hydrospanner said:
Well, they may have been planning sequels, but the movie was written in a way where it stands on its own. Compare the ending of ANH to the ending of TFA.

To me, there’s that one key scene of why I thought ANH isn’t standalone. And it’s that scene where you see Vader’s Tie zoom away after he stopped the ship from spinning around. If we never got that small little sequence, then I think the argument of ANH intending to be standalone would be stronger. But since that Vader was given additional screen time after the Death Star is blown up, it no longer is standalone because it means we still have a bad guy (a skilled bad guy no less) out in the far reaches of the Galaxy.