George Lucas reveals his idea for Star Wars: Episode VII was scrapped

George Lucas has spoken for the first time about just how much of his original ideas for Star Wars: Episode VII will make it into Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While out promoting new musical Strange Magic, Lucas revealed that he had a concept for a Star Wars: Episode VII that he was thinking about making, but when Disney bought out Lucasfilm, the Mouse House ditched that concept for something new.

“The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those,” Lucas tells Cinema Blend. “So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens].”

Lucas stops short of outlining exactly what his concept for Star Wars: Episode VII was, and we'll probably only find that out after JJ Abrams' movie is released.

Internet rumour, though, is that screenwriter Michael Arndt departed Star Wars: The Force Awakens because he was working on Lucas' idea, which Disney opted to move away from.

Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer on The Empire Strikes Back) was then brought in to work with JJ Abrams on his concept instead.

As it stands, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will see the return of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo, while also introducing a raft of new characters.

It opens in cinemas on 18 December 2015.

Josh Winning

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.