George Lucas thoughts on Force Awakens. Upset and Betrayed.

[Beaddle]

Very interesting development here from Bob Iger. Apparently George Lucas was not happy Disney did not follow his ideas for the sequels, Lucas also thinks what many fans have also said, Episode 7 was a copy of A new hope.

https://www.gamesradar.com/george-lu...gy-7-bob-iger/

If Lucas felt this way about Episode 7, I wonder how he felt about Episode 8: The Last Jedi. Well, I think this means JJ Abrams must not truly be a talented film maker. I also think Lucas comments are ill timed. It's the last quarter of the year and the momentum for episode 9 has started to build, this is just gong to rile up people and push further negativity before episode 9 gets any fair chance.

Also why is Lucas feeling so betrayed, was there not a contract he signed to make sure that his stories were not discarded?

[AnakinFlair]

I just don't know what George expected. After the reception the prequels got, Disney had nothing to loose by going in a new direction (even if their new direction was a rehashing of the first movie).

And actually, the timing of these comments aren't on George at all. They're on Iger, who put these comments in his book and released it 3 months before the next movie.

[Beaddle]

I just don't know what George expected. After the reception the prequels got, Disney had nothing to loose by going in a new direction (even if their new direction was a rehashing of the first movie).

And actually, the timing of these comments aren't on George at all. They're on Iger, who put these comments in his book and released it 3 months before the next movie.

You know who I feel more embarrassed for? JJ Abrams not Bob Iger. Abrams has spent years gushing about how he loves Lucas and Star Wars, even when he was making star trek movies. It must suck when the creator is not a fan of your movie but feels very betrayed to the point of anger, it sucks harder that Abrams ended up making a better star trek reboot than a star wars reboot as a bigger star wars fan but in fairness to Abrams, how much control did he personally have? we know Disney does not give writers and directors the best creative choices so we can't place all the blame on Abrams as the director, writer and producer of the force awakens.

I just don't think Episode 9 stands a fair chance, I am getting a X-Men Dark Phoenix vibe in the sense that people have already rejected it before seeing it.

[Jim Kelly]

Abrams is a good film-maker. The problem with the Star Wars movies is in the creative decisions (which might have been made by people above Abrams)--but that has nothing to do with the actual craft of making movies. Someone should have figured out that putting all three of the original actors in a scene together in FORCE AWAKENS would have satisfied everyone. They had no way of knowing for sure if they could get those actors back for the next movie--and they clearly knew they weren't going to have Harrison Ford. So why not film one scene with Luke, Leia and Han? It's sheer stupidity that they didn't do that when they had the chance.

[thwhtGuardian]

I really dislike the sequel trilogy so far, but you're delusional if you think the last episode will fail. It's going to be huge at the box office just like the last two episodes and heck, I bet there will be a ton of people who will absolutely love it just like there were for the last two.

The idea that these are universally, or even majorly disliked is a fallacy.

[AndrewCrossett]

George Lucas lost the mission a long time ago.

The sequel movies are not as good as the original trilogy, but leaps and bounds better than the prequels.

[RyanBlueThunder]

I just don't know what George expected. After the reception the prequels got, Disney had nothing to loose by going in a new direction (even if their new direction was a rehashing of the first movie).

And actually, the timing of these comments aren't on George at all. They're on Iger, who put these comments in his book and released it 3 months before the next movie.

Particularly when George's ideas centered around the midi-chlorians, which as he explained were microbiotic and a conduit to the Whils. I felt like Clone Wars did a decent job fixing some early issues with the prequels and how the Force was explained (particularly with regard to the Ones from Mortis), so I can understand why Disney would want to move away from midi-cholorians. I would have preferred if Luke was there in TFA to explain the mysticism of the Force, but that didn't happen--I'm just glad we didn't get an Episode 7 with Luke showing a young jedi a microscope while carrying on with pseudo-science exposition.

The timing is a bit odd, but I'm still super excited for Episode 9 (and The Mandalorian as well).

[Punisher007]

George Lucas lost the mission a long time ago.

The sequel movies are not as good as the original trilogy, but leaps and bounds better than the prequels.

After TLJ, I'm not so sure of that.

[Jokerz79]

While I hate TLJ I'll take TFW, Solo, and Rogue One over all Prequels.

Also Lucas called Disney White Slavers and said they threw out his ideas for the sequels when TFA came out this is really old news not some revelation.

[mburns]

While I hate TLJ I'll take TFW, Solo, and Rogue One over all Prequels.

Also Lucas called Disney White Slavers and said they threw out his ideas for the sequels when TFA came out this is really old news not some revelation.

Agreed on the above except for maybe Solo. Though all of them are better than the Phantom Menace which is easily the worst Star Wars film ever. The prequels are pathetically amateurish film making. I don't like The Last Jedi and Solo and was meh on Force Awakens but at least they seemed to be made by professional film makers.

Rogue One on the other hand was actually good. Probably the best Star Wars since the original trilogy.

Unfortunately Star Wars is in the same position as Star Trek now with about a 50-50 or less hit rate on the films. It's another franchise that has a ton of potential but film makers have been unable to make films worthy of the concept. Sort of like Batman before Nolan.

