Imagine you’ve spent tens of millions of dollars on a new Star Wars ride… Only to have George Lucas, the father of Star Wars himself, appear completely disinterested. If what we hear in this exclusive story from StarWarsOnly is true, however, that’s exactly what happened. It seems George was not impressed by Rise of the Resistance.

Lucas visited Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World recently. Part of his stay in Disney’s immersive Star Wars theme park expansion was a go ’round on the new Rise of the Resistance ride at the park. Now, by now most Star Wars fans are familiar with George Lucas and his demeanor. He’s not particularly extroverted, or emotional. Any reaction he gave to the ride was bound to be subdued. Subdued is one thing. Lucas, on the other hand, apparently seemed complete unimpressed by the Galaxy’s Edge feature.  

George Lucas Unimpressed by Rise of the Resistance

Rise of the Resistance
Image: Disney

He rides the ride… and he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t dislike it, of course, but he’s just kind of unenthusiastic about the situation.”

That’s the accounting of his reaction, at least. Now there is any number of reasons for Lucas’s reaction. It could be, as noted above, that he simply wasn’t showing any emotion one way or the other. Then again, we’ve been told that Lucas felt betrayed by the direction in which Disney and Lucasfilm, now run by Kathleen Kennedy, took his beloved franchise. Rise of the Resistance focusses exclusively on new events and characters.

Resistance height requirement; George Lucas
In-ride image from Rise of the Resistance. (image: Disney/Entertainment Weekly)

Frankly I wouldn’t blame George’s lack of enthusiasm in that instance. He really has little to no connection to those characters at all. Still…. George Lucas having a lackluster reaction to the Rise of Resistance ride isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. Disney has a lot riding on the success of Galaxy’s Edge. John Williams’ award-winning score for the theme park isn’t going to carry it alone.

For more information on the ride, visit the official Disney World website HERE. Check out our review of Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland right here: