George Lucas Talks About His 'Divorce' From 'Star Wars'

He also talks about who shot first!

ByABC News
November 30, 2015, 12:56 PM

— -- We are just days away from the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," more than a decade since the last film.

And at the helm of "The Force Awakens" is J.J. Abrams, not George Lucas, who thought up the franchise almost four decades ago. Lucas calls his letting go of the franchise a "divorce," something he's okay with in hopes that the force soars again in theaters in the hearts of fans everywhere.

“There is no such thing as working over someone’s shoulder,” he told the Washington Post in an interview published today. “You’re either the dictator or you’re not. And to do that would never work, so I said ‘I’m going to get divorced.’ ... I knew that I couldn’t be involved. All I’d do is make them miserable. I’d make myself miserable. It would probably ruin a vision -- J.J. has a vision, and it’s his vision.”

Lucas hasn't seen the movie yet, but said there's a chance he may watch it with Abrams at his ranch in California when the director is ready. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy may also be there with the two visionaries.

"I’m going to have to take a very deep breath and be a good person and sit through it and just enjoy the moment, because it is what it is and it’s a conscious decision that I made," he said.

He continued, "I never got to see the spaceship come over [in the original movie]. I never got that experience that everyone else got to have. I never got to see ‘Star Wars.’ So this time I’m going to.”

Lucas also spoke about the prequels and his decision to edit and touch up the three classic films. One choice he explained was changing the scene with Greedo and making the bounty hunter shoot first at the cantina.

“Han Solo was going to marry Leia, and you look back and say, ‘Should he be a cold-blooded killer?’ ... should he be a cowboy, should he be John Wayne? And I said, ‘Yeah, he should be John Wayne.’ And when you’re John Wayne, you don’t shoot people [first] -- you let them have the first shot," he added.