George Lucas wanted Star Wars sequels to give bigger roles to Leia and Darth Maul, new book reveals

The sale of LucasFilm to Disney in 2012 played a role in shaping the sequels

The Star Wars sequels would have given Leia and Darth Maul prominent roles if George Lucas had been at the helm, a new book has revealed.

 The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, recently released in the UK and coming to the US in December, contains previously unknown information about the Star Wars films, including episodes XII, XVIII and IX, released respectively in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

All three films were released after the acquisition of LucasFilm by Disney in 2012. Unlike previous Star Wars films, the three sequel installments didn’t heavily involve Lucas.

Nonetheless, the filmmaker had ideas about what might happen in the sequels if he were to craft them, some of which are shared in the book.

According to Polygon, Leia Organa was meant to be featured as the lead in the three movies, reconstructing the Republic and eventually becoming Supreme Chancellor. In that scenario, Leia “ended up being the chosen one”.

Carrie Fisher did reprise her role as Leia in the sequel trilogy. Following the actor’s death in December 2016, the team behind the third and final installment The Rise of Skywalker used unreleased footage of Fisher to include her in the movie.

According to Fisher’s brother Todd Fisher, Leia was “going to be the big payoff in the final film” prior to Fisher’s death. “She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. That’s cool right?” he told Yahoo! Entertainment.

Lucas would also have featured Darth Maul prominently, as the main antagonist of the sequel trilogy – the “godfather of crime” of the Star Wars universe, who “takes over” after the fall of the Empire. 

Darth Maul is seemingly killed at the end of the 1999 The Phantom Menace, but has reappeared in the animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story.