It may seem like Disney has done everything but file a restraining order against George Lucas to keep him away from the Star Wars franchise ever since they bought Lucasfilm in 2012 for roughly $4 billion in cash and stocks. But according to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, they actually consulted the Bearded One before scripting The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment to the epic saga Lucas began back in 1977.

In a video interview for Entertainment Weekly, Kennedy said, “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 honor and respect that,” Kennedy added. “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.”

She referred to Disney’s work on the film as a huge responsibility, but expressed excitement over how the Lucasfilm team has concluded the story with co-writer/director J.J. Abrams and their new generation of space-adventuring heroes. “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.”

The Rise of Skywalker is a movie 42 years in the making, and the famously vocal Star Wars fanbase is going to loudly love or hate it when it finally releases on December 20. In the meantime, you can watch the interview with Kennedy below.