George Lucas might not be involved with Star Wars: The Force Awakens , but that doesn't mean the original Star Wars creator hadn't previously sketched out some ideas for the sequels.

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According to Vanity Fair (via The Atlantic ), Lucas already had a vision for episode VII, VIII, IX by the time he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. The plans had even gone far enough that the director approached Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill about being involved in the project. But Disney and executive producer Kathleen Kennedy scrapped most of Lucas's ideas once they acquired the franchise.Apparently, Lucas's original plans centered on very young characters, which might have resulted in a replay of the prequels. "[Abrams] said Lucas’s treatment had centered on very young characters—teenagers, Lucasfilm told me—which might have struck Disney executives as veering too close for comfort to The Phantom Menace and its 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker and 13-year-old Queen Amidala," explains the Vanity Fair cover story.The Vanity Fair story also claims that original screenwriter Michael Arndt failed to actually turn in a completed draft of the script. Abrams, working with Empire Strikes Back co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, had to pretty much start from scratch and scramble to come up with a new movie, which was still being refined even as production began.The Vanity Fair's Force Awakens cover story is on sale now. However, you'll have to wait until December 18 for The Force Awakens to hit theaters.

Rachel Paxton-Gillilan is a freelance writer. You can find her on Twitter @rachpax