Back in the dog days of the ‘70s, even the most successful sequel – say The Godfather Part II — would be expected to make around half its original. “I was particularly surprised to find a scrap of paper that someone had saved from Variety, just two sentences leaking the title of the film. And nobody cared! Today, that would be across the world in about three seconds. They just didn’t care.” Which makes Lucas’ decision to not resolve Empire’s narrative until the third film all the more ballsy. “In fact Mark and Carrie were signed up for not just two sequels but three sequels. That was an interesting thing I found in their contract. It wasn’t just up to Episode VI, it was up to Episode VII — just in case.”