WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

>Michael Arndt wrote the first draft of the script, based on an George Lucas' ideas for a new trilogy centered on the children of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa being caught in the conflict between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire, but the studio wasn't satisfied with his draft and a new treatment was written by J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan.

>Brad Bird and Matthew Vaughn were reportedly approached to direct the movie before J.J. Abrams was selected.

>Elizabeth Olsen was approached for Rey, but couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts with AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Saoirse Ronan and Shailene Woodley were also considered before Abrams cast Daisy Ridley.

>Alex Pettyfer, Ed Speelers, Matthew James Thomas, Jack O'Connell, Jesse Plemons, Dayo Okeniyi and Ray Fisher auditioned for Finn before John Boyega was cast.

>Chiwetel Ejiofor, James McAvoy and Joel Edgerton were considered for Poe Dameron before Oscar Isaac was cast. Early drafts featured him as a bounty hunter and later a Jedi warrior before he was made into an ace pilot.

>Poe would originally die in the TIE Fighter crash, but Abrams changed his mind after meeting Isaac. The character was named "John Doe" in early drafts.

>Lee Pace and Eddie Redmayne auditioned for Kylo Ren. Michael Fassbender was also linked to the role early into production.

>Benedict Cumberbatch was approached for Captain Phasma.

>Gary Oldman was considered for the role of Lor San Tekka.

>Hugo Weaving was considered for the role of Snoke.

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youtube.com/watch?v=bC9-TUZSjoQ
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>Arndt's draft centered on Kira (later renamed "Rey") and Sam (later renamed "Finn"). They would originally meet Luke halfway during their journey, and he'd guide Kira in the ways of the Force, but this was changed as Luke's presence detracted from their story. The plot was then changed to the search for Luke.

>Prior to Luke's removal, several McGuffins were considered, including the remains of Darth Vader, a forgotten Imperial weapon and an ancient scroll about the secrets of the Force.

>In early drafts, the Macguffin would've been Luke's old lightsaber, which would crash-land on Jakku after drifting through space for years.

>In early drafts, the Resistence has its own secret weapon, known as "the Sledgehammer", which is able to breach any type of planetary shield. It would be destroyed during the final battle at the Starkiller Base.

>Early cuts featured a much more contentious, bickering relationship between Rey and Finn that was poorly-received in test-screenings. Most of their early interactions on Jakku and on the Millennium Falcon were redone in reshoots to make it more playful and genuine.

>Early cuts featured a subplot about Korr Sella, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Leia's envoy who is pleading the New Republic's support against the First Order and is killed in the destruction of the Hosnian System. All of her scenes were cut to avoid evoking the political aspects of the prequel trilogy and she's only seen for a split-second in the final movie.

>There were plans for Hayden Christensen to return as the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker. He'd appear as himself to Rey and as Darth Vader to Kylo Ren, since Anakin was the first Jedi ever to embrace both the Light and the Dark Side.

>There were plans for Billy Dee Williams to return as Lando Calrissian, but a deal couldn't be reached in time.

>There were plans for Denis Lawson to return as Wedge Antilles, but Lawson declined.

Reported details on Arndt's first draft.

>The Resistence led by General Leia Organa is at war against the First Order. Both sides have their own superweapons: The Resistence has the warship Warhammer, and the First Order has the Doomstar Base, capable of destroying stars.

>Kira, a hotheaded scavenger who lives on planet Jakku with her surrogate father, a former Rebel pilot, finds a map in the sunken remains of the Death Star, leading to an ancient Jedi temple foretold to hold great power. She then becomes a target of the Jedi Killer, a member of the First Order who uses artifacts to maintain an artificial connection to the Force, and kills Kira's mentor.

>Meanwhile, Stormtrooper Sam grows desillusioned with the First Order after witnessing the execution of a Rebel squad and forms an alliance with John Doe, a captive bounty hunter employed by Leia to find the map. The two escape to Jakku. Doe dies, while Sam is rescued and revived by shaman Maz Kanata.

