Coming from the mouth of Simon Pegg, of all people, this may seem somewhat disingenuous, given the decade long battering he’s given the prequel trilogy. However, speaking on the rather brilliant The Adam Buxton Podcast, he appeared to be giving the Maker a second chance.
“I must admit, watching the last Star Wars film [The Last Jedi], the overriding feeling I got when I came out was, ‘I miss George Lucas.’
“For all the complaining that I’d done about him in the prequels, there was something amazing about his imagination.”
“I do feel like his voice is missing from the current ones.”
Pegg discussed briefly meeting Lucas at the 2005 premier of Revenge of the Sith.
“I sort of went to say ‘Hello!’ to him. He turned around and I saw the weariness in his eyes like, ‘Here’s another thirty-something fanboy who’s going to tell me how much I changed his life.'”
“He was talking to Ron Howard and I think he’d seen Shaun of the Dead ‘cos he immediately went, ‘Oh hey, Shaun of the Dead!’ and shook my hand. And George Lucas immediately changed his demeanour.”