Star Wars sequel trilogy in late 1980, Lucas described how the expansive scope of "Star Wars" had started with an overlong screenplay: He added that he had: In this interview, Lucas also stated that he had "titles and ten-page story outlines for each of" the nine episodes. In an interview with Gary Kurtz in the same magazine, Kurtz said: In an interview with "Starlog" magazine published in September 1981, Lucas confirmed that he had the nine-film series plotted, cautioning: Shortly after 1980's release of "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back", Lucas had already written story treatments for episodes: "VI", and the sequel trilogy consisting
Star Wars sequel trilogy ones that I originally wrote [on screen in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"]". Some details about Lucas's story treatments from the early-2010s were revealed in the book "The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi". In January 2013 at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas held the first story briefing about the as-yet untitled "Episode VII". Related concept art includes: Lucas seemingly had planned for the conclusion of Luke's story to happen in "Episode VII" instead of "Episode VIII", with Luke dying at the end of the film; this element was instead incorporated into Johnson's film. Conversely, some months later, Mark Hamill