Kathleen Kennedy Says Rise of Skywalker Writers Consulted With George Lucas

George Lucas’ involvement with the Star Wars franchise came to an end after Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, but he was consulted by the writers of The Rise of Skywalker. Kathleen Kennedy told EW for a new feature article that JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio spoke with Lucas before they began to write the upcoming film, which closes out the Skywalker saga.

“We [Her, Abrams and Terrio] sat down with George [Lucas] for a long meeting before we ever put pen to paper on this final episode, so we had the benefit of his thoughts. We took a lot of notes … For something that’s been here for 40 years entertaining audiences, and something that George initially set out to do with a kind of three act saga with these three trilogies, I think we felt that we should honor and respect that.”

Lucas, of course, is the creator of Star Wars and has been mostly hands-off of the franchise since his company was sold to Disney for $4 billion in 2012. He did visit the set of The Mandalorian during the first season’s production. Kennedy said recently that Lucas remains proud of the franchise, saying, “He may not agree with every choice J.J. made. He may not agree with every choice Rian made. But he appreciates the filmmaking. That I know. And he so appreciates, for instance, what ILM has done in the work of these movies. I mean, that’s a company he created. And he just continually tells me how astounded he is by how far things have come and how, now, whatever comes into your mind can be achieved.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens on December 20th.