Episode 7 would take place in a galaxy that has devolved into a cold war between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic. Leia controls the Senate as Chancellor and acts as master of the new Jedi council. Her son, Ben, is her star pupil and the public face of the Jedi as he seeks to bring ‘peace and justice’ to the galaxy.
The story begins with Rey, a young girl who has been adopted by an old freighter pilot with a robotic leg who lives in the outer rim. She returns from a scavenging expedition one day and sees that there is a visitor, the dashing young Ben Solo who has arrived on a New Republic shuttle and demands of the old pilot that he give up the girl. The old man refuses, and Rey causes a distraction which allows them both to escape in the Millennium Falcon. The man tells her that he is indeed Han Solo, and Ben was there on a hunt for Jedi students, of which Rey is one. She is astonished, asking him why he never told her, and Han says that it was for her own protection. They must now go to find Luke, who is living in exile in Imperial space, and along the way they meet Finn who is an Imperial trooper and Chewie, who is free from his life debt from Han and is captain of his own ship. Poe Dameron is introduced as a pilot for the elite strike force of the New Republic, and is tasked with tracking down our Heroes.
Our heroes eventually find Luke, who reveals that he found Rey at an early age but then Leia turned to a dark place in her attempt to hold the New Republic together before Luke could find more than a couple young recruits. Leia demanded more of the students than they could take, with Ben and the rest of the students being corrupted by the necessity of gaining too much power too quickly. Luke eventually went into exile, unable to destroy his own sister and her son. Han took Rey under his wing for her protection, as she was the youngest of his students by far.
Leia and Ben arrive on intel from Poe, and Leia confronts Luke while Ben confronts his father. Han and Chewie and Luke all die, Han and Chewie aboard the Falcon in one last act of sacrifice with Rey and Finn only barely escaping. The Imperial Remnant arrives through Finn’s help to face this threat to their territory, and there is a pitched battle between old Imperial ships and New Republic vessels, and Poe secretly switches sides to join with the heroes. The spirit of Luke arrives to aid Rey, and she bests Ben. The Republic retreats with Poe undercover and Rey vows to become a true Jedi and rebuild the Order.
The second and third films would continue this conflict, with Rey and Finn and Poe attempting to reconcile the two sides of the conflict guided only by the spirit of Luke.