Filmmaker George Lucas is best known for creating the Star Wars franchise, which continues to thrive even today. Aside from achieving unprecedented commercial success and longevity, the space opera franchise has become a major pop culture touchstone, with several other creators referencing it in their own works.
One of the creators greatly influenced by Lucas’ work is Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the wildly popular adult animated sitcom Family Guy. The series has delivered several Star Wars parody episodes to varying degrees of success. However, one of these episodes did not sit well with Lucas, and here is what went down on Family Guy.
George Lucas Was Uncomfortable With Family Guy‘s Parody of Star Wars
George Lucas launched his epic space opera franchise Star Wars, with the release of the first film in 1977. Over almost five decades, the franchise has expanded with multiple installments, becoming an indispensable part of the modern pop culture zeitgeist.
Lucas’ original trilogy was parodied and retold in three episodes of the adult animated series Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane. The first of the three episodes, titled Blue Harvest, was released as a part of the show’s sixth season. It was followed up with the second and third episodes in seasons 8 and 9.
While Lucas was onboard with the show’s slightly raunchy and darker take on his source material, the filmmaker did not always approve of what MacFarlane and his writing team came up with. In an interview with CBS News, MacFarlane spoke about the challenges of pleasing Lucas.
There are limitations, it’s still the Star Wars franchise so Lucasfilm, you know, they don’t allow everything but, they allow a lot.
MacFarlane made the above statement, confirming that there were times when some jokes made Lucas uncomfortable.
According to some reports, Lucas allegedly had an issue with the use of F-bombs, especially in the second episode of the parody trilogy. However, MacFarlane admitted that the folks at Lucasfilm also understood the tone and pitch of Family Guy, allowing them to move forward with most jokes.
Seth MacFarlane Revealed Why There Won’t Be More Star Wars Episodes on Family Guy
Despite some pushback from Lucas, the Star Wars parodies proved extremely popular for Family Guy. As a result, fans have long desired for MacFarlane and his team to similarly parody the prequel and sequel trilogy in the space opera franchise.
During an appearance at a fan convention, MacFarlane admitted that there would be no further direct adaptations of the source material. The creator stated (via Digital Spy):
I don’t think we’ll be going that route. They’re just too expensive. LucasFilm has been really great to us [this far].
As a result, MacFarlane closed the door on more Star Wars parody episodes on Family Guy. While he suggested giving a similar treatment to the Indiana Jones movies, these episodes ultimately did not materialize.
During an interview in 2016, writer Alec Sulkin explained that while the creative team loved the parody episodes, producing more of them would be challenging from a creative and legal perspective because of Disney’s tougher practices. As a result, more Star Wars parody episodes are extremely unlikely.
Star Wars and Family Guy are both streaming on Disney+.
