Lives Destroyed By Star Wars

George Lucas famously sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney for $4 billion in 2012, and he made a lot more than that in the decades before. So how could anyone ever say Star Wars ruined Lucas' life? Well, it depends on how you want to define "ruined." Sure, he's got enough money to field a small space army, but is that everything in life?

George Lucas was an up-and-coming director in the late 1970s. His films THX 1138 and American Graffiti put him on the map. He directed Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977, and it exploded, but he didn't direct The Empire Strikes Back because he had been diagnosed with hypertension and exhaustion. The stress took a toll on his health, so he moved behind the scenes.

Lucas focused so heavily on producing and marketing Star Wars that he didn't direct another movie until 1999's The Phantom Menace, 22 years later. Star Wars became an empire. He was the boss of everything and put himself in charge again, but he'd lost the magic. The trilogy was savaged, and Lucas would go on to tell Vanity Fair, "you go to make a movie and all you do is get criticized." The passion had been beaten out of him, and it was no longer fun to make Star Wars. How sad is that? At least he has his money to comfort him.

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