How would you have done the Star Wars sequel trilogy?

[TGLS]

I'd keep episode 7 basically the same. I don't how it went really, and it provides enough constraint so I don't go entirely off the wall (i.e. No Sequel trilogy, just Interquels, Prequels, etc.)

Episode 8 would follow three simultaneous plots: a mystical Force plot with Rey, a space chase plot with Poe, and a spy plot with Finn. The movie would not start with the text crawl. Instead, it would start cold open with Rey meeting Luke, who would ask her if she is here to ask questions or get answers. Then BAM Text Crawl! The First Order has had victory after victory, and the Resistance has merged with the Republican Navy. Our heroes are fleeing from a big ship, with critical TECH, that inhibits hyperdrives until they figure out how to turn it off.

Poe's plot is largely the same as his plot in TLJ, with tweaks. The bombers at the beginning will originally be part of some plan by Holdo to have them cover their escape when they can use the hyperdrive, but Poe will send them off to attack the big ship. Poe dislikes Holdo because he sees Holdo as a cold desk-jockey who doesn't see the view from the ground. Holdo sees Poe as an brash idiot who refuses to cut his losses. Both become more and more convinced the other is a traitor, and Poe is convinced by evidence Character X provides. Poe goes ahead with his mutiny, which is shutdown quickly because Holdo had an informant. As Holdo is about to shoot Poe as a traitor, something is let slip that Character X is the traitor, and a firefight ensues. This damages some backup plan Holdo had, and now the only way to cover the escape is to ram the big ship. Holdo explains the hyperdrive disrupting TECH (that Poe will earlier state he wants to toss out of the airlock) is critical to the Republic's war effort. The remaining crew and the TECH will flee in a small ship while Holdo rams the big ship. Poe disagrees, seeing Holdo's competence and such (Bomber plan and backup explained here), but Holdo reveals that Poe was drugged earlier, then he collapses. Shuttle flees, scene with Hux shitting himself, this plot over.

Finn's plot would basically be the Casino plot without the absurdity of him leaving the chase, and with a different cause. Finn will have a budding romance with Rose character, as they try to disrupt a weapons deal between the First Order and Private Dealer on Neutral World. Shenanigans ensue, and Finn discovers Shiny Stormtrooper is handling the weapons purchase. After a scheme to stop the deal fails Finn, blinded by revenge and his shame over his cowardice, comes up with an insane plan to blow up Shiny Stormtrooper and the weapons. Rose tries to talk Finn out of it; he isn't afraid to die (in the blast or by the security response), but Rose comes through with the 'Protect what you love' line. Finn comes back with a spiel about how he has nothing he loves, she interrupts him with a kiss, plot over.

We come back to Rey's plot and we learn that Rey has been training for three months. The training is hard, and she is collapsing at the end of every day (seems like the right place for a montage). Rey eventually asks Luke why he went into hiding, and he responds that she said she wanted answers. She asks why she can't have both, and Luke goes into a monologue explaining that Rey came here to become a Jedi, and she is getting what she seeks. Rey is surprised and asks Luke how he knows this, and he explains that if she knew why she wouldn't want to be a Jedi anymore.

Kylo enters the story at this point, who realizes he is becoming increasingly marginalized by Snoke. He decides to try and turn Rey to the Dark Side, if only to use her as a pawn against Snoke. Forcetime scenes begin, and Kylo starts feeding Rey questions to drive her away from Luke. Luke explains how he trained Kylo, and how he sensed the darkness within him, and how he was overcome and nearly murdered him. As he keeps answering her questions, he ends up revealing he knows far more than anyone can possibly know.

Rey calls him on this, and he asks if she wants the truth. When she says yes, he explains that as the last Jedi, he has so much power it completely overwhelms him. He is able to perceive the past, present, and future all at once. He explains if she becomes a Jedi, she will become like him after he dies. She asks if he told her the truth about Kylo, and he explained that he saw the future while rescuing Kylo on a cliff. He was almost ready to drop him off the edge. To protect Kylo, he went to him in the middle of the night, acting like he would kill him, so he would turn to the dark side and be safe from him. Rey asks about her parents, and Luke gives a fanciful account of a young padawan who managed to escape Anakin, before Rey begins to cry. He says he can't keep lying to her, and says that her parents are nobody important, and that the power of the force within her will draw her to be taught by him. She leaves, believing she can turn Kylo back to the light.