>Kira and Sam cross paths and are rescued from the Jedi Killer by Luke Skywalker, who has been following the Jedi Killer to avenge the deaths of his students. Luke leads the pair to "Crime City" so Han Solo can lead them to Leia. Kira and Sam find out that the Jedi Killer is Han and Leia's son, who was corrupted by the sorceress Uber, leader of the First Order.

>The Jedi Killer retrieves the map and kidnaps Kira, who is strong with the Force. Luke, Han and Sam then join the Resistance on an assault on the Doomstar Base, which Han sacrifices himself to destroy, leaving the Millennium Falcon to Sam. Meanwhile, Luke and Kira defeat the Jedi Killer, who flees to reunite with Uber. The heroes then split up, with Kira leaving to train with Luke and uncover the secrets of the Ancient Power, while Sam joins the Resistance as they prepare to strike back against the First Order.

Dude there were random ass scenes in the concept art with the millenium falcon flying around underwater on Endor in the wreckage of the death star and shots of Rey fucking lightsabering from inside her xwing cockpit in order to slice up another ship

they were just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks

>AKA any movie's production process.

>Anakin was the first Jedi ever to embrace both the Light and the Dark Side

wut

Source: ASS

Jar Jar Abrams walks up to you and asks you to turn The Force Awakens into a good movie without completely redoing it. What do you do?

It already is a good movie

Cut away any scene with just the Imperials and Snoke and all that shit. Keep Kylo Ren a menacing mysterious character until he takes his mask off to Ray. Re-shoot the Rey and FN scenes to make FN less of a comedic foible. Cut out that dumb shit with the big bouncy ball aliens. If at all possible have Kylo just torture and kill Oscar Isaac's character right there in the village and have FN escape alone.

I don't know, I'm just spitballing here, to make it really good I feel like I'd need to do a major rewrite.

>the pink slime of movie

Yeah no

Make Reys only force power being able to force pull the lightsaber.
No Starkiller base, the First Order do have a base that's assaulted, but it can't kill planets.
The First Order are a lot less powerful, closer to guerrillas than an empire
Rey and Finn work together to barely hold back Kylo Ren, they're saved by circumstance rather than their skill but Finn still gets seriously injured.

Remove almost all the dumb "REMEMBER THE OT" references (keep the millennium falcon)

All the opening scenes before leaving Jakku are totally removed. The film opens with a Star Destroyer chasing down a cruiser, echoing A New Hope. Ships launch from the Star Destroyer to attack the cruiser. Two more cruisers jump in and the three attack the Star Destroyer, subverting what we expect. A troop lander is shot down and crashes down on a nearby planet. Only one of the soldiers, a new recruit named Finn, survives. He wanders around and collapses in the endless desert before being found by a young woman. She's wary due to his armor but, being unable to leave him to die, takes him back to her hole in the ground and nurses him back to health. He recovers some days later, learns she's named Rey, meets her droid she scavenged named BB-8, and he learns he's in a settlement on Jakku. She mentions how he's from the Empire, but then he clarifies:

"The war ended long ago. I'm with the Republic."

From then on, the plot doesn't change too much. The only new major difference is that Leia is on the Republic capital when it's destroyed, by the Republic. It's a bid to wipe out all the pacifist members of the Republic Assembly and shows the lengths this new Republic will go to to maintain their iron grip. It gives Han a reason to get really pissed off and gives Carrie Fisher a reason to not have any lines. They still get picked up by Han, he says he and Leia split up because she still believed in the Republic, while Han thought it was corrupt.

I mean, shit, imagine this being how the Han-Kylo scene ended:
"How can you still fight for them? They killed your mother! My wife! They killed Leia!"
"Sacrifices have to be made to defend this order the two of you built. Mother would have understood that."
"You're no son of mine!"
Han pulls his blaster and shoots, Kylo runs him through but gets hit in the side. Han dies as a badass, defiant to the end.

