‘They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that’ ... George Lucas. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Star Wars creator George Lucas has criticised the “retro” tone of new episode The Force Awakens, with which he had no creative involvement.
Speaking to US television talk-show host and journalist Charlie Rose, Lucas quipped that he had sold his “kids … to the white slavers that take these things”.
The film-maker, who oversaw both the groundbreaking original Star Wars trilogy, which hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983, and the much-maligned 1999-2005 prequel trilogy, confirmed that studio Disney had not wanted his involvement in the new instalment.
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“They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that,” he said. “They weren’t that keen to have me involved anyway, but if I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that any more, and all I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.’”
Lucas defended his vision for the six previous Star Wars films, which he said involved constant innovation. “I worked very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships – you know, to make it new,” he said, pointing out the failure of a number of rival space movies that attempted to repeat the formula in the late 70s and early 80s.
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“When Star Wars came out, everyone said, ‘Oh it’s just a silly movie with a bunch of space battles and stuff. It’s not real. There’s nothing behind it.’ And I said … ‘There’s more to it than that. It’s much more complicated than that.’ But nobody would listen,” said Lucas. “So the spaceships and that part of the science fantasy, whatever, got terribly abused. And of course, everybody went out and made spaceship movies. And they were all horrible, and they all lost tons of money.”
The 71-year-old film-maker said he had made his peace with walking away from the long-running space saga, which he sold to Disney for $4.05bn in October 2012 along with the rest of his Lucasfilm production company.
“You do end up with this thing, which is, you know, you gotta live with it,” he said. “People are gonna talk about it and all that kind of stuff. It’s like talking about your divorce or something. It’s just awkward, but it’s not painful.”
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Some will find Lucas’s comments surprising as the film-maker appeared at the world and European premieres of The Force Awakens, in Los Angeles and London, earlier this month. Lucas had previously said he felt fans would like JJ Abrams’ movie, but stopped short of signalling his own full approval.
The Force Awakens remains on course to challenge Avatar’s all-time $2.78bn box-office world record. It is currently the ninth highest-grossing film, with $1.22bn, having overtaken Iron Man 3 on Wednesday.
In the US and Canada, The Force Awakens has passed The Dark Knight, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the original 1977 Star Wars to enter the all-time top five at the North American box office, with receipts of $600.9m. The space opera sequel, which is also tipped to be a part of the 2016 Oscars race, is expected to pass Avatar’s record $760m North American haul as early as this weekend.
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