The short answer: they weren’t…at all. Now, here’s the long version.
It was revealed in a recent interview that George Lucas, the father of the Star Wars movies, had originally planned to make Star Wars: Episode 7 before Disney purchased Lucasfilm. He even began developing some ideas for the next installment, which he passed along to Disney. As it turns out, though, the Mouse House and J.J. Abrams didn’t use Lucas’ treatment ideas for the current script.
I had the chance to speak with Lucas for his upcoming film, an animated musical called Strange Magic, and asked about any details he could offer on the ideas he was tossing around. In response, he revealed this tidbit:
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]
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t go into detail about his early ideas for his Star Wars: Episode 7 script, but there are some things we can infer. An interview with Mark Hamill from back in 1983 made the rounds online a while ago, and it revealed footage of Luke Skywalker talking about how Lucas approached him about playing an Obi-wan-type character in a potential sequel and passing the torch to another generation of Jedi. Though, this seems like a general enough kernel of a story to have also been thought up by Abrams and company. Could it still be in play?
As we reported earlier, Lucas’ plan to make Star Wars: Episode 7 was snuffed when he realized the time commitment was too much for him to take on. Making a new trilogy of this already massive franchise would mean putting his life on hold yet again for another 10 or so years. "The time is more important to me than the money," he said. Couple that with Disney coming along at just the right time, and he was willing to pass the torch.
Now that he’s done with Star Wars, though, he’s excited to develop more "experimental" films as he called them. And Strange Magic fits that bill. Telling the story of strife between fairies and goblins through covers of popular songs and colorful animation, the film is what Lucas believes to be his "film for 12-year-old girls."
Still, the more we learn about Star Wars: Episode 7, the more we want to know about what it could’ve looked like if Lucas were at the helm. You can watch his full statement in our video interview below.
So far, we know that Oscar Isaac will portray an X-Wing pilot named Poe Dameron, John Boyega will play a fleeing Stormtrooper (or, more likely, someone disguised as a Stormtrooper), Daisy Ridley will play someone named Rey who knows how to ride a Speeder, and there will be a new Sith named Kylo Ren and a new droid named BB-8. And that’s just naming a handful of the immense cast of new and returning players.