>killing Leia
>removing all emotion from Hans death

You've made the movie worse.

The opening's bretty gud though.

Han is only mortally wounded by Kylo's lightsaber, and he dies in Chewie's and/or Leia's arms.

If I could change only one thing, literally only one thing, it would be this. I know Harrison Ford wanted to kill of Han, but they should have at least had the courtesy to do so respectfully, instead of just dropping him down a bottomless shaft like a piece of trash.

Make the First Order a small, ragtag, low-resource but vicious and extremely competent band of Dark Side users, ace pilots and bald admirals

The star system-killing superweapon is the Republic's for reasons, which the FO will hijack and use on the Resistance fleet

Basically Starwarsdust Memory

Rey gets cucked in the end by Finna Furpleton who was actually Krylon Rent's former Jedi lover.

Heh memes

My boy Lee Pace could have been in this?

I would have been happy with an original story, not a boring rehash of a movie I've seen a dozen times.

Ford has wanted Han dead for nearly 40 years. You think he gives a shit? I'm betting he only agreed to do the movie if Han got killed off.

>>Arndt's draft centered on Kira (later renamed "Rey") and Sam (later renamed "Finn"). They would originally meet Luke halfway during their journey, and he'd guide Kira in the ways of the Force, but this was changed as Luke's presence detracted from their story. The plot was then changed to the search for Luke.

So they change the plot so that the new characters can be less centered around Luke but make the character's goal to find Luke, making the characters centered around Luke?

Han gives one last smirk before he gets thrown over the railing.

Better?

Where was Leia killed? Would have been better to kill her off anyways since she's dead irl

>The only new major difference is that Leia is on the Republic capital when it's destroyed, by the Republic

this sounds much better

>Luke gets a bigger part
>Old Han/old Luke banter make Han more than just a shitty Obi-wan replacement
>Rather than some old fart in a gold bath robe, we get a semen demon sith leading the First Order
>Rather than the same old "bad guys have a giant super weapon and the good guys are horrendously outnumbered", we get a Cold War going hot scenario
>Politics play an active, but subdued role compared to the prequels, which thoroughly explains the New Republic's role and clarifies how the Galaxy has changed in 30 years time

It would still be a re-hash with a generic heroes journey plot, but would have set itself apart enough to stand on its own.

>Luke was originally going to guide Rey in learning the Force in the first movie but they settled for making Rey uber OP before learning a God damned thing about it, only that it exists and she can tap into it
I mean, Luke at least had SOME training, even if it was minimal, and he used it to augment an existing skill as a pilot. I was willing to accept that Rey's latent Force abilities helped her piloting skills, but turning the tables on Kilo during the interrogation, mastering the mind trick (a subtle technique that I imagine requires more mastery of the Force than a literal novice would have) after a couple of tries, and then wielding a lightsaber for the first time vs Kilo who's WAY more experienced than her in both Force use and dueling is ridiculous (even if he hadn't finished his Sith training, I believe it was implied or mentioned at some point that he was Luke's student, and yes he was injured but the Sith are known for using pain and anger to fuel their dark side powers). I would have written that duel to where Finn was down and Rey fought desperately and clumsily for her life until Kilo almost had her, but then Chewie shows up to rescue her at the last second and drive Kilo off with the Falcon's belly gun. Make her vulnerable and helpless in the first movie until she learns in the second one to become stronger and gain more control. Don't make her immediately OP.

Sounds just as bad as what we got, honestly.

We could have had Cook bashing on a storm trooper

Wow. That would have been inferior as fuck to what we got.

>>In early drafts, the Macguffin would've been Luke's old lightsaber, which would crash-land on Jakku after drifting through space for years.
Holy fuck that would have been so retarded.

>Shailene woodley
>Eddie Redmayne
>Benedict Cumberbatch
Bullets dodged even before that garbage first draft

take a note from the fucking expanded universe instead of adapting shitty versions of it.

