Star Wars sequel trilogy suggested Hamill could have a cameo role in "Episode IX", which he imagined filming by 2011. A "Time" magazine story in March 1978, quoting Lucas, stated there would be ten "Star Wars" films after "The Empire Strikes Back". Gary Kurtz was also aware of proposed story elements for "Episode VII" to "Episode IX" before 1980. In 1980, at the time of the release of "The Empire Strikes Back", Lucas said there were seven further "Star Wars" films he wanted to make. He said he had "twelve-page outlines" for those films. In an interview with Jim Steranko in "Prevue" magazine published
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game later became the "Star Wars" expanded universe, and its sourcebooks are still frequently cited by "Star Wars" fans as reference material. Lucasfilm considered the West End Games' "Star Wars" sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the "Thrawn" trilogy, he was sent a box of West End Games "Star Wars" books and directed to base his novel on the background material presented within. Many of the first uses of "Star Wars" alien names (such as the Twi'lek, Rodian, and Quarren) appeared for the first time in WEG's "Star Wars" books. Even after Disney's reboot