Johnsonverse World History

Here is a list of events that have happened in the world, and how they're different in the Johnsonverse to the OTL.

Treaty of San Francisco
The treaty stipulated that the US annex Japan, making all nine regions states, and the prefectures counties. This was a result of Executive Order 9066 never being signed, and a massive campaign by the Japanese people to join the United States out of fear that, should Japan regain its independence, another nationalist leader could rise to power and start a new war in the Pacific.

Much of the country is now English-speaking (though there are still large parts speaking Traditional Japanese; as these make up 15% of the islands' population, they are known as the "Fifteen-Percenters"). Japanese rail services are run by Continental Rail by way of subsidiary Eastern Pacific Railroad, which is responsible for passenger and freight services. The Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 as in OTL, though with much more difficulty due to obstruction by the automobile lobby, interference that CR swept aside when the Blitzkrieg Crew plowed through a crowd of protesters opposing construction, leaving 64 dead; this action was not sanctioned by Johnson Industries (unlike the Alabama branchline incident), and the foreman and many workers were arrested and either given the death penalty or life in prison; since then, Johnson has stipulated that construction crews may only attack protesters if the latter attacks first.

Korean War
The Korean War began at the same time as OTL, but ended on December 9, 1950. The key factor was North Korea driving through South Korea all the way to Busan but being unable to take the western half of the peninsula, which MacArthur (who was never fired ITTL) exploited by finding a weakness in this salient, cutting these forces off from Pyongyang and removing a large chunk of North Korea's military. From there, the outnumbered North Korean forces were quickly pushed back, and Communist Chinese forces were of no help, as the PLA couldn't commit an adequate force due to continued policing actions in Southern China. Compounding this was the Soviet Union breaking its promise and staying out of Korea, ostensibly to avoid confronting the United States.

And so, on December 9, 1950, the Treaty of Rajin-Sonbong was signed, formally bringing an end to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In a controversial move, Kim Il-sung was granted amnesty on the grounds that he never get involved in politics again. He went on to become Korea's most-prolific filmmaker, a legacy carried on by his son Kim Jong-il and his grandson Kim Jong-un.

Apollo
The Apollo 1 fire isn't fatal because concerned North American Aviation engineers managed to sneak a blow-hatch function in, allowing Gus Grissom to blow the hatch and for the crew to quickly bail out before the fire really spread. Apollo 1 ends up having a successful 14-day flight (the original plan called for a 6-day flight, but Grissom had vowed to keep it in orbit for 14, and did so; NASA initially derided this, before realizing that such a long test flight would allow them to retool Apollo 2 into an unmanned LM test, as development of the LM was further along than in OTL) in May 1967, using a repaired and modified Command Module with the Block II hatch.

Apollo 2 was identical to OTL Apollo 5, Apollo 3 saw an unmanned Block I CSM with a docking port rendevouzing with an LM launched on another Saturn IB, Apollo 4 was like OTL, Apollo 5 was a manned version of Apollo 3 with the OTL Apollo 9 crew and the first Block II, Apollo 6 ends up stranded in orbit until it is rescued by Apollo 46 in 1976, Skylab is launched in 1968, Apollo 7 is the first flight to Skylab, Apollo 8 happens as in OTL, Apollo 9 is mostly the same (the crew consists of Gordon Cooper, Al Worden, and Bruce McCandless II), but after the final check-out of the LM, the CSM docks to Skylab, Apollos 10-17 are the same as OTL (meaning Apollo 13 still had its mishap), and Apollos 18-20 are flown as they were planned OTL.

Apollo is indefinitely extended after the Soviets manage to land on the moon (they nixed the troubled N-1 and instead opted for an Earth Orbit Rendevouz mode, which also allowed for an enlarged LK lander); as a result, Apollo grew out into a world-class space program.

The first big improvement was the introduction of the Apollo Supply Craft (ASC; based on the AARDV from "Eyes Turned Skyward"), an unmanned version of Apollo meant for space station resupply that first flew to Skylab in 1973. That same year, Skylab began to be occupied on a permanent basis, with 60-day sorties. In 1974, modules began to be added to Skylab, mainly to support planned military operations and interplanetary flights to Mars and Venus.

Apollo received a blow in April 1975 when Apollo 33 suffered a major malfunction. At T+1 minute 20 seconds, the first stage of the Saturn V suddenly exploded. Fortunately, the onboard Emergency Detection System (EDS) detected the abrupt loss of telemetry data coming from the S-IC, and activated Mode 1B (One Bravo), which saw the first in-flight abort of the Apollo program. The crew (Robert Crippin, Ken Mattingly, and William Pogue) survived, as a result, but the Saturn V was grounded, and all lunar flights put in a stand-down state. Apollo wouldn't fly again until July of that year, for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

In August 1975, a new rocket was introduced: the Saturn INT-20. In a nutshell, the Saturn INT-20 (later renamed the Saturn II in 1980) is a Saturn V without the S-II stage and only three engines on the S-IC. Fears that this S-IC would explode were vanquished when it performed flawlessly on its first launch, Apollo 38, which launched the Docking Module to Skylab to enable five craft (including Soyuz and Progress in an emergency) to dock to the station.

The next April, the Block III CSM was introduced. The key differences lie in the service module, which was more suited for Earth orbital operations than the cumbersome Block II; the Block III SM is smaller, lighter, and has a smaller antenna and deployable solar panels. It was modified to hold a five-man crew in 1987 as part of a joint program with the European Space Agency.