After arriving on First Order World, Rey let's her self be captured and brought to Kylo. He brings her to a big fancy throne room as a prisoner. Snoke gloats to Rey that she can't turn Kylo to the light. Kylo prepares to kill Snoke, and she has a vision. Kylo kills Snoke and takes his place as Supreme Leader. She pleads with him dozens, if not hundreds of times, but every time he shrugs and kills her. As Snoke laughs that he has won, Rey grabs her Lightsaber in anger and kills Kylo. Kylo appears honestly surprised, as his body slumps over. As a wicked grin spreads across her face, Snoke persuades her to change sides, as the only way she can truly embrace all the power she will receive with Luke's death is as a Sith, and Rey falls to the Dark Side. Movie ends.

Episode 9 would follow the Republic, who would build a superweapon with the TECH from Poe's plot, and the First Order as they careen to a final battle, while Poe and Finn would seek to save their fallen friend Rey.

[Deledrius]

In short: Actually make sure Episode IX is a sequel tp Episode VIII.

VIII would need to be a sequel to VII first. IX tried its best to at least be a sequel to VII, and incorporate as much of VIII as it could, given that VIII had no interest in being part of a trilogy.

[McAvoy]

In short: Actually make sure Episode IX is a sequel tp Episode VIII.

VIII would need to be a sequel to VII first. IX tried its best to at least be a sequel to VII, and incorporate as much of VIII as it could, given that VIII had no interest in being part of a trilogy.

Which is the problem when you give free reign for the director to do whatever he wants and not direct the next movie. I do wonder if he had any plan on how Episode IX was supposed to be when he was directing.

He did have outlines for it but he threw that away.

[MrL1992]

In short: Actually make sure Episode IX is a sequel tp Episode VIII.

VIII would need to be a sequel to VII first. IX tried its best to at least be a sequel to VII, and incorporate as much of VIII as it could, given that VIII had no interest in being part of a trilogy.

VIII doesn't flat out contradict VII, reverse its characters and forget where the kast film left off.

[Admiral X]

Yeah it did. It went from the First Order being this shadowy organization that only the fringe even believed existed to suddenly they've conquered the entire galaxy in spite of their super-weapon being destroyed in what should have been a major set-back for them. Also, it makes no sense for Jake Skywalker to have left a map to where he went (thought honestly the map as presented makes no sense anyway) if he only went there to die and thereby end the Jedi. And the reason why the first point in particular is a sticking point is because the second movie takes place right after the first movie ended.

[Mecha82]

It was explained that that map wasn't to Luke (unlike some seem to believe) but to were he most likely went and planet that Luke had been searching for before creating his Jedi Academy. So no, he didn't leave behind map to were he went because that wouldn't had made sense.

[Deledrius]

In short: Actually make sure Episode IX is a sequel tp Episode VIII.

VIII would need to be a sequel to VII first. IX tried its best to at least be a sequel to VII, and incorporate as much of VIII as it could, given that VIII had no interest in being part of a trilogy.

VIII doesn't flat out contradict VII, reverse its characters and forget where the kast film left off.

Yeah it did. It went from the First Order being this shadowy organization that only the fringe even believed existed to suddenly they've conquered the entire galaxy in spite of their super-weapon being destroyed in what should have been a major set-back for them. Also, it makes no sense for Jake Skywalker to have left a map to where he went (thought honestly the map as presented makes no sense anyway) if he only went there to die and thereby end the Jedi. And the reason why the first point in particular is a sticking point is because the second movie takes place right after the first movie ended.

Exactly. There are reasons to like TLJ, or at least aspects of it!

But this weird lie that I see bouncing around since RoS came out that it is somehow unique in throwing out what TLJ did is infuriatingly hypocritical. RoS bends over backward to incorporate several elements of TLJ without entirely retconning them, while TLJ gleefully ignored or outright murdered nearly every plot thread and character arc established by TFA and replaced them with nothing on purpose. It's no wonder RoS pulls so much ridiculous nonsense out of the aether: the writer/director of TLJ had no interest in writing the middle movie of a trilogy and it shows.

If you liked TLJ because it said nothing mattered and everything was stupid and heroes are dumb for trying to save people, then yes, RoS undid those thematic elements and you are probably unhappy. However, if you liked TLJ because of how it threw out all of those things TFA provided it with, then you have no room to complain about RoS and are a hypocrite for doing so.

[Simplicius]

So, the first answer is that I wouldn't have done anything. If I was in charge, I would just hand either George Lucas' scripts/treatments or an adapted screenplay based on an EU story to a competent production crew and be done with it. If, however, Disney made it clear that neither was an option and the sequels had to jettison both the old EU and Lucas' own ideas then ... here are a few ideas ...

