If we’re going to keep making new Star Wars movies, maybe Topher Grace should produce one of them.
He certainly makes a case for it as co-editor of the best Star Wars fan edit I’ve ever seen. In five minutes, he and fellow editor Jeff Yorkes summarize the expanse of the 8-episode Skywalker saga in Star Wars: Always, a comprehensive mega-trailer so compelling that Lucasfilm couldn’t have sanctioned a better one if they tried. (It even repurposes deleted scenes to great effect, including right off the top.)
Using the Original Triolgy as the anchor, Grace and Yorkes keep Episodes IV, V, and VI as the centralized focused while cutting back to the prequels in what are effectively flashbacks (splicing in clips from Rogue One and Solo as well), and then eventually teasing the future of Episodes VII and VIII. It’s a much more intriguing way than simply doing it in linear fashion, and the structure proves particularly effective with dissolves between replica shots and actions from the different trilogies.
Funny enough, this is the less-ambitious Star Wars fan edit that Topher Grace has done. Seven years ago, he made an 85-minute edit of the entire prequel trilogy and actually screened it (for free, as it was without Lucasfilm’s involvement), splicing out much of the politics and other elements that some diehards found to be cheesy or boring. (You can read more about it here in this article from Collider.)
Needless to say, Topher Grace understands this mythology at a very deep level, having worked on it, dissected it, and re-imagined it to the degree that he has. It certainly shows in Star Wars: Always, and we can hope that a year from now he’ll weave in moments from Episode IX to complete the valiant effort.