New Star Wars trilogy could pick up with Luke in middle age

Even though the bombshell that saw Disney purchase Star Wars has still yet to fully sink in, talk has already turned to what we can expect from the new trilogy, with George Lucas biographer Dale Pollock having his say on where the story could be leading.

According to Pollock, Lucas’ original idea for the saga spanned twelve films, treatments for which he was allowed to read when researching his biography.

““It was originally a 12-part saga,” says Pollock. “The three most exciting stories were 7, 8 and 9. They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters. I remember thinking, ‘I want to see these three movies.’”

Pollock also mentions that the next phase could see a return to action for Luke Skywalker, with the story following him through his thirties and forties. Pollock describes it as a welcome return to form after the disappointment of the prequels.

“I think they’re horrible,” he says of the second trilogy. “When he did the three prequels, he was in a Lucas vacuum. No one saw the scripts [ in advance ], they were dreadful screenplays. I thought they seemed dry. They were medieval in terms of court intrigue. And it was a weird way to start out the story.”

Naturally, there’s still plenty of scope for Disney to go off-road and write their own storyline, but according to Pollock, Lucas’ treatments will form the skeleton of the new trilogy.

“Writers will absolutely take his outline,” he says. “That’s in part what Disney bought.” Welcome back, Mr Skywalker… we’ve been expecting you!

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.