Lunar flights were reintroduced in 1977 with Apollo 50, commanded by Neil Armstrong. Apollo 50 also marked the first use of the Block IV CSM, which is similar to the Block II, only that it has a pair of LM Ascent Stage engines instead of the SPS, and uses batteries instead of fuel cells; the Block IV was designed for lunar orbit operations. Later that year, the Manned Venus Flyby took place, with the crew of Apollo 11 making their final flights.

The final Apollo CSM variant, the Block V, was tested in 1978. This variant replaces one of the fuel cells with two SNAP-27 RTGs, and is intended for interplanetary missions.

1979 marked the beginning of construction of the Phase 1 Lunar Base, later renamed Armstrong Base. New variants of the LM were developed, these being the LM Truck (a cargo hauler), and the LM Shelter (a Frankenstein's spacecraft combining the Apollo CM with the LM Descent Stage, intended for use as the crew quarters).

Apollo 64 marked the final flight of the Block II CSM. NASA had ceased production of the Block II in 1976 after the Block III was introduced, and used the remaining stock aggressively to be rid of them so they could ramp up production of the Block III full-time. The previous flight, Apollo 63, also saw the first flight of the Saturn III, a Saturn V without the S-IC stage, which launched larger solar panels on a truss segment after the Apollo Telescope Mount was removed and deorbited in anticipation of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Apollo 65 was an oddball mission, as it was also known as STS-1, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Despite Apollo continuing, the Space Shuttle continued development regardless, in hopes that it would slowly replace Apollo. Ultimately, though, the entire system never played nothing more than a supporting role, always second-to-run to Apollo. Plagued by cost overruns, multiple delays, and two fatal accidents in 1986 and 2004, the Space Shuttle is technically still in operation, but was replaced by the unmanned Shuttle-C in 2011 after STS-135 (Johnson Aerospace's own spaceplanes, Eridanus and Esperia, were considered the final nail in the coffin when they were first launched in 2001). The shuttle system's primary role, when it wasn't launching satellites and probes or carrying out SpaceLab missions, was delivering new modules to Skylab. The last module was delivered in 1986, at which point NASA began winding down Skylab operations in anticipation of Space Station Freedom. Ultimately, though, Skylab remained in orbit until 2004, when it was deorbited over the Pacific by an ASC (amusingly, Johnson Foods ran a contest promising free Big Macs for everyone at McDonald's if a floating target was hit by the Skylab core; Taco Bell had done a similar promotion with Mir, and unlike that, it was a bullseye, meaning everyone got free Big Macs; what made this feat even more amazing was that Johnson Aerospace and Continental Shipping Lines managed to calculate the exact location Skylab would impact).

Apollo was used increasingly for military applications in the 1980s, as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 never existed. As a result, the United States and USSR launched a bunch of different space-based weapons with different purposes. ITTL, the SDI system was launched, as was a classified manned Air Force space station called the Manned Weapons Platform (which carried 60 MIRV nuclear warheads). Apollo 83 carried a pair of Air Force personnel to the MWP in 1984, but this flight attracted too much attention from the media and conspiracy theorists, leading NASA and the USAF to develop the Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV), comprised of Big Gemini, an Apollo Block II SM with an Agena engine, a Mercury LES, and the Saturn I. The CTV remained in service until it was replaced by the Personnel Ferry (PF) in 2004. Other activities allegedly carried out by Apollo in the 80s included photo recon using a Block IV with cameras mounted in the SIM Bay, ASC craft used as tugs to move SDI satellites around, a servicing mission of a KH-11 satellite, and installing an anti-satellite autocannon on Skylab. In addition, Skylab B was launched into lunar orbit as LunarLab, with its own crew rotation cycle; LunarLab was launched in response to an announcemet by the Soviet Union that it would be launching Salyut 7 into lunar orbit, and as a result, was a primarily military station, but also did scout out potential landing sites for future lunar flights. After the Cold War ended in 1991, an ASC sent LunarLab into a heliocentric orbit.

But these military operations were overshadowed by an even bigger accomplishment. In 1982, a Titan III rocket launched Apollo 72. The payload: the Martian Excursion Module. Throughout the early 80s, a whole new system for Martian flights was developed, including the Saturn VI (even bigger than the Saturn V, and including solid rocket boosters), the Ares Propulsion Stack (launched by the Saturn V and fueled by the Space Shuttle), and the aforementioned MEM, with the Block V CSM incorporated in. On March 27, 1986, a little over a year after launch, Apollo 90 landed on Mars, with John Young and Robert Crippin being the first humans to set foot on Mars. Two more Martian flights were flown in 1989 and 1993, before the Mars flights were put on the backburner to focus on a new project.

Other changes were to come to the Apollo program. For one, the Saturn IB was retired from manned service in 1988, and LC-34 was decommissioned and turned into a museum. The rocket wasn't retired wholesale, though, and was made available for commercial and military use; despite this, if the need arises, it can and will be used for manned flights, now being launched from LC-39B on a special launch platform using the tower from LC-37 (on two occassions, this platform was unavailable, so an apparatus nicknamed the "Milkstool" was attached to one of the Saturn V MLPs). Otherwise, the Saturn II became the primary rocket for LEO flights. For another, the venerable A7L spacesuit was retired in 1983 and replaced by the Launch Entry Suit (the "pumpkin suit") and the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (originally developed for the Space Shuttle); the LES was replaced by the ACES suit (Advanced Crew Escape Suit, a bit of a misnomer as the suit would only be used for escape on Space Shuttle; the Apollo ACES suits lack the parachute pack) in 1994, and was fully phased out in 1998.

