TOPIC: Rian's Trilogy and the Invention of the Wheel

This may have a better home somewhere else, but we don't yet have a Rian Trilogy subcategory, I'll post it here. I wanted to bring this up because I feel like this group can develop some excellent discussion from this topic, as it's been rolling around my head for a little bit now and a recent interview with Rian Johnson brought it back to the forefront of my mind. So, let's get into it.

So, Rian Johnson's Star Wars trilogy. Other than the fact that it will take place somewhere completely different from anything we've seen thusfar in the films and divergent from the Skywalker timeline entirely, we know next to nothing. Up until now, I've been assuming the best. TLJ was average at best, this can be admitted, but I mostly see that as the fault of the story team for not crafting an overarching story arc about what J.J. Abrams set up, which would've been a far better way to handle the Sequel trilogy in my opinion, but that's just me.

In my mind's eye, Rian can do anything he wants. He can invent a brand new group of Jedi on Tython, far from the danger of the First Order. He can craft a Western-style trilogy that explores Hutt Space, or he can take a trip into the Unknown Regions to explore the Chiss Ascendancy.

But as of now, he's not going to do any of that, because it doesn't seem that he even knows about the EU, stories that would be completely unrelated to what we've seen already in the films. Check out this article from Cinemablend, where Rian is interviewed about a 'major challenge that he has with his new trilogy.'

First off, it needs to be noted that Rian doesn't currently have any kind of plan, not even the beginnings of one, not a simple story arc, nothing. It seems to me that there's something else going on there, because Kathleen just kind of handed him a trilogy before TLJ was even released.

But that's not even the biggest problem here. Rather it wouldn't be as bad if that was the extent of the issue. Rian has a few years, I'm sure he could come up with something that was both inspired by previous EU stories or completely new. The biggest problem is that he seems to think that he's the first one to ever do what he's doing.

To be fair, we haven't gotten a story completely detached from what we know in the movies yet. However, his question of 'what is Star Wars without the iconography' has already been answered, in material such as....drumroll please...The Old Republic. The only real carry over between the movies and KOTOR/II/SWTOR, among other media, were the planets and the Force.

Rian Johnson's problem here is that he seems to think that he's starting completely fresh, which he isn't, or at least, he doesn't have to. He has YEARS worth of old material to look at and absorb, and YEARS of time to come up with a compelling story that really sings to what Star Wars really means. All he has to do is research things that have already been done and use them to inspire new things. It seems like he's trying to completely reinvent the wheel, and it's highly unnecessary.

So, here's what I personally think Rian shouod do. He needs to go quiet about his new trilogy, for one. Quit running his mouth and trying to do again what has already been done. Then, after he's had a couple years to check out some older material and write a good, strong, STAR WARS story, he starts to release trickles of information, maybe concept art here or there, before hitting us with a 30 second teaser six months before the movie's release. Just my thoughts.

Thoughts?

You do realize that, canonically, the EU (now called the "Legends" timeline) doesn't exist, and he doesn't have to read or acknowledge any of it, right? I mean, that was a huge deal for some Star Wars fans a few years back, after Disney purchased LucasFilm and announced that they were doing episodes 7, 8 & 9. One of the first things they did was appoint someone to decide what was and wasn't counted in the film canon, and it basically came down to this: Canonically, only the live action movies, Clone Wars movie and TV show, Rebels and most books and comics written under strict guidelines since April 25, 2014 count as canon. Nothing else does. So, he doesn't need to read anything in the Legends timeline, nor does he even need to acknowledge its existence.

Here's what we know: LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy greelit him to develop a trilogy separate from the other films. By definition, he's going to develop it and therefore wouldn't have a plan going in. This actually happens more often than you think, especially with big properties like Star Wars. LucasFilm and Disney want to keep riding that Star Wars train, which is a massive money train. However, often many projects that get into this level of pre-production never actually see the light of day, because at this stage it's not costing them that much money. Basically, it's a "come up with an idea and we'll make it" kind of deal. That's why so many concepts are currently being developed by someone for LucasFilm. Realistically, they may only get a movie or two or, if they're lucky, a trilogy out of all of it. But, they need something in the pipe to keep Star Wars going after episode 9 and the other stuff they have in the works. They also have a live action TV show in development that may or may not see the light of day.

Of course EU no longer exists. I'm by no means a fan of a lot of the EU stuff, and when the deal originally happened, me being young and naive that I was, I didn't really care one way or the other (even now, I definitely prefer how streamlined and malleable the new canon is in comparison to old). But there was a lot of stuff that I came to learn about and love since then. Rogue Planet, the Jedi Apprentice series and the Old Republic come to mind.

Now, I'm not saying that the old lore needs to be required reading for Rian. If he thinks that he can whip something up that won't be a trainwreck or not completely bomb all on his own, then more power to him. I'm just saying that he doesn't need to necessarily reinvent the wheel. He has the option to look back and consider what makes Star Wars special without all the commercialized iconography that everyone immediately recognizes. I know I didn't come off that way originally, and I apologize for that.

The problem with the way this trilogy has been presented thusfar is that Rian seems to be dead set on making it happen, thanks to all the commercialism we've already heard. Even if it's a totally hypothetical project at this stage (which makes vastly more sense as of now), Rian is acting like he's Star Wars Jesus or something; again, reinventing the wheel. I want to see this trilogy succeed as much as the next guy, but if there's a distinct possibility that it might fall through the floor and never come to fruition, then we shouldn't have gotten any information about it whatsoever until there was a solid plan.

Actually, I'm reading the Jedi Academy trilogy right now, I'm on Dark Apprentice, the second book. It's good reading. I just mentally separate that continuity from the movies. Though, I'm a Star Trek fan, and their licensed works don't count towards the TV and movie continuity. So, I'm used to it.

Though, there is a good thing to the split continuity. It means the Star Wars Holiday Special is no longer canon.