Some are under the impression that Disney has ostracized George Lucas altogether since acquiring Lucasfilm from him for $US 4 billion in 2012. However, this does not appear to be the case, not always anyway. In fact, it looks like the filmmakers of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a chat with George Lucas to ask for his creative input.
In a video interview with Entertainment Weekly, chief of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy said they took a lot of notes from George Lucas during their meeting.
We sat down with George [Lucas] for a long meeting before we ever put pen to paper on this final episode, so we had the benefit of his thoughts. We took a lot of notes. For something that’s been here for 40 years entertaining audiences, and something that George initially set out to do with a kind of three-act saga with these three trilogies, I think we felt that we should honour and respect that.
And we’re taking the time to really look at where this is going from the standpoint of a saga, not just looking at what the next 3 movies might be. We’re really looking at what is the next decade of storytelling so that we can actually build the mythology.
I’m glad that the team decided to consult George Lucas, not because I think he is the be all end all of Star Wars, but because getting alternative perspectives on your idea never hurts, especially if they’re coming from someone as creative as the papa of Star Wars. Lucas was never a good director or writer, but as an ‘idea guy’, he was second to none.
Kathleen Kennedy also mentioned that working on the film has been a huge responsibility, but also one that is very exciting.
It’s a long process, but we always look for that core group to kind of arrive at a solidarity in a decision, and we got to that on this pretty quickly.
