George Lucas was planning his own Star Wars: Episode VII, it seems, as the first in a trio of new Star Wars movies.
NewsDirector JJ Abrams is in post-production now on the eagerly-awaited new Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The catalyst to the film happening was when George Lucas sold the rights to Star Wars - along with his Lucasfilm company - to Disney back in 2012.
Since then, he's gone into retirement of sorts, but in a new interview with USA Today, he's confessed that he'd previously had thoughts about doing more Star Wars films himself. And his new Star Wars movie would have landed this year too.
Confessing that he'd begun developing three more Star Wars movies, with a view of having his own Star Wars: Episode VII ready for 2015, his idea was to sell the company once he'd released the new film. However, the opportunity to sell to Disney arrived, and rather than start what would have a decade-long project, he said that "it's better for me to get out at the beginning of a new thing and I can just remove myself... the time is more important to me than the money." Hard to believe, perhaps, but Lucas is now 70 years old.
He did confess that he's looking forward, with The Force Awakens, to being "able to enjoy it like anybody else". And he still continues to work on smaller, experimental projects. What those are we're still no closer to finding out. But it does seem clear he'll be heading off to watch Star Wars with the rest of us next December.
Well, they may just give him a sneak preview, to be fair...
