Early development According to
Mark Hamill, who plays
Luke Skywalker,
Star Wars creator
George Lucas told him in 1976 that he planned three or four
Star Wars trilogies. Lucas suggested that Hamill could have a
cameo appearance role in
Episode IX, which he imagined filming by 2011. A
Time magazine story in March 1978, quoting Lucas, stated there would be ten
Star Wars films after
The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas similarly stated in an interview with
Starlog magazine in September 1981 that he had the nine-film series plotted, but: As part of his biographical research on George Lucas in the early 1980s, Lucas allowed author
Dale Pollock to read the plot outlines of a 12-film saga on the condition of signing a confidentiality agreement. Through the 1980s, Lucas variously hinted at plot elements from his abandoned sequel trilogy, which he said would have revolved around moral and philosophical problems, including distinguishing right from wrong, justice, confrontation, and passing on what one has learned. Ideas which seem to have been used in Disney's sequel trilogy include: •
Episode VII would begin 20–40 years after the end of
Return of the Jedi (Lucas in 1980 and 1982). •
R2-D2 and
C-3PO would be the only characters to appear in all nine films (Lucas in 1980, 1981, and 1983). • The key actors, Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Ford as
Han Solo, and Fisher as Princess Leia, would appear in their 60s or 70s (Lucas in 1983). Hamill said in 1983 that if his character were to return again, it would be "on another plane of existence, or not the same character." Ideas that were apparently not retained in Disney's sequel trilogy include: • The trilogy would deal with the rebuilding of the
Republic (Lucas in 1980). • Luke might have had a romantic relationship with a female partner (Lucas in 1988).
Timothy Zahn, who wrote the
Legends non-canonical
Thrawn trilogy of novels, was interviewed about the sequel trilogy after its development by Disney was announced in 2012. He confirmed that it was never meant to be based on his Thrawn trilogy nor the rest of the
Expanded Universe, and said that he had been briefed years before on Lucas's plans for the sequels: The original idea as I understood it—and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he's thinking right now—but it was going to be three generations. You'd have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke's father and find out what happened to him, and if there was another seventh, eighth, or ninth film, it would be Luke's children. In 1992, Lucas announced his intentions to produce a
prequel trilogy. When asked, he would frequently repeat that he had no plans to make the sequel trilogy and that he would not allow other directors to make it. At a press conference for the 1997 Special Edition of the original trilogy, Lucas stated, "I don't have scripts [for the sequel trilogy]. The only notion on that was, wouldn't it be fun to get all the actors to come back when they're 60 or 70 years old and make three more about them as old people." On the possibility of someone else making
Star Wars films, Lucas said, "Probably not, it's my thing." In 2002, he said: "Basically what I said as a joke was, 'Maybe when Harrison and Carrie are in their 70s, we'll come back and do another version.' The thing I didn't realize then, and that I do realize now very clearly, is that not only would they be in their 70s, but
I would be in my 70s too." He reiterated, "Ultimately, the saga will be six films, a 12-hour story. Then people can watch all six films together as they were intended to be seen." In 2007, Lucas described making the films at that age as "an idea that seemed amusing at the time, but doesn't seem realistic now", and suggested that "off-the-cuff" comments he had made in earlier years had been misconstrued as absolute statements. In 2008, after all six films had been released, Lucas said: "The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends." In another 2008 interview, Lucas ruled out anybody else making
Star Wars films, and added that the Expanded Universe did not line up with his vision. Asked if he wanted new
Star Wars films to be made after his death, he said: "I've left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be any more features. There will definitely be no
Episodes VII–
IX. That's because there isn't any story. ... The
Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story."
Sale of Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company and renewed development In May 2011, Lucas was in
Orlando, Florida, to celebrate the opening of
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue at
Walt Disney World. He was invited to breakfast by Disney CEO
Bob Iger, who asked Lucas if he would be willing to sell his company to Disney. Lucas had begun to consider retiring, but was not ready to do so at that time. Lucas considered directing
Episode VII for a May 2015 release and then selling his company, but decided to leave the franchise in the hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would step away from making blockbuster films. In early 2012, after being disappointed by the weak performance of
Red Tails, Lucas announced to
The New York Times that he was planning to retire. While he was in New York, he asked
Kathleen Kennedy to lunch. He asked if she would be a at Lucasfilm with him, with the intention of transferring leadership entirely to her after about a year. She began working for him on June 1, 2012; Lucas soon proposed that they work together on the sequel trilogy. They brought in
Michael Arndt to write a draft of
Episode VII based on Lucas's synopsis.
