Weekly Nerd Chat: Star Wars Movie Ideas

Us nerds like nothing more than to banter back and forth on nerdy topics in Slack. Here is one of those chats, very lightly edited.

Weekly Nerd Chat: Star Wars Movie Ideas

Joseph If you’re like me, one of your favorite movie previews in the last 6 months was the one for Rogue One, the first of several planned one-off movies set within the Star Wars universe. Rogue One will be the story of how the Rebels acquired the plans to the Death Star in Episode IV, and as such will be sort of a heist film. And while the preview made it look like a dashing, swashbuckling, James Bond-ish sort of heist movie, my mind immediately jumped to how much fun it would be if Rogue One was a heist film in the spirit of Ocean’s Eleven, or The Italian Job. Which then made me wonder – what would be some other cross-over genres that would be fun to play with inside the Star Wars universe?

Jason The Star Wars universe lends itself so well to all kinds of movies! It definitely looks like we are going to get a heist job in Rogue One. And a very good one. And I love that they are willing to let these new movies exist somewhere in the chronology but not the necessary the last one we saw.

Here is one I would like to see: The Fastest and Most Furious of the Galaxy. I think there is something that could be very cool about following a group of pod racers, seeking to always make it a little better and do what is needed to be the best.

Adkins What elements of the Fast and Furious franchise would you want to see in your Star Wars port?

Joseph I think it’d be awesome to see pod racing as something other than a vehicle to sell video games.  Like if pod racing was an actual thing, you know the underground drag-racing scene would be epic.

Jason The “family” element. It also could take in a Gone in Sixty Seconds flavor, each person having a different skill set and gift so to speak.

Adkins Would you take it to several worlds in a single movie, or confine the pod-racing to a single stage? The universe is such a big sandbox!

Maybe its like an intergalactic circuit?

Give me an idea of what the conflict might be.  What are the baddies up to?

Jason You got to build a franchise. First up, they do the one world, build their rep and before long they have the world’s longest airstrip to race on as they stop a racer from escaping.

And it keeps moving forward. (The Fast and the Furious direction is really ridiculous when you think about it in terms of starting point until now.)

Adkins I’m glad you brought up pod-racing, Jason, because my idea is born from a complaint I have with the Star Wars cinematic universe: Kids don’t shine in it. Winning that pod-race is about the only thing a child ever did in a Star Wars movie.

So in the vein of movies like The Goonies, Little Giants, and The Mighty Ducks, I want to see a movie in which a ragtag bunch of kids does something great.

My thought: They spot a wanted criminal on their outer rim world and bring him down.

Joseph That could be a lot of fun. Would it feel more like Toy Soldiers, or more like The Goonies?

Adkins Goonies, for sure.

The picture I have in my head is kinda like the Lost Boys from Hook, you know?

That was a mixed bunch of kids that together took on a mess of pirates and won.

Jason I love that idea. Scrappy non-Jedi kids taking on the big bad. That could be very awesome!

Joseph Well, as far as I’m concerned, the Star Wars equivalent of the Lost Boys from Hook are the Ewoks.

Picture this: A platoon of Stormtroopers set out on a two-week patrol on Endor’s forest moon. For the first few days, things are quiet. Then suddenly Kowalski goes missing…

Or the Stormtrooper version of Kowalski…

Basically from there it degenerates into something in between Platoon and Predator, but it’s all from the Stormtroopers’ perspective, so the Ewoks are the baddies.

Jason Yes!

Adkins That is awesome!

Jason As long as the soundtrack is happy ewok jams. That would be magnificent!

Joseph Oh, no… You’ve got to use dark, emo-hipster Ewok jams.

Jason It could be a really compelling horror meets action story.

Joseph You could throw in some themes about respecting nature, too.

Adkins I’d watch all three of the ideas pitched here, but I’m also told that Jason has a list of other possibilities. How about to close the chat out, Jason, you just rattle off the rest of your ideas in list form? Then we’ll invite the readers to comment on all the ideas in the post and pitch a few of their own in the comments!

Jason So when you think of the world(s) we’ve seen, I’ve got some potential quick takes.
For instance, an up and coming band of youngsters trying to make it to the big stage of the cantina! Think The Commitments in space!

Next up: an assassination thriller as it follows a lone renegade agent – a la Jason Bourne – as he seeks to take the life of a man who it is said “ruined everything”. The plot twist at the end: it is Jar Jar Binks.

Joseph Jar Jar is the agent, or Jar Jar is the one being assassinated?

Jason I said “Ruins everything.” Of course he is the target! Next: a hustling thriving new entrepreneur who just wants to sell her new line of skin care products that promise revitalizing your youth appearance to who needs it the most: the Emperor!

And every franchise needs a remake: Wall-E just with R2D2 in the lead role.

Joseph I like the one you pitched to me “off panel,” Jason.  The 9 to 5/Office Space idea.  I think the idea was basically to follow along with two or three of the control room workers on the Death Star. They witness the abuse of General Veers, etc., at the hands of Darth Vader, take the abuse that Veers passes down to them, and on and on. The movie would follow their struggle for equality, fair pay, and protection from force-related work injuries.

Adkins So long as there’s a Milton analogue, I’m in.

Joseph Well, I think we’ve given J.J. and company enough to think about for one sitting. I think the next logical steps are to ask our readers what ideas they have, and to sit back and wait on the royalty checks to start arriving. So…

What are some crossover stories/genres you’d love to see in the Star Wars universe? What did we miss? Make our ideas better!

Also, please mail me royalty checks…

Adkins Us, Joe. Mail US checks!

Joseph Yes, of course… Mail us checks…to my house…