Disney CEO: Star Wars creator George Lucas 'felt betrayed' by sequel approach
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Disney CEO: Star Wars creator George Lucas 'felt betrayed' by sequel approach
Bob Iger's memoir reveals how Lucas really felt about the first in the franchise's sequel trilogy.
BY JENNIFER BISSET, c/net, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
Anaheim, California.
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George Lucas (left) and Bob Iger at the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Media Preview at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. Getty Images
George Lucas hasn't exactly hidden his feelings about Star Wars: The Force Awakens , the first in the franchise's sequel trilogy. In 2015, when the movie came out, he very carefully said, "I think the fans are going to love it." That was the same year he'd said Disney's handling of his films, which he referred to as "kids," made him feel like he'd "sold them to the white slavers."
Now, four years later, Disney CEO Bob Iger is reliving Lucas' disappointment all over again. Lucas "didn't hide his disappointment" over The Force Awakens, Iger said in his autobiographical memoir Iger's The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, released Monday.
Lucas felt there was "nothing new" about the sequel directed by J.J. Abrams.
"In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to [Lucas] 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,'" Iger said.
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But now we also know how Iger feels about Lucas' take.
"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."
Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05 billion. In 2015, The Force Awakens arrived and mostly fared well with critics and fans. However, some found it derivative of the original trilogy, and Lucas apparently had his own issues with it.
"George immediately got upset as they began to describe the plot and it dawned on him that we weren't using one of the stories he submitted during the negotiations," Iger wrote. "George knew we weren't contractually bound to anything, but he thought that our buying the story treatments was a tacit promise that we'd follow them, and he was disappointed that his story was being discarded. I'd been so careful since our first conversation not to mislead him in any way, and I didn't think I had now, but I could have handled it better."
Added Iger: "George felt betrayed, and while this whole process would never have been easy for him, we'd gotten off to an unnecessarily rocky start."
The next big Star Wars release will be The Mandalorian series, arriving on Disney Plus Nov. 12. Then we get The Rise of Skywalker , the final movie in the sequel trilogy, arriving Dec. 20.
Will Lucas be a fan?
At least he liked The Last Jedi.
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I lost interest in the Star Wars series when Han Solo was killed by his son. Sorry for the spoiler.
I also felt betrayed.
Me too.
I saw the three original ones and a couple of the others.
I dont think any movie should have 9 or 10 sequels. You turn them into a television series.
Just end it and leave people with good memories.
The Last Jedi wasnt great and it wasnt horrible. Mission Impossible : Fallout was far more exciting though.
I would have left it at the original 6. I think Tacos' review (comment below) has it down pat.
I think in Lucas's original development, he intended episodes 7-9 to be about Luke and Leia's kids. That would have been more interesting than what we got, which is a corporate committee-designed rehash of the previous movies.
I will watch any of them once. I met George in Alameda once at a Mexican restaurant where he was throwing a birthday party for one of his kids
I lived on base, he lived in a 100 acre spread in Marin County, but he was just a nice down to earth guy.
Across the canal from where we worked, one of his studios was always filming X fighter battle scenes up on top of a three story warehouse using the cloudless California skies as their 'blue screen' background. Lot's of entertaining pyrotechnics.
So I like to see the new vs the old techniques and how much they have improved over filming in parking lots and roof tops.
I love Star Wars, but I didn't like The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was worse. There's no logic to either of them. Don't get me wrong, I know all of the movies are imperfect, but these last two have demanded an unprecedented level of suspended disbelief.
The rebellion won for God's sake (in Episode VI), so where did the First Order come from? And why is the restored Republic being called "The Resistance" again? No explanation. Just accept it!
Rey is so "Mary Sue" it's ridiculous and Kylo Ren is a terrible villain. He's more pathetic than scary, but somehow he was too much for Luke, who later handles him from all the way across the galaxy. You couldn't have done that when he was wrecking your Jedi school?
Am I supposed to like Finn? Cuz he's a lame, dishonorable coward. I'm still waiting for his redeeming quality. Although he did manage to hold his own in a light saber fight with the aforementioned Sith prodigy, Kylo Ren. I mean wtf.
What's with Snoke? Did he just appear out of thin air? Is Captain Phasma ever going to matter?
How do you shoot Death Star beam to destroy multiple planets? For that matter, how are there five or more life supporting planets within sight of each other? Didn't everybody in the First Order die when they blew up the Death Planet?
How is one lone ship allowed to approach the gigantic flagship of the fleet totally unmolested to take out ALL of its guns? And then afterward, why do bombs fall "down" onto this ship in space?
I mean, don't get me freaking started. They should call it Swiss Cheese Wars for all the danged plot holes. Or Swill Wars for the garbage character development. Or Recycling Wars for redoing every plot device from earlier movies. Or . . . yeah. Don't get me started.
I'm with you on all that...
It was a slow space chase that made no sense and went no where. Also, why wait to the last rebel star ship to turn one around and go into ramming warp speed if that was even possible?
One of the most pointless villains ever created. Captain Hook had a better back story. Well, I suppose any villain with a backstory has a better backstory than Snoke.
Physics be damned! We've got Star Wars rides to build at Disney Land!
I laughed out loud when I saw that. I thought, "What? Is the star destroyer using its tractor beam to pull them towards itself?".
That would be a much better show, perhaps premiering on the Food Network. I'd binge 10 seasons of "Swiss Cheese Wars" before ever watching Last Jedi again.
The paycheck Mark Hamill must have received to be in that pile of crap better be enough to buy his own planet.
If you want to see some good work from Hamill check out the newest "Child's Play" where he does the voice for Chucky.
Or maybe Last Jedi was really a two hour Jedi mind trick, "These are the movies you're looking for... You will give Disney all your money... You will give Disney all of your money...".
We went to Dizzyland last month. I have to say that the look of the new Star Wars land is legit. There's not a lot to do there yet, though. They have one ride that's actually pretty fun, but the rest of it is props and shops, so far. Looks amazing, though.
The sequels weren't great, but Lucas gave us the prequels, so... Jar Jar Binks, anybody?
Jar Jar Binks may be laughable, but you have to admit it was an original characterization.
For this alone, Star Wars will always be remembered.
The original opening music, that first bar scene on Tatooine and the march of the Jawas...
Your mention of the music reminds me of the movie Paul.
When they go into a country bar the band is playing a tune that I didn't realize what it was until later.
It's the same music they were playing in the bar scene on Tatooine.
I burst out laughing when I realized.
That movie is full of so many funny references to other sci-fi movies.
Great movie!
John Williams music is without a doubt one of the best things about the Star Wars franchise. Another great was Irvin Kershner who directed Empire who I was lucky enough to see along with a showing of Empire at a local theatre shortly before he died. We watched the film then Kershner got up and spoke about the making of the film, his tense relationship with Lucas over the production and then he answered questions from the audience. He was warm, funny and it made me appreciate Empire even more which had always been my favorite film out of the series. His take on the prequels was also interesting and while he didn't bash the films, he definitely had no warm feelings for where Lucas took the franchise. It's probably a good thing that he passed away before Disney bought it all and started churning out such cash grab garbage as Last Jedi.