Star Wars screenwriting veteran
Lawrence Kasdan was hired to support Arndt. After making an appearance at
Star Wars Celebration VI in late August, Lucas took Mark Hamill and
Carrie Fisher to lunch and asked if they would be willing to reprise their roles for the new films. They agreed, as did
Harrison Ford after being promised that Han Solo would be given meaningful closure. Details of his sequel trilogy treatments included the conclusion of the
Skywalker family's story, with its third generation being portrayed in their twenties. Lucas hoped to explain concepts he had imagined when he originally drafted his saga in the 1970s. Most specifically he revealed the "symbiotic relationships" between the Jedi,
the Force, midi-chlorians (microscopic lifeforms, first mentioned onscreen in 1999's
The Phantom Menace), and the
Whills (all-powerful creatures first mentioned in the title of the original outline of
Star Wars,
Journal of the Whills): [The next three
Star Wars films] were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there's this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force. Back in the day, I used to say ultimately what this means is we were just cars, vehicles, for the Whills to travel around in. We're vessels for them. And the conduit is the midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians are the ones that communicate with the Whills. The Whills, in a general sense, they are the Force. ... But it's about symbiotic relationships. I think, personally, one of the core values we should have in the world, and kids should be taught, is ecology, to understand that we all are connected. (Lucas, 2018) By June 2012, Lucas had agreed to sell his company, provided that Kennedy would replace him as president of Lucasfilm. Iger agreed, while insisting that Disney would have final say over future movies. Lucas's final stipulations before the sale in late 2012 were that his story treatments would be used and that the number of Disney employees who could read them would be limited. Lucas gave Kennedy the final draft of his story treatments during the October 2012 sale. The same month, the Disney sale and production of the sequel trilogy, as well as a 2015 release date for a new film, were announced to the public. Lucas stated, "I always said I wasn't going to do any more, and that's true, because I'm not going to do any more. But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more." Both plot outlines, the one written in the 1980s and the one written in the early 2010s, were given to Iger around the time that Disney acquired Lucasfilm. The female Padawan was retained as the 19-year-old
Rey. • Another teenager named Skylar who befriends the protagonist and carries a blaster. He ultimately became the stormtrooper character, Finn. In at least one conception, Skylar was the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, and ultimately fell to the dark side of the Force (these plot developments were retained for the backstory of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in the final iteration). However, in some drafts, this character was not anyone's son, and in others it was not decided whose son he was. • The older Luke Skywalker would have exiled himself to a remote planet where the first Jedi temple was located. Luke would have started off reluctant to train the female Padawan, but eventually have a change of heart and agree to train her. Lucas planned for Luke to die in
Episode VIII. Conversely, in 2018, Hamill said that Lucas' original vision for the ending of
Episode IX was to have Luke die then instead of making a simple cameo, leaving his sister Leia as a Jedi. Luke was going to appear with dialogue in the first film. He also detailed more of his story treatments: • The trilogy would start a few years after the events of
Return of the Jedi. According to Lucas, "we establish pretty quickly that there's this underworld, there are these offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi." •
Darth Maul would return with robotic legs (as had been established in
Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and train the female Darth Talon as his apprentice. According to Lucas, "She was the new Darth Vader and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy." Maul would become "the
godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over." In 2015, Lucas revealed (to his disappointment) that his outlines had been discarded in order to "make something for the fans".
Episode VII writer and director
J. J. Abrams later revealed that the same year, Disney had given him a mandate to discard Lucas's story and "start from scratch".
Episode VII: The Force Awakens was written by Lucasfilm veteran Lawrence Kasdan, along with J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt. Bob Iger's memoirs, published in 2019, recount that Lucas was upset after hearing the plot of
The Force Awakens in meetings, specifically about elements that were derivative of the original 1977 film. Lucas felt betrayed by Iger and Abrams because they discarded some of his sequel trilogy ideas.
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi writer and director
Rian Johnson's initial response to the script of
The Force Awakens included the suggestion of minor adjustments to the ending. According to Abrams, these improved the movie and made it line up more with
The Last Jedi. Abrams intended for BB-8 to help Rey search for Luke, which Johnson changed to R2-D2 (due to his being Luke's droid, as well as BB-8 belonging to Poe and not knowing Luke). Additionally, Abrams' ending featured Rey finding Luke lifting rocks with the Force, which was changed due to Johnson's plot of Luke having disconnected himself from the Force. Johnson implied that his portrayal of the Force in
The Last Jedi was influenced by the "Mortis trilogy" of episodes from
The Clone Wars, which he had rewatched early in the writing process on the advice of
The Clone Wars supervising director
Dave Filoni. He also stated that he considered including
Lando Calrissian in the film, possibly giving him the role of new character DJ (
Benicio del Toro), but did not because it would have meant Lando betraying the characters without redemption. Abrams credited
The Last Jedi with influencing him to be more daring on
The Rise of Skywalker. Some reports indicate that, contrary to popular belief, some plot points across the trilogy were planned in advance. The idea of Luke Skywalker living on an island following his failure to stop the murder of his Jedi apprentices and then training an apprentice who would help him overcome his self-doubt was first
pitched by George Lucas in 2013 during creative meetings between himself and Lucasfilm as part of story discussions for
Episode VII (these ideas would later be used in
The Last Jedi). Several plot points of
The Rise of Skywalker were pitched in an early 2014 story meeting between Lucasfilm executives (including Dave Filoni,
Pablo Hidalgo,
Doug Chiang,
John Knoll and Kiri Hart) after the plot of
The Force Awakens had been finalized, including the notion of Leia as a mentor figure to Rey, Leia breaking through to her son Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) and the notion of Rey as "the Skywalker" of the trilogy by metaphor rather than blood connection. The return of Emperor Palpatine in
Episode IX was planned as far back as the earliest development phase of the trilogy. Similarly, Abrams hinted that Palpatine being Rey's grandfather was an early idea he and Lawrence Kasdan had while working on
The Force Awakens, although Daisy Ridley later claimed that ideas for Rey's lineage changed throughout filming of
The Rise of Skywalker. Adam Driver claimed that back when shooting
The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren was not meant to be redeemed by the end of the trilogy, which was the
character arc Abrams had in mind at that moment, with Ren starting insecure about his commitment to the dark side before becoming the one most committed by the end of the trilogy in reversal to his grandfather
Darth Vader's arc in the original trilogy, noting that Johnson took that planned direction in consideration when shooting
The Last Jedi even though he took other decisions. == Films ==