Why didn't George Lucas sign on to direct the third Star Wars trilogy, including upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, aka Episode VII?

That is the question many fans have asked over the past two years and in an interview with USA Today posted this week, the 70-year-old director, screenwriter, producer and creator of the original cult sci-fi franchise reveals that he had planned to work on the project—and explains why he changed his mind.

Lucas had sold his production firm, Lucasfilm, to the Walt Disney Company in late 2012 for $4.05 billion. The deal, the biggest acquisition for the entertainment giant since it bought Pixar in 2006, accompanied an announcement of a third Star Wars trilogy, starting with the seventh movie, directed by Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. Lucas would serve solely as a "creative consultant."

Six months later, in June 2013, Lucas married longtime partner and financial expert Mellody Hobson, 45, at his 6,000-acre Skywalker Ranch in central California. The two welcomed their first child, daughter Everest Hobson Lucas, via a surrogate the following August.