[AndrewCrossett]

Unfortunately Star Wars is in the same position as Star Trek now with about a 50-50 or less hit rate on the films. It's another franchise that has a ton of potential but film makers have been unable to make films worthy of the concept. Sort of like Batman before Nolan.

Or the entire DC cinematic universe after Nolan.

I liked TLJ quite a bit... more than TFA in fact, and agree that Rogue One was the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy. Still haven't seen Solo.

[The Cool Thatguy]

George Lucas lost the mission a long time ago.

The sequel movies are not as good as the original trilogy, but leaps and bounds better than the prequels.

Agreed.

IMO, Star Wars is paper thin in terms of mythology and such. George made it worse, and probably would have continued to do so.

[WebLurker]

Very interesting development here from Bob Iger. Apparently George Lucas was not happy Disney did not follow his ideas for the sequels, Lucas also thinks what many fans have also said, Episode 7 was a copy of A new hope.

Yeah, we've known that since 2015, when Lucas first went on record about it. (FIY: if you think TFA was a copy, you weren't paying attention to the differences in the film, much less the way the Star Wars film series has always remixed, ripped off, copied, paralleled itself, and made extensive use of running jokes, meta humor, and the like. There's a reason why the Ring Theory exists, much less that Lucas himself has explained that his movies' rhymed from trilogy to trilogy.)

While Bob Iger did note that in his recent memoirs, I'm not really sure how newsworthy it actually is, given that we already knew the gist of it all (Lucas signed off all creative control to Disney -- which makes a lot of sense -- and had a difference of opinion in regards to what they did vs. what he would've had had he changed his mind and made them himself). It's nothing new.

If Lucas felt this way about Episode 7, I wonder how he felt about Episode 8: The Last Jedi.

According to this article, he was quoted as saying it was "beautifully made." As the commentary notes, it's unclear if that meant he personally liked it or was just assessing the craftsmanship irregardless of her personal feelings (as noted, he did think fans would like TFA, even with him going on record as not). However, I haven't been able to find anything else on the subject, so take that for what it's worth.

Well, I think this means JJ Abrams must not truly be a talented film maker.

That's an illogical conclusion. You can't assess a person's skills based on one film, given that even the greatest make duds (how many bad movies does Spielberg have on his resume?). Also, just because we don't like a specific movie does not make it bad in and of itself.

I also think Lucas comments are ill timed. It's the last quarter of the year and the momentum for episode 9 has started to build, this is just gong to rile up people and push further negativity before episode 9 gets any fair chance.

Given that Lucas's comments date back from years ago, it's hardly ill-timed on his part. Also seems highly unlikely that people will change their minds because of something that's been known for years. (Also, do you seriously think that the vocal people online haven't already made up their minds about the movie, either for it or against it yet?)

Also why is Lucas feeling so betrayed, was there not a contract he signed to make sure that his stories were not discarded?

He signed a contract giving Disney complete creative control. That's a no-brainer; the people actually making the movies should be the ones with the final decisions. Bob Iger did note in his memoirs as wondering if also buying the treatments for the sequel trilogy may have lead Lucas to believe that they would use those as the basis for the new projects. However, since the contract he signed gave Disney the right to ignore them, Lucas should've known that that was a legitimate possibility.

[Punisher007]

The PT only really crapped on one beloved character, and even he was by the very nature of the story very different to begin with.

The ST has crapped on multiple beloved characters to, basically do an inferior OT rehash.

I never thought that I'd be defending the PT, but at least it TRIED to do something new and different.

[Powerboy]

Very interesting development here from Bob Iger. Apparently George Lucas was not happy Disney did not follow his ideas for the sequels, Lucas also thinks what many fans have also said, Episode 7 was a copy of A new hope.

https://www.gamesradar.com/george-lu...gy-7-bob-iger/

If Lucas felt this way about Episode 7, I wonder how he felt about Episode 8: The Last Jedi. Well, I think this means JJ Abrams must not truly be a talented film maker. I also think Lucas comments are ill timed. It's the last quarter of the year and the momentum for episode 9 has started to build, this is just gong to rile up people and push further negativity before episode 9 gets any fair chance.

Also why is Lucas feeling so betrayed, was there not a contract he signed to make sure that his stories were not discarded?

At one time, Lucas stated that there would never be another Star Wars movie after Episode 3 and the specific reason he stated was because he didn't financially have any need to do Episodes 1, 2 and 3 but he did them because of fan demand and then got nothing but whining and anger and he had no need to do anymore. He said that even if someone came along and offered to do another trilogy and he didn't have to do the work, he still wouldn't do it because, while some fans were still cool, the guff he took just wasn't worth it. But then Disney bought the ship and now he's doing the same thing fans did to him although he didn't keep harping on it.

Yes, Episode 7 was highly derivative. He's not wrong. But I've never heard that there was any contract on what Disney could do with future stories. If anything, Lucas seemed happy to walk away from Star Wars. He did give them outlines of what his plans had been for the last trilogy but I never heard they were obligated to use his outlines.