Remember the thing that Star Wars fans hated most about the prequels? No, not Jar-Jar. Nope, not the clunky dialogue. Not talking about the boring plots about trade embargoes. No, we’re talking about the microscopic world of midichlorians. Well, Lucas was planning on doubling-down on that in his ideas for Episodes VII, VIII and IX. In an interview for a companion book to James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction AMC series, Lucas revealed that the films would have focused on the Whills, microscopic creatures that feed ioff the Force and control the universe. Yup. You read that right. Here is the quote from the book:
“The next three Star Wars films were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. The feed off the Force…If I’d held on thr the company I could have done it, and then it would have been done. Of course, a lot of . the fans would have hated it, just like they did Phantom Menace and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would have been told.”
Our own Jeff Heller wrote an article a few years ago theorizing that Lucas actually hates his fans, and this may back that theory up. The Whills are not a new concept, having been a part of Lucas’ original plans for the series, as being briefly referenced in Rogue One (Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus were part of the religious order the Guardians of the Whills), and while it sounds as if he was just planning on revisiting this abandoned idea, the fact that he was planning on doing it in sprite of the fans seems to speak loudly about his thoughts about them.
Honestly, upon first read this sounds terrible. Upon second read, I am actually curious where this would go. My guess would be it would end up being an environmental metaphor – most likely the Whiffs would play a role in the film, not serve as central characters. Kind of like the universe in the purple marble approach – a battle of good vs evil to protect them.
In actuality, unless JJ can fix this current trilogy, it may be better than what seems to becoming a steaming pile of shit.