The producer of Star Wars, George Lucas, explained why he sold Disney the hugely famous franchise in 2012.

Before the publication of The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005 behind the scenes next year, author Paul Duncan took to Twitter to share an excerpt that sees the filmmaker shed a light on his difficult decision to take a step back from the series and sell Lucasfilm.

"At that time, I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up. I was also about to have a daughter with my wife," writes Lucas. It takes 10 years to make a trilogy-from 1995 to 2005 it took Episodes I to III.

"I was 69 in 2012. So the question was Will I keep doing this for the rest of my life?" Would I like to go through this again? 'I decided at last that I would rather raise my daughter and enjoy life for a while.

"I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn't retiring."

Elsewhere, he went on to recall how, owing to his "micromanager" tendencies, he had not expected to be involved much in the day-to-day development of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), but wound up being on set every day.

"I tried to stay out of the way, but I couldn't," confessed Lucas. "Even though the people were friends of mine and they did great work, it wasn't the same as me doing it; it was like being once removed. I knew that probably wouldn't work again, that I'd be frustrated."

He said of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, "It was the right thing to do. I thought I was going to have a little bit more say about the next three because I'd already started them," "But they realized there was something else they wanted to do."

"It doesn't always turn out the way you expect it to be. Life's just like that."