George Lucas thinks The Force Awakens is too 'retro', calls Disney 'white slavers'

Star Wars creator George Lucas is beginning to make it clear what he really thinks of JJ Abrams's sequel The Force Awakens. During a recent interview about his "breakup" with the sci-fi franchise, the director told US TV host Charlie Rose: “They wanted to do a retro movie. I don’t like that. I like — every movie, I worked very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships — you know, to make it new."

Lucas sold the Star Wars empire to Disney in 2012, for $4 billion, and wasn't involved in making Episode 7: The Force Awakens. His latest comments reflect what some critics have been saying about the new film - that its plot adheres a little too closely to Lucas's orginal Star Wars movie, 1977's A New Hope.

He went on: "You do end up with this thing, which is, you know, you gotta live with it. People are gonna talk about it and all that kind of stuff. It’s like talking about your divorce or something. It’s just awkward, but it’s not painful.”

The director has previously been supportive of the sequel, attending premieres around the world and telling reporters: "I think the fans are going to love it. It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for."

Lucas also told Rose about his own plans for further Star Wars movies, which Disney decided not to go ahead with: "They looked at the stories, and they said, 'We want to make something for the fans'... They decided they didn't want to use those stories, they decided they were going to do their own thing.

"They weren't that keen to have me involved anyway — but if I get in there, I'm just going to cause trouble, because they're not going to do what I want them to do. And I don't have the control to do that anymore, and all I would do is muck everything up," he said. "And so I said, 'Okay, I will go my way, and I'll let them go their way.' "

He then used somewhat harsher language, and seemingly immediately regretted it: “I love [the movies], I created them, I’m very intimately involved in them, and I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and …” This was followed by a nervous laugh, and Rose allowed Lucas to move on.

Whatever Lucas thinks of it, The Force Awakens has now overtaken The Phantom Menace to become the highest-grossing Star Wars movie yet, taking over $1 billion since its release on December 17. It's now on track to become the biggest box office hit ever.