There are some fans who may breathe a sigh of relief at the following news, while it might inspire a pit in the collective stomachs of many others. The news being that Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy has recently stated that they sat down and spoke with George Lucas (and took a good amount of notes while doing so) before even starting to write ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ They wanted to get the franchise creator’s input on the final chapter, even after choosing to diverge from his previous hopes for the new trilogy with ‘The Force Awakens‘ and ‘The Last Jedi.’
The news came from Kennedy herself from a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly (who have been putting out a lot of Star Wars coverage of late), with Kennedy stating:
“We sat down with George [Lucas] for a long meeting before we ever put pen to paper on this final episode, so we had the benefit of his thoughts. We took a lot of notes…For something that’s been here for 40 years entertaining audiences, and something that George initially set out to do with a kind of three act saga with these three trilogies, I think we felt that we should honor and respect that. And we’re taking the time to really look at where this is going from the standpoint of a saga, not just looking at what the next 3 movies might be. We’re really looking at what is the next decade of storytelling so that we can actually build the mythology.”
Kathleen Kennedy: “We sat down with George for a long meeting before we ever put pen to paper on this final episode, so we had the benefit of his thoughts. We took a lot of notes.“ @EW https://t.co/iFbBsqTu1T #StarWars #TheRiseOfSkywalker pic.twitter.com/Geg4P7hdpu
— sleemo (@sleemo_) November 22, 2019
For the last chapter of the “saga,” it makes sense to get Lucas’s input. I have long held that collaboration on projects like this between passionate creatives (I’m not talking about studio executives though) can lead to better products. Think about it, if George Lucas had equals he had been forced to run ideas by and get approval from when doing the prequels, those films would have ended up being far more superior movies. So hearing the man is involved in the ideas behind ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is very encouraging for everyone involved, and I’m hoping this will lead to a concluding chapter that really feels like it fits the whole 9 episode story, and somehow manages to tie everything up in a satisfactory way (though I’m sure no matter what, there will be some unhappy fans, but I suppose that is just the way of things.)
Hopefully, any nuggets of brilliance Lucas had left in his ‘Star Wars’ coffers will hopefully be used in this final chapter and everyone can walk away knowing they put everything they could into the project, which is really all that the fans are hoping for in the end.
What are your thoughts about Lucas’s involvement in this one? Do you feel he should have been more involved all along? Should they have gone with his story ideas from the very beginning? Do you (like me) wish the entire trilogy would have been a bit more planned and less freestyle, even if they did not follow Lucas’s original outlines? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments below!
