8 Different Versions Of Star Wars Episode VII That Were Almost Made

4. A Non-Disney, Lucas-Directed Version Of The Force Awakens

When Did It Almost Happen? Before Lucas sold the rights to Disney.

In the public eye Star Wars only begun its awakening when Disney forked over $4.05 billion for Lucasfilm, but in fact a return to the galaxy far, far away had already taken its first steps years before. After spending the better part of a decade insisting the Sequel Trilogy would never, ever happen, George Lucas went back on his word and began hashing out the plots for Episode VII, VIII and IX, with an eye for him to directing.

Little is known about what these treatments included, but given Lucas' penchant for going back to old ideas, it would have likely incorporated concepts from those earlier versions that never materialised. It'd be easy to assume all the bitching online eventually got to him, but the real reason he never moved forward with these ideas was time.

To make a whole new trilogy would take all-in-all a decade, and as a filmmaker he wasn't ready for such a commitment. Disney had been sniffing around for the rights for a while (it was one CEO Bob Iger's major career goals) and he eventually realised letting someone else take on the movies wasn't a bad idea.

These treatments for the Sequels were part of the sale, but their significance will be looked at later.