George Lucas says sorry for branding Disney ‘white slavers’

In the interview, Lucas likened Disney’s purchase of the franchise to a “break up”.

That said, “The Force Awakens” will certainly pass “Jurassic World”, and likely “Titanic” ($658.7 million) too, at some point during New Year’s Day to become the second-highest grossing film of all-time, behind only “Avatar” – which tallied a whopping $760.5 million during its time in theaters.

Now Lucas has clarified the remark, saying in a statement: “I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy and for that I apologise”. What that means is Star Wars is now fair game – much like the Marvel movies – to be tackled by any and all filmmakers. The interview was conducted prior to the December 14 premiere of the film, where Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger thanked Lucas, who was in attendance, for his “sheer genius” in creating Star Wars. It’s clear that the excitement surrounding the movie is showing no sign of slowing down, and fans of the franchise are still desperate to learn all they can about this first part of the new trilogy and of course what it sets up for the future. “Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different. Abrams, he’s a good director, a good friend”, Lucas told Rose. “And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way'”.

The comments predictably set off furious chatter on the Internet, with some defending “Star Wars” founding father and his right to criticize his successors, while others labeled him as ungrateful and out of bounds for biting the hand that fed him a multi-billion-dollar fortune.

The 71-year-old said he had begun working on another “Star Wars” film before the Disney takeover, but added the company was not “that keen to have me involved”.

Most of Lucas’s interview with Rose had been about his own uneven steps in developing a new relationship with his “Star Wars” legacy, since putting it in another company’s hands.