George Lucas shocked the world Tuesday when it was reported that he would be selling the "Star Wars" franchise to Disney for a reported $4 billion. On Thursday night he stated that he'll be giving most of that money to creating a better education system in the U.S.
"I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race," Lucas said in a press statement. "We have to plan for our collective future-and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt, as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so."
In an effort that began in 2010, Lucas is "committed to developing young minds" which is why he created The George Lucas Educational Foundation.
"Obviously I've been talking about retiring for several years now," Lucas said. "I wanted to get into sort of another stage of life where I'm not in the film business anymore, where I don't have to run a corporation. Disney is a huge corporation; they have all kinds of capabilities and facilities. There's a lot of strength to be gained by this."
After running the franchise for five decades, Lucas stated that he had been considering retiring for a couple of years now. He wanted to make sure however that if he was going to sell one of the highest-grossing film franchises ever that it would be in good hands.
The sale of the franchise not only means that Disney will be allowed to sell "Star Wars" related products, and create new TV shows, games and theme park attractions as well. The biggest announcement of the day from Disney was that the company will be rebooting the series with a completely new trilogy.
Disney announced Tuesday that "Star Wars: Episode VII" will be released in theatres by 2015 but failed to mention any details about the movie. The announcement of a new trilogy has been met with excitement and criticism alike. Fans of all ages are curious to find out whether Disney is intending to use new actors to play icon characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo.
The company is currently going through the process of hearing ideas for the new movie and getting a commitment from a director to film the trilogy.
Lucas consulted with many people before selling the franchise that has earned him fame and fortune around the world, including the actors who starred in the first three movies Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher who played Luke and Leia.
Hamill was asked about the meeting, which took place over the summer, and declined to reveal too much about what is in store for the franchise or whether he and Fischer will be appearing in the new movies.
"Last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the 'Star Wars' TV series that I've heard about or the 3-D releases. So when he said, 'We decided we're going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,' I was just gobsmacked. 'What? Are you nuts?!'," Hamill said to Indie Wire.
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