80's Star Wars Episodes I-III:What if?

[Whofan]

What if Lucas decided to work on the prequels back in the mid to late 80s (or perhaps early 90s), after ROTJ wrapped? It's well known that he chose to do the prequels after JURASSIC PARK's impressive FX (As his script began in 1994). Would he have directed and wrote it? Would the story have been different and less reliant on special FX? Also important: What actors of the time would have worked out in the key roles of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme? (I'm guessing Ian Mcdiarmid and Frank Oz would still be in it) of course.

I'm thinking Kenneth Branagh would have been a good Obi-Wan... any other ideas?

 

[Hound of UIster]

It would have been done with other directors like ESTB. Maybe Ridley Scott or James Cameron. Episode I would have bee about the history of the Republic, the Jedi and the Sith. Episode II would have been about Obi-Wan. Episode III would have been about Anakin.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I'm guessing Spielberg would have directed at least one movie.

I suspect that Anakin would not have been so young, had Ep 1 been made soon after Return of the Jedi. It's hard to know if Lucas would have gone for an unknown or, more likely, a little-known actor, or a star. It depends on when the movie was set and the age the character was supposed to be, but I could imagine someone like Michael Biehn as a young Anakin. Though Lucas may well have cast a Brit, given that Anakin had an English accent in Jedi.

Branagh could well have been Obi-Wan, depending on when TPM was set and whether he was looking for someone around the age McGregor was when he played the role or whether he wanted someone older (as I think should have done). Sean Connery could have been Qui-Gon or even Dooku, had the former been in an 80s prequel trilogy, though Christopher Lee could have excelled even more as Dooku when younger.

Padme - hard to know, again, depends on how old she'd have been if Lucas made the movie 15 years or so earlier than he did in reality. Jennifer Connolly? Joanne Whalley (his Willow star)?

Lucas told Terence Stamp that Chancellor Valorum was meant to be a bit like Bill Clinton during the impeachment hearings, so perhaps a pre-Clinton trilogy wouldn't have spent so much on political shenanigans (to the joy of many).

The movies would obviously have been less reliant on CGI, probably for the better (and I speak as one who likes the PT). Jar-Jar may not have appeared and if he had, he'd have been someone in a costume, like Chewie, 3PO etc. Yoda would still have been realised by a puppet and as such, wouldn't have got to fight Dooku or Palpatine. Mace Windu may have appeared, as the name had been kicking around since Lucas' early drafts, but he may not necessarily have been played by a black actor - Lucas offered that role to Sam Jackson when he said on a chatshow that he'd love to do the new SW movies.

I also think that a PT of the 1980s would have adhered to 'fanon' more than the trilogy we got did - so Boba Fett might have been an ex-stormtrooper, Uncle Owen would have been Obi-Wan's brother (and we would have heard Obi-Wan referred to as Ben) and the background would generally have been more in line with things referred to in the novelisations of the movies.

 

[Set Harth]

As far as I know, Boba Fett as ex-stormtrooper wasn't a part of fanon, or even suggested by the franchise, in the OT era. Lucas may have implied that the concept had OT-era roots in a recent commentary, but the Fett information floating around at the time, which appeared in the TESB novelization, just said that he wore the armor of a group that the Jedi fought during the Clone Wars.

 

[Sindatur]

As far as I know, Boba Fett as ex-stormtrooper wasn't a part of fanon, or even suggested by the franchise, in the OT era. Lucas may have implied that the concept had OT-era roots in a recent commentary, but the Fett information floating around at the time, which appeared in the TESB novelization, just said that he wore the armor of a group that the Jedi fought during the Clone Wars.

I recall a rumor before the Prequel Trilogy came to fruition that Boba Fett was going to turn out to be a woman.

 

[Set Harth]

Then her name would have been Booba Fett.

 

[Sindatur]

Then her name would have been Booba Fett.

LOL.

Lots of languages have the feminine names of people and things end in an "A". Bob or Bobo = Male, Boba = Female

 

[Hound of UIster]

As far as I know, Boba Fett as ex-stormtrooper wasn't a part of fanon, or even suggested by the franchise, in the OT era. Lucas may have implied that the concept had OT-era roots in a recent commentary, but the Fett information floating around at the time, which appeared in the TESB novelization, just said that he wore the armor of a group that the Jedi fought during the Clone Wars.

In the ESTB Sketchbook it says that Boba Fett wears the armor of the supercommandos from the Mandalore system. Apparently in Lucas's mind he was never actually a Mandalorian, but someone who just used their armor.

 

[sojourner]

Michael Biehn would have been good if Anakin was intended to be much more a contemporary of Obi-Wan.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ I always had the impression, prior to the PT, that they would be closer in age. Biehn might have been too old to play opposite Branagh (MB is 4 years older than KB) and would have been 29 in 1986 (let's assume that the next SW movie followed the 3 year gap routine of its predecessors) but if they'd cast an actor in his mid-30s as Obi-Wan, he could have convinced (don't forget that Mark Hamill was 5 years older than Luke was meant to be in ANH).