JACEN SOLO > KYLO REN

While I agree that an adaptation of a storyline from the EU would have been a better course of action, Jacen is just terrible. His sister is fine, but Kylo really nails the "whiny darth vader fanboy" characterization much better than Jacen.

ayy u got a point there.

>tfw we're cursed to at least ten more Rogue One style movies

>the Macguffin would've been Luke's old lightsaber, which would crash-land on Jakku after drifting through space for years.

youtube.com/watch?v=bC9-TUZSjoQ

>ray fisher

that'd have made the rey/finn flirting make sense

>"whiny darth vader fanboy" characterization
That's what I hated most. I didn't think he had to be a stoic badass, but the whiny Vader fanboy thing just seems like the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Also, the fact that he was the Solos' son should have been kept secret until Kylo confronted Han. Same with the face-reveal. Also, the voice modification for Kylo sounded retarded. It sounded like the voice modification a kidnapper would use when making ransom demands over the phone on some TV crime show. Whoever though Kylo's voice mod sounded cool needs to be castrated and sent into the Siberian wasteland to be hunted down and slowly devoured by wolves.

>crime city

hahahahhahahah

>shaman
>sorceress

wtf is this
is this kind of stuff completly OC or was there this bullshit in the EU?

>whiny darth vader
People didn't like Anakin.
So why would they make another Anakin?
Because they think an unlikeable character makes a good villain.

It's pretty obvious the names are just placeholders

>There were plans for Denis Lawson to return as Wedge Antilles, but Lawson declined.

Jesus. Talk about not giving a fuck.

>Hugo Weaving was considered for the role of Snoke.

Yes, please. There's still time.

Make the first order the small bad and the new republic the big good
The fact that there needed to be a good "resistance" like in the OT completely ruined the movie

Finn is not nigger and Rey is not ugly Mary Sue

add 45 minutes of boring political dialogue and 20 minutes of a cartoon rabbit played by chris rock

>Early cuts featured a much more contentious, bickering relationship between Rey and Finn that was poorly-received in test-screenings. Most of their early interactions on Jakku and on the Millennium Falcon were redone in reshoots to make it more playful and genuine.
>playful and genuine
>genuine
Felt anything but.

we had them in the OT dumbass, Sheev was an evil sorcerer and Yoda was a hermit wizard/shaman

From the looks of it, the process of brainstorm for EpVII was extraordinarily retarded

I still can't believe some of the leaks, like Luke' lighsaber falling Jakku, were real, so much dumb stuff

>Michael Arndt wrote the first draft of the script, based on an George Lucas' ideas
Honestly I doubt even Michael Arndt draft isn't from George Lucas ideas. I believe Arndt was appointed by George Lucas before even selling to Disney. Once kathlee Kennedy became his boss, he said in an interviews the only thing she asked was "a female Jedi story'. i don't think that's George Lucas story, he said in the Charlie Rose interview it was about Vader grandsons, not granddaughters. The female lead was always KK's idea. Now Arndt tried to make a decent story with that anyway but Disney got impatient and wanted a quick hackjob, that's why they brought Kasadn to "help" him. Actually Kasdan made him quit and brught JJ abrams instead. The official reason is that Arndt wanted more time but it's a lie because from the moment Arndt quit, it took them 2 years to write that joke of a script. So just like Gareth Edwards and Lord&Miller, KK stuck her nose in the creative process and he decided to uit. This bitch single handedly ruined SW forever.
Btw, what's your source user?

>what's your source user?
Probably reddit. I don't even know why this thread exists. This is all just brainstorming and considerations. Is this the sequel to Jodorowsky's Dune?

