Hunter6 said:
The Prequels
like The SE were more likely made because GL saw his Star Wars money-well drying up.
There is a quote from Lucas from the Charlie Rose show in Sept 2004, as Rose asked Lucas why he went back to Star Wars in the early 90's, "I was at a crossroads in the early 90's with my company, as we were not the big money maker people think of us today. I was presented a graph that showed what the income Lucasfilm might expect if I do the Prequels. I could do the Prequels, and make enough money to be able to fund my own projects for the rest of my life, and never have to worry about a studio telling me anything. Or I could go on doing smaller projects, and have to worry about being funded by Movie Studios, and all the excess that goes with it. If I chose to do smaller projects, I would never go back to Star Wars, but it was worth it to go back and do the backstory to get away from the movie studios forever.