With Star Wars: The Force Awakens nearing $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue, we're hearing more about the making of Episode VII - more so, in November 2014 when it was dubbed 'The Force Awakens'.
The Force Awakens was actually called something completely different until that point, with Pablo Hidalgo, the Creative Executive for the Lucasfilm Story Group taking to Twitter to explain it. Hidalgo was tweeting with Jedi News editor Justin LaSalata, saying that The Force Awakens had an alternate title.
Hidalgo said that "for a while" Episode VII was referred to as "Shadow of the Empire". Shadow of the Empire is close to the written novel from Steve Perry titled "Shadows of the Empire", which took place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, featuring the iconic trilogy characters, including Darth Vader.