Why George Lucas Won’t Make Any More Star Wars Movies
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86 responses to “Why George Lucas Won’t Make Any More Star Wars Movies”
Guys be kind, if it wasn’t for him you wouldn’t have Star Wars to begin with. I for one think GL is one of the greatest
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He WAS great, until he went batshit crazy.
I actually mostly liked the first edits. they added some great stuff, like the dewbacks up closer and the the better space battle scenes.
But then he didn’t stop.. he just kept going, until the movies became completely bastardised.
I can close my eyes and ignore the prequel trilogy, which i am fine with, but to destroy the originals to the point where i can’t even BUY the non-shit versions is just stupid.
Honestly, Lucas used to be brilliant, then he just took it too far, all for a few dollars.
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The CG insertions were ‘better’ in 1997 (with the obvious exceptions of Greedo shooting first and them buggering up the party at the end of Return of the Jedi and probably the redone music sequence in Jabba’s palace) but the problem is that those new additions look like crap now, plus they stick out really badly against the rest of the film.
The original space battle stuff with the models might have been kind of primitive but it was amazingly well done given the technology and it actually fit the films, where the CG doesn’t.
But the real problem with his constant fiddling is that it goes hand in hand with his determination not to release a decent quality release of the original THX Remastered version of the films from 1994 or so. I want my films without any changes or additions but I can’t have them without being a pirate. 🙁
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He was also the same man who said special effects were only to enhance the movie, not be the movie.
Guess he sort of fucked that up, huh?
Um, cause you don’t wanna be a complete pussy with a soft ego and you want to make something that you’re passionate about! Grow a bloody backbone Lucas!
Awww Georgie Georgie… Don’t be like that… We’re not saying that you’re a terrible person! Oh you Silly Duffer! We’re just saying that you suck tremendously at making movies! .. … … Okay that didn’t come out right… Okay okay… You’re tremendously talented and great at ruining your legacy. … … Hmmm that sounded more positive in my head. … Sorry George I got nothin’!
Lucas is at his best when he has someone else helping call the shots – always remember that he only directed one of the original trilogy, and it wasn’t (IMO) the best of them. Same with hooking up with Spielberg.
Give Lucas complete control and surround him with only yes men, and you get the prequels.
He also doesn’t want to make them because
1. Alec Guiness is dead. He can’t contribute his voice-over to guide luke anymore.
2. Harrison Ford has made it damn clear on numerous occasions that he would never, ever do another star wars movie
3. George, long before this whiny statement, declared that he had no plan of ever doing the last 3 movies as was rumored once many many years ago.
Seriously, George, you’d just destroy them anyway. You’re not the starry-eyed visionary you once were. You think everything will work out with enough CGI sugar-coating.
By not doing these movies, you’re probably doing the franchise a favor.
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Problem is that there is no where to really go with another 3 movies.
Sure you could maybe try the Yuuzhan Vong of the New Jedi Order. The problem is that even if you could get all the relevant characters. I don’t believe the series could work in a 3 movie format without severely altering the overall story. And probably writing out a good chunk of the characters.
Plus if he chewy actually died in the movie as he does in the book id hate too see the shitstorm that would incur
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I think it would be awesome to see 3 new films based in that time period. I also think the people who were responsible for the TOR trailers should be involved.
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I always thought if there were 3 sequels they would be the Thrawn trilogy.
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Here I thought he was getting yelled at for constantly messing with the original films and re-re-re-releasing them
Awesome.
Now hand the series over to someone else and maybe I can start caring about Star Wars again.
Lucas is one of the great filmmakers. Star Wars has contributed so much more to the art and science of films and the science fiction genre that cannot be dismissed because of Jar Jar or tinkering.
But then again, I didn’t watch Star Wars during my formative years, so I see things without rose-tinted glasses (something which I’m afraid a lot of you can’t do BECAUSE you watched Star Wars during your formative years).
The Star Wars franchise ended in 1983 for me with release of Return of the Jedi… so all this is meaningless dribble
George won’t make another star wars movie, that’s not saying someone else won’t do it to make him some cash.
Are we supposed to feel bad about this? He said recently he’s not scared of maknig a bad movie – and it’s true! You don’t see him remastering Howard the Duck every 5 minutes. But Star Wars? He was one success and WON’T STOP REINVENTING IT.
George Lucas is DETERMINED TO FAIL.
He’s a fool, and a terrible person, and I’m glad he’s not making more Star Wars movies. When ol’ goiterneck eventually shuffles loose this mortal coil we might get from Star Wars movies from talented directors… assuming there are any.
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Aahhhh!! You are ASKING for screen based fanfic? DO NOT WANT
KotakAU getting in to a serious discussion about a one-liner non-videogames article from Plunkett?
This Wiki outage must be going to our heads.
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You must be new around here.
