Disney has put the Star Wars movie-making machine in full gear, and we already have Han Solo and Boba Fett movies in the works. But do we really need more of these two guys? There are so many other great characters to explore, and so many genres that would perfectly adapt to the Star Wars universe so easily. Here are 10 of our ideas — add yours in the comments!
1) The Adventures of Young Lando Calrissian
It's not that we have a problem with Han Solo. We just think Solo has already had his share of screen time, and, even if you're chucking his many, many, many adventures in the Expanded Universe out entirely, we still have a pretty good sense of what his young life was like. But what about Lando? All we know about him is that he used to be Han's buddy, which means Han could guest-star while giving the spotlight to one of the Star Wars universe's most criminally underused characters — and one without the baggage of being one of the original trilogy's main three heroes. Also: Cast Donald Glover. It's the only thing that makes sense.
2) A Darth Vader Horror Movie
We saw Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader, and the next time we checked in with the Dark Lord of the Sith, he was Grand Moff Tarkin's lap dog in A New Hope. But other than hijacking the Princess's spaceship, crashing a Bespin City dinner party, and cutting off Luke's hand, Vader never really got to show us how badass he supposedly was. Why not have a film about him hunting down the last of the Jedi, where the Jedi are the protagonists, and Vader is the unstoppable killer hunting them down? This worked marvelously well when it was used to introduce General Grievous in Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars cartoon (above), and a Star Wars horror movie sounds pretty great by itself, too.
3) Seven Samurai Jedi
And speaking of things we didn't see much of in the prequels, the Jedi being awesome is one of the most egregious. Sure, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan fought Darth Maul, and a crowd of Jedi had a big battle of Geonosis, but those were more spectacle than something that gave us any sense of what powerful warriors the Jedi are supposed to be. We need a movie focusing on the Jedi — not previously established characters, but just regular Jedi — doing something simultaneously noble, heroic and badass so we can actually see the Jedi in their prime. One of the first rumored Star Wars stand-alone movies was a homage to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, in which a group of Jedi would defend a village (planet?) against a large group of marauders. Still sounds good to us.
4) A Jabba the Hutt Gangster Movie
Look, I know Jabba the Hutt has almost been as overused as Boba Fett in the original two trilogies, but hear me out. Imagine a Guy Ritchie-style gangster movie — you know, back when Guy Ritchie was directing awesome gangster movies — where the main boss is Jabba the Hutt. Now imagine Han Solo as a young smuggler who has a scheme of his own, gets in bad with the boss, and has to go on the run. Not only would this give us a young Han Solo adventure with more focus than simply running over his biography, it would be very cool to have some of Star Wars' criminal elements fleshed-out beyond just "smuggling" and "dropping disgruntled employees into Rancor pits."
5) Captain Rex and his Clone Commandos
One of the greatest characters and storylines the Clone Wars cartoon gave us was that of Captain Rex, the clone commander who led Torrent Company and the 501st Legion through some of the toughest battles in the war. Not only were these war stories exciting, they helped humanize the clones in a way the live-action movies never could, giving them individual personalities, but also showing how losses mattered to those around them. We deserve to get to see that on-screen. If somehow that sounds too artsy for Star Wars, just imagine Inglourious Basterds but with Clone Troopers instead of Brad Pitt's team and Battle Droids instead of Nazis. Who the hell wouldn't want to watch that?
6) Mon Mothma's 11
You know who could use some fleshing out? A female Star Wars character. And since Leia's life is pretty much accounted for and all the female Jedi are dead, that pretty much leaves Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma. But there's so much to work with! How did she join the Rebellion? He did she get to be in charge? How many scrapes with the Empire has she been in? A bunch, we're guessing. And if a Mon Mothma bio-pic isn't Disney's cup of tea — and let's admit it probably isn't — why not cast her as the George Clooney, Ocean's 11-style mastermind of the Bothans who stole the codes to get the Rebel onto Endor in RotJ? Give her a heist pic, and an elite team of Bothans who will sacrifice their lives to get there mission done. Besides sounding massively entertaining, it would also be nice to finally know what the hell a Bothan is.
7) Darklighter
Luke's childhood friend Biggs isn't going to crack anybody's Top 10 Star Wars characters list. But a Biggs movie has the potential to show us part of the Empire/Rebel war that we've never seen before. Like Luke was planning on doing, Biggs left Tatooine to join the Imperial Academy as train as a Stormtrooper or a TIE Fighter pilot; he only defected to the Rebels later. Being able to see and compare the Imperial war machine to the nascent Rebellion could bring a lot of depth to the war, and there could be an interesting parallel or two as well. Of all the movie characters, Biggs is the only person we know who's been on both sides of the conflict, and this cinematic opportunity shouldn't be missed.
8) An Ahsoka Movie
Even more so than Biggs, Ahsoka — the feisty Jedi padawan assigned to Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars — is utterly unique in the Star Wars universe. Why? Well, mostly, because she's the one person who grew disillusioned with both the Jedi and the Republic-turned-Empire that didn't turn completely evil while doing so. Interestingly, this makes her one of the few sane people in the Star Wars galaxy, because she recognizes that the Jedi of the prequel trilogy are actually kind of terrible — at the mercy of the government, devoted to rules as opposed to compassion, and so full of themselves they can't see a Sith Lord when he's right in front of their faces. Not only would I love to see how and where Ahsoka's adventures would continue, her existence is a critical part of Anakin's story, and thus there needs to be some kind of resolution there. We're told Darth Vader hunted down the Jedi and killed them; do you really think he would forget about the Padawan that served him during the entirety of the Clone Wars?
9) Anything Knights of the Old Republic
Anything. Seriously. Any of the videogames, any of the comics, just give us a story set in the Old Republic era and go nuts. By setting the mythos free of all of the modern Star Wars trappings, the possibilities are limitless, and yet the universe is still so familiar to Star Wars fans that audiences would have no problem still getting invested in the stories. Hell, if Disney plays its cards right it can churn out a "modern" Star Wars movie and an Old Republic-set movie every alternating six months or so. Double the franchise, double the $.
10) The Adventures of Young Elan Sleazebaggano
Okay, maybe the need for a biopic of the ridiculously named asshole who was trying to sell Obi-Wan Kenobi "deathsticks" in the bat in Attack of the Clones isn't as great for other people as it is for me. But I really, really need to know how anyone, even in the shady areas of Coruscant, can make a living selling a product called "deathsticks." It's a stick that kills you. What is Sleazebaggano's secret?!