[Zamuel]

They should have rather made a remake with Leia as the main protagonist and an emphasis on the fact that she is a mature and full-grown character whose male partners like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo have to live up to.

That could have been a good theme. But I think Disney was fishing for a "Hot, New," Male lead to exploit.

Zam

[colliric]

George Lucas on Star Wars:
"It was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships?"

The Ewoks' primitive weapons are explicitly based on the Vietcong's booby traps in Vietnam.

Yes, this was the case. But he turned the Vietcong into lovable teddy bears which almost totally blunted the metaphor. Even the original plan(The Wookies were going to be in Jedi before Lucas changed it to a new race) was fuzzy.

...and he also ripped off LOTR in the OT alot, the Belly Of The Death Star sequence in ANH is pretty much the mines of Moria in space. "Run, Luke, Run!" Obi-Wan, "Fly(Run) you fools!" - Gandalf.

The Ewoks take the place of the Army Of The Dead in Return of the King, not just a reference to the Vietcong, also a pre-Peter-Jackson homage to Lord of the Rings.