Fans were certainly surprised when George Lucas released the rights to Stars Wars. A franchise he brought to the world that has become such a massive part of pop and film culture. The rights now reside in Disney’s hands. There’s been some misses and some hits. Some fans do wonder what Star Wars would be like if the rights had remained in his own hands.
In a new interview, Lucas opens up how hard it was giving up the rights to Star Wars:
“At that time I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up. I was also about to have a daughter with my wife. It takes 10 years to make a trilogy – episodes I to III took from 1995 to 2005.
I’d still be working on episode IX! In 2012 I was 69. So the question was am I going to keep doing this the rest of my life? Do I want to go through this again? Finally, I decided I’d rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while.”
Lucas continues:
“I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn’t retiring. On the empire strikes back and return of the Jedi I tried to stay out of the way but I couldn’t. I was there every day. Even though the people were friends of mine and they did great work, it wasn’t the same as me doing it. It was like being once removed. I knew that probably wouldn’t work again, that I’d be frustrated.
I’m one of those micromanager guys and I can’t help it. So I figured I would forgo that, enjoy what I had and I was looking forward to raising my daughter. Also, I wanted to build a museum, which I’d always wanted to do, so I was thinking, ‘if I don’t do this now, I’ll never get that done.”
After spending most of his life working on Star Wars, Lucas added:
“I’ve spent my life creating Star Wars – 40 years – and giving it up was very, very painful. But it was the right thing to do.
I thought I was going to have a little bit more to say about the next three because I’d already started them, but they decided they wanted to do something else. Things don’t always work the way you want it. Life is like that.”
How do you feel about Lucas’s giving up Star Wars and what Star Wars has turned into today?
Source: Fantha Tracks
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