Cannes Film Festival 2013

We pick ten 'Star Wars' characters we'd love to see get their own movies

From Boba Fett to Yoda, we imagine various futures for the franchise

<p>Admiral Ackbar might not be one of our picks to get his own movie, but I'll bet he'd be lovely with some drawn butter and a squirt of lemon.</p>

Admiral Ackbar might not be one of our picks to get his own movie, but I'll bet he'd be lovely with some drawn butter and a squirt of lemon.

Credit: 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm

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Remember… "Star Wars: Episode VII" won't be in theaters for three years.  Now look at how much energy has been spent writing about it all over the Internet in the two weeks since the Disney/Lucasfilm deal was announced.

That's gonna be one looooooong three years.

In some ways, the wait for the real "new face" of "Star Wars" is going to take even longer.  It's only after this next trilogy of films, after they've squeezed that last bit of juice out of the story of the Skywalkers, that they'll be able to start doing anything they want.  They will continue to produce "The Clone Wars" animated show and they may start making the "Star Wars: Underworld" series, or whatever it will finally be called, but they probably won't start exploring the weirder corners of the Universe until later.

If you're talking about making movies with younger versions of characters, like a pre-"A New Hope" Han Solo, then you're also probably talking about recasting the characters.  That's inevitable at this point, and I am positive that in my lifetime, I'll see new actors playing Solo, Luke Skywalker, and every other familiar face from the saga.

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So what sorts of films will they make?  How adventurous do you think they'll be about it?  We've read before about Joe Johnston's desire to make a Boba Fett movie, and I think it would only be polite for Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm and Disney to let him do it at some point.  After all, he designed the look of the character in the first place.  They've made giant bags full of money, Scrooge McDuck vaults full of cash, off of the image of Boba Fett.  Why not let Johnston have some fun?

That's all any of this is, after all… fun.  I may love "Star Wars," but I'm not overly reverent about it.  I think it is a great big toybox, detailed by dozens and dozens of different artists at this point, and it all provides opportunities for storytelling.  What kinds of stories is a question that hopefully has no finite answer.  I'd hate to think we'll just see the same thing over and over from "Star Wars."  I look at the work they've done on the "Clone Wars" series, and it gives me real hope.  That show is huge with young fans, and it constantly experiments with the types of stories it tells.  As all "Star Wars" fans know, Akira Kurosawa was a major influence on George Lucas, and I loved the nod the series made to "Stray Dog," one of his lesser-known movies.  That episode doesn't feel like any other in the series, and the same is true of their great "Zillo Beast" episode or the way they revealed the backstory of General Grievous or the way they handled the return of Darth Maul and built up to it… they've pushed the shape of "Star Wars" in all sorts of directions, and so far, it always bends in fascinating ways.

We had fun thinking about what kinds of films we'd like to see with already existing characters, eventually narrowing it down to these ten, and I'm sure all of you have favorites you'd love to see highlighted in some specific way.  Share them with us here, as well as thoughts about what else you might want from the future of the series.

"Star Wars: Episode VII" is due sometime in 2015.

Drew-mcweeny-sm
Drew McWeeny
Film Editor
A respected critic and commentator for fifteen years, Drew McWeeny helped create the online film community as "Moriarty" at Ain't It Cool News, and now proudly leads two budding Film Nerds in their ongoing movie education.

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  • N692189568_1037235_1007_talkback_profile

    scottish_punk

    R2's memory was never wiped at the end of Episode III, something I always thought was interesting. He's the one character in the entire saga that has a full understanding literally everything we're see seeing. Cheeky little bastard :P

    November 11, 2012 at 1:31AM EST Reply to Comment
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      John Cleave I read a great article after episode 3 was released that went through how R2 was the main character and directly responsible for most of the events in the trilogy :) wish I could find it now

      November 12, 2012 at 4:39PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      John Cleave Here we go :)

      http://km-515.livejournal.com/746.html

      November 12, 2012 at 4:41PM EST
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    Sheila

    Oh c'mon, you left out the most obvious one of all! Darth Maul.

    November 11, 2012 at 1:40AM EST Reply to Comment
    • i love that character, but dang the cg version of clone wars made him boring. They need to form a seperate lucas animation division and let Gendy Tartovsky oversee it. He's more than earned it

      November 12, 2012 at 12:33AM EST
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    Sheila

    Ok c'mon, you missed the most obvious one - Darth Maul!

    November 11, 2012 at 1:41AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Gamera1_talkback_profile

    KlarkKent


    "That's inevitable at this point, and I am positive that in my lifetime, I'll see new actors playing Solo, Luke Skywalker, and every other familiar face from the saga."

    IT'S A TRAP!

    Really, I don't know if I want any films focusing on individual characters. Part of that may be that I never understood the fascination with Boba Fett when the guy says about six words in the whole movie and barely does anything besides get knocked into the Sarlacc by a blind Han Solo. But I digress. I guess if I were to endorse one, it would be Mara Jade since she's got such a fascinating story and it has not been explored in the films, so it would be completely new.

    November 11, 2012 at 2:13AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Zachary Levi has expressed interwst in a young Han. Tbh, I think it's brilliant. He showed he can pull off harrison ford's swagger on Chuck

      November 12, 2012 at 12:36AM EST
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    NewsDroid

    You have the right idea with Rebel Pilots, but not a Top Gun teach-them-to-fly movie... instead a Rogue Squadron movie. If you've never read the stand-alone X-Wing books by Aaron Allston, you've missed some of the best novels of the series; these books capture the adventure, the fun, the blaster side of Star Wars that was sort-of lost when the attention turned to the Jedi.

