George Lucas Has Seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens - "Fans Are Going To Love It"
And he wants to give you a back-handed compliment about it.
Following Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy's comment last week that George Lucas had "really liked" Star Wars: The Force Awakens, now comes a direct response from the man himself. Lucas was in Washington on Sunday to receive a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Culture, and Vulture caught up with him on the red carpet to find out his thoughts on Episode VII straight from the source.
I think the fans are going to love it... Its very much the kind of movie theyve been looking for.Ouch. Lucas has obviously been stung by fans before - especially after his recent comments that he didn't want to direct more Star Wars films because "everybody yells at you and tells you what a terrible person you are" - so this definitely feels like a slight toward them; a slightly bitter way of saying "you didn't like my prequels, so enjoy your sequels without me". He's been very clear that The Force Awakens was not the type of sequel he would've made, and that Disney rejected his ideas and suggestions in order to "make something for the fans". Now comes the final verdict that, having seen it, he thinks Disney achieved that. It's not a bad thing - surely, the seventh film in a series has to be for the fans and fans alone at that point - but Lucas' tone has really rubbed me up the wrong way here. I can't help but shake the feeling that Lucas thinks this whole idea of "what the fans want" is beneath him, or his vision - as with when he mentioned that Star Wars is "not about spaceships". Not all of us think it's only about the spaceships, George. Jeez. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is released on 17th December in the UK and 18th December in the US.