- George Lucas talked to CBS about how criticism impacted his lack of desire to direct more Star Wars films and also shared some details on what he intended for a sequel to The Return of the Jedi

- Lucas said about the conflicting approaches to Episode 7 between him and Disney:

“The issue was ultimately that they looked at the stories and they said, ‘We want to make something for the fans,'”

“All I wanted to do was tell the story of what happened. 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. 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. All that would do is muck everything up.”

- on what Star Wars is supposed to be about, he said:

“People don’t actually 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…. I’ll go my way and I let them go their way.'”

- he compared the exercise of letting Star Wars go to a relationship break-up. He said about separating from Star Wars:

“It all comes down to a simple rule of life. When you break up with somebody, the first rule is no phone calls."

“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.’”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/star-wars-the-force-awakens-george-lucas-explains-why-disney-scrapped-his-ideas-for-episode-7-a6744091.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-lucas-on-why-he-is-done-directing-star-wars/

Can someone explain to me why these still pop up on my hot topics section even though I have them unticked?

George Lucas ticked it back.

He is on leisure time now, may be possible.

Yes, it was SUPPOSED to be a soap opera, but you ditched that when you decided that special effects, pod racing, and as many light sabers on screen as possible were the most important things.
Dude has no idea what he's talking about.

Thank. You.  I remember reading somewhere that one of the eariler concepts (if not original) of the final battle scene in Return of the Jedi was to be Wookies as opposed to Ewoks on Endor.  Lucas claimed that Wookies are intelligent creatures and would NOT be living in forrests.  WHY NOT???  They could still work on technology in humanoid made structures like a bunker or a factory while returning back into the forrest as their homes.  But he utilzed Ewoks to pander to the younger audience.

But, yes, Star Wars is a soap opera, a science fantasy soap opera.  It earned its core audience during the Episode IV through VI era.  If these are the fans Disney were referring to, then I have to side with Disney on this one.

“People don’t actually realize it’s actually a soap opera and it’s all about family problems"

This makes me so sad if Disney not using "the other family" anymore.. and would destroy everything lucas has build up for in the first 6 movies.. but I cant see that in anyway..

BB-8 is proof enough for me that disney knows better. from the awesome concept to the fact it was puppeteered in the movies instead of CGI'd shows that disney knows more about star wars is about than george lucus.

If you are going for character drama or "soap opera" then write character people would care about. The prequels weren't failures because people wanted "more spaceships" they were failures because the characters were wooden and audience did not make a connection with them. You replaced a introspective and wise Yoda with a flipping around light sabre fighter.

I trust Disney and people involved far more than ever would Lucas. He started losing it during Jedi and prequels showed how lazy a film maker he had become.

Actually, I think it was George Lucas who originally wanted to go back to more puppeteering and less CGI.