“He Would Have Been Criticized the Same Way”: Star Wars Would Have Been Doomed If George Lucas Didn’t Sell It to Disney for One Simple Reason

George Lucas created the epic space opera franchise Star Wars before selling it to Disney and retiring in 2012.

However, fans seem to agree that the franchise’s sorry state under Disney has nothing to do with Lucas selling the rights.

Instead, Lucas would have been criticized the same way had he not sold the rights, and the franchise would still be in a poor state.

The franchise has seen a drastic turn since Lucas decided to sell the rights to Disney, which has produced a mixed bag of projects in the space opera saga.

In recent years, the brand has been significantly diluted, with fans often criticizing most of the creative choices made under Disney’s control.

As a result, some fans took to social media to ponder whether the franchise’s state would have been better under Lucas.

The answer might surprise you because Star Wars was likely always doomed with or without Lucas at the helm.

Since its dawn in 1977 with the original Star Wars film, George Lucas remained the creative spearhead for the epic saga until he eventually sold the rights to Disney in 2012.

In the meantime, the Disney-produced projects have proven to be a mixed bag, raising the question of whether Lucas could have saved the doomed franchise.

On Reddit, some fans hoped to find answers to this particular question, arguing whether Lucas’ exit is where it all went south for the galaxy far, far away.

As the comments suggest, most fans opined that the franchise would still be doomed irrespective of whether Lucas was in charge, citing the filmmaker’s work on the prequel trilogy as the primary reason.

While the prequels were extremely polarizing, they marked the first hints of a divide between the fanbase.

With the rise of social media coinciding with the sequel trilogy, things only got worse, and the fanbase became more toxic and rabid.

Therefore, no matter who is in charge, the fractured fandom would have still resulted in the sorry state of affairs.

Even after almost two decades, fans brutally criticize Lucas’ creative choices in the prequels.

It is proof that even the franchise’s creator could not have satisfied the rapidly dividing fanbase.

Therefore, had Lucas remained in charge, fans would have mercilessly trolled him.

Lucas himself explained his decision to sell Star Wars to Disney, saying: “I’m one of those micromanager 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.”

His words make it clear that even if Lucas had not sold the franchise and handed over the reins to someone else, he would have found a way to affect the creative decisions.

Therefore, selling the franchise was the only way Lucas could retire in peace.

Furthermore, Lucas being in charge would have meant fewer Star Wars projects and even more intense scrutiny of his creative choices from the fans.

Hence, it is safe to say that it was ultimately in everyone’s best interest that Lucas decided to move on and sell the rights to Disney, irrespective of the current state of the Star Wars universe.