Instead of just Kylo Ren, give him a small group of loyal force users (others who were trained by Luke). Make the FO a small but strong group (no stupid big ass base); they are basically the "resistance" to the new republic which they see as "corrupt and bad". The new republic is the resulting mess created by the vacuum of power, not necessarily the "good guys". Leia, Han, Luke and the rest are not necessarily part of this new republic either, but they do oppose the FO, which has a very "all in or nothing" attitude (kind of like Anakin in AotC with his political ideas). Less "mystery" surrounding Rey (we all know how JarJar likes his "mysteries"); it should just be made clear that she most likely was a young jedi in training that was hidden away before Kylo and the gang could take her with them to be trained by Snoke. I guess rename Snoke as well; terrible name and a terrible character. Not sure what to do about this though; there should probably be a "big bad" but how to do it without making it seem retarded? The Emperor was the "big bad" wasn't he? Who else is there? Maybe there was a power kept at bay by the Emperor and his dark jedi voodoo magic?

David Fincher was approached to direct, probably by George Lucas because Fincher worked at ILM in the 80s, he said his preferred episode is ESB but what KK but he didn't like what the producers (KK) wanted. imagine if we had a David Fincher trilogy instead of that bitchboy JJ Abrams.

There was no reason to bring back the Empire, even in a smaller scale.

>Sup Forumstards always find new ways to be shittier than Hollywood

I like the conceptual art more than the movie
TFA was a disappointment

Checking based Star wars dubs

>no big baddie like Snoke, just bunch of weak Empire larpers using terror attacks against New Republic
>Starkiller base is an ancient Sith planet discovered by empire in its ending years with a superweapon inside that no one understands
>fuckery like cave on dagobath x10 goes on in there
>both sides race to find some mcguffin related to Starkiller that makes one able to control it or something
>Starkiller is not destroyed, it's the focus of the new trilogy
>New order and republic conflict is more in the background, movies are focused on more individual adventures
>Luke Han and Leia have scenes together
>much more Luke

>Maybe there was a power kept at bay by the Emperor and his dark jedi voodoo magic?
This isn't the worst idea I've heard
Although that in a nutshell is Snoke, is it not?

>>fuckery like cave on dagobath x10 goes on in there
Rian Jonhson said the filmm ends on Dagobah but i'm not sure if he was joking or slipped. It was on backstage interviews at celebration.
Imagine Luke dies and at the end appears as a ghost and tells Rey to go to the Dagobah system to complete her training. Waaaaaaaaaaaa

1. Starkiller base is smaller
ffs it's so its big it's ridiculous in Force Awakens

2. The "map to luke skywalker" is now a map to starkiller base in the far out reaches of space.

3. Changing the factions motives:
The Resistance is more morally gray. They are a terrorist group that continued to attack the Empire's remnants even after the New Republic settled for peace. The First Order rose against The Resistance but are extreme in methods. The republic doesn't help either side and condemns the actions of both. However the First Order has become pissed off at the republic for remaining neutral instead of siding with them. So they secretly intend to use Starkiller base to threaten the whole galaxy and create a new Empire once it's complete.

4. The movie shows the audience it is self aware that "The Resistance" are actually the attackers. Not like in the actual movie where we are supposed to look at them seriously as a "resistance".

5. To make Leia fit:
Leia was a leader of the new republic, who started to feel the First Order could become a greater threat. As a force sensitive, she somehow feels this supposedly small conflict between terrorist groups has a more sinister presence behind it, but was unable to convince the republic. So she joined the resistance and sacrificed her high rank in the republic. Recently rumors have spread of a superweapon that could hold the galaxy under the heel of the First Order and she is trying to find it.

5. Leia hugs Chewbacca and not Rey in the end

Merge these two and we've got an actually good screenplay

OH NONONO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

Yes yes. we've been talking about it for years now. let mary rest

toss it in the bin. no amount of work could ever redeem it.

>Remove almost all the dumb "REMEMBER THE OT" references
Hollywood would be in a slump if they couldn't rely on nostalgia

Then he winks at the audience just before falling done nodding to the ESB and how luke escapes Vader by jumping.

Why does he hate his character so much?