    November 11, 2012 at 2:18AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Yodachilliresize_bigger_talkback_profile

    BigAl6ft6

    Ewan McGreggor in "That Wizard's Just a Crazy Old Man: The Obi-Wan Tatooine Years". Qui-Gon's force ghost is able to physically manifest from the netherworld of the force because of yadda yadda. Ensue, the hijinks will.

    Stormtrooper movie is genius.

    November 11, 2012 at 2:26AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Yodachilliresize_bigger_talkback_profile

      BigAl6ft6 also the movie could solve the continuity question as to why Force Ghosts age like Yoda & Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon but that damn Chosen One Kid gets to be in his 20s again.

      November 11, 2012 at 2:27AM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Steve George already answered this. Force ghosts represent the light side of the Force, so Anakin would appear as he did before he turned. I never said it was a "good" answer.

      November 12, 2012 at 12:20PM EST
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    Kiko

    I have written a spec episode of the Star Wars TV show with Boba Fett tracking a Jedi. Any agents out there willing to read it?

    November 11, 2012 at 5:23AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Puddi

    I would love to see a movie on the old republic. When the numbers of sith and jedi were equal.

    November 11, 2012 at 7:33AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Old_bill_closeup_talkback_profile

    DKT

    Amusingly, there IS a Star Wars novel coming out over the holidays that is essentially Ocean's 11 featuring Han, Chewie, and Lando (written by Timothy Zahn). I haven't read a lot of Star Wars books in the last 15 years, but I'm kind of excited about that one for the same reasons mentioned here.

    November 11, 2012 at 9:37AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Tim

    Let's hear it for Nien Nunb

    November 11, 2012 at 9:54AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Chewie-baseball-card_talkback_profile

      Bgklein "Ya Ya Ya"

      November 11, 2012 at 10:37AM EST
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    Paul S

    Would be interested in Kevin Smith doing a sideline with the construction of one of the Death Stars. It would be from a Storm Trooper's point of view, covering worker's rights, benefits and possibly the idea of a starting a union. Also, what kind of methods the Empire would use to "motivate" them into quicker construction.
    A Storm Troopers lot in life so to speak.

    November 11, 2012 at 10:11AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Mamo_v1_talkback_profile

    mattmovies

    No one wants to see Johnston follow through on his Fett movie more than me (okay, that's not true) but if the release schedule gets followed than the earliest this or any other projects on this list is 2024. Johnston will be 74 years old at that point. This seems at the very least unlikely to occur. Which sucky sucks, but there you go.

    November 11, 2012 at 2:33PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Avatar_blind_spot_1947_talkback_profile

    yourblindspot

    God, I want that Salacious Crumb road movie now. He already looks like a Ralph Steadman drawing; just write it like an interstellar 'Fear & Loathing' sequel and get Terry Gilliam to direct.

    November 11, 2012 at 5:02PM EST Reply to Comment
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    Dave I

    Honestly? None of them. O.k., maybe Boba Fett.

    Seriously though. Do you honestly expect any of the characters from Star Wars through Jedi to actually have spin-offs nearly as interesting as that trilogy? I don't. That was the highlight of their lives, all of them. Except probably Boba Fett. So if you're doing VII through IX, do that, wrap up anything and everything with those characters a/o their spirits in those movies of the Clone Wars cartoon, and do something with a whole new series of characters in a fresh new conflict. Seriously, do somebody new, or some fringe character that was only touched upon. Not the Skywalker kids either. The whole line can't just be an ongoing series of epic events throughout the rest of time. Make it something unrelated entirely, unless the main characters are just fringe characters. Please!

    -Cheers

    November 11, 2012 at 5:04PM EST Reply to Comment
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    filaphresh

    Why should we assume that we have to wait for the VII-IX trilogy to finish before we can get the minor character movies? I would think spin-off movies during the years between the sequels would be a good way of keeping enthusiasm up and making even more money for Disney. Let's say after releasing Episode VII in 2015 they release Boba Fett in Thanksgiving 2016 (I'm assuming that's halfway between VII and VIII). Not only do you feed the rabid fans, but developing spinoff series (say "The Adventures of Boba Fett) would be decent insurance in case the fans reject the sequel trilogy.

    November 11, 2012 at 7:10PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Matthew Price Disney is on record. They intend to release one new starwars film every three years until the end of time. And this will certainly change. But it won't change until at least after the trilogy is released. Odds of "in-between" movies are nil.

      November 12, 2012 at 1:34AM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Paul S How about just making TV specials? What with quality shows like Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, Fringe and Breaking Bad, I think many of these side characters can shine in these kind of setting over 4 to 5 seasons.

      November 12, 2012 at 3:00PM EST
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    Mojo CoCo

    10 should be an animated movie. I cant bear to see obi recast :p not to mention, liam and ewan being involved would be great. No sense in taking a risk and ending up with another Little Orphan Anakin

    November 12, 2012 at 12:32AM EST Reply to Comment
  • R2d2-avatar_talkback_profile

    ShadowMaker SdR

    A young Yoda in training making his own impeteous mistakes? Yoda - the Swamp Years?

    November 12, 2012 at 5:13AM EST Reply to Comment

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