Before Lucas sold to Disney, he was working on a more adult-themed live action Star Wars show called Underworld, which was set on lower Coruscant and would focus on various criminal elements. That premise sounded cool - but we’ll never know how it would have actually been implemented (the test footage looks raw but kind of awesome in my opinion).

Disney canceled that project, obviously. But it’s at least something to consider when weighing what we ultimately got with Disney against what an independent Lucasfilm may have done.

I mostly hate what Disney has done with Star Wars, especially with the Sequel Trilogy. But the thing is, Lucas also mostly sucks. The Prequels are as bad as the Disney crap, just in very different ways. So my feeling about whether or not Star Wars would be better off without Disney is sort of just “shrug?”. I mean yeah, Disney mostly sucks, but it’s not like Lucas was that great either.

The tragic reality is that the “good Star Wars movies” (basically Episode 4 and 5) were primarily flukes. They were not really representative of the kind of movies Lucas actually wanted to make. They were lightning in a bottle, benefitting from serendipitous casting and people like Ralph McQuarrie and John Williams, along with many other talented people who weren’t afraid to ignore Lucas’ more questionable inclinations. Even the way they made blockbuster movies back in 1981 is entirely different from the ultra-stream-lined digital production process of today, where directors have much less creative control over expensive special effects shots and lots of decisions are made by committee.