George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ Was Criticized for Being Like Disney Movies Before Being Bought by Disney
Star Wars was taken in a new direction after Disney acquired the property from George Lucas. Some fans have disagreed with how the franchise was handled under the giant conglomerate. But years earlier, Star Wars was criticized for being too Disney before it was a part of the corporation.
George Lucas felt ‘Star Wars’ was being negatively reviewed because of its targeted demographic
When Lucas first conceived of Star Wars, he imagined the franchise as being for kids. The idea for the series came about while he was working on another project.
“I conceived of it [Star Wars] about the time I finished THX,” Lucas once said according to The Morning Call. “I was getting a lot of pressure from my peers to do something other than these offbeat, artsy, no story, noncharacter movies.”
Star Wars was one of a few ideas Lucas spawned that would later become hit franchises.
“I came up with the idea for American Graffiti. And at the same time I came up with the idea of doing a modern mythology, Saturday matinee serial, for kids. I came up with two ideas. One was Indiana Jones and the other was Star Wars. I put those on the shelf and went off to do American Graffiti,” he said.
Star Wars became a massive hit for Lucas, generating a lifetime of fans and some of cinema’s most historic box-office successes. But Lucas revealed that even the original films faced their fair share of criticism. Certain reviewers saw Star Wars being more targeted towards kids as the movie’s weakness.
“When I did the other films, I said, you know, ‘This is a film for 12-year-olds and it’s a kids’ movie.’ At the time, everybody said, ‘Fine.’ And I think that was one of the reasons we got a lot of bad reviews was because they said, you know, ‘This is a Disney movie,’” Lucas recalled.
George Lucas almost sold ‘Star Wars’ to Fox
Way before Lucas sold his hit franchise to Disney, he was toying around with the possibility of sending it to Fox instead. Lucas borrowed millions of dollars from a financier to bring Star Wars to the big screen. He’d also cut a deal with Fox, which allowed the iconic studio to distribute the film.
But due to the financial strain of developing the project, he thought about handing over all of the rights to Star Wars to Fox.
“I’d just take my percentage and go home and never think about Star Wars again. But the truth of it is, I got captivated by the thing… And I can’t help but get upset or excited when something isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. I can see that world. I know the way the characters live and breathe,” Lucas told Empire.
Lucas would continue to hold onto the rights to Star Wars until selling it to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion. Ironically, Disney would later acquire Fox as well.
George Lucas found it very painful selling ‘Star Wars’ to Disney
Lucas didn’t part ways with his franchise easily. Before making the deal with Disney, he was actually working on a new trilogy of Star Wars films. But he was expecting a daughter at the time, and second-guessed his commitment to his duties as a filmmaker.
“It takes 10 years to make a trilogy–Episodes I to III took from 1995 to 2005,” Lucas once said in the book The Star Wars Archives Eps I-III 1999-2005 (via Gamespot). “So the question was am I going to keep doing this the rest of my life.”
Lucas was already 69-years-old at the time, and at that age he thought it was best to truly retire.
“I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn’t retiring,” he said. “On The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi I tried to stay out of the way, but I couldn’t. I was there every day.”
Lucas felt giving the franchise to Disney would’ve allowed Star Wars to continue, allowing Lucas to spend more time with his family.
“I’ve spent my life creating Star Wars–40 years–and giving it up was very, very painful,” Lucas said. “But it was the right thing to do.”
