November 2, 2012 
Of course Luke Skywalker knew there were going to be more Star Wars films. In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mark Hamill speaks of George Lucas revealing the news to him months ago.
It seems back in August, Lucas spontaneously asked Hamill and Carrie Fisher to lunch one day and revealed Episodes VII, VIII, and IX would soon be in the works (to which Hamill responded: “Are you nuts?!”).
While he didn’t discuss any potential plot details – nor the impending sale of Lucasfilm to Disney – it could be somewhat telling that he disclosed this news to those actors so early. Could this next trilogy begin with old-man Luke Skywalker and Leia passing the baton on to some young buck?
Even at that early stage, Lucas was apparently aware he wouldn’t be writing or directing this new series, as he said as much to Hamill and Fisher.
Knuckle down folks, ’cause this Star Wars thing is gonna roll on for quite some time.
Quickflix 
I guess Harrison and Billy Dee were not available for that lunch date. Or perhaps they were invited out to dinner.
Ahh younglings – This is just more Jedi mind tricks. Mark Hamill knew back in 1983 (when they were making Return of the Jedi) that Lucas had plans for episodes 7 to 9, he revealed that in an interview in Fantastic Films magazine after ROTJ was released (that was in the pre-interweb days so no, I think you’ll need to but a copy of the magazine to read it). When Lucas made episodes 1 to 3 he announced he’d never had plans for 7 to 9 (which was clearly incorrect). He said it had just been off the cuff talk to an Italian journalist but that doesn’t match Hamill’s account of their conversations during ROTJ at all. I think Lucas just got a bit jaded with what he’d created and the fun had gone out of it for him and he couldn’t face another decade more of active responsibility of doing 7 to 9. Now he’s found a way to make billions from it, still have some creative input while not being directly responsible for it (either creatively or financially) and will still be able to reap the rewards when they turn a profit.
In any case, I think most episode 1 and at least the last 3rd of episode 3 show he’d lost the plot, here’s hoping someone can do better. If nothing else, it’ll mean the studio can always reboot the whole thing in another 20 years (here’s hoping for an episode 1 without Jar Jar).