Yesterday saw the release of the last Star Wars film — the final episode of an epic saga that began and ended at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

At a London press conference, Star Wars creator, director and producer George Lucas explained that there was only supposed to be one movie.

"Originally Star Wars was intended to be one movie, Episode IV, a Saturday matinee, you never saw what happened before, you never saw what happened after.

"It was designed to be the tragedy of Darth Vader. It starts with this monster coming to the door and throwing everyone around. In the end the villain turns into the hero, inspired by his son.

"It was meant to be one movie. The reason I broke it up, I didn't have that sort of money to do that movie, which would have been a five-hour movie.

"The icon of Darth Vader kind of took over and the tragedy of Darth Vader got diminished, it was harder to see that it was actually a story about a guy who becomes redeemed, but at the same I had written a back story of all the characters in order to get to Episode IV.

"I really intended to do the one movie then I was determined to do the three movies. I finished them and said, 'ok fine, I'm done now.'"

After the third film, Return of the Jedi, Lucas took a long break.

"After ten years I began to think about the fact that the tragedy part of the thing had been lost, and it would be interesting to tell people the whole story and strengthen that part of it. At the same time the technology became available for me to actually tell that story, to go into the centre of the universe, to see Tatooine, to see Yoda fight, to see those things that were technically impossible. Before then I sort of had a long soul-searching time.

"I really stopped making movies so I could raise my kids. I did that for about 15 years, and then when they were old enough I said, 'alright I'm going to go back and direct now'. And I said, 'alright, am I going to go off and do those avant-garde movies I had intended to do, or do I take one last shot at Star Wars?' I realised if I didn't do it then — I was about 50 — then I probably would never do it. So I thought, 'alright I'll do it' because I thought I would regret it if I didn't."

Lucas also has other plans for his life project: "I've seen a 3D process that's quite amazing. It really makes Star Wars look good — it's a three dimensionalisation of the film and it's not like a 3D movie where things are poked in our eyes — this is actually a different way of looking a the movie. I've never been a big fan of 3D, but in this process I've become quite a convert. So if we can digitise theatres, because it needs digital theatres to actually work, we will probably reissue all the movies."

Now, Lucas said he will take a well-earned break: "I'm going to go off and do my thing. The world, or the company rather, is going to go off and do theirs."