Is George Lucas having regrets about selling his Force-filled empire to Disney? He says no, but the Star Wars creator seemed slightly bitter about his space opera in an interview with Charlie Rose at the Skywalker Ranch that aired over Christmas but is just starting to make its way around the Internet. In the interview, Lucas called the first six episodes his "children" and referred to his separation from the Star Wars franchise as a "breakup."

He also didn't seem entirely pleased with the new film, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which borrowed plot points—and brought back original characters—from his films.

“The first three movies had all kinds of issues," he told Rose. "[Disney] looked at the stories, and they said, we want to make something for the fans. I said, all I wanted to do is tell a story of what happened, it started here and went here... it’s a family soap opera, ultimately. We call it a space opera, but people don’t realize it’s actually a soap opera, and it’s all about family problems. It’s not about spaceships.”

“[Disney] wanted to do a retro movie," he said. "I don’t like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different, with different planets and different spaceships...”

Lucas also talked about creating story outlines for the new films, which Disney didn't use—echoing points he made in interviews earlier this year

“They decided they didn’t want to use those stories," Lucas said. "They decided they were going to do their own thing... and I decided, fine, but basically, I said... If I get in there, I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I wanted to do, and I don’t have control to do that anymore, and I’m just going to muck everything up.”

But when Rose asked Lucas if he was at peace with the decision to sell Lucasfilm, he said, "yes," and talked about how he wants to spend his time working on other projects (including a museum).

"It's like talking about a divorce," he added.

Lucas also referred to Disney as "white slavers" in the interview when talking about selling off his "children," a comment which prompted him to release an apology.

"I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy, and for that I apologize," he said in a statement given to the Hollywood Reporter. "I have been working with Disney for 40 years and chose them as the custodians of Star Wars because of my great respect for the company and Bob Iger’s leadership."

Lucas made the comments about selling his company toward the end of the hour-long interview with Rose in which the filmmaker also talked about his creative process, working with other directors, and the film industry's penchant for doing sequels.

Despite Lucas' critique of the "retro" aspect of the The Force Awakens, it seems both fans and critics like it. The movie has received generally positive reviews, and made $1 billion in record time.