As the story goes, George Lucas at one point planned to make a Skywalker family epic consisting of 12 movies across four trilogies, with Episode Xii serving as the true grand finale of the saga where our heroes would finally face the dreaded Emperor. But then he cut that outline down to nine films, with Luke’s sister (not originally Leia) joining the fray around Episode VIII, just in time for the final battle in Episode IX, according to Gary Kurtz, who produced the first two Star Wars films.

Then, in the early ’80s, Lucas decided to cut down the story further. He pushed up the final battle with the Dark Lord of the Sith to Episode VI, the initially titled Revenge of the Jedi, which would also reveal that Leia had been Luke’s long-lost sister all along (despite their famous smooch in The Empire Strikes Back). Lucas is something...