Mark Hamill Wishes that George Lucas Had Been Part of the New 'Star Wars' 

Based on early critics reactions, the new Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, is truly amazing, and people are praising director Rian Johnson’s take on the galaxy far, far away. However, Mark Hamill, who famously plays Luke Skywalker, wishes that Star Wars’s original architect, George Lucas, had been more involved in the new trilogy.

“What I wish is that [Disney] had been more accepting of his guidance and advice,” Hamill told Metro in an interview published over the weekend. “Because he had an outline for ‘7,’ ‘8,’ and ‘9.’ And it is vastly different to what they have done.”

Lucas, despite creating Star Wars, has somewhat of a bad reputation amongst many fans. The director went relatively unchecked when creating the prequel trilogy, and he’s saddled with a lot of the blame amongst those who think Episodes I, II, and III are bad. It’s hard to fathom now that Star Wars is back to being a beloved cultural juggernaut, but before The Force Awakens came out, Lucasfilm’s new owner, Disney, needed to assure fans that the new movies wouldn’t be like the much-maligned prequel trilogy. Lucas largely stepped away from the franchise he created after the sale, a move that unfairly or not, was widely viewed as a good thing.

Still, Hamill, who of course worked with Lucas on the original trilogy in the ‘70s and ‘80s, has a soft spot for the 73-year-old filmmaker. Hamill also originally expressed some reservations about where Johnson was taking Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, though he backtracked on those comments and has been largely positive about the new movie. It’s just not what he expected, is all. Hamill understands his role in all this, though.

“But then again, I don’t want to be an old stick in the mud,” he told Metro. “There were the originals. There’s the prequels. But that’s all George. And now we have the next generation. And as far as I can see they are more popular than ever.”

We’ll likely never know exactly what Lucas’s version of Episodes VII and VIII would have been, so it’s not possible or fair, really, to compare them to The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. But, if the reviews of Last Jedi are anything to go by, Lucas’s replacement did an amazing job.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens on December 15.