In 1993, the Clinton administration announced that Space Station Freedom would be combined with the Mir-2 and ESA Columbus space station concepts to create the International Space Station. The station would be constructed using the Space Shuttle and Proton-K rocket, with crew rotation provided by multiple nations; initially, the Apollo Block III and Soyuz were to be the only crew transfer craft, before the ESA developed the Hermes shuttle, Russia resumed development of the Buran program, and private aerospace firm Johnson Aerospace developed the Antares spacecraft. Resupply was initially provided by the ASC and Progress, later joined by the Shuttle-C and ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), and commercial spacecraft such as the Johnson Aerospace Verrezzano and SpacePlanes Eridanus and Esperia, SpaceX Dragon, and Orbital ATK Antares; in future, additional commercial manned spacecraft will service the station, these being the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing CST-100 Starliner. Originally, it was planned to incorporate Skylab into the new station, before NASA sent a crew to assertain Skylab's condition, coming to the conclusion that it would be cheaper to just build a new station, resulting Skylab's deorbiting in 2004.

Today, Apollo is still going strong, with no sign of stopping. Not even the uncertainty of the Trump administration has affected it, as President Donald J. Trump granted the program a $12 billion boost in the FY2018 budget to return to Mars. Armstrong Base has since been expanded as part of the Phase II Lunar Base, and is now a permanently-manned presence on the Moon.

Apollo is due to undergo a few major changes in the coming years. For one, the aging Lunar Module will be replaced by a new lander called Artemis in 2020, the Saturn IB will be fully phased out by 2024, and NASA is due to launch a new lunar space station known as Lunar Orbital Platform, a spiritual successor to LunarLab, but for civilian purposes such as a staging ground for manned and unmanned lunar expeditions, and a checkpoint for spacecraft bound for Armstrong Base.

Gallery
A gallery showing the spacecraft in Kerbal Space Program is coming soon.

HBO bumpers
HBO keeps the 1982 "HBO in Space" bumper for primetime in all the HBO channels, the 1986 bumper for daytime and HBO Latino, the 1998 bumper for original series (the full version for season premieres), and the 2017 version for HBO Go.

Muppets
Due to the Disney buyout by Johnson and The Muppet Show being revived in 2015, Steve Whitmire never gets fired from the Muppets. In addition, Kermit becomes a regular on Sesame Street again starting in Season 45 due to Johnson licensing the character to Sesame Workshop.

Ray Combs
Due to never being fired from Family Feud, staying on the show until his 2010 retirement, Combs did not commit suicide in 1996.

Robin Williams
During his participation in the Legend of Zelda anime made by Johnson Television starting in 2013, Tim Johnson was able to convince Robin Williams (who voices Navi in the series) to get help for his depression. As a result, he did not commit suicide, and reprised his role as the Genie in the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin to universal acclaim.

In addition, he never a falling out with Disney after Aladdin came out, and voiced Genie in all subsequent appearances. The television series, as a result, experienced multiple delays getting to air because the staff had trouble figuring out which of Williams' ad-libs to use.

Tim Curry
Tim Curry never had his stroke in 2012, and as a result, is still very active (and hammy).

Northern Calloway
Calloway was reminded to get a psychologist to help him by Sheldon Johnson, Jr. in 1987. As a result, he’s still alive, and still plays David on Sesame Street (Mr. Handford and Alan still exist though).

John Kricfalusi
The sexual allegations against John K. turned out to be false, and the crowdfunded short Cans Without Labels was released on time in February 2013 and to critical acclaim (and does not have any of the same problems as the actual short; there’s no CGI, no camera shake, no Donald Bastard, no padding, and the sound design is much better; CWL is also much longer with more cans), which led to Johnson acquiring the rights to The Ren and Stimpy Show from Nickelodeon and greenlighting three new seasons for Cartoon Network.

Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman walked out on Brynn instead of threatening to do so, which started a very messy, very public divorce. He is still alive, and still voicing his characters on The Simpsons, in addition to voicing Zapp Brannigan on Futurama. Philip J. Fry is instead known as Curtis J. Fry, as the name "Philip" was chosen in Phil's honor.

Carrie Fisher
Carrie never had a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2016, and is still alive. This also meant The Rise of Skywalker didn't require major rewrites, and Fisher reprised her role as Leia in Star Wars: The New Republic.

Peter Hawkins
Hawkins never developed a brain tumor in 1992, and though he still died of a stroke in 2006, he did not retire from voice acting, voicing the Daleks in the EarthBound movie.

Christopher Collins
Christopher Collins (AKA Chris Latta) successfully got help for his alchoholism once The Transformers moved to Johnson, and didn't die of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1994. As a result, he voiced Starscream in the Beast Wars episode "Possession", and also voiced him in Transformers Animated, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, Transformers Prime, Transformers Robots in Disguise (2015 version), and Transformers: The Great War; he also voices Wheeljack, Defensor, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Reflector, Skullcruncher, Slammer, and Krunk in the latter. He also continues voicing Cobra Commander in all GI Joe cartoons (as well as on Family Guy in the episode "PTV"), and never left The Simpsons, meaning he still voices Mr. Burns instead of Harry Shearer (Hank Azaria still voices Moe).

