J.J. Abrams Responds To George Lucas’ Dissatisfaction With Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams was asked about Disney CEO Bob Iger saying that Star Wars creator George Lucas was dissatisfied with The Force Awakens (which Abrams also directed). Abrams put over how gracious Lucas has been throughout the process.

“I’ve only had gratitude for George. It’s probably a complicated thing for him. To decide you’re going to sell this thing that you created, that was your baby, to anyone — that must be more complicated than signing a check and smiling about it. But he’s been incredibly gracious. He’s been super-generous.”

He also talked about how they have tried to adhere to some of what they felt was important to Lucas.

“He came over, we had a meeting when we first started working on this [new movie], talked through a ton of different ideas and stories, and heard from him what was important. And we’ve done nothing but try and adhere to some fundamental aspects of the story. It wasn’t a difficult thing to try and do. And again, he was really gracious. So I’m only grateful. Do I wish that [Force Awakens] had been his favorite movie of all time? Yes, I only wanted to do well by him. I would just say that I have nothing but profound respect for the guy and am still truly, even more so now, working on these movies in awe of what he created.”