Star Wars Archives: Eps I-III: 1999-2005 arrives imminently, and a huge draw for this supremely attractive coffee table tome is new interviews with George Lucas, who talks at length about the Prequel Trilogy and his ideas for what would eventually become the Sequel Trilogy.
There are plenty of familiar elements laid out here, Lucasfilm frugal as ever taking ideas and using them in other locations (Maul in the underworld, Luke starting an academy) and a number of differences to what we got in the Sequel Trilogy, like the use of Darth Talon (a character originally seen in the Dark Horse Star wars Legacy series, set a century after the original trilogy) as the ‘Darth Vader’ of the piece.
The Force Awakens started 34 years after A New Hope, while this story is clearly only a handful of years after Return of the Jedi; unless Lucasfilm were confident enough to invest heavily in de-ageing technology mid decade, a recast of our lead characters would have looked likely. Whichever way you cut it, this is a tantalising look at the third trilogy Lucas never got to make.
We will be sure to discuss this at length in next Tuesday’s episode of Making Tracks, and to tide you over before then listen to today’s 62nd episode and listen out for our Canon Fodder interview with J.W. Rinzler on Thursday and the next episode of The Fantha From Down Under on Saturday.
