The Force Awakens written by Michael Arndt
The first person to take a crack at writing Star Wars Episode VII was Oscar winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine). He worked on the project for about a year before leaving, which is when J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan took over. Not a lot is known about the specifics of the departure (a book about it by long-time Star Wars writer J.W. Rinzler was put on ice by Disney) but his take was said to be more focused on the original trilogy characters, their kids, with different planets, and a more villainous “Jedi Killer” character. Ultimately he still got shared writing credit on the movie so lots of his ideas are in there, but if he’d only written it, it would have been very different.
