George Lucas originally had the idea that 30 years after Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker was in a bad place and shut himself off from his friends, refusing to teach a new generation the ways of the Jedi. So again, you can put your blame on the man who gave you the prequels when you whine about Lucas doing it better. There is one major change though. George Lucas was going to have Mark Hamill’s Luke come back midway through the events of Episode VII, which makes sense when you think of Hamill talking about liking some of Lucas’ ideas better. It was determined that the first installment of the new trilogy should focus more on the new characters and that Han Solo was already eating up enough nostalgia time on the screen.