What he says is right. But until he dies and the control of the franchise passes to someone else, we aren’t getting any more films. And thats fine by me. I’ve avoided all this Clone Wars junk that gets hurled at kids. And I’m fine with that
It’s a trap!
Its not just Star Wars, most movies these days are style over substance. With action scenes so insane you have no idea whats going on! A new Star Wars movie that isnt filmed entirely behind a blue screen would be nice!
This constitutes an article?
A picture with a quote Windows painted on?
Really?
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This isn’t even a news site…
Its a blog.
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No, it is a news site, just Luke Plunkett is terrible at news.
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Kotaku AU is a news site. Kotaku US is a blog. Mark Serrels is a journalist. Luke Plunkett is a twit.
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“From an interview with The New York Times.”
I know it can be hard to read 8 words, but sometimes it can prevent you from looking silly.
Poor George Lucas. He tries so hard.
Sequels to the original trilogy would no doubt have storylines that ignore all of the spinoff media anyway, which would enrage the hardcore fans.
I think the only way to do any new films that would’t mess too much with established stories is to go way way way into the future, all new characters and new storylines.
If George doesn’t want to make them, all the better, bring in someone else to do it.
Once again George Lucas proves he’s king at entirely missing the point. He’s ranting about fans saying he should leave the movies alone, while they themselves are re-editing them. Number 1 – At present there’s maybe 20 or so edits of all the films in TOTAL. Number 2 – Most of the fan edits are from people trying to return the films TO THEIR ORIGINAL FORMS. And Number 3 – No one is complaining about the changes specifically. What they ARE complaining about is GL saying “This new version of the movie is the ONLY one now. You can’t see the originals anymore.” No one would care about him editing the movies if he’d just release the original versions as well along with the Special Editions, fully restored and in as high quality as possible – not some shitty Laserdisc port.
Also, Plunkett you have sunk to new lows. Kotaku is NOT your personal Twitter account.
Now if only he’d leave well enough alone and stop changing the things he has already made.
“Why would I make more Star Wars movies when I can just keep fucking with and re-releasing the old ones?”
You know if someone had assassinated George Lucas in 1995 he would’ve been remembered as a hero. We most likely would’ve got awesome movies too.
/sigh
Am I the only one here that desperately wants to see a trilogy set in “The Old Republic”. Frankly the thought of hundreds of jedi and sith fighting some epic war sounds so much better than the constant “Oh back in the old days, the wars were fucking epic… not anymore, we use clones to shoot jedi in the back and whiny half adult/teens become supreme dark sith”. With the popularity of KOTOR and SWTOR i really hope the reins get handed to a younger and less jaded director who can make some great films for a new generation.
Shoulda read the by-line. I’ve made a point the last few months not to click on any of Plonketts copy-paste crap. I wish Kotaku would get rid of him
Seriously George has probably over done it with the re-edits and the prequels weren’t great but that doesn’t make him a horrible person and it doesn’t mean he deserves to be abused so much.
you could have got the “From the New York Times” on the picture too, save you the work of writing the words separately mate.
In Conclusion: Goerge Lucas is a One-Trick Pony, the prequal trilogy almost blew his cover, so he went back to beat the first 3 ponies to bleed them for all their cash.
I actually enjoyed the Prequels myself, but I recognise that they are tripe in comparison to the originals (much to thank Red Letter Media’s reviews aswell) but really the worst part isn’t the prequels themselves, but Star Wars newbies that have never seen any of the movies will naturally want to watch it from the ‘beginning’ and when they get to Episode IV their views will be tainted and they will never experience Star Wars as we did so long ago. That’s the real crime.
Also Lucas? If you really consider yourself an artist and a filmaking genius then just go and make more of whatever you want, detractors be damned. No artist that cries and gives up on future developments because of poor previous works deserves no respect in my books.
My god, Star Wars fans are nearly as whiney as he is. A couple of small changes to a movie and people go beserk! You don’t HAVE to buy revisions, or ones with altered scenes. If your memory is that rigid and you can’t handle minor shocks caused by switched around scenes or added dialogue, then you’ve got more to worry about than Jar Jar Binks.
On the flipside, I think George Lucas should man-up a bit here. Do a bit of a Steve Jobs and just do what he wants.
Seriously, I think people have just gotten ridiculously high expectations of the films. I bet you if you didn’t let someone watch the original trilogy in ages, then showed it to them saying it was “heavily edited”, they’d pick it to pieces even if it was in fact the original version of the film 😉
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“You don’t HAVE to buy revisions, or ones with altered scenes.”
Except it’s otherwise impossible to get HD versions of the films.
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While I agree that some fans can get quite whiny about the most miniscule of things (eg. “the lightsabers are now a few shades off!”, “Chewbacca’s costume looks slightly different!”, “that bit is obviously CG!”), and that hating a person for it is way too strong a reaction, if Lucas was only changing the small things, it wouldn’t be an issue. Many of the changes that Lucas has made have been storyline-based, and have introduced loopholes and inconsistencies, rather than fix them.
