The Force was not strong with these George Lucas Star Wars ideas and plans...
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00:00From small-screen flops to perhaps not getting the best out of landscape-shifting technology,
00:05it's safe to say the force was not exactly strong with these particular LucasForge Star Wars
00:11elements. Gareth the Hutt here from WhatCulture Star Wars and here are 10 things that did not
00:16go the way George Lucas wanted. 10. The Holiday Special
00:21In isolation, the concept of putting together a light-hearted holiday special riffing on elements
00:26from a beloved franchise is pretty harmless, and even potentially a fairly entertaining
00:31endeavour if executed well. Just look at the success of Star Wars' own Lego variety of holiday
00:37treats, and the understandable buzz surrounding James Gunn's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy riff
00:42on the festive season. However, with high levels of anticipation can sometimes come a bit of a
00:47lacklustre end product. Evidenced in this Galaxy Far Far Away's first attempt to bring a bit of
00:53festive cheer to George Lucas' corner of the small-screen universe. Absolutely destroyed by
00:58critics upon landing on CBS in November 1978, despite roping in the majority of the feature
01:04players from the smash hit that was A New Hope, Lucas' odd desire to have much of this TV Star
01:09Wars adventure centre around Chewbacca's Wookiee family didn't exactly bear the sort of fruit he
01:14was hoping for. Outside of the animated introducing of instantly iconic bounty hunter Boba Fett,
01:20there's a reason Lucas has done everything in his power to distance himself from just
01:24about everything to do with this ill-fated special as the years have gone by.
01:29Star Wars Underworld
01:30Long before Disney Plus were unleashing fresh new live-action Star Wars tales by the quarter
01:35on their streaming service, George Lucas set out to tell his own small-screen space-age story set
01:40between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Yet with this still being the mid-to-late
01:45noughties, the idea of throwing tens of millions of dollars at a project designed purely for
01:50televised consumption wasn't as widely accepted as it is today. So despite putting together some
01:55rather intriguing test footage that would later leak online in 2020, and dreaming up a potential
02:01100 hours of content for the show, Star Wars Underworld ultimately didn't make it onto our
02:06screens due to budget concerns. Simply put, forking out two to four million dollars per
02:11episode was a pretty steep investment back then, and Lucas and co thought it was probably best to
02:16put the entire project on hold until technology caught up and allowed them to produce the show
02:21on a smaller budget. In the end, though, upon being purchased by Disney, Lucasfilm opted to
02:25steer clear of Lucas' Underworld branding when firing up their streaming service, and telling
02:30their own post-prequel TV tales seen in the likes of this year's Obi-Wan Kenobi.
02:35Midichlorians Don't Go Down a Treat
02:37Instead of dropping jaws around the world and leaving fans feeling wholly satisfied at the
02:42revelation of microscopic organisms in the blood of all living things known as midichlorians being
02:47the reason some folks can move rocks with a wave of the hand, the entire Phantom Menace exposition
02:52dump Qui-Gon Jinn delivers to a baffled future Darth Vader felt like a needless way of over-complicating
02:58matters. Sure, it helped establish how ridiculously OP Anakin Skywalker was from the second the
03:03unorthodox Jedi Master stumbled upon the Tatooine lad, but the complete lack of midichlorian
03:08nonsense in the celebrated tales that would follow this table-setter of a trilogy only further
03:13hammered home the pointless nature of adding some bizarre, concrete science to this mystical way of
03:17manipulating the energy around us. And with many of the folks involved in bringing elements of the
03:22franchise into existence, like Death Star Legends author Steve Perry also noting how the concept of
03:28midichlorians was less than inspired, it's clear Lucas didn't convince a great many that this
03:32prequel addition was in any way essential. 7. Han definitely shot first
03:38As time would trickle on by, it soon became clear that a few seemingly innocuous beats
03:42housed within the likes of A New Hope were not to the creator's liking in the slightest.
03:47So on top of eventually stuffing a dreadful amount of clunky CGI into later special editions of his
03:52OG set of flicks, Lucas set about chopping and changing one specific scene involving everyone's
03:58favourite smuggler blasting an alien into next week. With Han Solo infamously firing first in
04:03his tense exchange with Greedo on Mos Eisley, Lucas quickly decided that he actually didn't
04:08want his lovable scamp to come across as a cold-blooded murderer so early in the Star Wars
04:13day. But his multiple attempts to reframe the moment by letting loose a surreal red laser
04:18shot from the green alien's blaster a millisecond before the eventual general does, has only added
04:23further fuel to the Han shot first fire, and another hilariously clunky sequence to an already
04:28perfectly fine 1977 entry. 6. An epic love story fails to deliver
04:34It's evident that George Lucas had some rather high hopes for certain facets of his prequel
04:39trilogy, particularly the passionate romance between Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala
04:44that would prove to be the catalyst for the creation of the most iconic villain in the galaxy.
04:49However, what could have been a tragic tale of forbidden love ultimately wound up being remembered
04:53more for its highly memorable attempts to conjure up some genuine chemistry between two actors
04:58trying their utmost to make lemonade out of some of the worst dialogue ever committed to this galaxy
05:02far, far away. And oh boy, is that saying something. Perhaps even more tragically,
05:07looking back on the hours of behind-the-scenes footage available on these early 2000s adventures,
05:11tells the story of the likes of Lucas, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen,
05:15all very much treating the love epic with the sort of care and respect needed to give
05:19Skywalker's eventual turn the dramatic hoof it so desperately deserved. But all of the good
05:25intentions in the world couldn't save anyone from monologues about sand and Shaq frolicking
05:30in the fields of Naboo. 5. A more uncompromising Anakin
05:34Skywalker was not PG-13 George Lucas was under no illusions when it came to the birth of the
05:39unmistakable force that was Darth Vader in his prequel flicks. He had to be as terrifying and
05:44unstoppable as humanly or cyborgly possible. But that is quite a tough task when you're
05:49faced with producing a flick that has to fall in line with a strict PG-13 rating,
05:54and it led to Lucas having to slightly censor his diabolical fallen Jedi in the editing room.
