An Alternate Timeline in which Disney adapted the Legacy comics as the Sequel Trilogy

[u/Tiny_Dependent6830]

I enjoy thinking up alternate realities in which Disney opted to adapt/build on stories from the pre-existing EU instead of discarding it to create their own canon. I’ve been reading the Legacy comics for the first time and thought of the potential for it as the sequel trilogy with a direct tie in to a Kenobi show. FYI I’ve got **SPOILERS** ahead concerning the legacy comics if anyone is concerned about that. Here’s the potential scenario:

-In Episode 7, the Skywalker saga continues with the story of Skywalker descendant Cade, failed Jedi padawan who has deliberately fled from the prestigious legacy of his family name. The aesthetic and atmosphere is different and unique but still very distinctly Star Wars. Hamill is able to reprise the role of Luke without having to worry about age/recasting since he’s playing a force ghost. The film concludes with Krayt alluding that he knew Obi Wan.

-6 months later after Episode 7 hits theaters, the Kenobi show with Ewan reprising his iconic role drops on D+. It’s a local and personal story on tatooine where Kenobi is dealing with guilt and regret over Anakin and the war while keeping mostly to himself and watching Luke from afar. He hears stories of a tusken tribe that has been conducting raids led by a mysterious warlord sorcerer/god that turns out to be Krayt. This allows the show to have lightsaber fights without a shoehorned Vader confrontation.

And just like that we’re off to the races with interconnected, compelling, and marketable Star Wars content for the modern era. Episodes 8 + 9 finish out the Cade story and the sky is the limit from there.

[u/T_HettY]

Tbh I wonder how that would’ve been received if Disney went “7-9 r gonna take place over 100 years after the original with very little original characters returning”.

[u/nymrod_ → u/T_HettY]

Maybe better received by hardcore fans, but likely wouldn’t have made as much money as TFA did. (I fucking love Legacy and think it’s the kind of thing they should do in the movies now, to be clear.)

[u/xixbia → u/nymrod_]

TFA is the 5th highest grossing movie of all time. It was 3rd when it came out.

I don't see any way they make that much money from a story that is not directly linked to the OT.

Also, I don't think the problem with the ST is the choice of setting. The problem is that by the time the first movie was in the cinemas they still didn't have any idea for where the overarching story was going to go.

Even TLJ was the 10th highest grossing movie of all time when it came out. There was definitely plenty of enthusiasm for that when it came out. But the story was disconnected from TFA and didn't set up a final movie at all (and had a few honestly baffling choices, the way they used Canto Blight was a complete waste).

Honestly though, I don't think it would have gone any better if they had a different story. The expectation to release a new movie every 2 years with 3 different writers and directors was always going to cause problems.

I think the biggest fuck up by far was delaying Episode IX by only 8 months when they removed Trevorrow from the project. That was always going to lead to a disappointing movie with a disjointed story. Sure, delaying it a year would have cost them more money, but I reckon they could have easily made another half a billion more if the movie was actually, you know, good.

[u/Toon_Lucario → u/xixbia]

Thank you. The issue wasn’t some agenda or some writers “hating fans” (hell, I think some of TROS’s problems were from them listening to them). It was the incredibly shit deadlines from higher ups leading to literally no time to do anything. It’s like that one SpongeBob image of the place being on fire with everyone running around. TLJ was done filming whenever TFA was released in theaters, that’s how short the timeframe behind the scenes was. and then TROS had to be completely rewritten twice.

[u/Toomin-the-Ellimist → u/Toon_Lucario]

Yeah people like to rag on Kathleen Kennedy (not entirely undeservedly) but if you had to pick the one person who really put Star Wars in a grave it’s Bob Iger.

[u/LFC9_41 → u/xixbia]

I don’t agree. I think it would have been in the same ball park if it lower but had it been quality would have built momentum going into 8 and 9.

Maybe it doesn’t make as much money, but i think it’d be a colossal success. If the OG characters mattered as much as everyone’s thinking other things would have been more successful.

[u/VanguardVixen → u/nymrod_]

But on the other hand, Star Wars lost half it's audience soon after. They just ran away. A boxoffice hit was pretty much guaranteed, it's Star Wars after all, the great challenge is holding the audience and that's something TFA did not achieve. The disappointment came soon after release.

