Star Wars: The Force Awakens Strays From My Original Vision, George Lucas Says

The plot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a tightly guarded secret. But what we now know is that the story it tells, as well as the overarching narrative for the new trilogy, is not what franchise creator George Lucas originally had in mind.

Speaking with GameSpot sister site CBS News, Lucas explained that the Star Wars saga, as he envisioned it, is basically a soap opera. Disney listened to Lucas' ideas, but wanted to go another direction.

"The issue was ultimately, they looked at the stories and they said, 'We want to make something for the fans,'" Lucas said. "I said, 'All I wanted to do was tell a story of what happened--it started here and it went there. It's all about generations and the issues of fathers and sons and grandfathers.

"It's a family soap opera," he added. "People don't realize it's actually a soap opera and it's all about family problems--it's not about spaceships. So they decided they didn't want to use those stories; they decided they were going to do their own thing so I decided, 'Fine.'"

"They weren't that keen to have me involved anyway" -- Lucas

The Force Awakens is the first core Star Wars movie that Lucas will have no direct hand in producing. He says Disney wasn't very thrilled about working with Lucas on the movie and the visionary admits that he wouldn't have been of much help, considering his ideas clashed with Disney's.

"But basically, they weren't that keen to have me involved anyway," he said. "But at the same time, I said, 'If I get in there I'm just going to cause trouble, because they're not going to do what I wanted them to do.' And I don't have the control to do that anymore and all I would do is muck everything up.

"So I said, 'OK, I will go my way and I let them go their way.'"

Disney paid $4.05 billion to buy the Star Wars franchise (among other properties) from Lucas in 2012.

He went on to compare his exit from the juggernaut entertainment series to a breakup.

"When you break up with somebody, the first rule is no phone calls," he said. "The second rule, you don't go over to their house and drive by to see what they're doing. The third one is you don't show up at their coffee shop and say you are going to burn it... You just say, 'Nope, gone, history, I'm moving forward.'"

CBS News' full interview with Lucas will air on CBS This Morning in December. The Force Awakens comes to theaters on December 18 with great expectations.