George Lucas's true thoughts on Force Awakens

This was revealed in Bob Iger's autobiography

Kathy screened The Force Awakens for George. He didn’t hide his disappointment. “There’s nothing new,” he said. In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technologies. In this one, he said, “There weren’t enough visual or technical leaps forward.” He wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t appreciating the pressure we were under to give ardent fans a film that felt quintessentially Star Wars. We’d intentionally created a world that was visually and tonally connected to the earlier films, to not stray too far from what people loved and expected, and George was criticizing us for the very thing we were trying to do—Bob Iger CEO of Disney

So...they were trying to rip off ANH instead of emulate it?

He also voiced his disdain for the film in a 2015 interview.

Lucas made the right call by not directing the sequel trilogy given how the process of making the prequel trilogy was long and extensive as hell, and he's in his 70s now. Tbh there's no pleasing the entire Star Wars fanbase because it's so huge, so I wouldn't be surprised if people bashed on Lucas's version of the sequel trilogy

George is based and redpilled.

Azronger wrote:He also voiced his disdain for the film in a 2015 interview.

No coincidence that james Cameron also said a similar thing about the Force Awakens

Lucas does not get to upset or disappointed about the sequels while swimming in money. He betrayed the franchise and should stay as far as he could.

HellfireUnit wrote:Lucas does not get to upset or disappointed about the sequels while swimming in money. He betrayed the franchise and should stay as far as he could.

Oh please. It was the OT brats bitching about how bad the Prequels are that made him want to sell it in the first place. He's even said so in interviews and in quotes.

Yeah the behavior of the fans towards him and the prequel actors was just shameful, regardless of whether or not the movies were bad. I would have done the same had I been in his place.

His prequels weren't any better, honestly.

Well, maybe RotS.

BreakofDawn wrote:

HellfireUnit wrote:Lucas does not get to upset or disappointed about the sequels while swimming in money. He betrayed the franchise and should stay as far as he could.

Oh please. It was the OT brats bitching about how bad the Prequels are that made him want to sell it in the first place. He's even said so in interviews and in quotes.

It is true and a huge shame what fans did to cast and actors. What has been done to Ahmed, Hayden is absolutely disgusting. However it is a fact that Lucas screwed up with Prequels and shit on everything he built. He just cannot take criticism thus he sold it. Lucas is as toxic as his fanbase. Blaming the audience and claiming you cannot make SW audience like anything is beyond absurd. He fucked up and can't accept that fact. He already owes the success of OT to many other fictions and books he stole from and people that fixed his drafts and reorganized the dialogues. Lucas' ego has been boost ridicilous levels.

How’s it a fact he screwed up the prequels when half the fanbase loves those movies?

DarthAnt66 wrote:How’s it a fact he screwed up the prequels when half the fanbase loves those movies?

Tbh it seems like more people like the prequels than the Disney films

It is true and a huge shame what fans did to cast and actors. What has been done to Ahmed, Hayden is absolutely disgusting. However it is a fact that Lucas screwed up with Prequels and shit on everything he built. He just cannot take criticism thus he sold it. Lucas is as toxic as his fanbase. 

...Except everyone who's ever met the man has described him as humble, kind and very shy. Last I checked, he didn't get Jake Lloyd sent to a mental ward by bullying and harassing him. 

Blaming the audience and claiming you cannot make SW audience like anything is beyond absurd. He fucked up and can't accept that fact.

He literally acknowledged that he made mistakes with the prequels, lmao. He gave people what they wanted:
Awesome duels? Done.
Vader's backstory? Done.
The original Jedi? Done.
The Clone Wars? Done.
The fall of the Jedi? Done.
How Sidious rose to power? Done. 

He already owes the success of OT to many other fictions and books he stole from

As a writer, I can happily say you don't have a clue what you're talking about. Do you have even an inkling of how hard it is to write something without it being called a rip-off? It's difficult to write about magic because it's compared to Harry Potter. Can't write about an ancient kingdom because it'll be compared to GoT. Can't write about demons, wizards, sorcery or evil dark lords because it'll be compared to LoTR. Every single idea on the market, even by the time of ANH, had been virtually cornered, including fantasy worlds and space travel. 

and people that fixed his drafts and reorganized the dialogues.

Oh boo hoo, a writer had help writing his books. You know who else has had help? J.K Rowling, George Martin, J.R.R Tolkien, C.S Lewis, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Steven Spielberg, and the list goes on. 

Lucas' ego has been boost ridicilous levels.

Said by someone who clearly hasn't met him or seen any interviews with him in. For example, his biggest success - Empire Strikes Back - he always credited as not being his film and being another's. 

I'm sorry, but you're a prime example of what is wrong with the Star Wars fanbase. You whine when something happens and have to blame everyone else for something that you demanded and which went wrong. You hate the Prequels? Go back and watch the OT. Want to complain about rip-offs? Go Google some original works and go and enjoy them instead of being a class A hypocrite.

BoD snapping and ragdolling.

