RUMOR: George Lucas Working on a Star Wars TV Show?

Television

Is George Lucas returning to save his creation from Disney’s incompetence? Probably not, even if this story is true, but he may try. Star Wars Theory recently spoke to Roger Christian, the set decorator on Star Wars and second unit director on Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. (He has some other great credits as well, including Alien and Monty Python’s Life of Brian – although he also directed Battlefield Earth, but everyone deserves a Mulligan or two.) Christian is responsible for much of the look of Star Wars, from the Millennium Falcon to the lightsaber; to quote Walter Sobchak, “Not exactly a lightweight.” During the interview, Christian told Theory that he’s heard George Lucas is going to work on a Star Wars series for Disney and Lucasfilm. You can see a clip from the interview below:

If this is true, it’s a clear act of desperation on Disney’s part, and I don’t mean that as a swipe at Lucas. They’ve made it clear they don’t care about him or what he wanted for Star Wars, and they’ve deviated from the notes and outlines he left them considerably, with Lucas not overly pleased with the sequels. Well, here we are, and they’re (allegedly) asking him to step back in and save them, which is the biggest indication that they know they screwed up royally. However, I’m not completely sold on this rumor. For one thing, Christian says that he’s “prophesying” a couple of times, says he’s got “a strong suspicion” about Lucas’ return, and says he’s “heard” it’s true. That’s an awful lot of qualifying, and it gives me flashbacks of Ian McElhinney saying George R.R. Martin had finished writing The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring and releasing them after Games of Thrones ended. I know people are excited by this, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. On the other hand, it would explain Lucas backing Bob Iger so decidedly in his proxy war with Nelson Peltz.