Disney CEO Bob Iger's memoirs, The Ride of a Lifetime, finally reveals just what George Lucas thinks about the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Disney had long had an interest in acquiring Lucasfilm; as far back as 2009, they had drawn up a list of potential acquisitions who had strong IP they'd love to earn, and Lucasfilm was on the list. Iger initially believed it would be hard to convince Lucas to give up his beloved Star Wars franchise, and so Disney instead purchased Marvel.
Talks began between Iger and Lucas in May 2011, but the $4.05 billion acquisition didn't actually happen until October 2012. As part of the deal, Disney bought Lucas' plans for the sequel trilogy, but they didn't promise to use them. While some of Lucas' ideas do seem to have been incorporated into the sequels, Lucasfilm chose to take a very different approach. And there have long been reports that Lucas wasn't happy with this. Still, Lucas is contractually obliged not to say anything critical about Disney's Star Wars films, so he's only made the occasional off-the-cuff remark.
Iger has recently published his memoirs, The Ride of a Lifetime, and he reflects on Disney's relationship with Lucas. It's important to remember that, for Lucas, Star Wars is personal. Iger remembers him saying, "When I die, the first line of my obituary is going to read 'Star Wars creator George Lucas...'" Lucas was originally disappointed when Disney refused to offer anything like the $7.4 billion they'd paid for Pixar, and he believed his sequel trilogy scripts added significant value to the acquisition. As a result, Lucas took it personally when he realized Disney had no intention of using those scripts.
The Ride of a Lifetime is a surprisingly candid account of Iger's tenure as Disney CEO, and he makes it clear that he regrets how Disney handled Lucas' sequel plans. In his view, Disney seem to have bought the sequel trilogy scripts as a mark of respect to the creator of Star Wars, but they never planned to use them. Disney understood that they needed to stress continuity in an attempt to persuade fans they could be trusted with Star Wars, whereas Lucas would have continued with an experimental approach that would probably have been just as controversial as the prequel trilogy. When Lucas learned that Star Wars was headed in a different direction, Iger recalls the franchise's creator feeling betrayed, upset, and angry.
Those feelings, sadly, did not diminish with time. Lucasfilm put on a special screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the filmmaker; Lucas walked away disappointed. "There's nothing new," he said. "There weren't enough visual or technical leaps forward." Lucas did an interview with Charlie Rose, and he spontaneously talked about his frustrations, going so far as to say he felt like he'd sold his children to "white slavers." A distraught Lucas swiftly contacted Iger with an apology. "I was out of line," he said. "I shouldn't have said it like that. I was trying to explain how hard it is to let this thing go."
Reading The Ride of a Lifetime, it's interesting to note that Iger avoids discussing his relationship with Lucas beyond 2015. Although Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a success, the truth is that the franchise hit some bumps in the road last year. Star Wars: The Last Jedi divided the fanbase, while Solo: A Star Wars Story was essentially a box office disappointment. Lucas has been very quiet of late, presumably conscious of that non-disparagement clause, and all he's said is that he liked The Last Jedi, but it remains to see what he thinks of the Skywalker saga's final installment, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
