Bob Iger has recently released a tell-all book titled ‘The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years As CEO Of The Walt Disney Company’ which has a ton of fun nuggets from his time at Disney. While there has been a lot of drama revolving around the purchase of Marvel and creation of Marvel Studios that were shared, there are some huge reveals for “Star Wars” fans here as well. For one thing, Iger has revealed specifically why franchise creator George Lucas was so disappointed with what they did in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’
Obviously, the vision Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company had for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ was to not only introduce the “Star Wars” franchise under the Disney vision but also play on audience’s nostalgia. However, “George was criticizing us for the very thing we were trying to do.”
According to Iger:
“Just prior to the global release, Kathy screened The Force Awakens for George. He didn’t hide his disappointment. “There’s nothing new,” he said. In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technologies. In this one, he said, “There weren’t enough visual or technical leaps forward.”
It should be noted that George Lucas had sold the scripts for what he felt should be the next trilogy to Disney which they didn’t use. However, an interview with the director last year laid out his vision that likely many fans would have been even less interested in:
“[The next three Star Wars films] were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force…If I’d held onto the company I could have done it, and then it would have been done. Of course, a lot of fans would have hated it, just like they did Phantom Menace and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would be told.”
Personally, even with the complaints of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ taken into consideration, I think we should all count our lucky stars that Disney purchased Lucasfilm and this trilogy never saw the light of day.
Do you agree with George Lucas that ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ didn’t have enough going for it or do you feel that it was a great way to play off nostalgia while introducing “Star Wars” fans to new characters? What are your thoughts on where Lucas wanted to take the series next? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Screen Rant