HellfireUnit wrote:

BreakofDawn wrote:

HellfireUnit wrote:Lucas does not get to upset or disappointed about the sequels while swimming in money. He betrayed the franchise and should stay as far as he could.

Oh please. It was the OT brats bitching about how bad the Prequels are that made him want to sell it in the first place. He's even said so in interviews and in quotes.

It is true and a huge shame what fans did to cast and actors. What has been done to Ahmed, Hayden is absolutely disgusting. However it is a fact that Lucas screwed up with Prequels and shit on everything he built. He just cannot take criticism thus he sold it. Lucas is as toxic as his fanbase. Blaming the audience and claiming you cannot make SW audience like anything is beyond absurd. He fucked up and can't accept that fact. He already owes the success of OT to many other fictions and books he stole from and people that fixed his drafts and reorganized the dialogues. Lucas' ego has been boost ridicilous levels.

Literally his first reaction to seeing The Phantom Menace on screen was "I may have gone too far in a few places."



You're being way, way, way, way too hard on the guy. There's a vast, vast difference between a George Lucas and a Rian Johnson - or even a J. J. Abrams - who goes out on Twitter diatribes, calling those who didn't like his film nazis, racists, sexists, bigots, man babies, you name it.

@Azronger yeh Abrams and Johnson's treatment towards the fans has been downright unprofessional and insulting

I will write a huge respond BoD. Even if I am on the mobile.

Also worth noting Lucas is open about how he's not a good writer and dreads writing.

DarthAnt66 wrote:Also worth noting Lucas is open about how he's not a good writer and dreads writing.

He also starting writing the three prequel scripts at the same time, so... 

DC77 (Reborn) wrote:BoD snapping and ragdolling.

I really hate people shitting on other people’s work for awful and unproductive reasons. That’s the whole reason critical thinking was popularised, and all of this hate comes from the OT fans who demanded everything. Lucas is a sensitive person who did his best considering his weaknesses, so shaming him for not being better is so nasty to me.

I know that BoD has responded to the entire post, but I can't resist scrutinising this specific part.

HellfireUnit wrote:However it is a fact that Lucas screwed up with Prequels and shit on everything he built. He just cannot take criticism thus he sold it.

Cannot take criticism? The Star Wars fanbase didn't merely just criticise Lucas, they bashed on him, belittled him and constantly attacked him as a person, saying shit like "gEoRgE lUcAs rApEd mY cHiLdhOoD!!!" to voice their hatred for the Lucas and the Prequels, which is just unnecessary, juvenile, and downright disgusting. The Prequels aren't perfect, they have their faults, but at the time they were released, people complained about every little trivial detail of the Prequels and acted like a herd of toddlers that had inhaled kilograms of chicken salt. TPM for example, as of its release, recieved so much intense backlash for having Jar Jar that Lucas reduced Jar Jar's role and screentime in AotC to avoid further backlash because Jar Jar was hated that much. The actors/actresses who were involved the Prequels, such as 10 year old Jake Lloyd, got bullied and abused by the fanbase because of he played little Annie. Mark Hammil was so shocked by how the fanbase mistreated Jake that he wouldn't allow his own kids to work in acting until they were adults because of the risk of his kids suffering from PTSD from being abused by toxic SW fans. What's even worse is that the sheer, unadulterated hatred for Jar Jar that Ahmed Best, Jar Jar's voice actor, got completely shit on by fans to the point that it resulted in him descending into a dark slump of depression so severe that he wanted to kill himself. How on earth can you jump to the conclusion that Lucas's decision of selling the franchise to Disney stemmed from him supposedly not being able to take criticism, rather than the fact that the fanbase was so fucking toxic that they caused one of the voice actors to become mentally ill and treated Jake Lloyd like shit when he's just a 10 year old kid? And don't tell me that its Lucas's fault that this happened on the basis that he had creative control over TPM and whatever, Lucas didn't abuse Jake and Ahmed, the people who hurled abuse at Lucas and anyone else who were involved in the Prequels are solely to blame for their atrocity.

And despite all of this, Lucas still would’ve managed to make a worse trilogy, lmao.

King Joker wrote:And despite all of this, Lucas still would’ve managed to make a worse trilogy, lmao.

Perhaps, Lucas isn't that good at directing, but I'd guess that he may have learned from some of the mistakes of the PT if he got around to making an ST. But one thing that Lucas is excellent at is world building. The PT fleshed out the SW galaxy so much that the best EU novels are mostly took place in the PT.

He had some awful ideas even relatively late into his tenure as head of SW, like cloning Darth Maul and putting him in the Legacy era, or desiring even more oversaturated CGI in his planning for the ST. And I don't think he's really a "learn from his mistakes" type, rather someone who doubles down out of spite.

Either way, the chances of us getting a high-quality post-RotJ trilogy were going to be slim regardless of Disney or Lucas being at the helm, lol. They should've stopped after RotS—that's when the Skywalker story really concluded.