Was the new trilogy planned storywise at all?

I think every director adds his own story plots as theyhelm the episode

 

My first reaction to this was "well....the OT wasn't really planned out"

But this time, three movies WERE guaranteed....so I'm torn.

 

I get the feeling that Lawrence Kasdan doesn't really like George Lucas. I mean Ben Kenobi clearly stated Vader killed Anakin Skywalker! He might even hate himself because then he turned around & made Luke & Leia siblings. Retcon!

 

Doesn't seem so if you see all these plot holes in TLJ which doesn't fit to TFA at all.

 

To answer the title, I sincerely doubt it.

The story group may have had a few notes jotted out - but they have given full creative freedom to each individual director to pretty much do whatever they want without interference. So unfortunately we’re getting a bit of an in-cohesive mess... RJ pretty much trashed everything JJ tried to set up, it seemed to me a very much “I have altered the deal, pray I don’t alter it further” moment.

The only thing you can guarantee is the ultimatum from Disney, “make me money, or fear the consequences.”

 

Common misconception here. People seem to think the story group has say in the direction of the trilogy: they don't. The story group is all about ensuring continuity and coming up with possible ideas, not developing stories. Say Rian Johnson wanted to make Rey's father a Toydarian, that's the kind of stuff that would be shut down by the story group because it's not possible.

 

Nope. The story is all very vague and is just repeating what's come before. I'm amazed this is the best LFL could come up with. Fans are eating it up though, so expect more of the same vague nonsense.

 

Broad strokes. They know the names of the new characters. They know how it's going to end. But the route they take from start to finish is up to them. And it shows.

 

I was never a Legends fan, but I read a lot of it because I love SW. I am shocked that those mediocre genre writers put more thought into their stories than these mega-paid film writers. What a waste of money.

 

I think no. Perhaps yes there's an vague idea of the endgame.
But I'm not even sure of that.

One may welcome it, I personally don't.

And that's my biggest complaint with TLJ.

Look, I wasn't particulary interested in Snoke's backstory, the KOR (that we only see in a scene of TFA) or in how Maz got the lightsaber. Not everything must be addressed.

But I loved the idea of little details put here and there to be used and explained later on.

I don't think that's case with this trilogy.

If you look now at the visions scene in TFA, what's the point?
To make a comparison, it's like the House of Undying prophecy of the ASOIAF serie
with no playoff at all.

I mean, in that serie every detail is like the piece of a riddle.
And that is what makes it interesting, to me.
The answer in the end will make sense. It may surprising, but every detail will find is place.

That's not the case with the Rey's visions.
Not that you cannot find a general sense/meaning.
But it's too general.

And for the record I wasn't a Rey must be Related, at all.
I said - and I guess I was one the first here, if not the first - that this trilogy may end with the end of the Skywalker bloodline, that that may be a bittersweet end I'd love.

So it's not that I believed the visions - or the Skywalker saber calling to her - pointed to Rey Related.
It's just I don't see that scene anymore as an interesting riddle.

In this sense... it's at best a missed chance.
It's not that compelling.

Then, overall, I think the character arcs if compared (ep 7-8) are not further developed
but somehow rebooted.
And I lost the feeling of "reading/seeing" the next chapeter of the very same tale.

Maybe I'll change mind again with IX, but today that's what I really think.

 

This trilogy feels like a team story game, where one person says a sentence, another says another, and so on and so forth. Easy to have hard rights and left turns, but plot holes abound, loose ends everywhere and the story isn't coherent.

I think everyone has a different take on Starwars, to some point. I don't think JJ or RJ experienced Starwars the same way I did. That's not their failing but mine. That being said, without a plan, and with 2 people with basically blank pages, the story is feeling haphazard. I think the entire of the trilogy should have been given to either one of JJ or RJ, not going back and forth like this.