Professional Baseball in Japan
All OTL Nippon Professional Baseball teams are Major League Baseball teams. All Central League teams are National League, and likewise all Pacific League teams are American League.

Many teams have different names:


 * Hanshin Tigers are Nishinomiya Farmers
 * Yokohama DeNA BayStars are still the Taiyo Whales
 * Yomiuri Giants and Bunkyo Scholars

Teams frequently play road games on the Mainland United States, and vice-versa. No Japanese States team has ever won the World Series, though quite a few have made World Series appearances.

Professional Basketball in Japan
Likewise, all B.League are NBA teams. Teams are split into the North and South Conferences, each with three leagues: East, Central, and West (the OTL Third Division teams are NBA G League teams). Like in the MLB, no Japanese States basketball team has ever won the NBA Championship.

McDonald’s sign in Biloxi, MS
The sign was moved before Hurricane Katrina to be restored. As a result, it survived.

Power Rangers
Because Japan is part of the United States, the Power Rangers franchise does not exist. Super Sentai still exists, with all series broadcast on both sides of the Pacific the exact same way, in English, uncut. This means that the Japanese cultural differences from the American mainland are still present in mainland airings, as is the violence, the sillier aspects, and the dark storylines compared to the more "hip and radical" Power Rangers of our timeline.

Disney Live-Action Remakes
The live-action remakes are much different from OTL:


 * Cinderella, Maleficent, The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Christopher Robin and Lady and the Tramp are the same as in OTL; the failure of Alice Through the Looking Glass saw Tim Johnson take over almost the entire creative process of the remakes.
 * Beauty and the Beast has Belle Armstrong as Belle instead of Emma Watson, Tim Johnson as the Beast/Prince Adam (wearing full makeup instead of motion-capture) instead of Dan Stevens (Tim also directed the film), Belle's iconic ballgown is identical to its animated counterpart, the final battle and Gaston's death are also identical to the animated film, the opening song is much more lively and busy, and instead of singing "Evermore" after Belle leaves to find her father, the Beast instead sings "If I Can't Love Her" from the Broadway adaptation; Tim explained in an interview that "Evermore" had been written by Alan Menkin, but he felt "If I Can't Love Her" was flat-out superior; Tim's performance of the song was critically-acclaimed, as was the entire film in general, cementing his status as a top-class director with an eye for detail and talent. In addition, none of the songs use auto-tune, LeFou doesn't exist, and the film has less similarities to the original.
 * Dumbo is mostly the same, except the film takes place in the Spring of 1941, and there are extended scenes with the circus train. These scenes were created by a separate unit headed up by Tim Johnson, and involve Continental Rail's screen locomotive, Baldwin 2-8-0 #1472 (also used in Tales from the Rails and numerous other Johnson productions), and their crew trying to prove that Consolidations are still relevant in the age of duplex and articulated locomotives, which they successfully do when they lug the entire circus train over Pacheco Pass without a helper.
 * Aladdin is somewhat the same, except Robin Williams reprises his role as the Genie (as he is still alive in the Johnsonverse), and Gilbert Gottfried reprises Iago, with Adam Jacobs reprising his role as Aladdin from the original Broadway cast. Dalia and Prince Anders don't exist, and Iago is still a snarky talking loudmouth. All the songs are from the original, the songs "Proud of Your Boy" and "Why Me?" were reinstated, as were "Somebody's Got Your Back" and "High Adventure" (and by extension the characters of Babkak, Omar, and Kassim), and there are key differences in the story to distance it from the original.
 * The idea of a remake of The Lion King was shot down by Tim, as he felt it wouldn't count as a live-action remake if 99% of it were computer-animated. Instead, The Lion King III was released, and is centered on Kiara and Kovu years after The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.
 * Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is directed by Tim Johnson, and the film is made part of the Nirn Anthology (a multimedia franchise created by Johnson in 2013 consisting of The Elder Scrolls, The Legend of Zelda, Moesia, Wakfu, Mount & Blade, Frozen, and Tangled). As a result, the militaries of Hyrule and Moesia show up during the final battle.
 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be directed by Tim, who has already lined up Michael Arden to reprise his Broadway and World Masterpiece Theatre role as Quasimodo.
 * Mulan is mostly the same, except that the character Li Shang is not cut due to the #MeToo movement.

Return of the Jedi
As Sheldon Johnson, Jr. wrote and directed Return of the Jedi (in his writing and directing debut, the youngest writer and director for a major motion picture at 19), there are some key differences:


