Story of the Force: George Lucas Talks Reasons For Selling Star Wars

 

Ever since George Lucas sold his Star Wars brand to Disney years ago, fans have discussed why they thought he unloaded the entirety of Lucasfilm to the Mouse House. In a new revelation, the creator of the most famous franchise of all time has finally revealed his reasons behind the sale of his creation to the massive conglomerate that now runs the show. Over time he's come back to help out and consult on The Mandalorian and bits of the sequel trilogy, but for the most part has not been a major contributor to the newer projects. The new book called Star Wars Archives I-III goes into detail with the director about the why and how behind his eventual departure from his galaxy far, far away. 

When speaking with writer Paul Duncan, Lucas went into full detail about his decision and how it's effected his life:

“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.”

He continued:

“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."

He adds:

"I’m one of those micro-manger 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.”

Back in 2012, Lucas sold Lucasfilm and all its subsidiaries for $4 billion. Although the newest trilogy was divisive with the fanbase, the movies went on to gross their full purchase price of the label. With the release of The Mandalorian, many fans have been returning to Star Wars. Lucas has returned several times to consult with Favreau and Filoni. The future seems to be wide open for his creation again. 

-CG