'Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker' writers 'took a lot of notes from George Lucas'

Earlier this year, Disney boss Bob Iger revealed that Star Wars creator George Lucas felt 'betrayed' when he realised that his ideas for The Force Awakens weren't being used.

Now it appears that there's been a change of tack.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy has said that Lucas was heavily consulted for final episode The Rise of Skywalker.

Read more: George Lucas finds it ‘hard to let go’ of Star Wars

She said: “We sat down with George for a long meeting before we ever put pen to paper on this final episode, so we had the benefit of his thoughts.

“We took a lot of notes. As Yoda would say, there’s great responsibility that goes with doing this, and I think we all take that seriously.”

Fans of the veteran sci-fi series have been split about the new trilogy, the first without Lucas's creative involvement.

Many thought that the first instalment bore too much similarity to the first Star Wars movie, while The Last Jedi was hammered for countless reasons from disregarding in-world science (the whole hyperspace debacle) to the pointless and meandering Finn/Rose plot which formed a large part of the second act but ultimately achieved nothing.

Iger wrote in his book: “George immediately got upset as they began to describe the plot and it dawned on him that we weren’t using one of the stories he submitted during the negotiations.

“Now, in the first meeting with him about the future of Star Wars, George felt betrayed. And while this whole process would never have been easy for him, we’d gotten off to an unnecessarily rocky start.”

Meanwhile, this final chapter has had its own disturbances in the force.

Originally to be directed and written by Colin Trevorrow, the Jurassic World director was ultimately fired by Kennedy and replaced with J.J. Abrams, who helmed The Force Awakens.

Read more: New pics from The Rise of Skywalker

Though Abrams gets a screenplay credit, alongside Batman v Superman and Man of Steel writer Chris Terrio, Trevorrow gets a story credit too.

As Kennedy says, the Lucas suggestions and consultation came 'before we ever put pen to paper', so this would suggest it was when Trevorrow was still on board.

How much of Lucas's input remains, we might never know, but we're sure to get a reaction of some kind from him once the movie arrives.

Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker lands in the UK on December 19.