Rewriting the “Star Wars” Sequel Trilogy

A long time ago, on a blog far, far away (by which I mean this blog, but in its primitive form), I wrote a post about how I would rewrite the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I love Star Wars with all its flaws, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas on how to improve it.

The sequel trilogy is no exception. I love it to bits and it’s my favorite trilogy (probably because it’s the first one I followed from beginning to end), but I still have my gripes with it. So today I’m going to share my ideas on how it could’ve been better. Now I just need a time machine and a group of people willing to overthrow the Disney overlords with me.

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Rey Who?

The main thing that derailed the sequel trilogy is the fixation on who Rey’s parents are. Knowing she was always going to be related to a relevant character in some way, this was just a waste of time. Besides, this is the Skywalker Saga. Rey should’ve been a Skywalker from the get-go (and we already have another character whose lineage is also in question, but we’ll get to that later).

In my rewrite, she is Han and Leia’s daughter. In this world, Rey and Ben take on Leia’s Skywalker name instead of Solo. After all, there’s no reason patriarchal naming conventions need to be a thing in a fictitious galaxy far away from our own.

Kylo’s backstory will stay mostly the same, in that he goes to Luke’s school to be trained as a Jedi but eventually goes to the Dark Side. Rey, being too young at the time, will not have trained with Luke. Instead, she will be trained by Leia and her own reading of Jedi texts.

Lastly, Rey is not going to be Kylo’s foil/nemesis. Though she trains as a Jedi, she takes more after her father. I also don’t want to copy the Jacen/Jaina dynamic from the EU. But if Rey’s not Kylo’s foil/nemesis, who is? Well, that brings me to my next big change.

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Finn Who?

Finn’s story is basically going to be a mix of his canon ST story and Rey’s. Finn is still going to be a former Stormtrooper who was stolen from his family as a child. But in my version, he is established as Force-sensitive immediately. Because he’s going to be a Jedi.

Finn will be trained as a Jedi by Rey, with help from Leia and the Jedi texts. Luke’s story will be the same, so when Finn and Rey (and maybe also Poe) track him down, he will train them (or maybe just Finn).

It is Finn who will be Kylo’s foil/nemesis. Narratively, this works much better. Finn turns away from the Dark Side because he knows what the First Order is doing is wrong. Kylo embraces the Dark Side and refuses his Light Side heritage. In this way, their morals and philosophies directly oppose each other. But Finn’s narrative won’t rely on Kylo— this is just why he makes more sense as Kylo’s foil/nemesis. The narrative will remain primarily focused on Finn.

As I alluded to earlier, Finn’s lineage will be the big mystery of my ST. Is he Lando Calrissian’s long-lost son? A descendant of Mace Windu? A lost prince? Who knows? Part of his journey of self-discovery will be learning who his birth family is, while also embracing Rey, Poe, and the Resistance as his found family. In a way, Finn will become a Skywalker himself.

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The Three Space Musketeers

One of my main gripes with the ST is that the trio isn’t established early enough. They’re not together until the third and final movie. In my rewrite, the trio (Rey, Finn, and Poe) are established in the first installment.

Though they can occasionally split up, the ST should follow the lead of the OT and the PT and make their intended trio a focal point. They are our entryway into this story. Rey, Finn, and Poe need all three films to form and strengthen their friendship.

This, of course, necessitates that Poe have a larger role in the first movie. But I love Poe, so that suits me just fine. This will clean up his backstory. I propose that he and Ben were childhood friends. When Ben became Kylo, that changed. He and Rey found solace in each other, having both lost a brother in a way, and become friends.

Finn and Poe meet the same way they do in The Force Awakens, but they aren’t split up. Finn joins the Resistance much sooner and quickly fits into the newly-formed trio. Then adventures ensue.

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Ship Wars

I’m going to be real with you: this section is almost entirely wish fulfillment. Because it’s going to be much gayer than Disney would ever allow. But it’s my rewrite, so what I say goes.

In the new ST, Finn and Poe fall in love over the course of three movies. Their relationship will be established as a romance as early as the first movie. Rey will be a lesbian, but her romance will start in the second movie. I submit Rose as the perfect candidate. Rose will take on a Lando-esque role in this trilogy, in that she appears in the second movie and is part of the trio by extension from then on. She will also have a larger role in the third movie.

Both Finnpoe and Reyrose will have little Hanleia and Anidala parallels. They won’t be major, but noticeable enough that fans would pick up on it. Why? Because I think it would be cute. The relationships themselves would have their own arcs, but would occasionally harken back to those iconic ships in little ways.

Another important relationship change I’d make is that Han and Leia would still be together. I think it’s BS they’re basically divorced in TFA, so in my rewrite they won’t be. That said, Kylo will still kill Han both because there’s something beautifully terrible about it and because Harrison Ford doesn’t want to be in Star Wars anymore.

Basically, Star Wars will finally adhere to the truth that space is gay. But if I can’t have space gays, then the main romance will be Finnrey.

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Knights of the Ren Table

The plot/main conflict is the part of the rewrite I have the least concrete ideas for. The one thing I know for certain is that the Knights of Ren need to be a big part of it. I kind of like the idea of the First Order beginning as a fringe group of people that were loyal to the Empire and those ideals have slowly spread overtime. This group slowly rises in power in the New Republic.

The Sith/Knights of Ren are very tied to this, though the general public don’t know right away how connected they are. I also like Palpatine having a hand in this, but not in the way the actual ST does it. I want him to be a twisted version of a Force ghost and have him only nudge the characters along, but not be the main villain.

Hux will be the face of this movement and eventually a major player in the First Order. He and Kylo will be in a constant power struggle. By the end of the second movie, Kylo is setting himself up as Supreme Leader. In the third movie, he is unequivocally the main villain.

Phasma is the leader of the Stormtrooper army. As such, she hates Finn more than anyone because he got away. Finn and the gang will slowly win other Stormtroopers over to their side before starting a Stormtrooper revolution in the final movie.

Establishing the antagonist(s) of the trilogy and keeping them the same throughout is key to keeping your audience enthralled to the end.

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We Need to Talk about Ben

As I said, Kylo’s backstory will be mostly the same. But we’ve got to change his name. It doesn’t make much sense for Han and Leia to name their son after Obi-Wan, a man they barely knew. He has more significance to Luke than them. I propose naming Kylo after Leia’s adoptive father Bail. I think she would want to honor her Alderaanian heritage.

I like the idea of Kylo struggling with being called to the Light, a sort of juxtaposition to Anakin struggling with being called to the Dark. But where Anakin eventually chose Light, Kylo will choose Dark. I want him full-throttle in his villainy by the end. He doesn’t get redemption because he doesn’t want redemption.

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The Star Wars sequel trilogy is a mess, but it’s not beyond hope. It’s also not beyond my love. For all its flaws, the overall story still has promise. It just needs more focus and the characters of color need to be more central to the plot. Had the sequel trilogy been a little more like this, the Force surely would’ve been with it from start to finish.

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What do you think of my ST rewrite? Do you have any ideas you’d like to pitch? Let’s discuss in the comments!