ST Behind the scenes/ The Making of TFA

Post what you've learned about the making of TFA in this thread.

Here are some behind the scenes details I gathered from looking through the book "The Artwork of The Force Awakens." (I think that was its title.)

Some possible spoilers/hints about Ep. 8

The origin of Poe's name. His character was originally called John Doe. Doe became Poe.

The McGuffin kept changing. 1st it was a search for Luke's saber. 2nd it was Vader's helmet. Finally it became a map to Luke.

Jakku was originally an ice world with downed ships.

They were thinking of including Felucia for some reason.

They were considering using a Darth Vader / Anakin Force ghost who switched back and forth from light to dark. Thank God, they didn't do that!

Another blow to the theory that Snoke is Darth Plagueis. At one point, he was going to be a woman.

The vehicles in earlier artwork looked less like original trilogy ships. Instead, they looked like they had evolved from OT designs.

Either ROTJ or TESB was originally going to introduce Vader's castle. They were thinking of going back to that idea. Also at one point Leia was planned to have a castle.

The return of the super-weapon was being thought about early on.

One of the earliest concepts was a character who was a Jedi-killer and his gang of followers.

That's about all I can remember!