Plot Details For Rian Johnson's Reboot Sequel Trilogy Leaked
Only hours after the rumor site Inside Star Wars revealed one of the biggest surprises in the history of cinema that Disney more or less forced (no pun intended) Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm to produce a new sequel trilogy to be written and directed by Rian Johnson, the group landed their next coup. They discovered several files (probably on the same backup server where they found the e-mail to Kennedy by Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Alan Bergman), which seem to include the second draft of Johnson's screenplay for the new Episode VII, as well as outlines for Episodes VIII, and IX.
The complete files are yet to be released by Inside Star Wars, but the bits and pieces that have been made available are enough to put together the sequence of the major plot points of Johnson's new sequel trilogy.
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What follows are MAJOR SPOILERS for what is to be expected from this whole new era of Star Wars!
Star Wars: Episode VII – Pursuit of the Force
Interestingly enough Johnson’s first draft was still titled The Force Awakens, but this was changed in the second draft. Disney obviously wanted to set apart the new trilogy from the existing one.
The movie now starts during the last minutes of Return of the Jedi. When Palpatine is killed, his massive outburst of dark side energy creates a giant “Force void.”
The destruction of Endor by radioactive debris is still there, but this time Luke manages to leave the planet before all his Rebel friends are wiped out. He then goes into hiding for an unspecified period of time, probably to grieve and to let the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett unfold. From the way the draft is written, it is not exactly clear if this will actually be shown in the movie, or just be told in the opening crawl.
Meanwhile, on the remote planet Arthuria, a young man named Yob Broom has strong visions of a mysterious young woman calling out to him. Broom is described as an orphan of about 20 years old, who is more or less a slave of the richest family of Arthuria.
One day, Yob sneaks aboard a pirate ship as a stowaway but is soon discovered by the crew. Instead of throwing him out of the airlock, they keep him as a crewmember until he kills all the other pirates in anger and disables the ship with an outburst of Force lightning.
Helplessly drifting in space, Broom is discovered by another spaceship, owned by a woman named Drysom Randry. Broom believes her to be the mysterious woman from his visions. Randry has a lightsaber with a golden blade, which she claims to be millennia old and supposedly constructed by the very first Jedi Knight. She also tells him that she is strong in the Force and some years before the events of A New Hope, tried to join the Rebel Alliance only to be turned down by Leia Organa. Since then, she has tried to find and kill the princess.
Broom and Randry start a love affair and they join a splinter group of the former Empire, who terrorizes helpless star systems before they are stopped by the New Republic. Later Broom learns that his girlfriend is not actually Force-sensitive. She has been lying to him about the lightsaber, which is just a cheap replica. He Force chokes her to death and escapes with her spaceship.
When trying to raid a freighter he encounters Luke Skywalker, who promises not to bring him to justice if he chooses to come with him. The Jedi has sensed an immense tremor in the Force and is searching for its origin. Together the two men discover a gigantic nebula in the outer reaches of the galaxy, which is essentially the embodiment of the Force itself. The nebula destroys Luke’s X-wing during the approach, because he is “unworthy.”
This is the end of the first movie.
Star Wars: Episode VIII – Title TBD
The second and the third movie of this trilogy do not even have a title yet and are currently not much more than a rough outline.
It turns out that the giant “Force nebula” is controlled by a huge humanoid being with skull-like features (probably inspired by Snoke). He is only referred to as “Overlord.” The “Overlord” is using the power of the nebula to harvest an army of “Force golems.” The nebula is moving towards the center of the galaxy where the “Force void” created by the dying Palpatine is located. The collision between the nebula and the void would end all lives in the galaxy. The Force itself would cease to exist, making way for a new civilization under the “Overlord.”
The “Overlord” wants Yob Broom to become his “apprentice.” Deep in the heart of the Force nebula is a “capsule” where he and the “Overlord” would survive the end of all lifeforms. To test his abilities, he sets up a fight between Broom and hundreds of the Force golems. Broom brutally slaughters them all. Broom then gets a black and red armor and becomes the commander of the Force golems.
With the Force golems, Broom conquers and eradicates star systems, forcing the New Republic to pull back to the Inner Rim and the center of the galaxy where they amass a giant armada awaiting the Force nebula and the fleet of Broom and the “Overlord.”
As the young man falls deeper and deeper under the spell of his master, he starts to have visions of the young woman again, something that Broom has hidden from the “Overlord.” While his forces are laying waste on another system, a small ship of an unknown design emerges from hyperspace. The woman on board is named Magda, who Johnson describes as “the most beautiful, with long dark hair.” The “Overlord” orders Broom to destroy her ship, but instead, he fires on an armada of Force golems, killing thousands of them.
The “Overlord” throws Broom in a cell deep inside the Force nebula, where he is haunted by the ghosts of those he has killed.
This is where the second movie ends.
Star Wars: Episode IX – Title TBD
The outline for part three is even more vague and deals with Magda, who manages to sneak inside the Force nebula and free Broom from his cell. When they escape, the nebula has nearly reached the center of the galaxy and a giant space battle emerges between the forces of the New Republic and the fleet of the Force golems. Magda, who is very strong in the Force manages to destroy several of the big capital ships of the Force golems with her mind, helping the fleet of the New Republic to regroup around the Force void, which is basically a giant black hole.
When the nebula approaches the void time and space start to blur, creating a kind of multiverse. Luke Skywalker reappears along with Leia (who is suddenly a Jedi), as well as many other characters both from cannon and “Legends,” like Darth Vader, Maul, Yoda, Darth Revan, Darth Bane, and Kitster.
The two armies led by Magda and the “Overlord” fight in a massive battle, both in space on various planets, and inside the Force nebula, which has started to merge with the Force void, causing massive devastation. All seems lost until Broom ignites the lightsaber with the golden blade (which he seems to have kept) and cuts off the head of the “Overlord.” Broom carries Magda, who has been terribly wounded by Force lightning, into the capsule at the center of the nebula. He manages to dissolve it from the inside shortly before it could completely merge with the void. Both the nebula and the black hole disappear, creating a new bright star at the center of the universe, that radiated light side energy across the tortured galaxy. With the “Overlord” dead, all the Force golems disappear, paving the way for a victory of the new Republic. Broom and Magda say farewell to the ghosts of the former Jedi and jump to hyperspace in their space capsule.
The end.
Even if Inside Star Wars was actually able to get a hold of Johnson’s draft and outline, it is important to note, that the script for Episode VII is still in an early stage and Episode VIII and IX are mere outlines with no actual dialog written so far. The final products will likely be different when the new sequel trilogy hit the big screen in less than three years from now.
The fact that Disney is willing to let go of the existing sequel trilogy and to start from scratch is shocking enough. The Snyder cut of Justice League was the first time that fans actually persuaded a big studio to revise their decision and give them what they wanted, but Rian Johnson’s new sequel trilogy is a whole new dimension. Nobody can tell what this might mean for the future of cinema as a whole, or what might be Disney’s reaction if the fans are still not happy with this new trilogy.
Posted on April 1, 2022.
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Source(s): Inside Star Wars
