ImperialFighter said:
It seems that George put a year or so into planning what comes next...
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/29034/lucas-put-a-year-into-the-next-star-wars
From the article:
Lucas ...having set out 'guidelines' for the new film.
When Disney gives someone $4 billion for their product, they take over deciding how that product is handled. All this blather about Lucas being very involved, consulting, talking to the director and writer, etc, etc is just damage control for the TFNers, who have already decided their world has come to an end.