>Do NOT bring back Harrison Ford or Carrie Fischer.
>Have Luke be a force ghost
>Movie takes place 100+ years after RotJ
>Kylo Ren is just Han and Leia's descendant.
>Rey is not a jedi nor a good pilot. Give those jobs to Finn and Poe.

There. It's more like ANH but it's better than what we fucking have now.

kill rey and star killer base
The rest is fine

One of the biggest problems with TFA is the fact that there happens to be this "first order" group that just happens to tyranize the entire galaxy once again, after the Empire was defeated.

If anything, TFA should have been about the rise to power of the first order. And a group of heroes trying to prevent just that, and of course failing by the end of the movie.

I am not opposed to this
That's the start of ep10 trilogy though

>>There were plans for Billy Dee Williams to return as Lando Calrissian, but a deal couldn't be reached in time.

that's sad, dude

what a shitshow

he doesn't hate the character. he knows what would have happened if Han was allowed to continue existing

Most of that sounds even worse than what we've got, if that is even possible.

I mean Elizabeth fucking Olsen as the main character? Eddie Redmayne as Kylo Ren? What?

>he knows what would have happened if Han was allowed to continue existing
They'd ruin star wars for all eternity? Or try use his character through out the new trilogy?

>There were plans for Denis Lawson to return as Wedge Antilles, but Lawson declined

Based.

>Anakin was the first Jedi ever to embrace both the Light and the Dark Side
the fuck?
There were dozens of force users that used both Light and Dark at different points in their lifetimes.

Who cares?
Post more Bunnyfu.

Oregano my ass nigga as fukkin

WEED
E
E
D

Omie.

>the only thing she asked was "a female Jedi story'
>the only thing

Give an inch...

i guarantee you the reason most of these other actors were not chose, was because of the cost to hire them. Daisy and Boyega were specifically chosen because they could be paid nothing. fucking jews.

Kill him

The destruction of the starkiller base as it sucks out the last energy of the sun it orbits causes the sun to go supernova and suck in han solo, chewbacca and kylo ren into a worm hole, causing a time travel retcon to the entire movie.

Oh turn the movie good?
I'd burn every copy.

This could have been Rey but we got some half-horse breed ayy-lmao instead.

While I honestly hated the whiny vader fanboy character choice, Kylo is so fucking endearing I hope he wins.

Can just imagine what their meetings are like.

>how can we piss off the fans this week?

Joel Edgerton already played Uncle Owen they would never consider him for Poe.

>Early cuts featured a subplot about Korr Sella, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Leia's envoy who is pleading the New Republic's support against the First Order and is killed in the destruction of the Hosnian System. All of her scenes were cut to avoid evoking the political aspects of the prequel trilogy and she's only seen for a split-second in the final movie.
This is what I hated the most about this garbage piece of shit movie. Even A New Hope had more politics than this stupid shitfest

worse thing is they cut to her on that planet before it exploded and there was no emotional attachment at all.

How Jar Jar Abrams ever fooled anyone to get these films I will never know.

This

This would have been cool after a touch of polish

are you retarded?

good start

EU anit canon pleb.

The Republic rules the galaxy but space piracy becomes more and more a problem. Luke and Han go on an investigation that leads them to Jakku. It turns out that the Empire used this tactics to collect resources and they are on a hunt for force sensitive people for new sith recruits, thats why Rey becomes a target. Luke and Han rescues her and she joins the team, Luke becomes her teacher. On the way they also meet Finn who ran away from the Empire and hides on the desert planet

i like this idea. That way it would have been necessary to retcon all Star Wars works

Different actors wouldn't have saved this piece of shit but they would have made me not hate it so much.
The only good way to make an episode 7 was by not doing it at all. The main story ends in episode 6. The EU, stupid as it was, was alright. Disney is not doing a better job. Star Wars was alright as it was, it should have died slowly and in peace.

The only reason the PT's political scenes seem shit is because the scenes that make them make sense were, ironically, cut.