Lawrence Kasdan Wants A Fresh Start With The New Star Wars

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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When Disney and Lucasfilm announced they would be bringing screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan back into the fold for the upcoming Star Wars films, many fans were extremely happy with the decision. Kasdan co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in the early ’80s, and those two films are often cited as the best of the saga. With Star Wars set to return to the big screen in a major way, how will Kasdan help take us from Episode III to Episode VII?

In an interview with Hero Complex, Kasdan talked about taking a new approach to the Star Wars saga. Having been away from the Star Wars universe for a while, Kasdan feels that the new movies should give the saga a fresh start. Kasdan explains:

“I’m trying to start fresh. There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it’s all new.” Kasdan continued, “The ones I worked on were a long time ago, and they had a slightly different feeling than the ones that followed. The first three, ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Empire’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’ are all sort of more about people than the ones that followed.”

It’s good to hear that Kasdan and the new team of filmmakers behind Star Wars are looking to put some distance between the new films and the disappointing prequel trilogy. Whether or not this will alienate fans of the prequels remains to be seen, but keep in mind, original trilogy fans were completely alienated by the prequels. Here’s hoping the new films are focused on interesting characters and stories, rather than midi-chlorians and podracing.

As for working on Star Wars without George Lucas, Kasdan reveals that Lucas was actually responsible for bringing him back to Lucasfilm. Kasdan says:

George sort of brought me into this part of it, and he’s stepping back from the company. He’s sort of given his blessing to everybody, and he’ll be there if you need him. I think everyone’s interested to see where this can go. It’s been some very different places over 30 years …. I think with J.J., we’ll get something entirely new.

While it’s unclear how much George Lucas has to do with the new Star Wars sequel, it’s good to see that Lucas is OK with how the new films will turn out. Although, if the new movies are just as bad as the prequel trilogy, Lucas might be used as a scapegoat, like in the case of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Everyone blames George Lucas for that one!

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