‘Star Wars’: Wild Prequel Trilogy Rumors Included Jedi Clones and Reconstructed Assassins

Much like the series they love, Star Wars fans have plenty of imagination. In fact, in the lead-up to pretty much all the films made after the original trilogy featured rampant fan speculation about what might happen in each installment. The growing importance of the internet only added fuel to that flame in recent years for the sequel trilogy. 

While the Disney sequels were hotly anticipated, the prequels were even more so when they came out. It led to fans coming up with and spreading plenty of wild rumors about what might happen in them before each one premiered. Here’s the story of some of the crazier rumors surrounding them. 

An overview of the ‘Star Wars’ saga

Cinematically speaking, Star Wars is thought of in three distinct eras: 

• The original trilogy. These films came out between 1977-1983 and include A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. 
• The prequel trilogy. Premiering between 1999-2005, these films included The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. 
• The sequel trilogy. Made after Disney purchased Lucasfilm, these films were titled The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker. 

The original films were massive hits in their own day. That led to a 16-year gap between movies, followed by a decade between the prequels and the sequels. The original trilogy tells the story of Luke Skywalker bringing his father Anakin Skywalker back from the dark side to the light. The prequels told the story of how Anakin went to the dark side. The sequels follow a new character, Rey, as she attempts to find her place in the galaxy while bringing balance to the Force. 

How speculation has fueled fan interest in ‘Star Wars’

One thing all Star Wars films have in common? They all draw a lot of fan interest. The original film in 1977 wasn’t assured of being a hit, but once it came out, it started a worldwide phenomenon in which viewers couldn’t wait to see what happened next. 

When George Lucas made the original trilogy, he had a much larger saga planned. This was evidenced by the fact that 1977’s A New Hope was labeled as Episode IV despite being the first movie in the series. Following the conclusion of Return of the Jedi, Lucas put his Star Wars’ plans on pause. According to Entertainment Weekly, he didn’t announce his official plans for the prequels until 1994. That’s when fans began to guess what might happen. The same thing happened with the sequels years’ later. Fans online everywhere attempted to predict the events of those films – was Rey related to Luke or Han Solo? Who was Finn? These questions came up consistently, leading to fans formulating crazy theories that never came true. The same thing happened with the prequels. 

The wild ‘Star Wars’ prequel trilogy rumors 

A Reddit thread dedicated to discussing rumors around the prequels dished on some of the wilder ones that existed prior to their release. Keep in mind these were all fan rumors, none of which were confirmed by the studio to ever have been considered: 

• The Clone Wars would be fought between the Jedi Order and the clones of the Jedi. 
• General Grievous was a reconstructed version of Darth Maul. 
• Emperor Palpatine and Darth Sidious were actually two different people. 
• George Lucas envisioned casting rapper Tupac Shakur as Mace Windu before his tragic death. 
• After a producer claimed one of the original trilogy characters would be revealed as a clone, many guessed that it would be Obi-Wan Kenobi (this one came true even if the speculation was off – it was Boba Fett). 
• There would be a love triangle between Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan. 

Most of these didn’t make it to the screen, but it’s interesting to think about how the series would have been different if they had. One thing’s for sure though – if (or more likely, when) a new Star Wars film enters productions, the rumors will start flying once again.