With Disney’s surprise purchase of LucasFilm for a whopping $4 billion in 2012 came the announcement thatStar Wars 7was finally happening. There had been rumors thatGeorge Lucaswas developing a third trilogy for several years, but whenGeorge Lucassold his empire, he relinquished all control to Disney, and he was not involved in any way inStar Wars: The Force Awakens, or its upcoming sequels and spinoffs. A new video surfaced today which delves through interviews and other archived information to piece together whatGeorge Lucas' version ofStar Wars 7may have featured.
This extensive 10-minuteYouTubevideo comes fromMr. Sunday Movies, which delves through a number of old interviews to try and piece together whatGeorge Lucas' version ofStar Wars 7may have been about. ProducerGary Kurtzsaid in a 1999 interview at a sci-fi expo that the original ending ofReturn of the Jediwas not going to reveal that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) are siblings. But that alternate ending has never confirmed byGeorge Lucas. The producer also went on to say thatEpisode 7would followLuke Skywalker’s life as a Jedi, with Luke’s sister arriving from another part of the galaxy in Episode 8, and the Emperor finally revealed in Episode 9.
Back in December 2014, an old 1983 interview withMark Hamillsurfaced, where he revealed thatGeorge Lucashad asked the actor to come back and play an older “Obi-Wan type character, handing Excalibur down to the next generation.” When the actor asked when that movie might come out,George Lucastold him, “around 2011,” which just so happened to be one year before he ended up selling LucasFilm to Disney, and whenStar Wars 7was officially born. The interview was made even more prophetic when fans finally sawStar Wars: The Force Awakens, which ends with Rey (Daisy Ridley) finally meeting an exiled Luke Skykwalker, who has very much become an “Obi-Wan type.”
George Lucasalso reveled in interview segments shortly after LucasFilm was sold that he has “story treatments” for the next three movies, which reportedly centered on a group of teenagers. Disney reportedly discarded these treatments because the teenage elements were too similar to the prequel trilogy. The studio wanted to avoid any comparisons to the much-maligned prequel trilogy, which starred young actors likeJake Lloydas Annakin Skywalker and Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala. There is speculation that young characters such as Kira, an early version of Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Sam, who were featured in concept art from the bookThe Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, could hint that these characters are whoGeorge Lucaswanted to build his trilogy around, although that hasn’t been confirmed.
The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakensbook also includesconcept artthat features a ghost form of a young Annakin Skywalker, Jedi Hunters, Darth Vader’s castle, and Kira finding a map to Luke Skywalker and the rest of the Jedi, in the Emperor’s Tower from the second Death Star, which had now been submerged in water.George Lucashad originally intended to write and directStar Wars: Episode VII, before selling the company and turning over the franchise to a new filmmaker, but that didn’t happen after Disney came along.George Lucasexpressed his frustration in an interview, stating he wanted to continue this family saga. Disney discarded his ideas, telling the filmmaker they wanted to make something for the fans, whichGeorge Lucascalled a “retro movie,” in his interview withCharlie RosebeforeStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas released. Take a look at this 10-minute video below to learn more about whatGeorge Lucas' version ofStar Wars: The Force Awakensmight have been like.
