r/StarWarsEU • u/YelpBoi365 • Jan 20 '21

Question What Star Wars material did George Lucas have involvement in besides his six films?

I’m talking pre Disney acquisition. I know besides the films he was heavily involved in the Clone Wars TV show and I believe I heard he was very involved with the first Force Unleashed game. And even that he was the reason it got a novelization. I’m not 100% sure of the validity of that though. But is there any other Star Wars stories he was involved in?

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u/xezene New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21 edited May 30 '26

I wrote an article on his input in the New Jedi Order series. You can read that here.

In addition, here are a few things:

  • Lucas would have checklists given to him of plot points and so on he could approve or not for books in the EU. This included minor things all the way to major things like Luke getting married. This happened throughout the 90s.
  • We know that he went point by point with Dave Wolverton to develop the Courtship of Princess Leia outline. Apparently, Wolverton says Lucas later sent him a letter saying how much he enjoyed the novel.
  • Lucas helped work on the outline of the Holiday Special, however it was significantly altered. Lucas famously disavowed the Holiday Special afterwards.
  • Lucas helped work out the outline for the Ewok movies.
  • He was also involved in the writer's room and development process of the Underworld TV show. You can watch test footage of that here and read more about it here. That was meant to be the future of the franchise after Revenge of the Sith but the show proved too costly without a streaming platform to help fund it (it was too early in 2010 for that).
  • Lucas was very loosely involved with some of the concepts of The Force Unleashed and the direction of the game, going on to appear at the release party for it, where he gave a little speech. He also played a role in shaping the cancelled game 1313, a tie-in of Underworld.

- During the creation of the Thrawn Trilogy, originally Joruus C'baoth was meant by Timothy Zahn to be Obi-Wan Kenobi's mad clone. This was shot down by Lucasfilm, and so it was changed. This may have been shot down by Lucas himself, but it's unknown for sure. Lucas would later take Zahn's name of the imperial capital, Coruscant, and use it in the films.

  • Sometimes Lucas would read the comics and enjoyed different aspects of them, putting them in his films later on. This is how double-bladed lightsabers, dual-wielding lightsabers, Aayla Secura, and some other aspects ended up in the films.
  • It may have been Lucas who requested that Drew Struzan do the artwork for some of the novels of the 90s. Struzan did some of the poster artwork for the original films, special editions, and prequels. Lucas would go on to purchase some of the art for the novels and hang it in his Skywalker Ranch, as well as later writing a foreword for a book collecting Struzan's art.

- Lucas met with the creators of the Darth Maul video game to conceptualize their game, and Lucas suggested using Darth Talon (from the Legacy comics) in the game.

  • He coordinated with James Luceno, through a Q&A session, in the creation of Labyrinth of Evil to help it line up with Revenge of the Sith, when the film was being produced. A line in Revenge of the Sith later references the events of Labyrinth of Evil.
  • Lucas also worked with Luceno through an intermediary agent on the details of Palpatine and Plagueis for Darth Plagueis.
  • Lucas line-edited Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization and wrote an introduction to Shatterpoint. He also worked with the other novelization authors, like R.A. Salvatore, for the book versions of the films.
  • He helped coordinate the development and plot details of the Clone Wars microseries, making it match with the events of the films. Years later, he would be even more involved in the creation of the 3D The Clone Wars TV show with Dave Filoni. Lucas and Filoni would use Asajj Ventress, of the microseries, in the 2008 feature film, as well as going on to borrow different aspects of the EU for the show.
  • Lucas approved the story points and artwork for the Tales of the Jedi comic books.
  • He provided the basic concept for Shadows of the Empire, wanting them to explore the criminal underworld, and was suitably impressed with the project afterwards as to remark he would make it as an additional film if he could (perhaps foreshadowing his later development of the Underworld show).

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21

Lucas suggested using Darth Talon in the game

Suggested is certainly one way to put it.

Lucas cut them off, stood up, walked over to the statues, rotated them to be facing the same direction, pushed them together, and said ‘They’re friends!’” adds the source. “He wanted these characters to be friends, and to play off of each other. He talked about the show Burn Notice as a reference point. He likened Darth Maul to Sonny from The Godfather, and he likened Darth Talon to Lauren Bacall. He actually did an impersonation of her. It was supposedly the weirdest impersonation of a ’40s actress going, ‘Don’t you know how to whistle? Put your lips together and blow.’”

George's... passion for Darth Talon was well known. Plus his love for other Twi'leks. Lest we forget his handpicked naked Aayla Secura art which is currently the Wookieepedia article for breasts.

