Disney Not Using George Lucas' STAR WARS Outlines, Testing Actresses for Spinoff Film

When Disney bought Star Wars and Lucasfilm, they took ownership of outlines for a sequel trilogy written by George Lucas. Since that sale, we've been assuming that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams had been working from those outlines.

It turns out the next generation of Star Wars films won't be based on the ideas of the franchise's founder.

"The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn't really want to do those," Lucas told Cinema Blend. "So they made up their own. So it's not the ones that I originally wrote [on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens]."

Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan took over screenwriting duties after Michael Arndt left The Force Awakens. Was Arndt writing from Lucas' outlines originally? How much of Lucas' original vision for the sequel trilogy will survive in the actual movies? Lucas revealed last week that he had planned on writing and directing Episode VII himself and then selling Lucasfilm, but when Disney came along with several billion dollars, those plans went out the window.

In another corner of the post-George Lucas Star Wars universe, it sounds like production on the first standalone spinoff movie is heating up. Tatiana Maslany, Rooney Mara and Felicity Jones are all on Lucasfilm's wishlist to test for the female lead in director Gareth Edwards' Star Wars spinoff, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

All three would be excellent choices to ground a Star Wars movie. Maslany has earned rave reviews for her performance (er, performances) in Orphan Black. Mara previously earned an Oscar nomination for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Jones just got an Oscar nomination of her own for The Theory of Everything.

We don't yet know what Edwards' Star Wars movie will be about, but we've certainly gotten plenty of rumors. Boba Fett and a group of bounty hunters trying to steal the Death Star plans, a Han Solo prequel and even a movie focusing on Yoda. The movie is due to hit theaters in Dec. 16, 2016, which means Edwards and Lucasfilm will need to get moving soon.