I"m a little curious to what their metrics are for using or not using his story. I’m guessing them not following his treatment beat-for-beat translates as “not using his treatment”. But, there does seem be some elements and story ideas that did carry over from his treatments to the films so far. Not everything, like the Darth Talon-inspired character, Felucia as a location, possibly multiple Skywalker grandchildren. On the other hand, Luke in exile, one of the grandchildren turning to the dark side, the Uber character, exploring the nature of the Force, all seem to be things that may have origins in George’s treatments.
I think a big example of this is Luke in exile. Luke did seem to be in exile in George’s Episode VII, but he apparently came out of hiding when the Kira character came looking for him, but Ardnt kept running into the issue of Luke taking the spotlight before we have time to relate with the new characters, so that was shifted.
Another thing seems to be a Skywalker grandchild falling to the dark side. That did seem like a story point, but potentially something that happened in the first movie (or in flashbacks?). I think George has issues with killing his darlings, but at the same time Iger seems to describe it as not using his treatments at all, when there clearly seems to be some elements that were carried over. But like I said, maybe since they decided not to use the general plot, but kept some ideas, was enough to considered it as “not using his treatments”.
It is nice that we got insight from Iger, and a little surprising that he admits that he could’ve handled it better with George. If anything, this just makes me really want a Making of The Force Awakens book!
I mean, Iger probably isn’t involved enough remember the minutia of the treatments too well. The fact that JJ and co.'s creative process grew out of George’s outlines and included some elements probably doesn’t register for him. The bottom line was they let them do what they wanted with TFA, and it was different enough for George to end up without any sort of story credit.
It’s hilariously ironic that George Lucas originally conceived of Star Wars as a throwback to the old movie adventure serials, and then criticizes TFA for being a throwback to the Original Trilogy (a throwback of a throwback).
The irony is especially palpable in his quote from when the film came out: “They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that.” Right, because George fucking Lucas has never done what you might call a “retro movie” in his life.