George Lucas Also Considered Killing Off Luke Skywalker in Episode VIII

While the world may never know exactly what George Lucas had planned for his abandoned Star Wars sequel trilogy, Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo has revealed one interesting plot point. According to Hidalgo, Lucas was also considering killing off Luke Skywalker in his version of Episode VIII. Hidalgo reveals this previously unknown bit of trivia in his new book Star Wars: Fascinating Facts - Story, Lore & History From the Greatest Galaxy. Apparently, Luke's death was a major plot point in Lucas's sequel story treatments that Disney inherited when it purchased Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-dead-star-wars-movie-character&captions=true"] Hidalgo writes, "Years before The Last Jedi began development, the treatment left behind by George Lucas in 2012 also had Episode VIII be the one wherein Luke Skywalker would die." Hidalgo doesn't offer any insight into the nature of Luke's death, but another passage suggests Disney may have drawn more inspiration from Lucas' story treatments than fans realize. Lucas' sequel trilogy also would have revolved around a young Force-sensitive woman undergoing a hero's journey. "The Force Awakens' long journey from idea to finished film was filled with evolution, but one idea that remained constant from the start was that of a young woman's quest to become a Jedi Knight," writes Hidalgo. "In George Lucas' original outline, she was a 14-year-old girl named Taryn. In his subsequent iterations, she would briefly be named Thea and -- believe it or not -- Winkie." In fact, it seems Lucas even envisioned a plot point where Taryn/Thea/Winkie seeks out a missing, disillusioned Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Hidalgo says Lucas compared the story to 1979's Apocalypse Now and Captain Willard's hunt for the mysterious, enigmatic Colonel Kurtz. Considering Lucas was once attached to direct Apocalypse Now, we're not surprised he was thinking in those terms. While Lucas never got around to making a sequel trilogy, he did come close to making a live-action Star Wars series a reality, years before The Mandalorian. Lucas commissioned no fewer than 50 scripts for Star Wars Underworld, a series set between Episodes III and IV that would have explored the criminal underbelly of the galaxy during the reign of the Empire. That's just one chapter in the generally strange history of Star Wars on TV. While it'll be several years before fans get a new Star Wars movie, there's plenty of momentum on the small screen. The Mandalorian: Season 2 is premiering on October 30, and a new animated series called Star Wars: Bad Batch is debuting on Disney+ in 2021. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/12/the-history-of-star-wars-on-tv-from-the-holiday-special-to-disney-plus"] How do you think Lucas would have handled Luke's death? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.