Top 5 Star Wars Anthology movies I
want to see
It’s no secret that Rogue One was a huge success for Disney,
and for good reason. It was a very unique take on the classic Star Wars
formula, blending the sci-fi action we all know and love from the series with a
more realistic and gritty war setting. Evidently, people enjoyed this new Star
Wars, as it was one of the highest grossing films of 2016 and was hugely
popular with both critics and audiences.
So that just leaves people asking the
big question: what next? This year Disney is gearing up to release The Last Jedi and preparations are
already underway for 2019’s Episode IX,
but what about the new Anthology movies? Well, there’s a Han Solo movie due for
2018 being helmed by Lego Movie directors
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but what else?
I’ve put together a list of the top 5
Star Wars Anthology movies I’d like to see. My one rule for this list is that I
have to limit myself to stuff that is confirmed to exist in the current Star
Wars canon, so no Mara Jade or Dash Rendar or the long awaited Ewoks: The Caravan of Courage sequel. So
with that being said, let’s begin.
5. The Clones
I know, The Clone Wars has given us more than enough stories about the
Clone trooper brigade to satisfy us for a really long time. But after seeing Rogue One I couldn’t help but think how
cool a Prequel-era war movie would be.
Strangely enough, the Clone troopers
get barely any screentime in the prequels where you actually see them doing
anything. The movie called Attack of the
Clones features basically no clones attacking, and Revenge of the Sith only has them firing their blasters against the
Jedi a few times. Add in the fact that literally every Clone onscreen is
created digitally and they’re honestly one of the most disappointing parts of
the prequels if you ask me.
This is where The Clone Wars fixed a lot of the problems with the characters. The
writers excelled in giving each Clone a distinct name and personality, creating
memorable characters like Fives and Captain Rex. This led to a lot of
heartbreaking moments, especially when a specific Clone that a lot of time had
been spent on was killed in battle, and it was even more tragic as the Clones
would befriend the Jedi, as you knew what would happen to most of them come Revenge of the Sith.
The Prequel Trilogy already has a
massively bad rap theatrically, boasting 3 very poorly received movies and the
much-hated Clone Wars animated film.
I think a Rogue One style war movie
that focuses on the relationship between the Clone troopers could be the
redemption that the prequel-era films need.
4. Boba Fett
Rumours of the next movie after the
Han Solo story being focused on Boba Fett have bounced all over the internet,
but Disney or Lucasfilm have never officially announced that the project is
officially under production. Needless to say, fans have been speculation on what
kind of movie this could be.
I’ve never personally been a huge fan
of Boba Fett. For a guy that has about 4 or 5 lines in the Original Trilogy and
goes out like a chump in Return of the
Jedi, the only things I ever really found interesting about him were his
armor design, his cool jetpack and his ship, the Slave I. This lack of character didn’t stop Expanded Universe
authors, however. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Boba Fett’s Legends
canon Wookieepedia page would give Luke Skywalker’s a run for its money in
terms of length.
Boba’s not exactly a stranger to the
new canon, either. He features heavily in many episodes of The Clone Wars, he’s made appearances in both Marvel’s Star Wars and Darth Vader comics, and it doesn’t exactly take a genius to guess
he’ll show up in more content later on. But if a Boba Fett movie were to
happen, I actually wouldn’t want it to be related to the Original Trilogy too
much.
Instead, I’d like the Boba Fett movie
to take place sometime after Return of
the Jedi. As of this time of writing, Boba is canonically still trapped
down in the sarlacc pit. We know from the Legends stories that he doesn’t die
down there, so as of right now Boba’s basically stuck in limbo waiting for some
writer to come along and get him out. What better way to do this than in his
own movie? Have him chase after Han while at the same time coming to grips with
a galaxy that’s changed dramatically in his absence. With Boba’s slate still
almost entirely clean after the canon wipe, there are several great stories
about him just waiting to be told.
3. The Old Republic
Ever wonder what happened in the Star
Wars universe before Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan made that fateful trip to Naboo? Of
course the original canon was full of prequels to even the prequels, namely the
massively popular Knights of the Old
Republic games. But now with the canon slate wiped clean, now is the
perfect time to rewrite history as it were, and perhaps finally bring this
fan-favourite time period to the big screen.
Considering the canon timeline has
little to no Old Republic stories written, except for passing references to the
time period (Kylo Ren’s lightsaber as an example), that leaves a whole world
open and just waiting to be explored, with the Legends canon being a writer’s
dream toybox to pick which characters they want to use while creating their own
new ones at the same time.
