Space opera creator hopes Disney and JJ Abrams won’t turn The Force ‘into a bunch of gobbledegook’ – and says Jar Jar Binks is his favourite character

George Lucas has revealed he has no plans to return to directing Star Wars movies for fear of criticism and the lack of room for “experimentalism” he believes the saga now allows.

Entertainment Weekly's new Star Wars: The Force Awakens issue – 10 things we learned Read more

The Star Wars creator, who sold all rights to the long-running space opera to Disney in October 2012 for $4bn ($2.61), has remained largely in the background as new episode The Force Awakens gathers hype ahead of its release next month. He told Vanity Fair the saga no longer allowed him the creative room for manoeuvre he once enjoyed.

“You go to make a movie and all you do is get criticised, and people try to make decisions about what you’re going to do before you do it,” said Lucas. “And it’s not much fun. You can’t experiment. You have to do it a certain way. I don’t like that, I never did. I started out in experimental films and I want to go back to experimental films.”

Lucas revealed his greatest concern over the direction of Disney’s proposed trilogy of new Star Wars films – a new report in Wired magazine suggests the studio’s plans for the saga are open-ended and could continue ad infinitum – was that the force “doesn’t get muddled into a bunch of gobbledegook”.

He said: “My advice to anyone making a Star Wars movie is there’s more to it than just spaceships ... I’m curious about what happened to Darth Vader’s grandkids.”



Asked which Star Wars character he would like to be, Lucas chose Jar Jar Binks, in a clear dig at his critics. The bumbling gungan has come to typify the film-maker’s prequel movies about the rise and subsequent fall of Luke Skywalker’s father, Anakin, which while relatively successful at the box office are regarded as terrible by many fans.

In other Star Wars news, Disney has released the latest TV spot for The Force Awakens, this time focusing on British actor John Boyega’s rogue stormtrooper Finn. New footage hints at the character’s motivation for quitting the evil First Order as he tells an unknown figure: “You don’t know a thing about me – what I’ve seen.” Finn is also seen battling a stormtrooper with his lightsaber and readying himself for a fight against unknown forces alongside Harrison Ford’s Han Solo.