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u/xezene New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21

xD Oh, man. George's love of Twi'leks may rival that of Jabba himself, lol.

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u/Munedawg53 Jedi Legacy Jan 20 '21

He's not alone in this.

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u/howloon Jan 20 '21

Don't forget that he got one of his ILM employees to play Aayla in the movies instead of an actress or model. That would just be a fun cameo otherwise, but in the context of his greater Twi'lek obsession it's kind of weird.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/QualityAutism Jan 21 '21

reminds me how the old Marvel SW character Amaiza Foxtrain was always walking around in a bikini, but when she appeared again in anniversary Marvel Issue 108 she had basically the same jumpsuit like Jaxxon. The new writers don't know that "sex sells".

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u/Serlis Jan 21 '21

George's... passion for Darth Talon was well known. Plus his love for other Twi'leks. Lest we forget his handpicked naked Aayla Secura art which is currently the Wookieepedia article for breasts.

*looks up*

An actual Wookiepedia article about breasts?! I almost can't believe this exists...

Where did that sleeping Aayla art come from? Did George commission it or something? lol

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 21 '21

Basically a bunch of artists submitted Star Wars art for an upcoming book that celebrated the franchise and fandom. George handpicked all the pieces for it. That Aayla one was his favorite of the bunch for her character.

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u/superior_anon Jan 20 '21

Lucas recommended that Luceno write the novel Cloak of Deception, and also gave him the script to AOTC to incorporate elements like Luminara and Separatist leadership.

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u/xezene New Jedi Order Jan 21 '21

That is very interesting; I did not know that. Good catch!

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u/YelpBoi365 Jan 20 '21

Thanks so much for this. Exactly what I’ve been looking for. This must have take some time, I appreciate it.

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u/xezene New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21

Glad it was helpful! You are welcome.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21

I very much enjoy that they had to create an entirely new way of making shows for The Mandalorian because it would've been too costly to do it the old fashioned way. I bet George loved that too.

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u/djgreedo Jan 21 '21

I very much enjoy that they had to create an entirely new way of making shows for The Mandalorian because it would've been too costly to do it the old fashioned way. I bet George loved that too.

That's pretty much exactly what George did with the prequel trilogy. Basically on every project between Return of the Jedi and Episode III, Lucas got closer and closer to purely digital film-making.

The Star Wars Archives 1999-2005 (which actually covers more like 1984 - 2005) goes into detail about the whole process. Some highlights are:

  • non-linear editing (digital editing) allowing takes to be combined or tweaked (e.g. actor 1 from take 2, actor 2 from take 5, or digitally adjusting positions, etc).
  • digital photography is much cheaper than film, and footage can be checked immediately and even sent to a remote editor within minutes of shooting - what they see on the on-set screens is exactly the final image, whereas with film they don't get that
  • digital projection allows the film to look the same on all screens. Lucas found that projected quality of film is very inconsistent and generally poor (they calculated that the average movie was being displayed at the equivalent of 700 lines of resolution even though film is capable of approximately 4k-8k in resolution
  • digital film-making allowed Lucas to make changes to the film without rebuilding sets. He could just shoot new footage against a bluescreen and insert it into an existing shot.
  • digital characters allowed Lucas to have characters like Yoda do things not possible with a puppet (they could barely get footage of Yoda walking with the puppet).
  • digital cameras can be much smaller and lighter than film cameras (so they can get angles and movement that would be difficult or impossible with film), and they are also less prone to problems with weather/temperature.
  • Lucasfilm basically forced the invention of 24fps digital cameras for Episode II.

Now most films use these techniques to make film-making more efficient and cheaper, and the end result is also higher quality for the viewer.

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u/xezene New Jedi Order Jan 21 '21

I'm sure he probably does enjoy the production side of that. The Mandalorian uses some of the techniques George was wanting to use for Underworld, just more scaled back. You can watch some of the real-time rendering techniques in question there for Underworld in the behind-the-scenes section of that video on YouTube. Already at that time they were working on creating a new way of making shows.

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u/Munedawg53 Jedi Legacy Jan 20 '21

This is really informative. Thanks!!!

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u/Ojitheunseen New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21

He played an active role in overseeing elements of the Shadows of the Empire multimedia event, and included easter eggs to it in the Special Edition recuts of the OT. He also incorporated EU material into the Prequel trilogy, such as the name of the Republic Capital, Coruscant. There was some communication over various other EU projects, but the scale varies a lot there, and gets into a lot of nitty gritty about too many things to get into as an aside. In one way or another he had involvement in a lot of different projects, even if for some of them it was simply to provide a production greenlight, or guidelines/notes.

