Top 6 Lucas Ideas That Were Actually Used In Disney 'Star Wars'
Thank the maker.
George Lucas was someone with many ideas throughout his career. He is, after all, the maker of Star Wars. Throughout his long tenure as the head of Lucasfilm and Star Wars, he had many ideas about what he could do with the franchise. Some of which he never got to use for one reason or another. However, even when he sold the franchise to Disney, those ideas still managed to make their way into the new era of Star Wars storytelling.
Here are the top 6 ideas that made it to Disney Star Wars.
Female Heroine
Before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, George Lucas was already setting the foundation of what the sequel trilogy was going to be about. One of the key aspects of George’s trilogy was having a female hero be the main character. From details of early drafts of the sequel trilogy, we know that George had ideas for a young woman who originally was to be named Kira to be the main protagonist of the sequels. She was to be the one to find Luke Skywalker, and train in the ways of the Jedi. This character was to be a scavenger and an orphan, although whether or not she had a mysterious backstory is hard to say. If any of this sounds familiar, that is because this thread continued to evolve until it became the character we all know today as Rey. Much like Rey, we know that George had the idea for the next generation of Skywalker to be not of a direct blood, but adoptive, probably similar to how George himself adopted his own children as well. Speaking of Skywalker...
Lonely Luke
In many concept art books and other fun fact videos, it is well documented that George had plans to have Luke Skywalker be in a state of depression and exile by the time of his sequel trilogy, and just like The Force Awakens, the plot of the main female heroine would have been to find Luke Skywalker. This thread was obviously expounded upon and continued to become the very core of The Last Jedi. How George would have handled Luke’s exile compared to Rian Johnson is hard to say, but the core of the idea was the same. Luke Skywalker, The Legend, was not going to have the continuation of his adventure go the way we thought.
Formerly Darth, Now Just Maul
Apparently, another of George’s ideas for the sequels and even earlier than that was the idea of Darth Maul arc continuing beyond The Clone Wars animated series and heading into the post-Endor era with an apprentice named Darth Talon. Talon was a character considered in early drafts of The Force Awakens before the idea was scrapped. However, the idea of Maul being a crime lord post-Clone Wars has continued via Solo: A Star Wars Story in the form of Crimson Dawn, which is led by Maul with Dryden Vos and later Qi’ra by his side. While there is no evidence of this, it seems possible that the Maul and Talon partnership has evolved into Maul and Qi'a as the leaders of Crimson Dawn. Though what their story moving forward would be has yet to be written.
Leia's Bigger Role
While the details on this item are scarce, Lucas had plans to give Leia a much bigger role in the sequel trilogy. Even going as far as to making her the Chosen One. While not the Chosen One, Leia’s role in the sequel trilogy is probably when she is at her most important. Not only being the only person still leading the fight against the First Order, but being the mother of Ben Solo, she was the last person to give him the boost he needed to come back to the light side of the Force and laid the seeds for the final defeat of Emperor Palpatine
Jedi, Servants of the Empire
George Lucas had many drafts of Star Wars, and in one of them, the Jedi were meant to be the Emperor’s bodyguards. Not Palpatine’s bodyguards, but the Emperor of the Empire who came before him. This idea was scrapped as the Jedi became guardians of the Old Republic for a thousand generations.
Live-Action Star Wars Series
The final one on this list isn’t an idea for a story, but just the idea of a live-action Star Wars series that George had in the works for years, but the technology was just never ready. It would have taken place in the dark times and focus on the criminal underworld. Many characters would have shown up, from Saw Gerrera to possibly Maul and perhaps even the Emperor himself. While this particular series never got off the ground, the dream lived on, and eventually that dream morphed into one of the franchise's most successful shows of all time, The Mandalorian.
While the maker might have left Star Wars in the hands of his colleagues and padawans, his legacy lives on, his ideas still being used and looked through to help make new and wonderful content. George Lucas might have left Star Wars from a creative standpoint, but his impact and imprint will forever remain.
Source(s): Gizmodo, Wookieepedia