Batman and Star Trek Have Been Rebooted. Should Star Wars Follow Suit?
The other day, a friend and I were watching Empire Strikes Back on his massive, HD television. The movie looks great, sounds great, and yet... There are certain elements even in the best Star Wars film (which Empire is), that are unavoidably bad. This led to a rather heated discussion about the quality level of the first film, which led to me posing the following question: Would you see a remake of Star Wars?
My friend, without even thinking about it, said, "absolutely not," but as for me, I'm not so sure.
There's certainly magic involved in the first Star Wars film that was a combination of new special effects, the dawn of the Summer Blockbuster, and a fresh young cast and director who had something to prove.
That all being said, think of what could be done with modern special effects; and I'm not talking about Lucas painting over work he's previously created, I'm talking about an entire remake of the first movie. There's also something to be said for getting uniformly good actors, a director who cares about said actors, and a script that's put through several levels of polish.
Skipping over (for the moment) the idea of a shot for shot remake, I'm talking about recasting all the parts, starting the script from scrap, and getting a quality director to redo the franchise from the start. Think of J.J. Abrams rebooting Star Trek, or, to use something that's already come out, Christopher Nolan on Batman Begins... Essentially taking a franchise with a huge amount of mythology, a huge amount of back-story, and restarting it from the beginning.
Obviously, even with a quality record, a strong directing, acting, and writing team are no guarantee of a quality product. But the larger question in my mind is, would people even want to see it? Would anyone be interested in a brand new Star Wars?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say "yes." I would guess that you, readers, will have the gut reaction of "no way!" but at the end of the day:
- It's Star Wars.
- You're going to be curious.
Just, for the moment, push past your initial fanboy anger, and search your feelings... Just try and imagine a new Star Wars movie opening, and you saying, "No thanks, I'll pass." There's a wookie's chance on Mustafar you're not there opening day, even out of simple curiosity.
Am I saying this should happen? Not necessarily. I'm not a big fan of remakes, in general. But will it happen? At some point, absolutely. Star Wars is too big of a franchise to go without another theatrical release. It may not be through Lucas, and it may not be in the next 20 years, but at some point in the future, there will be another Star Wars film. It may be a continuation of the franchise, but my bet is, it'll be a reboot. And I'll be there with my jet-backpack on.
Nathan Fillion as Han? Gets my vote! Harrison will always have a special place in my heart but Mr Fillion - that would be something to see!
I think you're right, somewhere, sometime, in a galaxy far, far away, there will be a remake. In fact, I hear they are working on in it on Persei 5 at the moment, to be released after 'Single Female Lawyer: The Movie'....
I'd like a SW reboot but it should be like the recent Star Trek reboot movie. I think it would be cool if it were an interquel between ROTS & ANH and dealing with the early years of Han Solo:his childhood,his years in the Imperial Navy,how he met Chewie,how he won the Falcon from Lando,how he made the Kessel Run in the Falcon in less then 12 parsecs etc. And also dealing with Luke and Leia learning about their Force powers early and meeeting Han sooner and being pursued in the Falcon by a villian from the future who has gone back in time to kill young Luke and Leia to prevent the New Jedi Order being formed by older Luke in the future(Post-ROTJ). Han runs into the villian's pursuers and they are none other than the older Jedi Master Luke Skywalker(Mark Hamill),older Han Solo(Harrison Ford) and older Jedi Knight/Princess Leia(Carrie Fisher) who are accompinied by Luke' s son Ben Skywalker,Han's daughter Jaina and granddaughter Allana who meet young Han to tell him to protect the young Luke and Leia from this mysterious villlian. The movie climaxes with a spectacular space battle in the Maw cluster of Black Holes near Kessel.
Also the sequels could feature Luke becoming a Jedi Master earlier and he and Leia confront Emporer Palpatine on Coruscant while Han flies the Falcon and leads the Rebel fleet to destroy two Death Stars in orbit over Coruscant as the Imperial planet was described in an earlier draft screenplay for ROTJ and end with the Republic and Jedi Order rebulit as was to be told in Lucas'/Gary Kurtz version of the sequel trilogy.