 * The dialogue is closer to the radio drama.
 * More menacing Ewoks
 * Luke goes to Dagobah first before going to Tatooine, where he talks to Ben's ghost in his hut. The scene where Luke builds his lightsaber is present.
 * In Jabba's palace, Luke meets Mara Jade (played by Demi Moore).
 * Jabba brags about having killed some Jedi in the past in the subtitles
 * Different crawl, going "The Alliance is doomed. Hunted by the Imperial star fleet, and suffering terrible losses, the rebels have retreated to the rim world of SULLUST. Sensing ultimate victory, Darth Vader and his cruel EMPEROR have begun construction on two new battle stations even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. Luke Skywalker has returned to his homeworld to rescue his friend Han Solo from the vile gangster JABBA THE HUTT, unaware of the sinister plots laid out against him...."
 * The crawl font is News Gothic, matching A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
 * Different opening shot showing the shuttle coming from the Executor.
 * Two Death Stars (the first, less complete version is used as a trap for the rebels, and is rammed into intentionally by Piett, the second one is destroyed by Lando)
 * The Emperor's throne room is on the Imperial capitol of Coruscant.
 * Better matte for the core shaft.
 * Different B-Wing helmet design.
 * Vader's unmasking goes just like the 1996 radio drama, with Anakin telling Luke, "I'm proud that you've grown into the man I wanted to be..." as his last words before dying.
 * Better puppetry for Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band.
 * No force kick.
 * No gonk droid torture.
 * C-3PO's "captain obvious" lines are gone.
 * Boba Fett is purposefully shot by Han. Said shot is in the jetpack, and he is still sent flying into the Sarlaac, and eventually gets out.
 * Sebastian Shaw's Anakin wears darker robes and younger makeup (he still gets controversially replaced by Hayden Christensen in the 2004 Special Edition, the move being undone in the 2017 Ultimate Edition).
 * Only a small portion of the OTL Ewok celebration is in the film which then leads to the funeral pyre scene. This is where the Force Ghosts appeared and the film ended with Luke giving Leia a lightsaber that he built.
 * Darth Vader says, “Your mother....once thought as you do” to Luke.
 * Yoda's death is before Tatooine and Luke talks to Ben in his hut.
 * Expanded rebel briefing set with Dodonna and Rieekan, Wookiees and female pilots.
 * Female pilots at the battle, with the existing pilot having a female voice.
 * Much more epic space battle, including Rebel pilots kamikazing Y-wings into Imperial ships. More A-wings and B-wings are also in the battle.
 * Gore in the Ewoks attacking the Imperial troops.
 * Palpatine mentions that Anakin would've been the Chosen One and destroyed the Dark Side if he had the chance; the prequels expand upon the prophecy.
 * Different shuttle class for Tydyrium (namely, the cargo shuttle that later appeared in Rogue One).
 * A waterfall behind the area behind the Imperial landing platform for scenery and “that the Empire would use them for power generation and it would provide Vader with an uncomfortable reminder of Naboo when he meets Luke at the platform."
 * Leia is shocked at the revelation of being Luke's sister.
 * The centered/clumped shots have different framing.
 * Evidence in the background of Ewoks worshipping a 3PO-like god.
 * More scary 3PO flying chair scene.
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi's account of Luke's parental history is expanded; Obi-Wan states that Owen Lars was his brother, and that Luke and Leia's mother, Padme Amidala, died when they were four (thus, Padme's death in ROTS is caused by poor communication between Johnson and Lucas).
 * Evidence of life on the forest moon (idols, carvings, etc.)
 * Vader's arm stump is more realistic.
 * The introduction of Supertroopers--an elite class of Imperial troops.
 * The rebel docking bay uses a scale model in lieu of a matte.
 * The sandstorm scene is in lieu of ship-to-ship conversation.
 * Better Jerjerrod characterization.
 * Yoda reveals that Obi-Wan would have told Luke the truth that Vader was indeed his father if he'd let him, but that Luke wasn't ready for "the burden" yet.
 * Grander Jabba's palace "belching creature" shot.
 * Dune Sea shots look more like the Dune Sea.
 * Better Force lightning.