For example, the Stormtroopers in the original trilogy have been changed to have the same voice as the Clone Troopers from the prequel trilogy, indicating that they’re all clones (also confirmed by Lucas). However, by this point in the continuity, most of the clones are dead or dying, and the majority of Stormtroopers are conscripted from all around the galaxy (also confirmed both by the films and Lucas), creating an inconsistency that wasn’t there before. Han shooting after Greedo, while a small change, changes who Han is at that point in the trilogy, and cheapens his journey throughout the films. It also turns him from an extremely savvy and self-centered smuggler who will kill in order to avoid being killed into an idiot who allows an assailant who has announced he is there to kill him to get off a point blank shot before attempting to retaliate. Hell, Lucas has even completely changed the origin story of the Mandalorians, which, while not ‘directly’ affecting the films, adds massive loopholes and holes in logic to both any extended universe canon (previously okayed by representatives for Lucas or even occasionally Lucas himself) that even mentions the Mandalorians (of which there is a LOT) and some of his own Clone Wars stuff.
And while the argument for just sucking it up and watching the films in their original cuts is all good and well, the option just isn’t there. While other major films still have the option for viewing the films in earlier cuts (sometimes even packaged with the newer cuts of the films), Lucas specifically refuses to have the original cuts re-released in any shape or form. You don’t constantly backhand your diehard fans and then wonder why they dislike you.
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Tl;dr, the changes Lucas has made to the films add both major and minor loopholes and inconsistencies across the entire canon (not just the films), and refuses to re-release the original cuts for the fans who desire them.
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I love Star Wars, yes, I get annoyed when things are slightly out of whack. But you know what I do? I man the f*ck up and continue enjoying the god damned stories.
“Han shooting after Greedo, while a small change, changes who Han is at that point in the trilogy,”
How? The people who don’t know that Han shot first originally (ie. people who don’t really care all that much about Star Wars anyway) still enjoy the movies and Han’s character, and the people who know han shot first, well, KNOW that Han shot first, so it shouldn’t ruin anything for you.
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“The people who don’t know that Han shot first originally (ie. people who don’t really care all that much about Star Wars anyway) still enjoy the movies and Han’s character, and the people who know han shot first, well, KNOW that Han shot first, so it shouldn’t ruin anything for you.”
Sure, I’ll certainly give you that the Han argument was the weakest of the lot that I mentioned. The issue that people have with the Han situation is that it was a completely unnecessary change that changed who Han was at the start of the trilogy, and therefore cheapens the journey he has across the films for those who had seen the films in their original form (as I stated before).
Sure, people who haven’t seen the films before won’t know any better, and it certainly won’t affect their enjoyment of said films. But for those who did see the films in their initial form, they know the change is there, and they know it changes who Han is at the start of the film. They know how it SHOULD be, but they also know that how it should be isn’t the case anymore, and they’ve been told to suck it up and accept it. While I only pointed it out to show why the ‘purists’ have an argument here (it really doesn’t annoy me that much, personally), it is still a valid point.
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The Storm Troopers voices are NOT altered in the Bluray Original Trilogy. Only Bobba Fett’s voice has been redone because he IS a clone.
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Ah, that’s good to know. That wasn’t the case in the previous cut (as in before the Blu-ray release).
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I’m with Lucas on this one, Haters need to stop hating
This guy is a knob! Fortunately I have the unedited versions of the movies in HD and that’ll do me until he is “gone” and a new director decides to milk the franchise by making a new movie in about 20 years from now on holodisk that I can play on my Virtual Reality Super 3D HD 130″ Holo display thingamajig!
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I shall assume sarcasm here or maybe just stupidity as there is no possible way you have the original edits in HD…
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Yea im calling bullshit, I don’t think they made HD versions un altered.
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And dodgy upscaling dont count
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The cut scenes to The Force Unleashed are better than the prequel movies. Maybe George should hand the baton on.
Gratz to the losers who have made George Lucas like this. Please destroy all you’re Star Wars movies, games, books and merchandise. Hope you’re all happy.
Step 1: Give sequel trilogy to Nolan
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.
But George is too much of a no chin
pussy to relinquish such control.
I was gonna say something but after reading the comments I’ve realized… I don’t really know anything about Star Wars so I’ll let everyone else judge and I’ll take your word for it.
I must be the only person alive, or at least the only brave enough, to say I enjoyed episodes 1-3 more than 4-6.
That being said, I enjoy the stories in most of the video games/books a hell of a lot more than any of the movies.
