From what I’ve read about them, George Lucas’s original plan for eps. 7-9 of the Star Wars series would have been more like eps. 1-3. An ancient order of the Whills as a force behind the Force would be explored, likely through a thrilling sequence of talking, chin stroking, talking, and sitting.
Slashfilm has a little of what Lucas liked about plans and artwork for episode 7, but the movie didn’t develop in that direction. According to Disney CEO Bob Iger in his newly released memoir, Lucas didn’t like that direction.
When Disney bought the franchise and Lucas’s outlines for the new episodes, they stated their freedom to develop them as they wished. “George knew we weren’t contractually bound to anything,” Iger wrote, “but he thought that our buying the story treatments was a tacit promise that we’d follow them, and he was disappointed that his story was being discarded.”
Lucas wanted something new with each movie, but Iger and his team wanted something Star Wars, “to not stray too far from what people loved and expected.” He doesn’t directly disagree with Lucas, but I’m glad the sequel films are not more like the prequels.
I remember enjoying The Force Awakens; I reviewed like this.
That pretty much sums it up without the slightest hint of a spoiler.
It raises an interesting question as our culture becomes more and more shaped by corporate interests. A corporation will never create anything new and daring in a world where the next quarterly report is all that is important. Art needs to be created by artists, not boards of directors.
That is a good question, but Lucas isn’t the artist you’ll want to put forward this argument. Perhaps the history of Star Trek would be a better example or maybe the Alien franchise. What have the artists wanted that the directors would not allow and vice versa?
I think The Force Awakens is a good movie and The Last Jedi has more problems, and I’d watch them again as I would the original three. I may not watch Phantom Menace again and probably will never get around to seeing Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith for the first time. They aren’t good stories, from what I can tell.