George Lucas “Breaks Up” With the Star Wars Franchise
Next month will see the release of the first Star Wars movie in a decade. Fans have been anxiously awaiting the film it was first announced three years ago. However, the latest development in the franchise will leave many Star Wars devotees greatly disappointed.
George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, has been a major contributor to all the films, including Episode 7: The Force Awakens since the first movie came out in 1977. Surprisingly, he has now decided that he will no longer be working on any future Star Wars films.
Lucas has expressed his disapproval for the direction that the new movies are taking. “It’s called a space opera, but people don’t realize it’s actually a soap opera,” said Lucas. The new trilogy is a saga of fathers versus sons and other family relationships. Lucas revealed that Disney wanted to make something geared towards fans and therefore ruled out many of Lucas’ original ideas. “They decided they were going to do their own thing so I decided ‘Fine… I’ll go my way and let them go their way,” Lucas stated, according to Vanity Fair.
Lucas has also disclosed that he is unhappy with the way films are judged today. He does not feel that there is room to experiment. “You have to do it a certain way. I don’t like that, I never did. I started out in experimental films and I want to go back to experimental films.” While Lucas will still be directing films, he has admitted that they will be weird films that will probably not be shown in most theaters.
Lucas has compared his leaving Star Wars to a breakup. “When you break up with someone, the first rule is no phone calls. The second rule is you don’t go over to their house and drive by to see what they’re doing. The third rule is you don’t turn up at their coffee shop to run into them,” he explained. “You just say no, gone, history, I’m moving forward.”
Episode 7: The Force Awakens is directed by JJ Abrams of Bad Robot Productions, who seems to be taking over Lucas’ role in the Star Wars franchise. When addressing Lucas he said “George, I just want to say thank you for making my childhood and the childhood of so many that much better by creating this extraordinary universe that you were then gracious enough to let me be a part of,” according to Vanity Fair.
At this point, the only thing left to do is await the future films to see what Disney and Abrams can do without the guiding hand of film genius George Lucas.
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