Fang Zei said:
Was the original plan (circa 1980) to just keep going and make 6, 7, 8, 9, etc, or was George already planning on doing the PT before the ST?
As far as I'm aware the original plan of Lucas was 12 episodes with 9 episodes following each other in a chronological order plus 3 "tangential" ones. At some moment which I can't tell precisely, he reduced his vision to 3 trilogies and that was the number that circulated in his, various cast and crew members interviews all the time through making OT and even AFTER. The plans to film ST and PT were mentioned by several independent sources, for example Marquand in his ROTJ interview right after the release was outspeaking in the sense that the outline of PT storyline had been worked out, while regarding ST Lucas mentioned some sketch ideas on a more raw level.Things began to change when he sanctioned T.Zahn Thrawn Trilogy and several other authors thus giving them the rights to fill the void in the ST timeline. In '90 he somehow talked on the subject less frequently till changing the tune that he never intended to shoot ST, and all the talks were nothing but misinterpretations by the media. Go figure.