Star Wars: Lucasfilm and JJ Abrams Reportedly Disagreed on Major The Force Awakens Plot Point

Making Star Wars: The Force Awakens apparently had Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams butting heads over one decision about the Star Wars sequel’s plot. In a series of tweets (now deleted), Star Wars creative executive Pablo Hidalgo apparently shared an anecdote about how one of Sequel Trilogy’s big changes to Star Wars canon was “the unsatisfying middle ground” of compromise in a fight between Abrams’ Bad Robot and Lucasfilm. The issue in question was where to place the capital of the Star Wars Universe – and whether or not to blow up that significant landmark.  

In the previous Star Wars canon, the capital city of The Republic (during the Prequel Trilogy era) was Coruscant; it later became “Imperial Center,” the capital city of Palpatine’s Empire. However, when coming up with the vision of the Sequel Trilogy era, J.J. Abrams apparently wanted to have Coruscant re-claimed as the capital of the New Republic – only to blow it up with the First Order’s new Starkiller Base weapon. However, Lucasfilm allegedly had a major problem with Abrams destroying Coruscant, which led to the creative disagreement. 

“Basically BR [J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot] wanted it blown up; LFL [Lucasfilm Ltd.] didn’t. Hosnian Prime was the unsatisfying middle ground. It happens,” Hidalgo reportedly posted, later adding: “(I should say ‘some folks at’ because it’s not like companies have points of view).”

Star Wars fans were somewhat perplexed when they found out that “Hosnian Prime” was made the capital of the New Republic. It didn’t make a lot of sense thematically, as reclaiming what Palpatine stole (Coruscant) seemed like a necessary circle to close. Instead, Hosnian Prime was a former arms manufacturing plant and slave operation, which became Wedge Antilles new flight academy, before being voted the capital. It still feels like a random and somewhat disjointed choice – and now we may better understand why. 

This sort of anecdote only underscores the overwhelming opinions of fans when it comes to the Sequel Trilogy: there was no clear plan. The more we learn, the more it seems clear that Lucasfilm and Disney could never settle confidently into one sort of vision or another – nor could the studio fully support the directors (J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson) that it put in place primarily for their unique directorial visions. The fallout has been even more disconcerting, as Lucasfilm has had to tap all of its other media platforms (novels, comic books, animation, live-action TV) in order to patch up the many storytelling holes that the Sequel Trilogy left open. 

You can stream Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Disney+. 

Via: The Direct