or strip spoke of a girl or Imperial palace subject "who grew up at the feet of the Emperor Palpatine" on the capital planet of the Empire.
What can I say? I was not an observant movie-goer at the time. I even remember having a conversation with my mom after the movie, where she insisted that Palpatine was the evil Emperor, and I argued that that didn't make any sense.
Oh, no, no, it's not about you, man. I'm not going all nerd on you about not realizing. I don't want it to sound like that. I just wonder why Lucas and McCallum were so bloody secret in the press when the more geeky and nerdy fans who were familiar with the books and toys already knew that a corrupt and evil Sith named Palpatine was the guy who would go on to become the dreaded Emperor. They weren't protecting any kind of state secret. It wasn't until Episode III was being readied for release six years later that George told Ian McDiarmid to go ahead and reveal to reporters that he was indeed both Palpatine and Darth Sidious in the movies. Ian would later go on to say "it'd be a very strange thing indeed if you hadn't known I played both characters and they were the same person, but there you go." George had a lot of strange requests.
I think a young Han Solo movie could actually be pretty cool, as long as they don't try to make him TOO young. Hopefully they're thinking more of an edgy mid-20s type and not some Twilight-style teen hearthrob...
I just hope they give the director's chair for the Boba Fett movie to Joe Johnston, who expressed an desire for such when Captain America came out. C'mon man, the guy worked on the OT films, for crying out loud!
From last Saturday. Warning: Spoilers await if you like the show and haven't seen the entire episode yet. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej1We1tb8vc[/yt]