Star Wars creator George Lucas: 'I really have no interest in science fiction at all'

The director said the surprising admission during a discussion about the demise of Hollywood at the Sundance Film Festival

Legendary Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas (Getty Images)

He created one of the world's biggest sci-fi franchises, but George Lucas has admitted he doesn’t have much time for the genre.

Speaking at the Sundance Film Fesitval, the Star Wars writer and director said: “I really have no interest in science fiction at all.”

The surprising admission came during a Q&A with Sundance founder Robert Redford, in which the two men spoke about their mutual suspicion of Hollywood.

Lucas, who sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for over $4 billion, said he was concerned about the growing number of “circus movies” being made.

“A lot of movies you see today are circus movies. Let’s see how much blood comes out when it splats. It’s now gotten to be more and more circus than substance,” he said via Deadline.

But the director said Star Wars should not be tarnished with the same brush.

“I get blamed for a lot of that. If you go into Star Wars and see what’s going on there, there’s a lot more substance than circus.”

Lucas, who directed four Star Wars films, will serve as a writer on the three forthcoming Star Wars films announced by Disney.

Star Wars VII, which has been directed by JJ Abrams, is due to be released in December.

Disney has also announced three more Star Wars spin-off trilogies, due to be released in the years between the major franchise films.

Godzilla director Gareth Edwards is due to direct the as yet untitled first spin-off film in 2016.

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