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‘We Could See The Problems': George Lucas Explains Why He Departed From Star Wars And Sold Lucasfilm
In one of the biggest and most lucrative transfers in the history of entertainment, Lucas sold his Lucasfilm to Walt Disney at a whopping $4.05 billion in 2012.
George Lucas, the now-retired filmmaker, was honored with a Palme d’Or for his contribution to cinema at the 77th Cannes Film Festival this year. On the occasion, he spoke about his idea behind making the popular Star Wars franchise, the reason behind his eventual departure from the franchise, and selling his Lucasfilm.
Years after selling his studio and the franchise to Walt Disney, the 80-year-old filmmaker finally spoke about why he took such a step and decided to retire. Let us find out what Lucas has to say regarding this.
Star Wars was “supposed to be a kid’s movie”
Lucas recalled describing his idea of his Star Wars movie as “this sort of science fiction fantasy, crazy 1930s-style movie, with dogs driving spaceships” to Allan Ladd Jr., Fox’s head of production at the time. This intrigued Ladd Jr. and he wanted to do the movie and work with Lucas following the success of American Graffiti which made “a lot of money.” Lucas said, “… and he hired me and the rest is kind of history,” and that’s how Star Wars began.
Lucas also addressed the critics' criticism of his Star Wars prequel films by saying that the franchise was never intended to be an adult film. “It was supposed to be a kid’s movie for 12-year-olds that were going through puberty, who don’t know what they’re doing, and are asking all the big questions: What should I be worried about? What’s important in life? And Star Wars has all those things in there. They’re buried in there but you definitely get it, especially if you’re young.”
He contended that the opposition to his Star Wars prequels stemmed from "critics and fans who had been 10 years old when they saw the first one" and their dislike of kid-friendly movies. “When I did the third one it was the Ewoks: ‘Those are little teddy bears. This is a kid’s movie, we don’t want to see a kids’ movie. I said: ‘It is a kids’ movie. It’s always been a kids’ movie.'”
Lucas sold the franchise and Lucasfilm to Disney
However, even after releasing a restored version of the original 1977 Star Wars, in 2012, Lucas sold his Lucasfilm to Walt Disney at a whopping 4.05 billion USD, in one of the biggest, most famous, and most lucrative transfers in the history of entertainment. Disney acquired all of the current Star Wars movies, characters, and other intellectual property rights as part of the transaction. It now had the right to create new Star Wars material including motion pictures, television shows, theme park attractions, and merchandising.
But he said the new owners got it all wrong. “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was … who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force. When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”
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But, why did George Lucas sell Star Wars and Lucasfilm?
Lucas claimed that he has always been a stubborn guy and never liked or wanted anyone to tell him how to make his movies. So, as streaming services were on the rise, he did not know how to adapt to the new threat. “Streaming is really powerful, and it’s great, it’s really upped the movie business because the theatrical movie business… we could see the problems, and it was not good. So everybody was looking to save it, but nobody knew streaming would. And that’s when Netflix took off, and at that point, I said, ‘I don’t know what this is gonna be, there’s gonna be a giant transition in the business, I don’t know that much about it,’ and I sold the company, and I retired,” he said.
However, Lucas once asserted that Disney is the only organization capable of adequately preserving Star Wars and carrying on its heritage. He mentioned in a recent interview that he was happy with the present path of Star Wars because of the high caliber of talent, inventive ideas, and production value of the projects.
With Canadian director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, born in Pakistan, set to become the first person of color to helm a Star Wars feature picture, the iconic franchise is about to embark on yet another new chapter soon. Filming for her installment, penned by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) is scheduled to start this year.
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