The one thing about George Lucas that everyone needs to understand is that, since he began working on what became Star Wars in 1973, he changed its so-called "history" countless times.

I will try to do this as spoiler-free and succinctly as possible...

After American Graffiti, George Lucas wanted to make a serial sci-fi film like the ones that he grew up loving as a kid. Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola tried to get the rights to Flash Gordon but the owner wouldn't sell it to a bunch of "unknowns".

Lucas decided to write it on his own. First was a two pages outline known as the "Journa; of the Whills", in which he mentions the Jedi Windu and slowly starts to create some kind of backstory to this new universe.

But from there, nothing… Lucas couldn't come up with a story. He remembered a film he saw while studying film making, The Hidden Fortress by the great Akira Kurosawa. Lucas took the story, characters and most of the locations and changed only some of it. When he presented the first draft to Francis Ford Coppola, his friend and partner was shocked. "This is The Hidden Fortress!" said Coppola. Francis suggested that they get the rights to remake it but they couldn't.

From there Lucas simply reworked some of the elements, but the basic story and final film remained an "updated" version of The Hidden Fortress.

It was only while in principal photography that Lucas decided to change the title from The Adventures of Luke Skywalker to Star Wars. There was no "Episode IV". There was no "A New Hope". The original plan was for only one film, but Fox asked for Lucas to plan for a sequel might be a possibility if the film made some money. With that in mind, both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were signed for a sequel. George Lucas asked Alan Dean Foster to write a sequel that could be made for cheap, with the only returning characters to be Luke, Leia and Darth Vader (who could be recast since he's a person in a suit). That "sequel" became the 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

As you all know Star Wars was huge! A phenomenal success. It's then that George Lucas thought of the idea that he could make a new Star Wars film every year, but with someone new as the director. There would be a total of 12 films, just like the serials he loved as a kid.

Work on the sequel started for Lucas. One thing he noticed was that the Darth Vader character was among the most popular of the characters from the film. In fact, he was the most popular right after R2-D2 and C-3PO in terms of merchandise sales.

With the struggle to come up with a solution to introduce the Skywalker father, who at this point in Lucas's mind is someone completely different than Darth Vader, Lucas had to make a choice. In Star Wars, Darth Vader is simply a henchman for the Empire. He is Grand Moff Tarkin's right-hand man. He is the one that goes to war to get the job done. Vader invades the Rebels' ship at the beginning and even participates in the spaceship fight at the end to protect the Death Star.

But with the growing popularity of Vader, Lucas decided to turn things around. By the second draft of what would become The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader had become father Skywalker. It leads to one of the greatest twists in cinema history.

The sequel took so long to prepare that the plan was changed. Lucas decided that there wouldn't be 12 films in total but now "only" 9. With the theatrical re-release of Star Wars, the title was changed to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Back then theatrical re-release was a common thing.

With everything taking so long to make the first film, Lucas decided not to direct the sequel. While he refused at first, Irvin Kershner took on the directing chair for the sequel. Kershner had been a teacher and somewhat of a mentor to Lucas.

When The Empire Strikes Back was released, it had the "Episode V" in its title. The film didn't perform as well as the first one, Lucas blaming pretty much everyone but himself for it.

With the next sequel, Lucas decided not direct it but to control everything. Return of the Jedi was more or less a rework of the original film but with a bigger budget, particularly for special effects. The cantina is now Jabba's palace. The spaceship fight is bigger. And the original ending of Star Wars where the Wookiees were to fight the Empire was reworked with the Ewoks.

Lucas's personal life was going down the toilet and this whole Star Wars thing had taken the best and worst of him. After the release of Return of the Jedi, it was announced that the other 6 films, 3 prequels and 3 sequels, would never get made.

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn renewed interest in the Star Wars series in the 1990s. Star Wars was cool again. Lucas decided to return to the series and work on the prequels.

I have been a Star Wars fan since the very beginning. My sources are various articles, interviews and videos. More importantly, any self-respecting Star Wars fan should read the amazing book, The Secret History of Star Wars.