George Lucas Moves On From Star Wars…And I’m Not Surprised

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal (subscription required but here’s the link), George Lucas was showing off his new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, where he mentioned that there is a wing dedicated to Star Wars, but only because people would ask for it. In an article for Bleeding Fool, contributor “The Shark Of Paper” (hey, I’m not one to talk about screennames) lamented how he thought George Lucas could still come in and save his creation. He was disappointed that Lucas would not return and had no further interest in the movie that arguably made him a household name.

Like many others, I was once one of those guys who held on to hope that perhaps George would return in a more significant role over Star Wars. Perhaps as a creative advisor with some actual teeth. Thirteen years have passed since he sold Lucasfilm to Disney and I believe I have also moved on. I’ve at least recalibrated my expectations, but this official news from George himself was still a bit of a jab to my soul. Sure, it’s easy to be cynical and say that he’s made his money, over 4 billion dollars worth, so why should we care what he does? He’s got the right to happiness and a life just as much as anyone else has, but there’s just something about it when the creator of one of your favorite fictional worlds makes it clear he’s washed his hands of it.

I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to be associated with things like The Acolyte, The Last Jedi, or The High Republic.  However, to be fair, George had a hand in the Star Wars: Holiday Special, but later tried to erase it from existence.

The article writer does note the successes that Disney Star Wars did have, but most of them were projects that LucasFilm under Lucas had already started or at least tied to them. Right now we have two different periods of Star Wars, which for the sake of convenience I refer to as LucasFilm and DisneyFilm on this site. All well and good, but George Lucas moving on makes a lot of sense, but while Star Wars was his baby, it turned out to be a bad seed in his life. And it all starts with the prequels.

I’m risking giving the DisneyFilm side more to use against the traditional LucasFilm era Star Wars fans, but the response to the prequels is the first reason. I don’t know if the writer was one of those voices back then, but so many fans got upset with the prequels. They didn’t like that the origin of the war started over political disputes, despite that being how most wars start, which the future Emperor used to slowly gain control of the Republic in the name of the Sith, to be used in their war with the Jedi as well as Palpatine’s own plans of conquest. You can’t really call it a bloodless coup between clones, Jedi, and other rebel groups that sprung up during The Clone Wars, but it’s the closest thing to it you could get. Palpatine used the war as a distraction, like we’ve seen in the Op-Center: Mirror Image novel I’ve been reading with Russian minister Dogin (a plan so close to what’s going on now with Russia and Ukraine I have to wonder what Putin’s up to). Taxes might not be as exciting as the “Ming The Merciless” style conquer one would expect given the inspiration from old sci-fi action movie serials, but it’s not bad. And let’s not get started on how Jake Lloyd got treated, as the fallout has conflicting reports. The kid didn’t deserve the hate I saw.

What is bad, and I’ll join in on that, were the dialog (Anakin’s “sand” commentary is still a meme machine), the idea that Anakin and Padme should be so far apart age-wise when they first meet, and that’s pretty much it. There was also the “Special Edition” versions where Lucas added footage to the movie release and then again to later home video releases. Fans just wanted the old movie back. Han shooting first made sense to his character arc. I liked seeing the Jabba scene as intended, though fans have pointed out that the shootout with Greedo filled the same narrative role of setting up Han’s debt for payoff in the later movies. At the time, with all the tech advances at the time that were so good it’s a time machine of sci-fi special effects and shouldn’t have been updated, making the Jabba scene was too much of a technical nightmare. The big human guy was a replacement, not the original plan for Jabba, but seeing that back was the only worthwhile addition to the various Special Editions. Lucas didn’t have the backstage support and help that he had in the original trilogy, proving that sometimes even the best of directors shouldn’t be given carte blanche to do whatever. See also Batman Returns and Batman & Robin.

The end result was fans insisting Star Wars had to be “saved” from George Lucas, that he lost his way, lost the vision, and a bunch of other stuff. Well, we got that when he sold the whole company to Disney. Be careful what you wish for, kids. The hate he got for the prequels being a factor in his wanting to walk away I can totally understand. Like I said, I don’t want to add to the stupid “blame the fans” narrative DisneyFilm is using to “protect” Disney Star Wars, but this should be acknowledged. The fans were not part of the problem then because they complained any more than they are today. For everything Lucas gave us himself, and greenlight in cartoons, comics, novels, and video games, the actual movies made missteps worth pointing out. The prequels didn’t have the same inspirations the original trilogy had. It took seeing what Disney, Kathleen Kennedy, and Dave Filoni did to the franchise, plus Disney+ shoving out low quality series after series, for people to reassess the prequels. They still hate Jar Jar Binks, which made portrayer Ahmed Best sad, but while the flaws are still there, fans are a bit kinder to them now. I never hated them, but I did agree with many of the problems fans had, just not all of them or enough to join the demand to save Star Wars from its creator. Why would he come to save it now?

Then there’s the divorce.

Lucas’ dream project was Skywalker Ranch, a state of the art film editing facility and recording studio, where filmmakers wouldn’t have to worry about the commute to and from the editing studio. They could stay there until the movie or show was done with all the editing, ADR, and whatever else they needed to do post-production to get everything done. The movies were going to pay for that, but that meant he was off in England and his wife, Marcia Lucas, was home. They wouldn’t see each other until it was time to edit the movie, which Marcia’s work is credited to help make the original trilogy and absence hurting the prequels. Marcia spent more time with the production manager than with her husband. This led to her running off with the production manager, though according to Wikipedia (question the source) they’re divorced as well. It’s Hollywood, baby!

With this museum, Lucas got to work alongside his current wife, Mellody, so that hopefully will keep history from repeating itself. He didn’t fund it with a new movie but with all the residuals he still gets from the franchise, though I don’t know if he still makes money off of the merchandising. Still, his baby cost him his marriage and being forced to split time with their kids. Add that to the fallout of the prequels and Special Editions, and you can see why Lucas was so happy to get away from it, there are fans who think forcing Kathleen Kennedy into being in charge was almost done on purpose to hurt the franchise. I don’t think that’s the case, but you can see how the dream of Star Wars was taken from him considering everything it cost him, both his reputation as a director and his marriage.

So I’m not surprise Lucas has “moved past it” and gotten on with his life. He still loves filmmaking but maybe the sting of what this particular franchise was more than he was willing to deal with. That’s the real shame of all of this.