05:59In particular, an infamous scene which depicts Anakin savagely setting the stage for the
06:03massacring of a number of innocent younglings was said to have been originally much darker,
06:08according to Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid. And while McDiarmid felt it was probably a good idea
06:12to cut out the more gruesome version of the Order 66 scene, he did also recall a conversation with
06:18Lucas about the grisly cutting down of the next generation of Jedi. On the other hand, George says
06:23that's what he's like, this guy, he's uncompromising, people should know it. But sadly,
06:28they weren't allowed to fully know it back in 2005. 4. Letting Ewoks bring down an empire
06:34As already noted, Lucas' original trilogy is widely regarded as one of the most celebrated
06:39cinematic feats in moviemaking history. Yet that's not to say that each and every component
06:43of this intergalactic machine completely clicked with the paying public out of the gates. In fact,
06:49the sight of a bunch of teddy bears taking down the big bad empire that had been wreaking havoc
06:53on the galaxy for three films was divisive to say the least during Return of the Jedi.
06:58Lucas has gone on record to defend the inclusion of the Ewoks in the Battle of Endor over a
07:02previously planned Wookiee population by stating that they were merely a way of distracting the
07:07Imperial troops. But that still wasn't enough to convince most that these cuddly souls possessed
07:11the firepower to hold off the most advanced army of the time. In reality, the Ewoks were likely
07:16designed as little more than a way to appeal to the younger demographic and sell some stuffed
07:20toys upon release. But either way, they still sit as another of the rare opinion splitters in this
07:26generally cherished original trilogy. 3. Blue screen work doesn't mask a lack of soul
07:32Few would argue against the fact that George Lucas helped thoroughly change the game with
07:36his use of computer-generated imagery in the prequels, with his utilising of blue screens and
07:41combining of CGI with practical costumes and sets being genuinely groundbreaking at the time. But for
07:47all of the mesmerising digitally enhanced battle scenes, beautifully computer-crafted locales,
07:52and fully animated clone and droid troops seen over the course of the prequels, there's no
07:56escaping the fact that this reliance on the artificial over the real deal robs Star Wars
08:01of some of its heart. With the original trilogy of flicks regularly finding itself shooting on
08:05location or fully built sets, due to technology not giving Lucas the tools needed to digitally
08:10craft his own imaginary worlds, the planets we occupied and stories that were being told
08:15felt tangible and came equipped with a touch more soul. And while undoubtedly impressive in
08:20execution, the reality of actors being forced to exhaust their imaginations by constantly performing
08:25in front of little more than a bland blue background eventually led to a set of features
08:29that, while visually ahead of their time, felt unfortunately hollow.
08:332. Jar Jar Binks CGI Groundbreaker
08:36And speaking of CGI endeavours not exactly landing in the way Lucas would have hoped,
08:40what once looked destined to be perhaps the most important Star Wars development of the time,
08:45quickly devolved into little more than a stick to beat the creator's precious prequels with.
08:50I'm of course talking about the controversial Phantom Menace debut of the first ever fully
08:54computer-generated supporting player in a live-action flick by the name of Jar Jar Binks.
08:59Blatantly designed to once again appeal to the younger demo, an admittedly impressive technological
09:04feat was very quickly overshadowed by the need to present Binks as little more than lazy slapstick
09:09comic relief. Despite all of the backlash sent the character's way, though, Lucas defiantly
09:14stands by Binks being his favourite character in the series, saying as much when saluting
09:19Ahmed Best for his dedicated work in bringing the Gungan to life on set and in the recording
09:23booth throughout the flicks. With Ewan McGregor admitting to wanting to work with Best again in
09:28the future whilst promoting Disney Plus' Obi-Wan Kenobi, perhaps now may be as good a time as any
09:32to rehabilitate a CGI character in need of some desperate TLC. Misa thinks so very, very much.
09:39The Sequel Trilogy
09:41Despite ultimately deciding to all but part ways with this galaxy far, far away in 2012,
09:46upon Disney's purchasing of Lucasfilm, George Lucas still found himself involved in the process
09:51of bringing the House of Mouse's sequel trilogy into existence, acting as a creative consultant
09:56during its early stages of development. However, as Lucas would later go on to confess in a
10:00conversation with CinemaBlend in 2015, pretty much all of his original ideas for the next
10:05trilogy of Skywalker saga flicks, and The Force Awakens in particular, were binned off early on.
10:10Later on, Lucas would frequently take aim at Disney's direction heading into The Force Awakens,
10:15criticising the first entry's retro feel, with the sequels definitely going down a
10:19completely different road to the one previously planned by Lucas many moons ago.
10:23After revealed in the Star Wars Archives 1999-2005, Lucas wanted to centre the tale
10:29around Leia Organa's rebuilding of the Republic, with Darth Maul returning to train the new Darth
10:34Vader in the form of a girl known as Darth Talon. Aside from Leia acting as the leader of the
10:38Resistance in a supporting capacity, though, it seems Disney had little interest in sticking
10:43to Lucas' initial plan for the stories that would follow his sacred original space opera trio.
10:48That ends our list! Know of any other things that didn't go the way George Lucas wanted?
10:52Let us know in the comments section below and don't forget to like,
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