The success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the anticipation of having a Star Wars film released every year until 2020, sure makes it seem like Lucasfilm doesn’t need George Lucas. However, even as a creative consultant, George remains a vital part of the company. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has so far successfully led a “brain trust” into the future of everything Star Wars (movies, TV, comics, etc.). Yet, I’m willing to wager that she still turns to her mentor, George, for advice.

We’ve known this for some time, ever since the deal between Disney and George was made official four years ago. Her relationship with him is a close one, filled with respect and care for what he’s created and she’s grown to love. But what I didn’t realize, and I don’t think many fans do either, is just how much of an impact George is still making in our little Star Wars lives, today.

Kennedy revealed to Entertainment Weekly that George came to her with the idea for anthology films, which unfortunately are now better known as A Star Wars Story:

“George talked to me about doing this when I first came aboard. He had often thought about doing it and he had actually written down three or four thoughts, and ideas, directions you could go. Obviously inside the mythology there were lots of opportunities. So that was the first conversation I had… We talked a lot about the Jedi and the foundational ideas that George had thought about when he created the mythology. It was sort of spit-balling ideas.”

Whether the idea of anthology films works out or not remains to be seen, but as a Star Wars fan, I’m thankful to have more films. However, I feel like Lucasfilm is more curious to see how general audiences respond to more films outside of the episodes. For many, they’ve now finally invested themselves into seeing more from this universe, but to what extent?

It’ll be interesting to see if any new experiments that Lucasfilm tries in the future also root from an idea Lucas had. Seeing what he’s created so far, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. And if this anthology idea works out well, then it proves that George still has a brilliant mind for creative ideas, even outside the galaxy far, far away.

Sources: Collider, Entertainment Weekly.