The subject of George Lucas’ feelings about The Force Awakens became clear this year, with the release of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s new book. In it, he outlined the Star Wars creator’s criticisms about Episode VII, specifically that he felt J.J. Abrams relied too heavily on nostalgia and didn’t innovate enough. With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker out this very month, we’ve now heard about Lucas’ reactions to Abrams’ second SW movie, and it seems they’re much the same.
Sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Leia would be Rey’s new trainer in the film, and who revealed Rey and Palpatine’s “special connection,” both of which have since been confirmed – have told us that George Lucas was extremely unhappy – in fact, “angry” is the term we’ve heard – with the return of Emperor Palpatine in TROS. Interestingly, sources say that Lucas appreciated how Rian Johnson did something different and fresh with The Last Jedi and so was disappointed in Abrams for simply borrowing from his films again in order to bring Ian McDiarmid’s villain back.
That’s all we’ve heard on the matter for now, but this is intriguing to learn given the knowledge that Lucas was consulted on Rise in the first place. Abrams has spoken before about how he went back to the source, as it were, in order to make sure he had the right ideas about how to conclude the Skywalker Saga and how to bring the legend that began in A New Hope to a close.
This suggested that Lucas would be more on board with the director’s decisions in this film, but apparently that’s not the case. After all, this is Abrams’ movie, so if he felt that the best course of action was to resurrect Darth Sidious then that’s what he would do, even if he did respect Lucas’ opinion. The revelation that Lucas is a fan of TLJÂ may also come as a surprise to those who felt that Johnson betrayed his vision for Luke and the franchise.
In any case, we’ll have to see whether we agree with George Lucas or not when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.
