George Lucas has apologized for comparing Disney to 'white slavers' in an interview he did with CBS' Charlie Rose. According to Variety, Lucas called the statement a "very inappropriate analogy."

The Star Wars creator felt it important to say he's "thrilled" Disney owns the franchise, and he's very proud of The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy on the film's runaway success.

In an interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Star Wars creator George Lucas referred to the franchise's new owners at Disney as "white slavers."

When discussing the difficulty of breaking apart from his career-defining series, Lucas said, "these are my kids. I loved them, I created them, I"m very intimately involved with them and I sold them to the white slavers that take these things..." before realizing he'd made a poor analogy and laughing it off.

Lucas also expanded on comments he made in November about how he didn't see eye-to-eye with Disney about making something for the fans, saying if he had been involved, "I’m just going to cause trouble, because they’re not going to do what I want them to do. And I don’t have the control to do that anymore, and all I would do is muck everything up. And so I said, ‘OK, I will go my way, and I’ll let them go their way.'”


Despite Lucas's reservations, Disney's bet on nostalgia seems to have paid off with The Force Awakens garnering both stellar reviews and record-breaking box office returns, making $1 billion faster than any other movie in history in just two weeks.