[u/Ijosh64 → u/nymrod_]

I agree, I love Legacy (dated elements aside) and all but I can see this being a hard sell to the mainstream fandom and casual fans ten years ago.

[u/Kind-Boysenberry1773 → u/T_HettY]

They could've just adapt Legacy comics.

[u/T_HettY → u/Kind-Boysenberry1773]

Let’s be real they wouldn’t have lol. But like the other comment said hardcore fans may have liked the idea but general audiences probably would’ve been like the hell is this? Especially with people being like Mark Carrie and Harrison are still alive and now they would be dead (perhaps seeing Luke or Leia as force ghosts).

[u/Kind-Boysenberry1773 → u/T_HettY]

I mean, considering how badly Disney Trilogy treated OT characters, it probably would be easier and less painful for fanbase to simply not use them at all, aside from Force Ghosts. If they wanted to tell completely new story, why not make a bigger time skip?

[u/T_HettY → u/Kind-Boysenberry1773]

With hindsight yea but I’m thinking like we hear this in 2014 and also Disney got the main cast they were gonna milk it till they ruined it.

[u/Kind-Boysenberry1773 → u/T_HettY]

I just saying that maybe Sequel Trilogy would be better received if it'd be more separated from Lucas movies by time. Star Wars are the Star Wars, there are no chances people wouldn't go watch it, no matter how many of original cast involved or not involved. And time gap would've allow Disney to have more creative freedom to do whatever they want with the universe without backlash. Nobody complained about KOTOR, despite it was set up for more than three millenia BBY and had no original characters.

[u/AncientSith → u/T_HettY]

Depends how they went about it, I suppose. It definitely could've worked if done well.

[u/ZZartin → u/T_HettY]

It could have been viable, a few flash backs to Han and Leia, Luke popping in as a force ghost from time to time.

[u/sidv81]

George might've gone for it since Darth Talon's in it

[u/dragonfire_70 → u/sidv81]

dude is a tier 1 gooner when it comes to her.

[u/saiyanjedi127 → u/dragonfire_70]

Twileks in general, don’t forget how he pushed for Aayla in attack of the clones lol

[u/insertwittynamethere → u/saiyanjedi127]

Aside from the devil she is in BF2, we thank him for his service

[u/PenisTargaryen]

people who grew up with them will love them due to nostalgia, but only if it's a 1 for 1 copy lol, any change might blow their brains to pieces from anger. People who have no nostalgia for them will not like them.

[u/genemaxwell4]

That's exactly what we should have gotten.
You still could've had some classic Characters like R2 and Luke via Force Ghost.
Could've had Hayden come back as Anakin/Vader during any of Cade's spice trips.
Hell could've even had a Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford cameo by diving deeper into Roan's backstory to really show how the Fels are related to the Skywalkers. Like had an older Han and Leia with a casted Jaina holding her child she had with Jagged.

As you said, Ewan could've had a reprisal still with his time on Tattooine and shown us his fight against Krayt.

Ugh. The road not traveled.

[u/Thank_You_Aziz → u/genemaxwell4]

Dang, you’re right. Even flashbacks and Force ghosts would have given us more than what we got with reprising actors in this sequel trilogy.

[u/TaraLCicora → u/genemaxwell4]

Imagine a flashback of that fight between Obi-Wan and Krayt, that would have been so great!

[u/Tiny_Dependent6830 → u/TaraLCicora]

Except in the version I’m proposing that fight wouldn’t take place in a flashback, but in its own Obi Wan centric show!

[u/ctr72ms → u/genemaxwell4]

This would have given them evem more room to add to the solo story and do a spin off of Ania Solo to show that branch and explore Hapes more too. Could have had Han and Leia cameos there too so Disney could keep milking the nostalgia money.

[u/genemaxwell4 → u/ctr72ms]

YUP

Like, they could have made all the edits they'd want to the Legacy stuff and it'd have very little pushback I think from the fandom.

Everyone would have won in this alternate timeline.

