A lot of superfans have been disappointed with the direction the franchise has taken since George Lucas released his remastered look at the trilogy and then launched the prequels in 1999. He kind of foreshadowed an unpopular direction with the infamously remade Greedo scene in “Star Wars.”

Of course, we weren’t really surprised with his juvenile approach to the prequels. It was just a continuation of what he had done with “Return of the Jedi.” We remember having hugely mixed feelings about that movie. On one hand, it was an awesome finale — complete with a stellar lightsaber duel and the best space battle ever put on the big screen. But those damn Ewoks almost ruined it for our 12-year-old mind as we left the theater saying, “So a bunch of teddy bears beat the Empire? Why was this movie made for little kids?”

Fast forward 16 years and it was no surprise when Lucas in fact cast a little kid to play pre-Darth Vader in the first prequel. It was further proof Lucas was making these movies for a new batch of young fans — not for the big kids who still consider the dark and stunning “Empire Strikes Back” the film franchise’s gold standard and one of the best movies ever made.

Like almost all of the original fans, we have our own ideas about how the franchise should have proceeded. We haven’t thought about it in exacting detail, but here is a general idea of how we would have approached it …

Sequels first

We would have filmed the sequel trilogy before the prequels, thus getting the main actors (Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher) at a much younger age (assuming they were all game for more).

Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy took this approach, creating a great new villain for the characters to fight as they tried to create a new galactic government.

Lucas apparently never really considered making the sequel triad until much later. Shortly after the original trilogy wrapped, Lucas apparently talked to Hamill about the prospect of “handing Excalibur down to the next generation” — but he was thinking about 30 years later. Funny, since that is how it has turned out.

(Lucas said his idea involved a master Force race called the Whills, an idea that he knew would give fans the wrong kind of chills.)

If the sequels had started in the 1990s, they could have focused on Luke searching for lost Jedi and the advancing romance of Han and Leia. The antagonists could have been Imperial remnants, as Zahn wrote, or some new group vying for control of the galaxy. The three-story arc could have ended with the handoff of Excalibur or the end of the Jedi as we knew them.

A basic outline:

Episode VII: The heroes battle a new enemy as they work to put the galaxy back together and advance their relationships with each other. It could end with the new enemy having won the round, as Vader did in “Empire.” Maybe have Han die, as Ford wanted for so many years — that way Ford would have to appear in only one of these sequels. As he leaves, his child takes his place. And maybe Luke meets his future as well.

Episode VIII: Fast-forward a few years (in the films and/or in reality) and maybe this somewhat follows the current storyline, with young Solo being turned to the Dark Side. Perhaps he, with some powerful help (Sith ghosts?), kills Luke — but not before Luke has created his own heir.

Episode IX: This could be entirely about young Solo and young Skywalker battling to see whether Dark or Light prevails. Their fight could be mirrored by the larger galactic conflict set up in VII. And the best ending might leave a huge question about who really won. Did young Solo really die?

There are a lot of ways to go with it, but pitting Solo vs. Skywalker in one more family feud seems like it would have been pretty cool.

Prequels last

Because we need none of the original characters for these, doing them last would have been best. And we absolutely would have avoided two huge pet peeves: (1) unwrapping every mysterious detail about the original trilogy and (2) adding any more incestuous relationships (e.g., Darth Vader was buddies with R2-D2 and built C-3PO, and Chewbacca and Yoda knew each other).

From the original trilogy, we know the prequels need to introduce the other “guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic,” set up the Kenobi-Skywalker-Palpatine tug o’ war, include the Clone Wars and end in the rise of Darth Vader and the Empire. And, of course, somewhere along the way, Luke and Leia are born. Lucas included all of those elements in his prequels, but he did it so poorly.

Our prequels would have started with the meeting of Obi-Wan and a young adult Anakin — no need for Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn and definitely no 9-year-old Anakin. That would have been more consistent with what Obi-Wan told Luke in “Return of the Jedi”: “When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot. But I was amazed how strongly the Force was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.”

A rough outline of the trilogy would go something like …

Episode I: Obi-Wan (age 40) meets Anakin (20) in some kind of space battle, where we see the truth of Kenobi’s boast about “the best star pilot in the galaxy.” Set it during the Clone Wars and develop the positive relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin while following Palpatine’s machinations. This would share some of the elements of “Attack of the Clones” — minus comical droids (protocol and military) and a forced, sappy love story. It could end with Anakin being saved from death by Palpatine, who wants to show the fiery fighter the power of the Dark Side.

Episode II: This would be all about Anakin making the transformation, as Palpatine woos him from Obi-Wan and the staid Jedi ways that do not interest Anakin. It would be an easier flip than Lucas made it. Anakin also would meet the future mother of Luke and Leia. But we’d do it a lot differently than Lucas, who made Anakin’s obsession with a former queen the odd impetus for his move to the Dark Side. We’d make the romance a lesser part of the story, since there was only a brief reference to Luke and Leia’s mother in the original trilogy. There was no hint that she was anyone of significance, so just make it a one-film deal, with Anakin unaware she is pregnant and the two of them never really forming a lasting bond as he pursues power over love. This makes more sense, based on Ben’s comment to Luke in “Jedi”: “To protect you both from the emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born.” Lucas had Vader think his kids died with Padme; we’d go with he didn’t even know about the babies.

Meanwhile, Anakin becomes Darth Vader and begins the Jedi purge as the Clone Wars wind down. His duels with Jedi (not just Obi-Wan) are how he loses some limbs and slowly becomes “more machine than man, twisted and evil.” This one could end similarly to “Sith,” with Kenobi winning an epic duel with Vader (without the lame “high ground” ending) and the machine Vader similarly rising at the end. Meanwhile, Palpatine declares himself emperor after his clones win the war and the Jedi are destroyed and scattered. This film would be more like “Sith” — without the melodrama around Padme or Anakin’s unbelievable conversion from good to bad in the blink of an eye.

Episode III: This is where we could get into completely new material that Lucas did not cover. This could follow Vader continuing the Jedi purge and hunting for Kenobi to exact revenge. Meanwhile, the Empire expands and Obi-Wan, Yoda & others mount a last-gasp effort against the emperor and Vader before being defeated and scattered for good. This could feature one more duel between Vader and Obi-Wan that sends Obi-Wan into exile. We also might catch a glimpse of Luke and Leia in their respective lives as it ends.