The endless debate over the merits and flaws ofRian Johnson’sStar Wars: The Last Jedigot another shot in the arm on the week before Christmas. Franchise veteran Alan Dean Foster, during a long livestreamed interview on the YouTube analysis showMidnight’s Edge, mentioned that he “thought it was a terrible film.” He even went so far as to write a treatment for the final film in the trilogy, which would do as much as possible to fix what he saw as the damage Johnson had done.
Foster’s opinion holds some weight among long-timeStar Warsfans, as he’s generally credited with starting the pre-Disney “Expanded Universe” with his 1978Star WarsnovelSplinter of the Mind’s Eye. WhileSplinteris decidedly non-canon, as it was written before George Lucas started on the script forThe Empire Strikes Back,it’s the firstoriginalStar Warsnovelever published.
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Foster’s otherStar Warswork includes ghost-writingStar Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalkerfor Lucas in 1976; the 2002 novelThe Approaching Storm,set in the era of Lucas’s prequel trilogy; and the 2015 novelization ofThe Force Awakens.
“I thought [The Last Jedi] was a terribleStar Warsmovie, and there’s no need to go into why because every fan already has,” Foster said toMidnight’s Edge. “I thought, ‘How can this be retconned? How can we fix as much as possible from Episode VIII in a proposed Episode IX?’ And I wrote a partial treatment for that, attempting in that storyline to explain a lot of the really silly things that happened in Episode VIII.”
In fandom circles, this is sometimes called a “fix fic.” Foster made his treatment publically available via his website back in May of 2018, which includes elements such as Luke using the Force to survive his apparent death, a final battle againsta small army of Snoke clones, and the revelation that Rey’s superhuman learning ability comes from a cybernetic implant in her brain that she didn’t know she had.
The new interview comes at the end of a rough year for Foster, who is dealing with his wife’s sickness, his own struggle with cancer, and an ongoing public-relations battle with Disney. Foster has written several novelizations in theStar WarsandAlienuniverses over the years, all of which are still in print. Now thatDisney owns both franchises, it has simply refused to pay Foster his royalties for the books, and reportedly is ignoring both him and his representation in the Science Fiction Writer’s Association. This is reportedly affecting more authors than Foster, and fans have started several social-media campaigns on his and others' behalf, such as #DisneyMustPay.
Midnight’s Edgedescribes itself as “a channel devoted to analysis and intelligent discussion of your favorite stories and characters, as well as their various film and TV adaptations.” In practice, going from some of its most recent videos, it’s firmly on the reactionary side ofStar Warsfandom, with several videosdevoted to bashing Lucasfilmpresident Kathleen Kennedy.
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