Even though for many, there was much to dislike about the George Lucas‘ “Star Wars” prequels, you have to respect the guy for seeing it through because, in the end, what we were watching was, in fact, his full cinematic vision splattered on screen. Lucas created worlds unlike any others with the prequels, and while they were heavily flawed, one must admire the way he built up these stories from scratch. This feat is even more remarkable when you look at how every successful movie today is based on some kind of source material. What Lucas did with “Star Wars” would probably not be able to happen with today’s blockbusters or, at the very least, the lack of financing would stop short any kind of project of this magnitude.
It’s safe to say that it must have been heartbreaking for Lucas to sell the rights of “Star Wars” to Disney, a deal which he stated to Business Insider was akin to selling off one of his “kids.” He’s also been vocal about Disney’s insistence to take over complete creative control of the films.
“They looked at the stories and they said, ‘We want to make something for the fans,’ ” Lucas said in 2015. “I said, ‘All I want to do is tell a story’… They decided they didn’t want to use those [my] stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing. They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway — if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that anymore. All I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.'”
So, the next question would be, does Lucas have any role in the making of these new Disney-backed “Star Wars” movies? According to Lucasfilm head honcho Kathleen Kennedy, Lucas does give advice every once in a while, albeit in the quietest of whispers:
“He’ll whisper in my ear every now and then. Usually, it’s something specific or important to him about Jedi training. Things like that,” she told EW.
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There have barely been any examples of Lucas interfering in the creative process of these new “Star Wars” films, with “Rogue One” director Gareth Edwards stating last year that Lucas’ input was limited to “jokes and encouragement to not screw up.”
You have to think that despite reaping an incomprehensibly large sum of money in selling the rights to Disney, Lucas must still be heartbroken at the prospect of others messing around with a creative endeavor he’s worked on for more than four decades. He lived and breathed “Star Wars” since the ’70s, putting everything else on hold. People forget that he showed tremendous cinematic promise when he did 1973’s “American Graffiti,” a film which is still considered one of the milestones of 1970s cinema, and that he sacrificed that potential to fully delve into the “Star Wars” universe for the rest of his career. Here’s hoping Lucas can rest easy with someone else at the wheel.