Das ist ein sehr gut geschriebener Artikel.
GL hatte also bei der Entstehung von Episode IV keine Gesamtkonzeption von nur 6 Episoden und nur eine vage Vorstellung, wie die Saga sich entwickeln würde.
Vieles davon wusste ich nicht, aber es erklärt warum immer behauptet wurde, dass Lucas schon immer soviele Filme drehen wollte.
A June 1980 interview with Rolling Stone has him claiming to have twelve-page outlines for all seven remaining films. He also addresses the "Other," but his comments are so vague that it is impossible to precisely gather if it is indicating he had decided to write in Leia as the Other by this point:
" What is your deal with Fox?
They have first refusal on every Star Wars film I want to make.
How many is that?
Seven left.
Let's get back to The Empire Strikes Back for a moment. In the movie, Ben says Luke is the last hope and Yoda says no, there is another.
Yes. [Smiling] There is another, and has been for a long time. You have to remember, we're starting in the middle of this whole story. There are six hours' worth of events before Star Wars, and in those six hours, the 'Other' becomes apparent, and after the third film, the 'Other' becomes apparent quite a bit.
What will happen to Luke?
I can't say. In the next film everything gets resolved one way or the other...
Do you have story lines for the seven Star Wars movies left to be done?
Yes, twelve-page outlines."
In any case, by 1983 Lucas is speaking of following the aged cast of the originals in a Sequel Trilogy. But they are somewhat empty promises--as Lucas' comments in 2005 indicate that the films were never considered very seriously, he never had a strong desire to film these. It was merely an option left open for himself. He would, however, continue to speak of the films throughout the 1980s, as would publicity from Lucasfilm. A few examples can be found below:
Time Magazine, May 19th, 1980:
"The second trilogy, which opened with Star Wars: Episode IV, centers on Luke Skywalker, who, will be seen as a child in Episode III. Empire continues the Skywalker story, and Episode VI, the next film to be made, which will be called Revenge of the Jedi, will end it, with either Luke or Darth Vader walking away from their final bout. The last three episodes involve the rebuilding of the Republic.
Only two of the main characters will appear in all nine films, and they are the robots, Artoo Detoo and Threepio. Says Lucas: "In effect, the story will be told through their eyes."
Bantha Tracks, issue 8, spring 1980:
"Revenge of the Jedi will complete the middle trilogy of the nine-part Star Wars epic. Following its completion, the first trilogy will be filmed, and then finally, the last trilogy.
Should production on the nine films continue at the same rate, we can expect to see the ninth film released in the spring of 2001."
George Lucas, Prevue special, spring 1980:
"It's a nine-part saga that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It progresses over a period of about fifty or sixty years with about twenty years between trilogies, each trilogy taking about six or seven years."
Starlog, July 1981:
"Starlog: Is there going to be character continuity among all three trilogies?
Lucas: No--possibly the robots, but they weren't originally designed to go through the whole...nobody was designed to go through all three [trilogies]. I'd like to see the robots go through them, but I don't know whether they will."
George Lucas, 1982, as quoted in John Baxter's Mythmaker, p. 387
I'm only doing [ Revenge of the Jedi] because I started it and now I have to finish it. The next trilogy will be someone else's vision.
Time magazine, May 23rd, 1983:
The sequels, the three movies that would follow Jedi, are considerably vaguer. Their main theme will be the necessity for moral choices and the wisdom needed to distinguish right from wrong. There was never any doubt in the films already made; in those the lines were sharply drawn, comic-book-style. Luke, who will then be the age Obi-Wan Kenobi is now, some place in his 60s, will reappear, and so will his friends, assuming that the creator decides to carry the epic further. Hamill and the others will get first crack at the roles--if they look old enough.
Dale Pollock, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, First Edition, 1983, p. 146
He started anew with the middle story. It had the most action and starred Luke, the character with whom he felt the most secure. The first trilogy told the story of young Ben Kenobi and Luke's father and was set twenty years before Star Wars. The final three movies feature an adult Luke and the final confrontation between the rebels and the Empire. The entire saga spans more than fifty-five years; C-3P0 and R2-D2 are the only common element to all the films.
George Lucas, Press-Telegram, May 18, 1983:
Now I've finished one book. And there may be two other books in my mind, but whether I start another book is not crucially important. The next book doesn't have anything to do with this book. Different sets, different actors. So it's not like I have to rush out and do another.
Starlog, issue 127, February 1988:
Starlog: Will you return to the Star Wars universe?
Lucas: Hopefully, I will someday be doing the next three Star Wars, but I'm not sure when. The next three would take place 20 or 30 years before the films they're celebrating here today. I'll do the first trilogy first. There are nine [films] floating around there somewhere. I'll guarantee that the first three are pretty much organized in my head, but the other three are kind of out there somewhere.
Starlog: Why didn't you give Luke a girl?
Lucas: You haven't seen the last three yet.
" What is your deal with Fox?
They have first refusal on every Star Wars film I want to make.
How many is that?
Seven left.
Let's get back to The Empire Strikes Back for a moment. In the movie, Ben says Luke is the last hope and Yoda says no, there is another.
Yes. [Smiling] There is another, and has been for a long time. You have to remember, we're starting in the middle of this whole story. There are six hours' worth of events before Star Wars, and in those six hours, the 'Other' becomes apparent, and after the third film, the 'Other' becomes apparent quite a bit.
What will happen to Luke?
I can't say. In the next film everything gets resolved one way or the other...
Do you have story lines for the seven Star Wars movies left to be done?
