How to Write a Prequel

The shortest way to answer the question ‘How do I best write a prequel?’ is ‘Don’t.’ Writing prequels usually is a lot more trouble than the end result is worth, but I can see that there are some situations in which you want to write a prequel, in which you feel like you need to tell something which happened before the original story or series. In that case, there are some pitfalls you need to know about so you can, hopefully, avoid them.

1. Don’t use main characters from your original stories

It might sound strange on the first look, because the readers already know those characters and usually are invested in their fate. The problem is that the readers also know that those characters are still alive and kicking in the original stories, which are set later. That diminishes tension, because the worst things will not happen to them. If you need to have main characters from your original stories in the prequels, they should only appear for a short moment, not be involved in a major plot, only in a minor one.

The “Fantastic Beasts” series does this both well and horribly. It does this well when it comes to the lead - Newt Scamander. Newt is only ever mentioned in one capacity in the Harry Potter series to which “Fantastic Beasts” is a prequel: he wrote a book, which is a textbook at Hogwarts in Harry’s time (called “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them”). That is literally all we know about Newt outside of the “Fantastic Beasts” series. He wrote at least one book (perhaps more, but they’re not textbooks at Hogwarts), he lived before Harry’s time (otherwise he wouldn’t have had the chance to write a book which is already a textbook), and he presumably travelled quite a bit to find all those fantastic beasts he wrote about. That’s all - we don’t even know when he lived, since textbooks can have been around for a long time. Did Newt marry? Did he have a family? When and how did he die? Why did he start studying those beasts? We have no idea - at least before we watch “Fantastic Beasts.”

Now let’s look at where the series does this horribly: Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Both are in the series so far and the direction it’s going in suggests that they will play even bigger roles (though Grindelwald is already deep in the story) in future parts. The problem is that we know what will happen to them, we know Dumbledore will defeat Grindelwald in 1945 (which is still far off in the movies so far), but not kill him. We know Grindelwald will die through Voldemort’s hands in the seventh Harry Potter novel. We know Dumbledore will die through Snape’s hands at the end of the sixth Harry Potter novel. None of them is in any lasting mortal danger before that - and that diminishes tension.

2. Don’t have characters appear just for recognition value

It’s very seductive to put in characters from the original stories just for the recognition value, whether you do it to tie the stories more closely together or whether you think they will sell better this way. Characters in a story should always serve it, should be part of at least one plot arc. If they’re part of several, that’s perfectly fine, but one is the minimum. If you just put in characters for recognition and, perhaps, even change their past this way (two examples: C-3PO from Star Wars and Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter), that will only lead to trouble, because especially fans (who are most likely to be interested in your prequel tales) are very adamant about canon, aka ‘not changing something which has already been stated.’

The problems with the two examples above? C-3PO is a regular protocol unit in the original trilogy. During the three movies, we see several other droids of the same type. The prequels turn him into Anakin Skywalker’s personal project. Did Darth Vader sell the blueprints at some point? It’s highly unlikely. As is that Owen Lars, Anakin’s half brother, wouldn’t recognize something he knows his half brother has built, yet the only thing he says about 3PO when seeing him at the beginning of “A New Hope” is ‘you’re a protocol unit.’

And Minerva McGonagall? From the data to be found in the Harry Potter novels, devoted fans have calculated that Professor McGonagall was born in 1935. The “Fantastic Beasts” series is set in the 1920s, so well before McGonagall should have been born, yet we see her as a teacher at Hogwarts in a flashback, where she taught Newt and Leta. Since Newt is already an adult in the series, that would set his time in Hogwarts even earlier than the 1920s.

3. Do not try to force changes in the accepted lore of your stories so far

This plays a little into the other two points on the list - it’s easy to change a character’s vita by accident when you use them in the prequels and it’s easy to put in a character for recognition value, but give them another background than they originally had. For instance, there’s a small point about Luke’s uncle in “A New Hope” which conflicts with the prequels: Obi-Wan mentions that Owen is his brother, so not really Luke’s uncle. A novel which came out alongside “The Phantom Menace” clamps down on this, having young Obi-Wan think about his brother Owen and what he might be doing, but then “Attack of the Clones” came around and made him Anakin’s half brother (to explain their different last names, one might suspect). And, yes, novels which explore different parts of a movie universe are never going to be one hundred percent on the same side as the movies, but, as mentioned, it was also in a movie - and one of the original trilogy, too.

Another tricky background change is Nagini from the Harry Potter series versus the character from “Fantastic Beasts.” For those very few of you who have never had anything to do with Harry Potter, Nagini is a huge snake which Voldemort (the bad guy) keeps as his pet and which also carries one seventh of his soul. There never was a problem with that - Voldemort travelled far to get more powers and knowledge and his family is known for their ability to speak to snakes, so why shouldn’t he have picked up a huge, dangerous, and perhaps slightly magical snake at some point? But no, “Fantastic Beasts” presents Nagini as a witch who is under a curse which, on one hand, allows for her to change into a snake at will, but will, on the other hand, one day deny her the skill to change back into human form. In other words: once upon a time Voldemort’s pet snake was a human witch. That is icky, to say the least.

Prequels, if they are necessary, need to be very careful with original lore, shouldn’t use any major players from the original stories (at least in important roles), and not just throw in stuff for recognition value alone. So if you want to do any of this in your prequel story, you should think about it twice - it rarely pays off and usually isn’t worth it. If you have a character you want to bring into the story at some point, or a story set before the original stories which you think needs to be told, you can write a prequel, but be very, very careful.