Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be the first Star Wars film in which franchise creator George Lucas hasn't played a major role, and he doesn't seem too thrilled about the direction the films are going.
In a new interview with CBS This Morning, Lucas talks about how Disney wanted to make a Star Wars film "for the fans," whereas Lucas always wanted to tell a story about the Skywalker family, going so far to describe his saga as a soap opera.
"The issue was, ultimately, they looked at the stories and said 'We want to make something for the fans,'" Lucas says. "All I wanted to do was tell a story of what happened, it started here and it ends there. It's about generations and the issues of fathers and sons and grandfathers, it's a family soap opera. You call it space opera, but people don't realize it's actually a soap opera. It's all about family problems, it's not about space ships."
When Disney decided it would pursue a new path for the franchise, Lucas says he knew if he was involved in the films, he would try to change what it was doing and would "muck everything up." He describes his deal with Disney as a breakup.
"When you break up with somebody, the first rule is no phone calls," he says. "The second rule, you don't go to their house and drive by to see what they're doing. The third one is you don't show up at their coffee shop or their things, you just say nope, gone, history, I'm moving forward."
From the sound of it, Lucas might seem to believe The Force Awakens is dipping too far into fan-service territory, leaving the heart of the franchise (aka the Skywalker family) behind. While we don't yet know all the story details of The Force Awakens, it certainly has been keen on cashing in the nostalgia fans have for the original trilogy. You can check out the full interview below.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives in theaters on Dec. 18.
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