The Surprising Reason George Lucas Didn’t Want To Make Sci-Fi Movies
It’s fair to say that Star Wars is the most popular science fiction franchise in the entire world. There’s an irony to this because, as it turns out, George Lucas never really wanted to make a sci-fi franchise in that galaxy far, far away. In a 1977 Rolling Stone interview, Lucas claimed that Stanley Kubrick had already “made the ultimate science fiction movie” and he didn’t want to compete with that legendary director…instead, Lucas “wanted to make a space fantasy” as an alternative to sci-fi that always “forgot the fairy tales and the dragons and Tolkien and all the real heroes.”
The Star Wars Debate
Frankly, there’s a lot going on in this old George Lucas interview, starting with the fact that he doesn’t really consider Star Wars to be sci-fi. To this day, online fans bitterly debate whether the adventures of Luke and Leia should be considered science fiction or fantasy. Many think it’s crazy to describe movies with spaceships and laser blasters as fantasy over sci-fi, but here we have such an admission straight from George Lucas himself.
More In Common With Tolkien Than The Matrix
Why, though, should Star Wars be considered a fantasy film rather than science fiction? For one thing, science fiction often focuses on the need to change the world…movies like The Matrix, for example, present heroes who want to use their fantastic abilities to change the world for the better, one rescued person at a time. But fantasy classics like Lord of the Rings are more about restoring the world to its former glory, removing external changes like the darkness of Sauron so everyone can go back to their old way of life.
Different From Most Sci-Fi
George Lucas is a big fan of Tolkien, which is why his own “sci-fi” classic is more of a fantasy story, right down to heroes trying to overthrow an evil Empire and restore the Old Republic back to its former glory. For both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, our protagonists are trying to return the world back to the way it once was.
Compare that to the lighthearted sci-fi franchise Back to the Future, where Marty McFly accidentally meddling with the past is presented as a positive thing because it creates a better life for himself and his parents.
Have Fun Storming The Castle
If you’re still not on board with George Lucas claiming Star Wars is more fantasy than sci-fi, consider this: A New Hope is, at its heart, about a young man of destiny who gets a magic sword from a wise wizard before storming a castle to save a princess from an evil black knight. This is just a remix of the King Arthur story with the metallic swords replaced by laser swords.
Telling Stories With Real Heroes
In retrospect, part of what makes this George Lucas interview so fascinating is that it reveals his very pragmatic approach to sci-fi: he knew that Stanley Kubrick had knocked the genre out of the park and instead wanted to create something that he felt Hollywood was severely lacking.
He noted that filmmakers in the post-atomic world became obsessed with “monsters and science and what would happen with this and what would happen with that.” He was more interested in telling stories with “real heroes,” something that Tolkien did so well that Lucas wanted to try his hand at.
Star Wars Helped Redefine Sci-Fi
This interview came out the same year as A New Hope, and it provides a fascinating look into how the director’s mind works. Everybody thought George Lucas wanted to follow in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi footsteps, but he instead discussed how he wanted to bring Edgar Burroughs-style storytelling to the big screen.
In a final bit of irony, Star Wars became so popular and culturally pervasive that when Disney’s big-budget Burroughs adaptation of John Carter came out, it bombed in large part because audiences felt that Lucas had done this kind of story better a long, long time ago.