 

[marillion]

As far as I know, Boba Fett as ex-stormtrooper wasn't a part of fanon, or even suggested by the franchise, in the OT era. Lucas may have implied that the concept had OT-era roots in a recent commentary, but the Fett information floating around at the time, which appeared in the TESB novelization, just said that he wore the armor of a group that the Jedi fought during the Clone Wars.

In the ESTB Sketchbook it says that Boba Fett wears the armor of the supercommandos from the Mandalore system. Apparently in Lucas's mind he was never actually a Mandalorian, but someone who just used their armor.

There was a story in the old Marvel Star Wars series that played off this idea.. Leia was off doing something somewhere and ran into a guy who had armor like Boba (to the point that she actually thought he WAS Boba), but it turned out he was one of some elite commando troop that Fett had also belonged to.

 

[davejames]

By all appearances, Lucas was already starting to phone it in somewhat with ROTJ. I can't imagine the next set of movies would have suddenly jumped up in quality.

(Although even if they were only at the level of Jedi, I guess that would be better than what we got...)

 

[Kegg]

Like ESB and ROTJ, the remaining three films would have been directed by non-'name' directors, like Kershner and Marquand. Somewhere in the Willow ballpark of quality as franchise fatigue sets in. Sure to have some damn imaginative muppets, though.

In the ESTB Sketchbook it says that Boba Fett wears the armor of the supercommandos from the Mandalore system. Apparently in Lucas's mind he was never actually a Mandalorian, but someone who just used their armor.

Yeah, same deal in the novelization and that was canon story at the time, actually. Truthfully Mandalorian canon's metastasized since the prequel films.

 

[Candlelight]

I'm guessing Spielberg would have directed at least one movie.

Any director in the Director's Guild, of which Spielberg was part of, was barred with working with Lucas after the problems with ANH and TESB.

Spielberg was lined up (or otherwise extremely keen) to direct ROTJ but was ordered not to, so Lucas chose someone else.

 

[Candlelight]

The prequels would have had less reliance on CGI; in saying that I imagine the characters would've been physical (the odd alien might be CGI, like a rancor-type monster, but I doubt we'd have armies of droids like we saw in TPM) but the sets may have had a lot of CGI/compositing involved.

One big factor in the apparent 'failure' Lucas has is he never really directs his cast; only giving them rough guides and letting them play out the scenes as they do. With the original trilogy there wasn't much that was left to the imagination in a normal scene (save for adding the rancor, blue-screened tie fighters attacking, lightning from Palpatine's fingers, colouring the lightsabers, etc), so Lucas could concentrate on the scene. With the prequels pretty much everything was blue-screened so his mind was in a hundred places at once. The cast had even less direction, which was a big failing. Had the prequels been made in the 80s or 90s, I imagine the less CGI available would make Lucas more focused on the cast and characters.

 

[davejames]

Well to be fair to Lucas, I can see how even a scaled-down version of the prequels would have been a hugely daunting thing to achieve with 80s technology.

Unless you once again kept all the Senate and Coruscant stuff in the background, and focused almost exclusively on the smaller-scale adventures of Anakin, Obi-Wan and Amidala in more of the sparse alien environments we saw in the OT (which I certainly would have preferred, but clearly Lucas was always much more interested in the politics of the situation).

 

[Candlelight]

I think as well Lucas had a mindset of wanting to show the Clone Wars, show the fall of the Republic. Something that was way too expensive back then. He could have focused on the heroes like the original trilogy but everything would once again happen in the background, save for one or two big set pieces per movie.

 

[Set Harth]

As far as I know, Boba Fett as ex-stormtrooper wasn't a part of fanon, or even suggested by the franchise, in the OT era. Lucas may have implied that the concept had OT-era roots in a recent commentary, but the Fett information floating around at the time, which appeared in the TESB novelization, just said that he wore the armor of a group that the Jedi fought during the Clone Wars.

In the ESTB Sketchbook it says that Boba Fett wears the armor of the supercommandos from the Mandalore system. Apparently in Lucas's mind he was never actually a Mandalorian, but someone who just used their armor.

There was a story in the old Marvel Star Wars series that played off this idea.. Leia was off doing something somewhere and ran into a guy who had armor like Boba (to the point that she actually thought he WAS Boba), but it turned out he was one of some elite commando troop that Fett had also belonged to.

Yeah, the cover of that issue was a huge tease, because it totally looked like it was Boba Fett.

 

[The Dominion]

I can't believe they killed Jengo off so early without even using him in The Clone Wars or the beginning of Ep III. You think they would be eager to use him more after Boba became such a breakout character.

 

[davejames]

I can't believe they killed Jengo off so early without even using him in The Clone Wars or the beginning of Ep III. You think they would be eager to use him more after Boba became such a breakout character.

Yeah, between Jango and Darth Maul, you've got two of the biggest wasted opportunities for having a truly powerful and badass villain in these movies.

Instead all we get is a wheezing robot and an old man. lol