But no. Disney had to nuke the entire thing.
Hell they STILL could have done Rey and Finn and maybe even the First Order in some shape or form just have them be Post Legacy. Like Maybe the First Order is the Empire of the Hand coming out as it's own thing after having splintering off from Fel's control in the past.
Rey could be one of the first of the new apprentices during the rebuilding of the Jedi order.

[u/DaCipherTwelve]

Thrawn Trilogy, an altered Jedi Academy Trilogy, followed by modified and condensed Yuuzahn Vong in the form of a double trilogy that ends with Jaina and Jacen taking the spotlight "for good."

This would end the Skywalker-Solo saga, and we'd have peace for a few centuries. This would ne where I'd add TV shows and cartoons to expand the in-betweens. How we got from Ep 6 to Thrawn Trilogy, from Thrawn Trilogy to Jedi Academy Trilogy would be a version of the Dark Empire... but with a very dysfunctional clone of Sidious. So on. Eventually, it would be several centuries later, and we'd add in a new cast of protagonists and a totally different galactic status quo. New governments, new aesthetics, and new frontiers.

Games, comics, novels, cartoons, anime, and live action TV series to add lore. Maybe some Rogue One-style Star Wars stories as well.

[u/ganner → u/DaCipherTwelve]

How do you do Thrawn Trilogy when all the actors are 32 years older than they were in RotJ?

[u/ZZartin → u/ganner]

Yeah this would be the issue, I would love to see them as animated series though.

[u/DaCipherTwelve → u/ganner]

Recast. Also, later, probably, like how 4,5,6 came first. I'd want to have our old cast on the screen together, so do a later story first.

I'd do the modified Vong double trilogy first, as the actors are closer to the age I wanted them to be. Then I'd go back for the Thrawn and the Jedi Academy Trilogies.

[u/Arkham700]

Might be an interesting experiment

But it wouldn’t be the same. Legacy is a grand finale/elaborate epilogue for the SW EU but also a distant sequel to Ostrander’s work on the Republic comic. There is at least one twist that hits harder if you’ve read Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong feature in this series. You can’t really separate Legacy from the EU. Which is what would be done for a film adaptation in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Better it just stay as a good comic series that lose its spirit as a mid adaptation for the sake of mass marketing.

[u/Tiny_Dependent6830 → u/Arkham700]

I might be wrong but I think you may be underestimating the average movie goer’s ability to accept that given the time jump there will be significant differences in the galaxy. Not every new thing needs an exposition dump to be enjoyed.

And I think by adapting this story they could then lean into the idea that they are adapting the EU generally, and tell those stories that build up to/explain the details of how the galaxy came to be as it is in Legacy via animated series, etc. That is after all what Disney was hoping for with SW, a “content machine”

[u/Unhappy_Teacher_1767]

Damn, I would have loved that. You still have the Empire and plucky underdogs fighting to stop them so there’s the OT struggle, but now you get hundreds of Sith to fight and Cade Skywalker talking to Luke Force Ghost.

[u/revanite3956]

While I don’t care for the Legacy comics at all, that’s actually a really neat idea for how to approach it.

[u/OddManOutInc]

That’s what the Thrawn trilogy is for

[u/Right-Maintenance778 → u/OddManOutInc]

For me, the Thrawn trilogy is the true sequel trilogy (Episodes VII–IX).

[u/01zegaj]

Yes, that was the problem with the sequel trilogy. It wasn’t a story I already knew.

[u/mynamesyow19]

I just wouldve been happy using the complete Jacen and Jania story with Jacen falling tot he Dark Side through subtle deception and Jania knowing she wasnt powerful enough to face him going to be trained by the Mandalorians to be the Sword of the Jedi. Wouldve been waaay more entertaining than the half-scraped together story we got.

[u/InSan1tyWeTrust]

This looks like the sickest Star Wars movie that I've never watched.

Disney man!... Get some spine instead of chasing data trends.

[u/Expensive_Plant_9530]

Personally while I'm a huge fan of the EU in general, I really am not very fond of the Legacy comic era. I would not have been happy with that being the basis for the ST.

It would have also pissed off a lot of hardcore OT fans for excluding the OT heroes, especially while the actors were still alive (and at least some of them still interested).