So, first I would establish a few meta-narrative elements surrounding the cancellation of the EU and the decision of Lucas to sell to Disney. At one point, I would have our grizzled, bearded and childless Luke Skywalker see a glimpse of his extended EU family in a dark side cave style scene (perhaps in the second movie, maybe even the first).

The female lead, let's call her "Rey" but that's not necessarily what I'd go with, should be plucky and hyperactive. Like Luke, she dreams of escaping her tough/boring life but, unlike Luke, she doesn't have a hidden past or secret destiny. She would have a last name but it wouldn't be significant or referential.

I like the escaped child soldier idea but my "Finn" would be truly scarred; jumpy, slow to trust and uniquely unwilling to become violent. He would be an extreme pacifist, to the point of seeming cowardly and even cruel. He would still eventually "join" the good guys but it would be a three-movie arc and he would run away in Act III of Episode VII, basically pulling a Han but without the triumphant return. Episode VIII would, in many ways, be his film, with the B plot entirely focused on him.

The First Order (again, I'd probably give it a different name) would be well characterised. It's a singularly nasty and fanatical remnant of the Empire. A realised version of the Nazi Werwolf plan, full of terrorists and torturers. They aren't taking over the galaxy in a text crawl, they don't have planet-crackers or a massive fleet. They are led by a band of Dark Jedi, headed, indeed, by our "Ben Solo". One of these characters is a lesbian, not in the "blink and you'll miss it" China-friendly sense but not in the "have I mentioned I'm a homosexual today?" way either.

There's no "Resistance" but the good guy faction is still pretty ragtag. It's made up of Republic border forces, various independent groups of Jedi (each led by a different member of Luke's original class of pupils) and assorted mercenaries and bounty hunters (one of them would be Boba Fett's son). I would introduce things like lightwhips and lightstaffs and have a few double-bladed lightsabers as well, with a proliferation of colours (the Dark Jedi would use red, except for "Ben" who would use Anakin's blue one - but there would be a few red ones seen amongst the "light side" Jedi).

The final film would have a climactic battle on (or over) Korriban, where the First Order is destroyed, thanks in part to Ben's defection but a few of the Dark Jedi go into hiding, to seed a plot line for use by future films and/or television serials.

Now for the big one, and it's where we go back to the "meta-narrative". Luke Skywalker is disgraced and in exile. He is George Lucas. He was venerated for his actions during the Original Trilogy but vilified for what came after (you see where I'm going, I'm sure). His view of what the Jedi should be (independent, few in number but strong in the Force, dynastic and insular) was criticised and mocked and the final nail in the coffin was his failure with "Ben", which "proved" that his teachings were wrong and his priorities were off. As a result, the Jedi are now organised, regulated and maintained by the Republic (as Star Wars is now managed by a corporate entity).

For this reason, "Ben" will be the trilogy's anchor to the prequels. Perhaps he was groomed by the undead Darth Plagueis, he is certainly a collector of "relics" from the Clone Wars. Whereas our hero, "Rey", is metaphorically nostalgic for the Original Trilogy, obsessed perhaps with Han and Leia and Chewie and certainly with Luke. She redeems "Ben" and their union ends the conflict, resolving the old to the new.

I don't know ... these are just ideas that have been kicking around my head. What do you think?

[Yukaphile]

First move, I'd have put his six movies and TCW into one continuity, kept the former EU material into another. And then the new canon. Moving on.

I'd have listened to George's ideas. Sounds more in spirit to what made the MCU (world of comics) so beloved rather than a tired rehash of Dark Forces, the Death Star novel, the Legacy era, Dark Empire, and the Han Solo books as well as the original trilogy. Lucas always had great ideas, but he needed for them to be given a touch-up by other people. But no, they just ditched him at the first opportunity. I don't hate midi-chlorians. At all. I would love to have explored the Whills on screen. George is an asset, yet they never saw him that way. But, still, "creative freedom," eh?

[Yukaphile]

Oh, here's something I'd do! Speaking purely from the perspective of, "The older EU is in another continuity/lore," I'd try and specifically address the plot holes of the prequels. Now, thanks to Legends, we know the behind-the-scenes stuff with Sifo-Dyas, but I am talking purely in the context of the six movies, which is how they are building their new empire, with TV shows and movies, and the larger audiences would have no clue to that. Very well then. Since Palpatine is part of something called the Sith Eternal cult (in new canon), let's tie that into Sifo-Dyas, and the Clone army. Like he had ordered it to take on Palpatine's secret fleet that was being built or something, and he was killed halfway through, and Palpatine just tweaked a few of the orders, so that the ships of that fleet would have soldiers prepped to man them. What do you think regarding that? I personally think that would be amazing, speaking purely from the perspective of the six movies, neither Legends or new EU.