Luke Skywalker died in George Lucas' original plan for Star Wars 8. Prior to selling Lucasfilm to Disney, Lucas spent a year developing his own version of Star Wars 7 and ironed out a treatment for the sequel trilogy. Obviously, the studio opted to go in a different direction, discarding Lucas' ideas and continuing the Skywalker saga in their own way. While Disney's trilogy got off to a strong start with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the subsequent two installments, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, proved to be divisive for various reasons. This left viewers wondering if Lucas' trilogy might have been better.

Over time, details about Lucas' concepts for the Star Wars sequels have been revealed. He definitely wanted to take the story in a different direction, but traces of his ideas can be seen in Disney's trilogy. Namely, Lucas' version of an older Luke had some things in common with Rian Johnson's controversial take, such as going into exile on a world where the first Jedi Temple was. As a matter of fact, Lucas and Johnson were on the same wavelength when it came to determining when Luke should die.

Related: Star Wars: George Lucas' Sequel Trilogy Would Be As Controversial As Disney's

As revealed in the book Star Wars: Fascinating Facts (hat tip Star Wars News Net), Lucas' treatment for Star Wars 8 from 2012 called for Luke to die in the movie.

George Lucas and Star Wars The Last Jedi Luke Death

Lucas was far removed from the Star Wars franchise by the time Johnson was hired to make The Last Jedi (Johnson was brought on in 2014), so this parallel is simply a coincidence. When Johnson started working on his film, he essentially had a clean slate with no preordained plot points to follow (outside of The Force Awakens' events). Still, it's funny to see Lucas had the same idea, and it will likely spark interest in learning more about his version of the sequels. It would be fascinating to see how Lucas planned to kill Luke off and how it compares to The Last Jedi. In canon, Luke had an epic, self-sacrificial death that cemented him as a legend in the galaxy. It's likely Lucas would have treated Luke's passing with the gravitas it deserved. In either version of Star Wars 8, Luke would have died a hero.

If Lucas had stuck around and saw his ideas come into fruition, it wouldn't have necessarily made the Star Wars sequels any less divisive. Lucas himself admitted Star Wars fans would have hated his movies. And based on the reactions to The Last Jedi's portrayal of Luke, it's reasonable to assume some viewers wouldn't like an exiled Luke regaining his spark of hope and eventually dying - even if it was Lucas telling the story. No matter who was making the sequels, it appears that was meant to be Luke's destiny, allowing him to pass the torch to a younger generation of Jedi.

More: Why George Lucas Didn't Direct the Star Wars Sequels

Source: Star Wars: Fascinating Facts (via Star Wars News Net)