in the original early/mid-70's drafts of what later became a new hope, luke skywalker was actually named "luke starkiller" and grew up with his father anakin starkiller. force unleashed pays homage to that.
" In a 1997 issue of the Star Wars Insider, Lucas said:
The whole story has six episodes.... If I ever went beyond that, it would be something that was made up. I really don't have any notion other than 'Gee, it would be interesting to do Luke Skywalker later on.' It wouldn't be part of the main story, but a sequel to this thing.[17]
In a 1999 interview with Vanity Fair, Lucas denied ever having had any plans to make nine Star Wars movies. "When you see it in six parts, you'll understand", Lucas said at the time. "It really ends at part six." When asked about the possibility of someone else taking over the film franchise, Lucas said "Probably not, it's my thing."[18]
In March 2007, Lucas stated that the idea of a sequel trilogy was "amusing" but didn't seem realistic at the time.[19] In May 2008, speaking about the upcoming Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Lucas maintained his status on the sequel trilogy, stating that there was no story to tell, and that no sequel will be made. He said:
I get asked all the time, 'What happens after Return of the Jedi?,' and there really is no answer for that. The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends."
ever since the late 70's the loose concept of the prequel plotline was in place... but at the time, vader and anakin were two different people. vader and anakin skywalker were both part of the plot as two separate characters all along, and the story of the vaders final battle with kenobi at the base of the volcano even existed BEFORE empire strikes back had even been written... but not until the FINAL drafts of empire did they merge vader/anakin into one. lucas and the hired authors disagreed on this and it was ultimately lucas's call at the last minute.
you can check all that in the wiki.
as for the prequels, i thought phantom menace was vomit inducing and clearly marketed to children. clone wars was decent, better atleast, seeming to have a more emotional/chick flick element to it, similar to how empire was the most dramatic of the original trilogy. but revenge of the sith however, just absolutely blew my mind. knock hayden christiansen maybe, but i cried. i'll say it. my two cents.
guitarguru, where are you getting this info about an avatar based film?? i heard the same rumor, but wiki has no trace of it. back in the mid 90's i read the novels about luke/leia's kids, the suncrusher, etc. all pretty ho-hum, but i was in like 6th grade so i was into it. after reading about the whole history of the first 3 films, the fact is that lucas and his cohorts always talked about a 9film series back in the 70's and before the release of empire, but lucas later on after ROTJ came out keeps insisting that with the release of empire/jedi they had squeezed out the entire rest of the projected story.
so the plots to the sequels already exists in novel forms, and have for atleast 15 or so years now. and combining the fact that it's a total deviation from the original lucas vision is bad enough... make it CGI, and i'll bring a box of rotten vegetables to the premiere.
</extremenerdfanboy>
anyway, lucas said he wouldn't make any more films than episode IV-VI. well, we all know he did nonetheless.
