I was summoned to office of my C.F.O. today. I made my way to his hallway and pondered what I might have done to deserve said summoning, but as it turns out, everyone is catching the Merger bug. Symptoms include wild eyed discussion of possibilities, and plans to really get that fan fic you wrote last year on the table of someone important.
As it turns out, The Big Guy is brilliant, and made an extremely valid point; in the eye of the general public, Star Wars has a very black eye right now. I’m not speaking of those of that know about all the amazing things happening right now in the ‘verse formally known as Lucasville, I’m talking about the average person who loved the Star Wars trilogy and took their kid to see the prequels, hoping it would create the same nostalgia in a new generation. I’m talking about the people who like popcorn flicks and knew of the reputation of the films among their more “quirky” friends. Because let’s face it – those people go to see Star Wars movies, too. And what do they think of when they think of Star Wars? Jar Jar. Christian Haydensen. A 15 minute pod race. Wildly ambitious (in the bad way) CG. They don’t think of Yoda’s death or Luke’s “NOOOOOOOOOO!” or “I know” or any of the goosebump moments that we love. They are the people that will roll their eyes come 2015 and say “ech, they’re trying this again?” And if tickets are stock, these folks are the majority shareholders.
So why not a 3.5? III.V, if you will. Order 66 did not happen instantaneously. What we saw onscreen was a well coordinated effort to take out the most pressing Jedi problems the Sith had, but it could have taken years to hunt and find all remaining Jedi in the galaxy. So why don’t we get to see Vader’s story? His real story. He rises from the ranks of hunter and eventually becomes Grand Moff Tarkin’s main squeeze. He searches for that twitch in the force that lets him know something is still out there (spoiler – it’s Luke and Leia), has premonitions of his inevitable fall . . . this could be amazing storytelling! Proof that all canon Star Wars doesn’t have to be child friendly, tailor made for a director who is making some bold choices, and my choice would be Nicolas Winding Refn.
Let the Star Wars universe heal. Put a steak on that black eye and let Joe Q public buy an untouched blu ray release of the original trilogy. Make a grown-up movie in the interim, then release the final chapters.