Disney Scrapped George Lucas’ Plans for ‘Star Wars Episode VII’ (And I'm glad they did!)

I found this article very interesting. Firstly, I wasn't aware that George Lucas was going to make Star Wars Episode VII before Disney had purchased Lucasarts. I wasn't aware that he was so far along on that path that he even inquired some of the original actors to see if they would be interested in taking part in it.

At first when I read the title to this article I was thinking "WHAT?!?! Why would they do that! George Lucas is divinity in human form!!!", and then I realized why....

But there was a time before the Lucasfilm sale when Lucas was developing his own Episode VII, going as far as to approach Harrison Ford, Carrie Fischer, and Mark Hamill about reprising their roles. Now a new report sheds some light on what the George Lucas Episode VII would have been — and why it didn’t go forward at Disney. Get the juicy details after the jump.

In their Star Wars cover story, Vanity Fair (via The Atlantic) reveals Lucas had “sketched out ideas for episodes VII, VIII, and IX” before the Disney acquisition. In fact, as we previously heard, Lucas’ original plan was to release Episode VII before that sale. But he dropped those plans to focus on raising his child, and after Disney bought Lucasfilm, it scrapped Lucas’ plans, too. Handy explains why:

[Abrams] said Lucas’s treatment had centered on very young characters—teenagers, Lucasfilm told me—which might have struck Disney executives as veering too close for comfort to The Phantom Menace and its 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker and 13-year-old Queen Amidala. “We’ve made some departures” from Lucas’s ideas, Kennedy conceded, but only in “exactly the way you would in any development process.”

Source

Now that I've read this, I'm more excited than ever about this new film. I think it would have been a mistake for Lucas to focus on such a young audience, and Abrams is taking this in the right direction.

What are your thoughts?

As far back as I can remember Lucas had rough drafts for 9 to 12 movies. My father was a writer in the 70's and was privy to some of this

My fathers credential btw including working on The Michigan Murders book

a reply to: Ghost147

"Abrams is taking this in the right direction."

Yes, I trust he will. Abrams is the man!

a reply to: wasaka

Abrams is cool but where is the follow up to 'Cloverfield'?

a reply to: Ghost147

I am no starwars fanatic, but how does it not make sense to have the mean that created the saga to finish it off?

Wouldn't he have the best idea of how it should be portrayed since he well thought it all up?

Or am I ignorant of some facts here.

a reply to: Ghost147

After episodes 1 - 3, scrapping Lucas' ideas seems like a given.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

So did he have more help on 4,5,6 or did he just lose his touch with the 1-3?

a reply to: Sremmos80

Just because you thought up an idea doesn't make it your property.

For example George Washington wouldn't protest against the Baltimore police department because they killed a young black American. (Abraham Lincoln, maybe, but not Washington.)

Not sure what my point is or was im just typing.

I just saw the trailor a few days ago on the news of a new one coming out....... Is that they one they are cancelling?

ID

a reply to: ItalianDressing

They aren't cancelling the film, they just rewrote what George Lucas had original had in mind

George Lucas has, or used to have, good ideas, but he was crappy in writing and fleshing them out. He did have the ideas for Star Wars, but I don't think he actually wrote out the scripts himself. At least, the versions you see in the movies are not a final script version anywhere - Ford, for example, apparently created a lot of his own lines.

So, I can well imagine that Lucas had something and Disney noped out of it real fast.

originally posted by: Ghost147

Now that I've read this, I'm more excited than ever about this new film. I think it would have been a mistake for Lucas to focus on such a young audience, and Abrams is taking this in the right direction.

Totally agree...I got really nervous when I heard they were making new movies...good find and post...adults need this stuff haha..or at least I do!

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: Krazysh0t

So did he have more help on 4,5,6 or did he just lose his touch with the 1-3?

I'm guessing with 1 to 3, his ego got the better of him and he stopped taking directed criticism to shape his ideas.

This link has a pretty good description of how A New Hope came to be, and it seems that he had trouble taking critiques from people even back that far before everyone thought he was a minor deity of film.

originally posted by: Ghost147
a reply to: ItalianDressing

They aren't cancelling the film, they just rewrote what George Lucas had original had in mind

Ohh okay. I don't think I have seen a single Star Wars film straight through. Maybe I should see what all the nerd hype is about lol.

ID

a reply to: ketsuko

That makes sense.

I guess I am just giving him to much benefit of the doubt.

It would have been awful full of jar-jar like characters,Good move on scraping it.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: ketsuko

That makes sense.

I guess I am just giving him to much benefit of the doubt.

Shadow Moon, proof that George Lucas should never, ever be allowed to think he can write.

My friend in college had this book and I borrowed it because I love Willow, one of the most underrated movies ever. It completely kills that love. If you want, look at some of the box-quoted pulls from customer reviews and you can see echoes of the criticisms of Lucas's first Star Wars script effort.

Now, without seeing what Disney had to work with, it's impossible to say if there was anything good in there. Ultimately, Lucas did produce Star Wars, but it also took about 6 revisions and the creative input of all his actors for it to happen.

What most people do not realize, is that most of the coolest most iconic stuff in the original trilogy, was created by other people and not George Lucas. Also, he only directed A New Hope in the original trilogy. Empire, and Return of the Jedi were both, mostly written by, and directed by other people. Then every time George Lucas has updated and added his new ideas to the original trilogy. By making and releasing a new version. It has made it worse.

The prequel trilogy films were all directed by and written by George Lucas. They are widely considered to be inferior to the original trilogy. So I do not blame Disney for throwing out all of ole George's ideas. As he aged he wanted to make Star Wars bland, shiny, and only for kids.

This has been known for quite some time.

Lucas is so controversial for us Star Wars fans.

No matter what the man deserves respect, he was the guy that planted the seeds of this wonderful universe, no Lucas, no star wars.

Now yes the prequels did not life up to expectations, but i think a lot of that was because they had such a bad start, episode one was just awful up until that last lightsabre duel. I personally think that episode to was much better and that episode 3 was particularly good. The prequels failed though for a few reasons, Hayden Christiansen, some very bad writing, way too much CGI, pretty much all of episode one and Jar-jar. On a side note JJ has said last week he wants to kill Jar-Jar off, putting his bones in a scene.

Anyway regardless of all that Lucas deserves credit for starting of a amazing universe, he was the vision behind the it all, however he failed to deliver on that vision a number of times.

originally posted by: ItalianDressing
I just saw the trailor a few days ago on the news of a new one coming out....... Is that they one they are cancelling?

ID

No, nothing has been cancelled

you are probably thinking about one of the anthology films where the director (whose name i cannot remember) has resigned....

or if you believe the internet he was forced out by the films producer because the directors newest movie, fantastic four, is utter crap and he could not play nice with others.