The Force Awakens
Tim Johnson followed in his father's footsteps, and is directing the entire Sequel Trilogy, with The Force Awakens being his directorial debut. All three movies, and the Stories films, are co-distributed by Johnson Studios and 20th Century Fox (after the Fox buyout, Fox took sole distribution rights to all future Star Wars movies; the Fox logo used is the 2009 revision introduced in Avatar). There are many, many differences:
 * The soundtrack for all three movies was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, instead of a Los Angeles-based freelance orchestra.
 * All three films are done so the viewer wouldn't have to know everything from the Expanded Universe.
 * The opening crawl is different. It reads: "Thirty years have passed since the evil Galactic Empire was defeated at Endor. After a power struggle on Coruscant, the tyrannical FIRST ORDER rose in its ashes. To counter this, the Rebel Alliance has been reformed into the NEW REPUBLIC, and Luke Skywalker is training a new generation of Jedi knights, seeking to restore justice to a galaxy that can no longer remember what peace is. Meanwhile, a spy working for the Republic is assigned to pose as a Stormtrooper, as part of a mission to discover secrets about the First Order...."
 * Starkiller Base does not exist; the Eclipse-class Star Dreadnought is there in its place.
 * Rey is depicted as having trust issues and social awkwardness, with none of the "perfect" traits that plagued her characterization in the OTL (getting training from Luke in several scenes, letting Finn fly the Otana, etc.), and Daisy Ridley notably does a better job playing Rey. In addition, she builds her own lightsaber rather than use Anakin’s.
 * Kylo Ren is not Han and Leia's son. Instead, Jacen (played by Alden Ehrenreich), Jaina (played by Emma Roberts), and Anakin Solo (played by Freddie Highmore) are brought over to the new canon, but don't play much of a role. Instead, Kylo Ren is explicitly stated to be Jaden Korr after the dark side ending of Jedi Academy, the Knights of Ren being what was left of the Disciples of Ragnos and New Reborn. Kylo Ren is also played by a different actor due to being older (Christian Bale), and Adam Driver instead plays Ben Skywalker, Luke's son.
 * The plot has less similarities to A New Hope.
 * The Resistance doesn't exist. Instead, the New Republic takes an active role in fighting the First Order.
 * It is made clear that the supposed Yuuzhan Vong War was an audio play that incited mass panic due to the first part sounding like a genuine news broadcast and there being no indication that it was fiction; Leia had to make a public address insisting the Yuuzhan Vong didn't exist, and that extragalactic travel had been attempted once with the Outbound Flight Project and failed. Tim stated in an interview that the throwaway line was meant to fix his least favorite part of the Expanded Universe, as well as to homage Orson Welles' infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast. The entire audio play was produced and released as a bonus feature on home video, narrated by Maurice LaMarche impersonating Welles.
 * Leia is Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic, instead of leader of the Resistance.
 * Han and Chewie never go back to smuggling, they still own the Falcon, and Han never immediately takes a shine to Rey.
 * Luke's New Jedi Order wasn't destroyed by the Knights of Ren. Instead, Jaden slaughtered many Jedi and Reborn on Korriban, then killed Tavion Axmis for the Scepter of Ragnos and defeated Kyle Katarn, but did not destroy the Jedi due to Snoke realizing that if there were more Jedi than Sith, the Force would create another Chosen One.
 * Since there is no need for a team to take down the shields on the Eclipse, Han Solo lives, and participates in the final battle piloting the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca.
 * Since Luke never went into exile, BB-8 isn't carrying part of the map to him, but rather, is carrying information on First Order supply lines. And rather than it taking until the third act to get him to the Resistance, the film opens with Poe delivering him to Airen Cracken (played by Michael Stevens reprising his role from Return of the Jedi) on Coruscant.
 * Finn is not a stormtrooper who defected, but a spy working for the New Republic Intelligence Service. After being found out, he steals a TIE Fighter and crashes on the surface of Jakku, where he meets Rey, and never lies to her.
 * Captain Phasma has a larger role.
 * The ship Finn and Rey steal to escape Jakku is the Otana from X-Wing Alliance.
 * The film opens with a battle between the First Order and the Pentastar Alignment, in which Kylo Ren boards the Reaper, confronts and kills Grand Moff Ardus Kaine (played by Paul McGann), and has a brief lightsaber duel with the Dark Jedi Jerec (played by Christopher Neame, reprising his role from Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II) resulting in the latter's death. The Reaper is then destroyed by the Eclipse 's superlaser. Because of this different opening, Lor San Tekka doesn't exist, and Max von Sydow plays a different character in The Rise of Skywalker.
 * Luke makes his first appearance during the first act, leading New Republic forces against the First Order on Eriadu.
 * Rey and Finn arrive at Maz's Castle without Han and Chewie, since they didn't steal the Millennium Falcon.
 * The lightsaber Rey finds is Mace Windu's, in pieces after being damaged by its fall on Coruscant. Anakin's lightsaber wouldn't be found until The Rise of Skywalker. Rey is shown reconstructing it.
 * Poe is leader of Rogue Squadron, after Wedge was promoted to admiral and made captain of the Lusankya.
 * The final battle takes place over Coruscant, with the Eclipse aiming its superlaser at the Senate District, while Kylo Ren leads a legion of stormtroopers in an attack on the Jedi Temple. The massive space battle sees Finn fly an X-Wing into battle, ultimately unlocking his Force potential and destroying the Eclipse with a well-placed shot.
 * The battle on Coruscant sees Leia finally take up her lightsaber and carve a swathe of destruction through stormtroopers and AT-STs, coming to a head when she uses the Force to crush an AT-AT.
 * During the space battle, Poe unlocks his Force potential and saves the Home One from a kamikaze attack on its bridge by an out-of-control TIE Fighter.
 * Rey unlocks her Force potential during the battle in the Jedi Temple. When Luke is at Kylo Ren's mercy, Kylo tries to force-pull Luke's lightsaber, only for it to go to Rey's hand, like in the original movie.
 * After Kylo Ren is ordered back to the First Order's homeworld by Snoke, Luke reveals to Rey that she is his long-lost daughter. In a nod to the original script for Return of the Jedi, Rey states she somehow always knew. She is then told her mother, Mara Jade, was one of those killed by Kylo Ren when he attacked the now-abandoned Jedi Praxeum on Yavin IV, thus giving her a reason to want another go at him.
 * The movie ends with Rey, Finn, and Poe becoming Jedi Apprentices, with Rey assigned to Kyle Katarn (played by Tom Hardy). Rey and Luke go to Ahch-To to hand Mace Windu his lightsaber, setting up The Last Jedi.

Rogue One
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was hardly any different from OTL. Gareth Edwards was still director, Michael Giaccino was still composer, and the entire cast was unchanged. The film is co-distributed by Johnson Studios and 20th Century Fox.


 * All ships are models instead of CGI.
 * The CGI used for Tarkin and Leia is better.
 * The London Symphony Orchestra did the soundtrack.

