Still soaring

George Lucas never figured on a 30-year career as a space pilot. Once “Star Wars” shot into hyperspace, though, he found it hard to come back down to Earth.

Making its DVD debut Tuesday, his original sci-fi trilogy — “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” — began as an experimental foray into old-time studio moviemaking for Lucas, whose first two films had been far removed from usual Hollywood sensibilities.

Lucas’ sci-fi satire “THX 1138” (released on DVD last week) had been a commercial dud. But the energetic “American Graffiti,” with its driving soundtrack and multicharacter point of view, scored with audiences and gave the young director clout to try something bigger that had been on his mind.

“I’d already started this other idea, which was to do a kind of a classic action adventure film using sets,” Lucas said over lunch at his 2,600-acre Skywalker Ranch. “I’d never worked on a set, I’d never worked at a studio. Never made a traditional movie.

“So I said, ‘I’m going to do this once, just to see what it’s like, what it’s like to actually design everything, work on a soundstage, do an old-fashioned 1930s movie. And I’ll do it in that mode from the 1930s Saturday matinee serials, using kind of 1930s and ‘40s sensibilities, and I’ll base it on sort of mythological motifs and icons. I’ll just put it together in a modern form, and I’ll have fun.’ “

Three decades later, Lucas is preparing to launch the last of his six “Star Wars” films. Next summer brings “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith,” completing the prequel trilogy that tells the story of young Anakin Skywalker’s metamorphosis into the villainous Darth Vader of the original three films.

Fans have eagerly awaited the first three “Star Wars” films on DVD, a release Lucas initially intended to delay until he finished “Episode III.”

Some will be miffed that the original theatrical versions are not included in the “Star Wars” boxed set, which features only the special-edition versions Lucas issued in the late 1990s with added effects and footage, including a scene between Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and crime lord Jabba the Hutt in the first “Star Wars.”

“To me, the special edition ones are the films I wanted to make,” Lucas said. “Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It’s abandoned or it’s ripped out of your hands, and it’s thrown into the marketplace, never finished. … So this was my chance to finish it.”

As for the theatrical versions, he said, “I’m not going to spend the — we’re talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. …

“The thing about science-fiction fans and ‘Star Wars’ fans is they’re very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I’m making the movies, so I should have it my way.”

After “Episode III,” will he ever revisit “Star Wars”?

“Ultimately, I’m going to probably move it into television and let other people take it,” Lucas said. “I’m sort of preserving the feature film part for what has happened and never go there again, but I can go off into various offshoots and things.

“You know, I’ve got offshoot novels, I’ve got offshoot comics. So it’s very easy to say, ‘Well, OK, that’s that genre, and I’ll find a really talented person to take it and create it.’ Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else’s way of doing it.

“I don’t mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.”