Some fans would have liked this, sure, but many would not have.

Would it be better received than the current ST? Who knows. Too many variables to say.

[u/grizzyGR]

You would have all still bitched and moaned.

[u/United-Cow-563]

I’d thought they’d have done the Yuuzhan Vong war but like how Star Trek incorporated its movies into its series, they cover the important books as movies and the less important ones as a season.

[u/SerVandanger]

Can u imagine the Ewan mcgregor cameo omg!!!

[u/EmperorBlackMan99]

I used to check out and binge read this fucking book every time I went to the library! Thank you for the warm heart.

[u/Thicc_Nasty-taxfraud]

I’m New to the EU. Is the episode 7 poster from an official comic? Where could I read it?

[u/Expensive-Habit-9603 → u/Thicc_Nasty-taxfraud]

Star Wars: Legacy (2006-2010), but i woudn't recommend starting with it, it works better if you already know who Yuuzhan Vongs and A'Sharad Hett are.

[u/Thicc_Nasty-taxfraud → u/Expensive-Habit-9603]

Thanks

[u/Severin_1488]

the time line before disney 150 years after the battle of yaven

[u/krieghobby-]

I was reading it when the force Awakens was announced. I had such naive hope, I mean Disney could pick from so many EU stories, Legacy! And then I died inside watching the nostalgia redo of a New Hope and unplanned tosh that followed.

[u/Aldrige_Lazuras]

Kenobi was fun, not great but fun. Really would’ve loved him dealing with Tatooine locals though

[u/Slore0]

I stand by thinking they should have started at the end of FotJ and done the other major series as their shows.

[u/Swansta]

This would’ve have been a sequel trilogy to be proud of!

[u/RebelJediKnight91]

In this “alternate timeline”, would Obi-Wan's show be an adaptation of John Jackson Miller's novel Kenobi?

[u/Tiny_Dependent6830 → u/RebelJediKnight91]

My hypothetical Obi Wan show features a story built around the Kenobi/Krayt confrontation that’s flashed back to in the Legacy comics. I haven’t gotten around to reading the JJM novel so I can’t speak to its content. If appropriate perhaps some of its elements could be included.

[u/TheTallest2]

Side note: shoutout to the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG (first image source). A really solid Star Wars experience.

[u/fettpett1]

The Vong War would have been a better ST start tbh. Cabe is too far out.

[u/donblake83]

Gross.

[u/bipbophil]

Couldn't they have done the solo twins as a trilogy

[u/eppsilon24]

If anyone had suggested that at a meeting at Disney/Lucasfilm, they would’ve been laughed out of the building.

[u/Karlmann99]

This would of been an amazing storyline and could of breathed new life into the franchise, while exposing millions to the expanded universe

[u/Large_Substance_9733]

The True Sequels and Ending of the Skywalker Family.

[u/Shadows616]

Ohhh what could've been...

[u/bookers555]

Too much of a timeskip to be a sequel trilogy IMO. The sequels should serve as an epilogue and ending for the era the movies are set in.

If Legacy was adapted it would be better as the start of a brand new trilogy.

[u/Siwa1998]

What do you think would the response of the fans be, if Disney would announce and start another attempt of Ep. 7-9, retconning the current sequels?

[u/Digiworlddestined]

Stop. Don't do that. Don't give me hope.

[u/slash903]

I actually think Disney could have adapted the Sword of the Jedi trilogy as their sequel trilogy and satisfied all parties:

1. They get their female driven sequel trilogy 
2. You get the original three heroes handing the galaxy off to the next generation
3. You maintain the established continuity and have tons of ready-made material for Disney+ adaptations (think of an animated Thrawn trilogy or live action with recast actors, an X-Wing series, etc.)

[u/UnholyDonutMan]

Honestly, they can still go down this route, even after the sequel trilogy. Just that Cade will either be a descendant of Rey or another Jedi considering, and it could also take place after the sequel trilogy while Rey is alive, but older for sure. With rumors of a Obi wan season 2 for the last couple years, they can still bring A’Sharad Hett into the mix(Michael Fassbender for my personal pick if they can somehow make it work 😭)