He doesn’t actually listen to the people who hate what he’s done with Star Wars. He just thinks he’s punishing them by saying “Well fine, you don’t get any more Star Wars.” like he’s on a playground…
If he had been paying attention he’d realize that we don’t want any more of his Star Wars. We want him to leave Star Wars alone. 😛
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It’s all his Star Wars….
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The prequels are “his” Star Wars.
The original trilogy was the result of a large group of writers and contributors coming together to craft something great so Lucas could take the credit and claim that he had written the whole thing in advance.Look into it and you’ll see how very different Star Wars would have been if he had the ‘yes-man’ team the first time around…
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I’ve looked into it.
Imagine the Star Wars galaxy if Lucas hadn’t come up with the original rubbish he had at all?
Having trouble with that? Thought so.
Simply, without Lucas, there would be no Star Wars. Whether you hate the changes, or the prequels, or his facial hair. Without his ideas, there would not be millions of nerds so much in love with the stuff he makes that they feel they have to constantly bad-mouth it.
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Well damn, that was meant to be a reply.
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No worries, it posted directly below anyways.
Lucas had several kernal ideas that grew into Star Wars and I’m not denying him that. But his claims of authoring the entire thing in advance and behaving as though he was the sole creative force behind it I think reflect poorly on his character. And his treatment and attitude towards Star Wars as a franchise shows that he acts as an exploiter of the franchise as opposed to the way a creator would.
You said above that you enjoyed the prequels more than the original movies and that’s fine, but you also said you enjoyed the books and video games much more than either set of films. Do you consider those to also be ‘his Star Wars’? Because I would agree that there are plenty of better instances of “Star Wars” stories in the ‘EU’ than in the films.
Lucas pretends the ‘EU’ doesn’t exist even though he’s more than willing to collect the checks every month.It seems obvious to me that there is definitely a ‘Star Wars’ that exists which is not, and should not be considered, a work of George Lucas.
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Oh I don’t believe for a second that he thought out the entire story line all by himself either.
Regarding the EU, yeah, I do think that it’s still HIS Star Wars. He has very little to do with pumping out the EU, probably none at all in most cases. But even still, without him we would have none of that at all.
Like, with the Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, Aragorn’s Quesr and War in the North weren’t written by Tolkien, but they’re still his works. Inmy mind anyway. He, like Lucas, created the world in which these chracters came to life. Without them, we would have none of it.
If a little butt kissing is what it will take to have episodes 7-9, or even better, a movie taken from the EU, then I think it’s worth it.
There’s a large chance that it’ll be hated by fans too, but at least it would be something.
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Seriously, I suck at this replying thing. I’m used to a different method of ‘forums’.
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haha at least you’re consistent
I guess I must have a different definition of authorship.
George Lucas may claim that he created certain characters (in most cases only in broad strokes) or concepts (the idea of a space opera) but I think once a team of writers got hold of it and co-wrote what would become the original trilogy he lost his ability to claim that he’s the ‘Auteur’ of Star Wars. Most of the characters in Star Wars are nothing at all like what Lucas had truly written beforehand.If I may compare in an obscure way, Gene Roddenberry ‘created’ Star Trek but he did not write every character or episode or film. I believe he held some sort of ‘veto power’ over certain things related to Star Trek until he died, but beyond that he didn’t claim any kind supreme authorship to the franchise. So because of that Star Trek is very much inspired by Gene Roddenberry’s vision, but I certainly wouldn’t attribute it all to him. I can’t imagine Gene Roddenberry being a big fan of Star Trek becoming a blockbuster action-movie. The new Star Trek movie isn’t ‘his Star Trek’, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valid either.
Your example of Lord of the Rings is interesting but I’m not really familiar with those games enough to know if they’re trying to be adaptations of Tolkien’s books, adaptations of Peter Jackson’s interpretations of Tolkien’s books, or something else entirely. The last Lord of the Rings game I played was Two Towers on Gamecube 😛
If we do see Lucas putting out another trilogy of Star Wars movies it certainly won’t be anything besides what comes out of his brain. He’s not really interested in ideas that don’t come from himself and it really shows.
In all honesty, I think he could still make great movies if he went back to working with other people and being open to critique. If he chose to simply produce a new trilogy and give a little input here and there while letting someone else direct and write screenplays I think we could see some quality stuff… I just don’t see that as being likely at this point.
His head just got too big. (Though seriously, I have nothing against his facial hair or neck girth :-P)
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So is this the same for “Indiana Jones” as well then, Thank fuck the last one was shit.
I dont wanna see anything more in the skywalker saga… Bring on some old republic movies or something set way after RotJ with the sith making a comeback where theyve abolished the rule of two knowing full well an army of sith is a bit better then some manky old dude in a gown and a cyborg with asthma… Seriously though there is tonnes of material out there to make some awesome movies set in the star wars universe, everyone just need to let the skywalker saga go.
Im sure someone will remake them and add another 3 movies after he dies anyway.
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