Yes, twelve-page outlines."
In any case, by 1983 Lucas is speaking of following the aged cast of the originals in a Sequel Trilogy. But they are somewhat empty promises--as Lucas' comments in 2005 indicate that the films were never considered very seriously, he never had a strong desire to film these. It was merely an option left open for himself. He would, however, continue to speak of the films throughout the 1980s, as would publicity from Lucasfilm. A few examples can be found below:
Time Magazine, May 19th, 1980:
"The second trilogy, which opened with Star Wars: Episode IV, centers on Luke Skywalker, who, will be seen as a child in Episode III. Empire continues the Skywalker story, and Episode VI, the next film to be made, which will be called Revenge of the Jedi, will end it, with either Luke or Darth Vader walking away from their final bout. The last three episodes involve the rebuilding of the Republic.
Only two of the main characters will appear in all nine films, and they are the robots, Artoo Detoo and Threepio. Says Lucas: "In effect, the story will be told through their eyes."
Bantha Tracks, issue 8, spring 1980:
"Revenge of the Jedi will complete the middle trilogy of the nine-part Star Wars epic. Following its completion, the first trilogy will be filmed, and then finally, the last trilogy.
Should production on the nine films continue at the same rate, we can expect to see the ninth film released in the spring of 2001."
George Lucas, Prevue special, spring 1980:
"It's a nine-part saga that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It progresses over a period of about fifty or sixty years with about twenty years between trilogies, each trilogy taking about six or seven years."
Starlog, July 1981:
"Starlog: Is there going to be character continuity among all three trilogies?
Lucas: No--possibly the robots, but they weren't originally designed to go through the whole...nobody was designed to go through all three [trilogies]. I'd like to see the robots go through them, but I don't know whether they will."
George Lucas, 1982, as quoted in John Baxter's Mythmaker, p. 387
I'm only doing [ Revenge of the Jedi] because I started it and now I have to finish it. The next trilogy will be someone else's vision.
Time magazine, May 23rd, 1983:
The sequels, the three movies that would follow Jedi, are considerably vaguer. Their main theme will be the necessity for moral choices and the wisdom needed to distinguish right from wrong. There was never any doubt in the films already made; in those the lines were sharply drawn, comic-book-style. Luke, who will then be the age Obi-Wan Kenobi is now, some place in his 60s, will reappear, and so will his friends, assuming that the creator decides to carry the epic further. Hamill and the others will get first crack at the roles--if they look old enough.
Dale Pollock, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, First Edition, 1983, p. 146
He started anew with the middle story. It had the most action and starred Luke, the character with whom he felt the most secure. The first trilogy told the story of young Ben Kenobi and Luke's father and was set twenty years before Star Wars. The final three movies feature an adult Luke and the final confrontation between the rebels and the Empire. The entire saga spans more than fifty-five years; C-3P0 and R2-D2 are the only common element to all the films.
George Lucas, Press-Telegram, May 18, 1983:
Now I've finished one book. And there may be two other books in my mind, but whether I start another book is not crucially important. The next book doesn't have anything to do with this book. Different sets, different actors. So it's not like I have to rush out and do another.
Starlog, issue 127, February 1988:
Starlog: Will you return to the Star Wars universe?
Lucas: Hopefully, I will someday be doing the next three Star Wars, but I'm not sure when. The next three would take place 20 or 30 years before the films they're celebrating here today. I'll do the first trilogy first. There are nine [films] floating around there somewhere. I'll guarantee that the first three are pretty much organized in my head, but the other three are kind of out there somewhere.
Starlog: Why didn't you give Luke a girl?
Lucas: You haven't seen the last three yet.
selbst als die Romane von Timothy Zahn erschienen, Schloss Lucas Sequels nicht aus.
Also interesting is that in the early 1990s, when Lucas was at least cautiously optimistic about the idea of a sequel trilogy, he did provide himself a safety window in which he could envision both the books and the sequel films co-existing. His plans had the films set decades after Jedi, while he mandated that the books take place only a few years after Jedi. This may be why one of his closests friends, Steven Spielberg, and his closest collaborator, Rick McCallum, continued to acknowledge the existence or possibility of sequels as shockingly late as 1999. During a BBC special from that year promoting Phantom Menace, Steven Spielberg states:
"George always wanted to make nine. He wanted to make the first three, then he wanted to make the prequels to that, then he wanted to make the last three. And that was something that was part of his concept."
In the same program, prequel producer Rick McCallum says:
"Whether George only completes six of the nine-part series or he actually ever really ultimately completes the nine, it's really nine parts of one film. It's one big saga, a saga about a family that happens to live in a galaxy far, far away." [BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of Star Wars, 1999]
Even in the 1994 introduction to the re-printing of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Lucas states, "It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that would take at least nine films to tell--three trilogies--and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story."
"George always wanted to make nine. He wanted to make the first three, then he wanted to make the prequels to that, then he wanted to make the last three. And that was something that was part of his concept."
In the same program, prequel producer Rick McCallum says:
"Whether George only completes six of the nine-part series or he actually ever really ultimately completes the nine, it's really nine parts of one film. It's one big saga, a saga about a family that happens to live in a galaxy far, far away." [BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of Star Wars, 1999]
Even in the 1994 introduction to the re-printing of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Lucas states, "It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that would take at least nine films to tell--three trilogies--and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story."
Aber auch in Rückblenden würde ich es nicht mögen, eben weil - wie du schon erwähnt hast - dieses Stilmittel bisher nicht benutzt wurde und daher mMn nicht zum Still der Filmreihe passt.
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