Depending on which section of the Star Wars fanbase you ask, the franchise is either in much better or much worse shape without George Lucas at the helm. As the creator of the series, Lucas has immortalized himself in popular culture for eternity thanks to his creations enduring for over 40 years as beloved favorites among people of all ages.
On the other hand, others have been highly critical of his work on the franchise, particularly the Prequel Trilogy, especially when it comes to the over-reliance of CGI effects at the expense of the miniature and model work that was a trademark of the originals, not to mention some truly horrendous dialogue that definitely proved that while Lucas has an incredible imagination, he’s by no means a great writer.
It took a lot of convincing on Lucas’ part to sell his company, along with the rights to all future Star Wars releases, to Disney back in 2012. And that decision must have been made much harder by recent revelations made by Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, who admitted that the studio would only go ahead with the deal if Lucas agreed to give up any creative input he had on the franchise, something he’d held ever since he first came up with the idea back in the 1970s.
“I promised that we would be open to his ideas, but we would be under no obligation. 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… 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.”
You can see both sides of the argument here. Following the Prequel Trilogy, it was clear that Star Wars was in need of a fresh perspective, and when that happened with The Force Awakens in 2015, it came under fire from some sections for being a little too reverential to what Lucas had delivered himself almost 40 years previously. When it comes to a franchise as popular and beloved as Star Wars though, there’s simply no way you’ll be able to please everyone, something that the current creative team are finding out firsthand.