Personally, I think it’d be
interesting to see a movie centered on the construction and use of the first
lightsaber. We know from the Legends canon that before lightsabers there were a
more archaic form of blade known as protosabers, which required large and heavy
backpacks to power and use. It would be interesting to see a movie about a Jedi
scientist inventing the first battery pack-free lightsaber, and his mission to
keep the device a secret from the Sith.
Another interesting idea could be the
story of the very first Jedi and Sith, and how they first came into contact
with the Force. It’d be very interesting to see these two as friends whose
ideologies clash when presented with an omniscient power they both can bend to
their will.
What I’m trying to say is that there
are near endless possibilities when creating an Old Republic story in the new
canon, and Disney would have to be crazy not to capitalize on it. Given that
this is an era of Star Wars never before seen in the movies, I think it would
give a very unique look into that galaxy far, far away.
2. Darth Vader
Another idea that came to me after
seeing Rogue One, why not have a
movie entirely focused on one of the greatest villains in cinema history? While
Vader had less than 10 minutes of screentime in Rogue One, he completely stole the show with how little he was
given. Ask anyone what their favourite scene in the movie was, and it’s likely
you’ll get a response that involves Vader in some way.
The big question here though is how
would you make a movie focusing entirely on Vader himself? It’s true that you
can have too much of a good thing, which is precisely why Vader spent most of Rogue One off-screen. They didn’t want
him to completely hog the spotlight, leaving you not invested in the main
characters and just feel like the movie was biding its time waiting for the
next Vader scene.
So while I did want to see a Vader
movie, I was having trouble figuring out what kind of movie it should be. How
do you create a good supporting cast when the entire film is dominated by the
presence of the title lead? Then it hit me: that is exactly what they should do. To create an awesome Vader movie, you
have to create a good supporting cast, and have their story be dominated by the
presence of Darth Vader.
Picture it: a crew of rebels are on a
mission in a large freighter, and the first third of the movie is spent getting
to know the characters, their home life, their personalities and so-on. Then,
out of nowhere, they’re stopped by a Star Destroyer. A group of Stormtroopers
board the freighter, but the rebels use their newfound friendship to work
together and get rid of them. Then, the power goes out. No one’s sure what’s
going on. Suddenly, out of the shadows steps Darth Vader, who effortlessly
kills half the crew. The rest of the movie feels like something out of Alien, where the rebels have to figure
out how to bring the power back to their freighter before Vader kills them all.
Maybe a bit too intense for younger
viewers, but Rogue One showed me that
Disney isn’t afraid to go dark and gritty with Star Wars. If Vader was to get
his own movie, that is exactly what I want it to be.
1. Yoda
Considering Yoda is my favourite Star
Wars character this was kind of an easy pick for my #1 choice, but come on. How
cool would it be to have a movie about Yoda?
I’ve always found it interesting how
George Lucas loved to shroud Yoda’s character in mystery. For example, in all
the Star Wars movies, books, comics, games and so on since his first appearance
in Empire Strikes Back, the name of
Yoda’s species has never been disclosed. The only other character we’ve seen in
the entire canon to be of his race is Yaddle, a female Jedi master who briefly
appears in Phantom Menace with no
lines of dialogue. He has no known home planet, and even in the original canon
his life prior to Phantom Menace isn’t
given much detail, aside from that he was Dooku’s master.
While I like that Yoda’s background
has been kept in secrecy, I can’t deny that I would love a movie that explored
where he came from, what happened to his race and how he became the most
powerful Force-user in the galaxy. I’ve always held the personal belief that he
and Yaddle (as well as potentially a few others) hail from a race that was
exterminated by some malevolent entity long ago, explaining why there are
barely any left in the galaxy.
It would be neat to explore a young Yoda’s life, gripping
with being one of the few beings like him in the entire galaxy, only to
discover that he is much more than just one of the final surviving members of a
basically extinct race. Considering Yoda is 900 years old, a movie about his
youth would also paint a fantastic picture of a galaxy long before the events
of the main saga, something that, as I’ve said before, I’d love to see on the
big screen.
I still like that we don’t know much about Yoda, and
apparently George Lucas feels the same way, but that doesn’t stop me from
wanting to know more about him. The advancements in CGI have made it that a
computer-generated Yoda could look indistinguishable from a puppet Yoda
(although I still think puppet Yoda is the proper way to go unless the CGI is
absolutely necessary), and a storyline about a Yoda struggling with the loss of
his species only to find peace in the Force could be both inspiring and very
unique.
Is there an Anthology film you’d like
to see? Leave a comment below and tell me your thoughts, and I’ll see you next
time for more Star Wars Saturday!
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