The Last Jedi



 * The title "The Last Jedi" refers to the last surviving member of the old Jedi Council, Mace Windu.
 * The film uses bright colors instead of a gritty, washed-out color palette.
 * The opening crawl is different, reading: "The FIRST ORDER is desperate. After the destruction of the Eclipse dealt a severe blow to them, Kylo Ren is growing distrustful of his Supreme Leader Snoke. Chancellor Leia Organa of the NEW REPUBLIC has sent two of her trusted allies on a mission to find MACE WINDU, the last surviving member of the old Jedi Council. Only Windu's return can assist in the valiant effort to bring down this bitter force of evil, as Snoke lays out a plot to crush the Republic...."
 * The "hyperfuel" and "important golden dice" plot points, as well as the "Leia Poppins" scene, are nonexistent.
 * Plot points from The Force Awakens are not left unresolved.
 * Star Destroyers and AT-ATs are normal sized rather than massive.
 * Much of the plot of the original movie is changed. Han is notably involved in the plot due to him not dying in the previous film.
 * The Wilhelm scream is played in the Battle of Crait.
 * The Evacuation of D'Qar is not the Resistance abandoning their base, but the New Republic pulling back from a position that can't defend.
 * The unwieldy MG-110 StarFortresses are replaced by the K-Wing from the old EU. They are also much more successful in destroying the dreadnaught, and as a result, Poe isn't demoted from commander.
 * The characters of Rose Tico, Amelyn Holdo, and DJ do not exist. The porgs do, though, and Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, and Benicio Del Toro have roles in The Rise of Skywalker as different characters. Captain Phasma does not appear due to her death in the previous film. Kyle Katarn also appears in the Jedi Order subplot.
 * Admiral Ackbar survives, and appears in The Rise of Skywalker.
 * Rey's plot sees her going to Ahch-To with Luke to find Mace Windu to give him his lightsaber, but Mace has become a somewhat-senile hermit (Luke is written with his proper characterization). He has adapted to using only his left hand since he never got a mechanical hand. Luke and Rey are trying to convince Master Windu to come back and help in the fight with the First Order, but Windu lashes out at them for being descendants of Anakin. He remains belligerent until he gets a visit from Yoda's Force Ghost, in a scene that plays similar to his appearance in the original, only it’s about forgiveness instead of the failures of the old order, and Yoda does not use lightning.
 * The Canto Bight scenes are absent, as there is no need for a master slicer. In its place is a shorter subplot showing C-3PO and R2-D2 being sent on a mission to steal sensitive First Order data.
 * The other plot, besides Ahch-To, involves Finn and Poe trying to find their place in the Jedi Order. Finn eventually chooses to become a Jedi Guardian, while Poe joins the Jedi Aces.
 * The First Order plot focuses on friction between Kylo Ren and Snoke regarding how to rebuild the Sith Order. Snoke advocates continuing Darth Bane's Rule of Two, while Kylo wants something different from both the First Order and the New Republic.
 * Kylo never destroys his mask, due to it giving him an identity.
 * Rey is not shown swimming due to having lived on Jakku her entire life and thus never having seen water.
 * No Force communication scenes.
 * The climax takes place aboard the Supremacy, in which Han, Luke, Rey, and Mace Windu confront Kylo Ren and Snoke. Here, Snoke reveals he is actually Darth Plagueis, and Rey loses her right hand in the ensuing lightsaber duel. Just when it seems Snoke is about to strike Luke down, a red lightsaber blade pierces his chest. Snoke's body then drops to reveal Darth Traya (played by Sara Kestelman, reprising her role from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords), who has returned from the dead to finish what she sought to do thousands of years ago: destroy the Force itself. She and Windu have a duel that ultimately ends with Mace sacrificing his life to allow Han, Luke and Rey to escape on the Millennium Falcon. Kylo Ren becomes Traya's new apprentice, after killing the other Knights of Ren to prove his loyalty, and Traya gives him the name Darth Stalker.
 * While the confrontation is going on, the Supremacy and its accompanying fleet is engaged in a battle with a New Republic fleet commanded by Wedge Antilles (played by Denis Lawson) that ends with the Supremacy destroyed in a lightspeed kamikaze attack by the Lusankya (Wedge leaves the ship in his X-Wing just in time and leads his old squadron mates Hobbie, Janson, and Tycho in mopping up the remaining ships).
 * The movie ends with Rey receiving a mechanical hand like her father's on Coruscant, and Luke conferring with the Force Ghosts of Anakin (played by Hayden Christensen, with Sebastian Shaw's face CG'd on), Windu, Obi-Wan (played by Ewan McGregor, with Alec Guinness' face CG'd on), and Yoda. Anakin suddenly disappears, and reappears behind Luke in the flesh, discovering he has been resurrected by the will of the Force to destroy the Sith once and for all.

Solo
Solo was never made in the Johnsonverse, as Tim felt it would be unnecessary due to the character's self-explanatory nature. Instead, a film about Boba Fett's escape from the Sarlaac and subsequent entanglements with the New Republic and Imperial Remnant, titled Fett: A Star Wars Story, was made, directed by Steven Spielberg. Temuera Morrison portrays Boba Fett, and Simon Pegg portrays Dengar. Because of its success in the box office, the Stories series is not put on hold, and Fett will be followed up by Wretched Hive: A Star Wars Story, a James Cameron-directed Stories entry centered around the Mos Eisley spaceport and takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, set for a December 2020 release, and Tony Gilroy's Maul: A Star Wars Story (which is centered on, of course, Maul, and takes place a few years before A New Hope) in 2022, along with upcoming Stories entries about Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jabba the Hutt, directed by Colin Trevorrow, Stephen Daldry, and Brad Bird, respectively.

