Poll: Who do you think is telling the truth about TFA story authorship, JJ or Lucas?

I just feel that we have been led to believe that this would be a continuation of the Skywalker family saga ("The force is strong in my family...") and that is at the heart of what personally interests me in Star Wars. I enjoy the mythology and the themes surrounding that. It's why I enjoyed the PT despite its inherent flaws.

In calling it episode 7, it appeared that Lucas had found a way to continue the story even though it appeared wrapped up by episode 6. I at first felt that a ST would be tacked on but then thought that the Darth Plagueis idea (creating a metaphorical cursed story about the Skywalkers until their creator was destroyed) could've connected the dots, tied the trilogies together and given us a satisfactory story arc.

However, upon reading Lucas' latest interview and with more details leaking out, I fear we have been misled. It strikes me that the Skywalkers are now background characters, mere window dressing for new unconnected, unrelated heroes and villains to kick off or reboot this trilogy and beyond.

Can it still be an entertaining film? Of course. And it will be a delight to see all the OT references. But what makes Star Wars great for me is the mythology. The mythology that Joseph Campbell's best student created. A mythological tale about a family that resonates with us all.

My fear is that JJ and co. have created something that has deviated from this tale, making a tacked on 'crowd pleaser' rather than a credible continuation of the story. Talk of a search for the Dark Side in the outer reaches of space, a giant Snake Sith Lord and numerous OT story rip-offs do little to appease these fears. When Georgie boy said he hoped they wouldn't turn the Force into gobbledygook, that struck accord with me. Let's hope they stayed on target...

 

Apparently, you *have* been misled.
Rey and Kylo Ren are Skywalkers, and they are the central protagonist/antagonist pair of this trilogy.

 

Apparently you *have* seen the film.

 

First of all I'd say the Disney and Lucasfilm wouldn't have dumped Lucas' plot and Arndt's script if it wasn't seriously problematic.

Second JJ has talked about long walks with Kasdan and they didn't have a script, or even a story, ready until quite late, that suggests they dropped most of Lucas' VII story.

Third It seems the casting was done well before the script was even close to ready!

Fourth Some of the Arndt era concept art does seem to have made it through.

So, my thinking is this - the Lucas/Arndt VII had teenage protagonists and very small parts for the big 3. Disney learnt the Phantom Menace lesson and aged up the protagonists and want to 'make one for the fans' and have major rolls for the big 3 and particularly Harrison Ford would only sign up if he had a big part and the right script. And so the Arndt VII was heavily re-written around a good part for Harrison Ford, and ageing up the new characters. It seems though that Rey, Kylo, Poe and possibly Finn were all cast before the script took form then there's a good chance that those character were adopted from the Lucas concepts, even if their ages and ep VII stories are new. Poe in particular seems to have been part of the Arndt script crashing his X-Wing on an ice planet.... There's also been some comments about Kylo, that he thinks he doing right, could that be hinting towards Lucas' idea that the ST, the idea of right and wrong are more ambiguous? I wonder if the basic outline of Lucas' ST are all still in place; the characters, the themes, the events and the ending, and maybe VIII and IX will be closer to the Lucas outline, I wonder if the 'First Order', 'the Resistance' and 'the Knights of Ren' have their origin in the Lucas treatment. It's just the VII story that needed major surgery.

Or alternatively, apparently Lucas also said the ST was based around a character that survives the PT. Unless you accept the humorous story the Jar Jar Binks was really the Sith Master (very unlikely, but Lucas did recently say he was his favourite character!!), then there are few, if any, possible characters, best option being Plagueis. An alternate take would be that Dinsey decided the original Lucas story, 'Kylo' reviving Plagueis,, was a little too close to Harry Potter and that's why they dumped it.

 

The one thing I don't understand is why George should be "surprised" that Disney did not want his "ideas" for episode 7,8,and 9; given the fact that "for the most part" fans hated episodes 1,2, and 3. Did he really think Disney paid him 4 billion dollars to continue on a path that would lead them into another trilogy like his last 3 films?!!

 

That's a possibility we should be prepared for.

I'd vote for "most popular and admitted student". I think the Wachowski's (and many others) also presented a very good "hero journey" based on Campbell's findings. But the monomyth is essentially about individuals that follow the call to adventure and/or have a profound experience that changes their path.

I'm pretty confident that Abrams and team used the "hero journey" formula in TFA to a great extent. However, I hope we see plenty of variations that will not make TFA look like a reboot of ANH.

 

Please, if this was mentioned before just ignore me, no worries. Could George be bringing up Vader's grand kids as a little jab at JJ and Disney? I mean, Lucas said the story was about family. Maybe his stories revolved around the offspring of Luke/Leia but Arndt, JJ and Kasdan came in an changed it. So, he is take a dig at JJ's script but not coming out and saying it. He's like trying to stick it to them and almost planting a seed in the minds of the fans to ask, hey where are the kids of Luke and Leia?

I don't know, maybe reading too much into it. but just thought that.

 

Yes, but I'm willing to bet anything that that's merely because he isn't in the loop and has no idea what's going on with the story of TFA.
I believe that he *incorrectly* assumes that Vader's grandkids are not in the sequels...but that he doesn't realize that Rey and Kylo Ren are in fact those grandkids.

 

Sneaky Bastard.

 

Both Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas say that George Lucas doesn't know what's going on with the movie after he bailed out. Probably not more than what's in the marketing.

"You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know..." -Walter Sobchak