Giant Freakin Robot

With the news flying fast and furious over the past hour or so since news of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, and the Star Wars franchise first broke. But while we’re hearing more and more details about what this will mean for the future of Star Wars across all media, we haven’t heard much beyond his official statement from the man who created it all in the first place, George Lucas. Now he has taken to YouTube in a new video, which explains his reasoning behind the sale, as well as his own plans for retirement. Take a look:

One of the most intriguing details in there is Lucas saying that he gave Disney treatments for Episodes VII – IX, perhaps adding more fuel to the fire that these might actually be sequels he’s been talking about for years. Granted, just because Disney has the treatments, that doesn’t mean they’ll use them. As Lucas points out, there is also volumes and volumes of Extended Universe stuff to draw on as well. Regardless of which story the new Star Wars films tell, they’re certainly not starving for potential material.

I have to respect Lucas wanting to put the Star Wars universe in what he considers to be capable hands, and I genuinely do wish him well in his retirement. There are few other creators out there who have seen their life so totally absorbed by one particular creation. Star Wars will live on long beyond Lucas, and long beyond bitter memories of the prequels, and even beyond the next three films and whatever comes after.

So, with my every ounce of my sincerity, and even in the face of my dislike for the prequels, I still want to say this: Thanks for the dreams, Mr. Lucas. They helped make my childhood awesome.