The Rise of Skywalker



 * As stated above, Max Von Sydow, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, and Benicio Del Toro all have roles in the movie. Sydow plays a Republic general, Tran plays a different version of Rose Tico who is a Jedi Sentinel partnered with Finn on a mission to Taris, Dern plays a different version of Amelyn Holdo, depicted as a Republic general who is much less patronizing and doesn't have pink hair or a ballgown, and Del Toro plays a First Order enforcer named Burt Kae.
 * Tim Johnson voices D-O.
 * The opening crawl is different, reading: "The galaxy is in chaos! One year after the Battle of Crait, the FIRST ORDER's grip on the galaxy has strengthened, and the New Republic is doomed. As part of her latest scheme to destroy the Force itself, the DARK LADY TRAYA has resurrected various Sith Lords of the past, creating the NEW SITH ORDER. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order, aided by the return of his late father ANAKIN SKYWALKER, hopes to bring balance to the Force and save the galaxy once and for all....".
 * The film never had major rewrites as Carrie Fisher is still alive in the Johnsonverse. Leia unlocks her Force potential in the climax.
 * The film opens on Korriban, where Darth Traya has created a new Sith Order free of the restrictions of the Rule of Two. It is ruled by a body of resurrected Sith Lords of the past known as the Council of Darths, consisting of Traya herself, Darth Malak (played by Rafael Ferrer reprising his role from Knights of the Old Republic), the entire Dark Council from The Old Republic, Darth Maul (played by Ray Park and dubbed by Sam Witwer), and Darth Tyrannus/Count Dooku (played by an unnamed actor with Christopher Lee's face CG'd on, and dubbed by Corey Burton). She also resurrected General Grievous (voiced by Matthew Wood and portrayed using a combination of stop-motion and a large, sophisticated puppet) to use as a Jedi hunter.
 * During their mission to Taris, Finn and Rose barely escape aboard the Otana when Malak bombs it to dust again, this time to strike fear.
 * Rey's subplot sees her training under Leia and the resurrected Anakin in the Jedi Temple, and finding Anakin's old lightsaber on Bespin.
 * The First Order doesn't use jetpacks, and there's a throwaway line where a stormtrooper states jetpacks are only for people who want to get thrown into a Sarlaac pit, referencing Boba Fett.
 * The final battle takes place on Naboo, with an aged Jar Jar Binks (voiced by Danny DeVito, and portrayed by a costumed performer with an advanced animatronic head), leading a combination of the Grand Gungan Army and reprogrammed B1 battle droids left over from the invasion in 32 BBY against the Third Sith Empire. The New Republic also reveals it has amassed a brand-new clone army from Kamino, leading to the sight of clones and battle droids fighting side-by-side to show how desperate the situation is, and Luke calls upon the Force Ghosts of Anakin's father Kane Skywalker (played by Joseph D. Kucan), Mace, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon (played by Liam Neeson), Ahsoka Tano (played by Ashley Eckstein), Luminara Unduli (played by Mary Oyaya), Aayla Secura (played by Amy Allen), Adi Gallia (played by Angelique Perrin), and Kanan Jarrus (played by Freddie Prinze, Jr.). The final lightsaber duel takes place between Anakin and Traya in the same Plasma Refinery Complex Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon dueled Darth Maul all those years ago. Meanwhile, Rey confronts Kylo Ren, and nearly falls to the dark side avenging Mara Jade, before her brother Ben calms her; Kylo Ren declares Jaden Korr is dead, and is about to finish the Skywalker siblings, before Kyle Katarn appears and has one last duel with his fallen student, ending with Kylo Ren being sucked out into space and into Naboo's star, where he is disintegrated by the sheer heat. Kyle declares that Rosh Penin and every other Jedi who died at Jaden's hands can now rest in peace. Meanwhile, the other members of the Council of Darths meet various fates, such as Darth Maul being killed by Obi-Wan's Force Ghost to avenge Satine Kryze, Darth Baras being killed by Leia, Darth Malak being killed by Finn and Rose, Count Dooku being killed by Jacen and Jaina, Darth Malgus being overwhelmed by clone troopers and shot to death, and General Grievous being killed by Luke in a manner identical to the pre-Johnson version of Revenge of the Sith. Traya meets her end in the biggest Force duel in galactic history, a duel that levels much of Theed from the sheer power and ends with Traya reduced to a writhing skeleton, then dust in the wind, her soul sent to oblivion, and Anakin fulfills his destiny as the Chosen One once and for all. The space battle takes place above the planet of Exogol, where Lando (in the Tydirium), Han and Chewie (in the Falcon), and Wedge (in his X-wing) lead a New Republic fleet to victory against the First Order, while Holdo, Ackbar and Burt communicate with them through the scanners on their helmets.
 * The Wilhelm scream plays during the space battle.
 * The film ends with the New Republic celebrating their victory, and planetary celebrations across the galaxy, consisting of Scarif, Tatooine, Bespin, Endor, Jakku, Kashyyyk, Naboo (compete with shots showing the reconstruction of Theed), and then Coruscant, going from night to day to represent the end of darkness. It cuts to the Millennium Falcon landing, and Anakin, Luke, Leia, Han, Rey, Ben, Finn, and Poe all coming out of it and walking up to the Jedi Temple. There, they see the Force Ghosts of Kane, Mace, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Ahsoka, Luminara, Aayla, Adi, Kanan, Qui-Gon, and one more Force ghost: Mara Jade, as the Force theme plays. The camera cuts to an exterior shot of the Temple, then pans up to the twin suns and some fireworks exploding. The credits then play.