George Lucas sold ‘Star Wars’ to Disney for over $4 billion 8 years ago and fans are still wondering why
On Thursday, May 7, three days after what is commonly known as “Star Wars Day” (May the Fourth be with you), the trend #WhyLucasSoldStarWars made its way to the top. A not-so-quick look at the trend reveals there seems to be no trigger that led to this.
The ‘Star Wars’ creator sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012. It was a $4.05 billion deal and obviously George Lucas had his reasons. At that time, Lucas had reportedly said, “I'm completely confident that Disney will take good care of the franchise I've built. At the same time, for me, I look at it as I'm investing in Disney, because that's my retirement fund.”
In 2015, however, in an interview with Charlie Rose, Lucas let some of his more accurate feelings about Disney slip. He said that he felt he sold the company he created to “the white slavers”.
“They looked at the stories and they said, 'We want to make something for the fans’,” Lucas said. “I said, 'All I want to do is tell a story'… They decided they didn't want to use those [my] stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing. They weren't that keen to have me involved anyway -- if I get in there, I'm just going to cause trouble, because they're not going to do what I want them to do. And I don't have the control to do that anymore. All I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘Okay, I will go my way, and I'll let them go their way’.”
“It's a very, very, very hard thing to do,” Lucas further said about letting go of the franchise. “You have to say, 'I have to move on,' and everything in your body says, 'Don't. You can't.' These are my kids… I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and, and ….” he said, before stopping himself from going any further.
Fans have had mixed feelings about the new series of ‘Star Wars’ films that have cropped up in the last few years. While ‘The Force Awakens’ received acclaim, ‘The Last Jedi’ and ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ faced much criticism for various reasons (not all of which were valid). It would then seem that fans still held a grudge against Lucas for selling the franchise to Disney.
Whatever be the real reasons Lucas had for selling, fans seem to have their own set of theories, as reflected in the trend. Many claimed that Lucas sold the franchise so that Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) could be a Disney Princess. Another fan noted, “#WhyLucasSoldStarWars being logical, and factually accurate, he was hurt by the reaction of the prequels, and he felt burnt out and unmotivated to make any more Star Wars movies.”
On a similar note, a fan said, “I understand #WhyLucasSoldStarWars, but I'd take the prequels any day over the trash fire that is the sequel trilogy. At least they had their share of decent moments, and #TheCloneWars more or less redeemed them in my eyes.” Of course, there was no dearth of Scrooge McDuck-swimming-in-gold-coins GIFs floating around. But the majority of the people tweeting under the trend seemed to attribute it to the massive backlash Lucas received for the trilogy that is known as ‘The Prequels’.
“#WhyLucasSoldStarWars probably because his ungrateful fans s***canned all his hard work on the prequels and he wanted out of there while he could still retire without having to gamble with such a picky fandom. and this is coming from a f***** Star Wars fan!" wrote an angry fan. All in all, it seems that post the so-called Disneyfication of the franchise, fans continue to miss Lucas’ role in the direction of the story.
