Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (project)
After the "Unleashed" franchise was discontinued following Disney's decision to refresh the "Star Wars" canon in favor of producing a sequel trilogy, Sam Witwer, Marek's voice actor, revealed that Dave Filoni, the creator of the "Star Wars Rebels" animated series, considered bringing Marek back into the new canon and having him appear in that series, but ultimately decided against it because he could not find a way to do so without compromising either the new canon's quality or the character's unique distinctions.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
As creative consultant on the film, Lucas attended early story meetings and advised on the details of the "Star Wars" universe. Among the materials he turned over to the production team were his rough story treatments for "Episodes VII–IX", which Lucas requested be read only by Kennedy, Bob Iger, Alan Horn, and Kevin Mayer. Lucas later said Disney had discarded his story ideas and that he had no further involvement with the film. Lucas's son Jett told "The Guardian" that his father was "very torn" about having sold the rights to the franchise, despite having picked Abrams to direct, and that his father was "there to guide" but that "he wants to let it go and become its new generation". 
"The Force Awakens"s first screenplay was written by Michael Arndt. Early drafts had Luke appear midway through the film, but Arndt found that "every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over. Suddenly you didn't care about your main character anymore." Luke became the film's MacGuffin and does not appear in person until the final scene. Several directors were considered, including David Fincher, Brad Bird, Ben Affleck and Guillermo del Toro; after a suggestion by Steven Spielberg to Kennedy, J. J. Abrams was named director in January 2013, with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg as project consultants.