George Lucas said those things about Star Wars because he’s mourning the loss of it.

You’ve probably seen the news going around regarding George Lucas badmouthing the new Star Wars film. In an interview with famed interviewer Charlie Rose, Lucas seemed to appear very apathetic about many things in his life. When it came to the part where Rose asked him about how he felt about The Force Awakens, that apathy wore away to find a bitter Lucas who took it a step further and said the now infamous lines:

Lucas: These are my kids.

Rose: All those Star Wars films.

Lucas: All the Star Wars films.

Rose: They were your kids?

Lucas: Well, they are. I loved them, I created them. I’m very intimately involved in them. And, obviously, to sell them off—

Rose: And you sold them.

Lucas: I sold them off to the white slavers who take these things and…[laughs]

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While I personally think the analogy was more offensive than insightful, to which he later apologized, it’s helpful to note that his disdain towards the new film should have been anticipated.

In an wonderfully written piece from i09/Gizmodo, they retrace George Lucas’ comments regarding the new film since the purchase of Lucasfilm back in 2013.

They began subtly with him refusing to show Disney his treatments (aka concepts) for Episodes 7, 8, and 9:

Later, Lucas said he did show the treatments to Disney, but the Mouse House didn’t seem to like it and walked away entirely from the creative process. While Lucas earlier did approve the sale of his company, he also recognized that Disney would indeed be buying his stories. Perhaps it hadn’t sunk in until then.

Nevertheless, the public hadn’t known about the secret downward spiral of Lucas’ love for his own creation. January 2015 was when we heard Lucas’ first comment on seeing the first teaser trailer for the film:

He really had no idea what J.J. Abrams and Disney were doing, but that didn’t truly reveal his feelings toward the looming release of Episode 7. We finally got a hint at Lucas’ harbored feelings when multiple interviews published back in late 2015 when he said:

The negativity continued to be indirectly pointed in other directions apart from Disney’s retelling of Star Wars. He then brought on the analogies. Before the Charlie Rose interview, Lucas called his separation from Star Wars a “divorce”:

Clearly, Lucas felt really bad about the decision to sell off his company, but it very much was a decision that he now has to face, whether he likes it or not.

After seeing The Force Awakens and even attending the film’s world premiere, he said in an interview with Vulture that “he liked it” and continued saying that it was a movie that “the fans are going to love. It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for.”

He wasn’t lying. Fans of the film have sounded off praise for the film, but fans like myself agree with Lucas to an extent. It wasn’t a film that was filled with a fresh story. Instead, it was a film made for “fan-service”, retooling a previous story, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. People love Star Wars for a reason and after having not seeing characters like Han, Luke, and Leia for a long time, it felt good to revisit the galaxy far, far away we’ve come to love.

Lucas isn’t interested in the fans or what he calls like a “retro, Hollywood story”, though. He’s calls himself a storyteller.

Earlier in the Charlie Rose interview, he said that he just wanted to do was “tell a story of what happened (to his characters).” When asked about the creative awards he has received including most recently the Kennedy Center Honor, he went back to his somewhat apathetic mood saying that there are tons of award shows every year where “people give awards to each other all the time.”

I do believe that beyond all this negativity that is now being circulated about him, I do believe George Lucas to be a normal man who now has to deal with a relatively normal problem. One can understand what it feels like when you lose your favorite toy when you were a child or losing a spouse that you’ve been with for a long time. That feeling of loss eats you and I do believe that is what Lucas is feeling now.

Yes, he could have worded his responses to his situations a little more sensitively (especially after Disney paid great sums of money and was at the very least gracious towards him). But when we feel hurt, we’ll say stupid things. He’s in a period of hurt and is mourning.

At the same time, I think there’s so much for him to celebrate. And be less apathetic about!

The story of George Lucas will continue to be written with him creating new, “experimental films” like Strange Magic and building on his legacy with his new museum.

But he’ll always love his Star Wars. As he put it, he’s going through a process of “putting it behind, and it’s a very, very hard thing to do.”

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I highly encourage everyone to watch the full interview with Charlie Rose by clicking HERE.

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