2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw The First Order unleash Starkiller Base onto the galaxy far, far away. As a show of force, General Hux had this planet-converted superweapon destroy the Hosnian Prime system, which is where the New Republic government was based at the time. However, if director J.J. Abrams’ original plan been approved, Starkiller Base would have instead destroyed Coruscant, one of the most important planets from Star Wars’ Prequel Trilogy.
Coruscant appeared in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as the capital of the Old Republic and home to the main Jedi Temple, so it would have been fitting for the metropolitan world to have been the hub for the New Republic government too. Alas, apparently Lucasfilm wasn’t on board with blowing up Coruscant in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As Pablo Hidalgo, a Star Wars creative executive at Lucasfilm, wrote in a since-deleted tweet (via The Direct):
Basically BR [J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot] wanted it blown up; LFL [Lucasfilm Ltd.] didn't. Hosnian Prime was the unsatisfying middle ground. It happens.
Seeing Coruscant obliterated by Starkiller Base definitely would have been a more emotional gut-punch for Star Wars fans since it’s an established location rather than brand-new like Hosnian Prime. Plus, there’s the fact that Palpatine continued to rule from Coruscant during the Empire’s reign, so it would have make sense for the Rebellion to reclaim the planet for the New Republic government. We even saw people celebrating the Empire’s fall on Coruscant in the Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi.
Pablo Hidalgo added that it was really just “some folks at” Lucasfilm who didn’t want Coruscant destroyed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens since “it’s not like companies have points of view,” but either way, it was ultimately decided to keep the planet unharmed. Why was this? Hidalgo said in another tweet that he believes the big reason for the “reticence” was because Coruscant was in development for other projects. Of course, plans for the Star Wars franchise at that time differed heavily from what ended up coming to pass (namely because Disney+ didn’t exist at the time), and a little over six years after The Force Awakens’ release, Coruscant has barely received any attention on-screen, though it has been revisited fairly often in novels and comics, particularly stories set in the High Republic era.
The events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens paved the way for what unfolded in 2017’s The Last Jedi, and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker not only concluded the Sequel Trilogy, but also the entire Skywalker Saga. Originally J.J. Abrams was only going to work on The Force Awakens, but after Colin Trevorrow departed The Rise of Skywalker due to creative differences, Abrams returned to the director’s chair. Cut to now, while there are plenty of Disney+ shows to keep Star Wars fans entertained (including the currently-airing The Book of Boba Fett), it remains to be seen when we’ll get another Star Wars movie. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron is technically still set for December 22, 2023, but with its production having reportedly been delayed, it’s possible that release date won’t stick.
As always, CinemaBlend will keep apprised on news concerning upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows. In the meantime though, find out what cinematic entertainment is on track to arrive in the coming months with our 2022 release schedule.
