A short time from now in a parallel dimension far, far away, a George Lucas-directed Star Wars: Episode VII is getting its theatrical debut. In an interview with USA Today promoting Strange Magic, Lucas reveals that he had started to develop a new trilogy originally, "but he knew a third trilogy was a 10-year commitment at least. " Lucas had reportedly expected to release Episode VII in May 2015 before selling the company.

Of course, that's not what happened. Instead, Lucas told USA Today, Disney came along and expressed interest in buying Lucasfilm, a deal which ultimately closed October 2012. "It's better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself," Lucas said.

As to what Lucas's version Episode VII would have looked like, that isn't clear. In a 2008 Total Film interview (via Cinemablend), Lucas made it clear that he thought Star Wars was about "the tragedy of Darth Vader" and that there wasn't any story left to tell, although to be fair, he went back and forth a lot about Star Wars sequel trilogies.

From an interview with George Lucas in Total Film (May 2008) v/ @reddit pic.twitter.com/BmC6qpVrpO — Cinephilia & Beyond (@LaFamiliaFilm) December 4, 2014

As noted by SlashFilm, Mark Hamill revealed in a 2012 interview that Lucas had reached out about doing a new trilogy the summer prior to Disney's acquisition — well before director J. J. Abrams or onetime Episode VII screenwriter Michael Arndt came aboard the project. So clearly Lucas had thought of something — probably still involving a cross guard lightsaber.