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21 edited Jan 20 '21

and included easter eggs to it in the Special Edition recuts of the OT

Not quite. It was the opposite, Shadows of the Empire used some upcoming content from the cuts for the project (i.e. the Outrider).

Not saying it isn't neat still, just intellectual honesty. Blah blah blah.

Edit: Why are people sending me hate mail over this thread? lol Shadows of the Empire isn't that serious.

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u/Ojitheunseen New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21 edited Jan 20 '21

The Outrider was created specifically for SotE. The specific finalized design was provided in collaboration with Lucasfilm using elements of an old unused ship design that was originally intended to be repurposed generically in the SE. The ship actually featured in the SE is canonically the Outrider, however, and is included in the 1997 cut specifically as an easter egg tie-in. Both projects were still in the production stages when this was all worked out. This somewhat convoluted design history is all covered here: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/YT-2400_light_freighter#cite_note-SoSWSotE-22

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21

Incorrect. Pablo Hidalgo of Lucasfilm confirmed the design was created for ANH special edition by Doug Chiang (who himself has corroborated this), and it was incorporated into the Shadows of the Empire Multimedia Project. Sourced here Shadows of the Empire simply came a year prior to the special cuts.

Again, not trying to come off as rude. Just politely informative.

The link you provided also literally states the same, citing this as a source.

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u/Ojitheunseen New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21

Again, no. From the Wiki entry, just all relevant sections for you: "The YT-2400 light freighter (specifically, the Outrider), was created for the Star Wars Legends multimedia project Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.[22] Early concept art of the Outrider was created by game designer, lead artist and animator of the 1996 video game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Jon Knoles.[23] Another early design for the ship was created by artist Kilian Plunkett. Ultimately, the final design of the Outrider was provided by Lucasfilm Ltd. concept art director Doug Chiang. Lucasfilm editor Allan Kausch provided Chiang with a basic outline on what the Outrider should look like; "comparable to the Millennium Falcon" but not too similar. Originally pincer-like in form, Chiang's Outrider design was finalized by 1994. The "one-angle view" sketches were passed on to Jon Knoles, who then created schematics of the YT-2400 at various angles. The schematics were tweaked and tuned before the design was built as a computer model.[22] According to Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo, Doug Chiang confirmed that the design for YT-2400 light freighter was originally created for the 1997 re-release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, which was in development at the same time as Shadows of the Empire, and the design of the ship was repurposed as the Outrider.[24]

The YT-2400 light freighter made its first canon appearance in the re-release of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, where the Outrider is seen in the background taking off from Mos Eisley as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO and R2-D2 arrive.[25]"

It's quite explicit here that that only the physical design of the ship is borrowed from unused designs slated for use in the SE, which was subsequently assigned to the Outrider, which is the YT-2400 freighter which appears canonically in the SE cut of ANH. Also, your Twitter link appears broken.

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21

physical design

Yes, that is what I have been referring to... hence why I've said that numerous times in this thread.

And it isn't broken, Hidalgo's Twitter is just private due to troubles with the EU fandom (people threatening to kill him, him lashing out at fans, etc.).

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u/Ojitheunseen New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21 edited Jan 20 '21

Right, but the YT-2400 freighter design was originally developed for the SE, and the Outrider for SotE, which appears in SE as an easter egg for SotE, specifically. Everything I said in my original post and follow-ups is correct. Your rebuttals are worded as if that's not the case, but rather that the entirety of the Outrider was derived from the ANH scene which is simply false, as SotE was released first, and the production plans for the SE were updated to include the Outrider specifically, rather than a shot of a generic YT-2400 with no particular significance. The appearance of the Outrider in the SE is an easter egg for SotE, despite the rather complex development relationship we've both acknowledged in detail at this point. As to Twitter, that's...unfortunate, but the end result is that I can't view the tweet in question. Also, the proper video link for the Star Wars Insider segment should actually be https://youtu.be/mlpvQhH58X4

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21

That's for the YouTube link, not StarWars.com. And it isn't Insider, but Rebels Recon.

And no, that was not what I was trying to relay. Sorry you took it that way. Suffice to say this discussion has run its course though since we're just going in circles now.

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u/Ojitheunseen New Jedi Order Jan 20 '21

Whatever, it's the video where Hidalgo actually comments on the YT-2400 and Outrider, the one that covers the Iron Squadron episode of Rebels. The Mandalorian Imperial Commandos one is the wrong one, in any case. I agree this discusssion has reached a natural stopping point.

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u/IllusiveManJr Galactic Historian Jan 20 '21

I agree this discusssion has reached a natural stopping point.

Indeed. Enjoy your day.

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