Anchorhead said:

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.

But does anyone at Disney care what what the TFN crowd really thinks? The fanbase is much bigger than them or even us. And Disney has to court the rest of the movie going public to get a massive hit, if they ever want to recoup that four billion investment. Having the creator involved to some degree is simply a good business idea, not to merely placate the fanboys.