Caravaggio - you make some valid points. back in the mid 90's when lucas first made the announcement of new star wars movies, and breathed life back into the star wars saga, he stated that the movies were intended to cover 3 generations of skywalkers, which meant 9 episodes, and that he'd originally done the middle trilogy first because he felt it was the most important part of the story. of course i have noticed that parts of his story change from one interview or magazine article to the next, and how drastic the changes are depends on how much time has passed between one to the next. I also remember him stating in the same article that he intended to have all 9 episodes released by the year 2000. that, by the way, was not the first time he'd mentioned the "3 trilogies/3 generations" bit. His most recent comments have been that he has no intention of making any more star wars films, other than the work he's planning for tv. he's also changed his story a bit and said that when he first wrote star wars it began with vader walking through the door (presumably leia's cruiser doors from the beginning of ep3) and ended with vader throwing the emperor down the energy shaft. he realized this was way too much for one film so he cut it up into 3 parts. yadda yadda. So, if you watch the interviews and read the articles, you can see that different statements he makes about star wars vary from time to time. Somebody stated at some point earlier that empire and jedi were written by someone(s) other than lucas, which is true, to an extent, but lucas created the basic script/outline for all the movies. he knew what he wanted to happen in each film. i'm sure he had help fleshing the story content out for the original trilogy, at least much more so than he has in the new trilogy. so to sum it up, there's really no telling. i don't see him making a 3rd trilogy, even though i'd like for it to happen. other people that have worked on the films - to include actors - have made hints here and there that another film is possible, but they're just hints. at this point who knows. lucas himself probably doesn't really know. with vader out of the picture, its not likely. If you're interested in knowing about other dark jedi/sith and the various goings-on of the surviving star wars characters, you should pick up some of the novels and read them. luke and leia both have gone down the path of the dark side, but they didn't stay for very long. leia doesn't deal with the force at all anymore cause it scares her, basically. and there was one point where vader's spirit tormented her in dreams. luke has established the new jedi order, and there's a whole series of books about that, which were pretty much kicked off with the new jedi academy trilogy, and carried on later. there's still dark jedi and various students that fall to the dark side, etc etc. the primary enemy of the republic in the most current novels are called the yuson vong (which i'm sure i spelled wrong) - who are much more dangerous and threatening than the empire or any sith could ever have been - they're from outside of the galaxy and force powers are pretty much unefective against them. their weapons have unimaginable power that make anything the republic throws at them look like b-b-guns compaired to an ak-47. and of course, their goal is to rule the galaxy - what else?... the cool part is that if you read enough of their story, you start finding that they've actually been slipping in and out of the galaxy in secret for thousands of years - possibly even longer than the republic has existed - and have had a lot of influence over various politics. star wars history dates back to about 25,000 years before the films, but so far most of it is just bits and pieces compiled through various installments of novels. there's a book called the essential chronology, that was written just after episode 1, that summarizes the bulk of the history, beginning briefly with the advent of the hyperdrive, and ending a few decades after rotj. its a lot easier than trying to read all the dozens of novels, to basically get the same info. in a lot of ways i personally find the history of the star wars universe more interesting than the films. but i guess that's the "histories mysteries" buff in me... E.D.