"We didn’t write a treatment but there are countless times we came up with something and said “oh, this would be so great for Episode VIII!” or “That's what we could get to in IX!” It was just that kind of forward-moving story. But we knew this had to neither be a backwards moving nostalgic trip only nor a beginning of a movie without a satisfying conclusion, and that was part of the balancing act — embracing what we have inherited and using that where and whenever possible to tell a story that hasn’t been seen yet."
January 1, 1970