It seemed like the deal of a century! Disney and Star Wars? What an unstoppable force! LucasFilm already had a close relationship with Disney, Star Wars weekends were a regular feature at Hollywood Studios. If anyone was going to buy it, it would surely be Disney.
When the sale was announced, no one was shocked. The prequel trilogy had just been a massive flop with fans (despite bringing box office success). It seemed like the time was right for George Lucas to sell. Disney, people said, would breathe new life into the franchise. Did they? It depends on who you ask.
Disney immediately set to work to capitalize on their new acquisition. After all, they didn’t pay $4.05 billion for LucasFilm not to make money on it. Plans for new Star Wars movies ignited the fan base. New additions to Disney Parks brought the films to life in all new ways. It seemed, indeed, like this was Disney’s most brilliant acquisition to date. Until it didn’t.
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, fans were…disappointed, to put it mildly. In truth, they were irate. It felt like a watered-down version of the original trilogy. Say what you wanted about the prequels, at least they were original.
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The fans wanted George back. But did George Lucas want to be back? As it turns out, no. In a 2020 interview, he revealed his reason for selling: his daughter. He missed much with her while making the prequels, and he wanted to prioritize his family. He said he couldn’t be hands-off unless he sold. “I’m one of those micro-manger guys, and I can’t help it. So I figured I would forgo that, enjoy what I had, and I was looking forward to raising my daughter,” Lucas said.
With the failure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, the rumor mill has been running at hyperspeed with reports of Disney selling the franchise. Even more interesting are the rumors that George Lucas is the intended buyer. At the time of this writing, there is absolutely no credibility to these rumors. No one has a friend of a friend of a friend of a cousin’s brother-in-law who knows something official because there is nothing official to know.
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Disney has invested too much to sell at this point. If this should change, we will be the first to let you know. Until then, we choose to deal in the realm of fact, and facts are…this simply isn’t true. These rumors do make for some pretty entertaining fiction, but that’s all they are.