George Lucas decided not to direct STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS and let Disney do their thing with his outline for a third trilogy in the saga of the Skywalker clan. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm a couple of years ago, that included the script treatment for three films that Lucas had prepared for them. Now, it turns out that treatment is not being used at all for the J.J. Abrams/Lawrence Kasdan scripted sequel.
Doing press for the upcoming STRANGE MAGIC, Lucas told Cinema Blend that:
“The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens]”
Could this be the reason why George Lucas has not been involved as a consultant on the new films? Was Disney so worried that the tainted memory of the prequels could affect their news films? Seeing as Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy is directly involved in the production of STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS, I kind of doubt it. Still, this instantly made me wonder if Disney wants to separate themselves so much that this is another reason why EPISODE VII appears in none of the marketing thus far.
Whether or not the general plot outline will share any semblance to Lucas’ ideas will not be known unless that treatment leaks at some point or if Lucas himself tells us after he watches STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS when it hits theaters. There have been countless writers in the medium of comic books, literature, and video games to successfully expand the STAR WARS mythos that I am not overly concerned about this news. But, somewhere in the back of my mind, it feels a little wrong to get a new trilogy without Lucas’ involvement.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS opens on December 18, 2015.