It is now known that George Lucas was indeed developing a new trilogy of "Star Wars" films before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. Like most geeks, I've been somewhat curious to know what ol' George had up his sleeve...and if anything he was working on made it into J.J. Abrams "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Well...that question has now been answered.
Early on in the development process, Lucas gave his story notes and outlines to screenwriter Michael Arndt, who was the original scribe to work on the project. When Abrams came on board as director, he almost immediately scrapped Arndt's version then took over the writing duties with Lawrence Kasdan...who wrote both "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."
In an interview with CimemaBlend, Lucas was asked about his original concepts for "Episode VII," and this was his telling response:
"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]."
So "The Force Awakens" is going to be a totally different story than what Lucas wanted to tell...and that's probably a good thing. In case you were wondering what that may have been, the rumors are that he wanted to make Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia secondary characters and focus on a new, younger generation. Now, "The Force Awakens" does present a group of new characters such as Finn, Rey and Poe, but the main franchise characters will also have a larger presence and play a more vital role in the unfolding story.
Aside from characters though, I must admit that I would like to know what Lucas' overarching plot points were. As long as it didn't involve trade federations, Gungans, and whiny brat Jedi "masters," I think it would have been just fine.
