George Lucas explains why Yoda speaks in a fun way and how he passed the study when he did his Star Wars agreement

During the projection of the 45th anniversary of The Empire is hit At the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2025, George Lucas He showed up and brought the public to a fascinating tour during his first career, the study system and the commercial moves that changed the sector.

Moderator Ben Mankiewicz He did his best to keep the conversation points The Empire is hitBut Lucas had other plans. Instead, he kicked off to things immersing himself in his friendship with Francis Ford CoppolaTelling his time to work on Coppola Rainbow of finian.

“I was 22 years old, Francis was 27 years old. He had a beard, I had a beard. We had both long hair. We are both film students,” said Lucas. “All the others in the crew were 65 years old.”

It wasn’t much later in the chat that Lucas finally touched the thing that the crowd was anxious to know: Star Wars. He explained that he had written the original Star Wars Script as an approximate draft of a much bigger story.

“I write as a project,” said Lucas. “It doesn’t have many details. And when I got the script [for Star Wars] Fact, there were 130 to 180 pages. So I cut it into three parts and said: “I will focus on the first, because we will never have enough money to do everything.” “

In the end, Lucas gave the public something funny that involves the reason behind the famous way of talking about Yoda.

“Because if you speak normal English, people won’t listen to much,” said Lucas. “But if he had an emphasis, or it is really difficult to understand what he is saying, they focus on what he’s saying.”

“It was basically the philosopher of the film,” continued Lucas. “I had to find a way to convince people to listen actually, in particular the twelfths.”

When it came to discuss The Empire is hitLucas did not focus too long on the making of the film itself. Instead, he opened on the innovative agreement in the studio he did before the first Star Wars Also the theaters of hit:

“I said:” I will do it for $ 50,000, to write, direct and produce … but I want sequels. “And I wanted the rights because I will do those films, whatever happens to this.”

Then came the real kicker, the part that would end up redefining Hollywood’s business forever. “I said:” In addition to this, I would like licenses. “They went,” What are the licenses? “Lucas said. At the time, the study could not have imported less.” They spoke to themselves and did: “He will never be able to do it. It takes a billion dollars and a year to do a toy or do anything. There is no money in this.”

Realizing that Fox was not giving much energy to promote Star WarsLucas decided to take the situation in hand.

“I made sure that children walk for Disneyland and the comedians and all that kind of things to advertise the film,” he explained. “And that’s why Fox was shocked when the first day the lines were all around the block.”

Mankiewicz tried to conclude things by throwing an easy question to Lucas, whether preferred Yoda or Lando Calrissian. Faithful to the form, Lucas was about to be blocked. “If you have 12 children, which do you like best?” He replied with a smile.

It was not the Deep-dive in The Empire is hit That many of the crowd could have hoped, but at 80 years old Lucas are telling his story, he still likes.

Source: Variety