George Lucas has said he’s let go of his instinct to manage Star Wars, 13 years after selling the sci-fi universe to Disney.
Lucas, now 81, sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion back in 2012, handing over everything from Industrial Light & Magic to Skywalker Sound as part of the deal. Since then, Disney has released the Sequel Trilogy and a number of TV shows set in the Star Wars universe, including The Mandalorian, Andor, and Ahsoka.
Now, he’s opening a museum he’s spent nearly $1 billion putting together. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is set to open in Los Angeles in 2026 and showcase a collection Lucas has been working on for 60 years.
It’s a departure from his filmmaking roots, and, based on a profile piece in The Wall Street Journal, Lucas is keen for it not to be dubbed 'the Star Wars museum.'
While it does have the likes of the N-1 Starfighter that debuted in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, only one inaugural exhibit will feature the designs of Star Wars vehicles. “It’s one gallery out of 33. And I did it grudgingly,” Lucas said. “I didn’t want people to come to the museum and say, ‘Where’s the Star Wars?’ ”
The Wall Street Journal then asked Lucas if he has let go of his instinct to manage the Star Wars universe now, 13 years after selling up.
“Disney took it over and they gave it their vision. That’s what happens,” he replied. “Of course I’ve moved past it. I mean, I’ve got a life. I’m building a museum. A museum is harder than making movies.”
So, it sounds like Lucas has indeed moved on from Star Wars. But fans often lament Disney’s stewardship of the franchise since buying Lucas out. Certainly Star Wars has had its ups and downs since Disney took over. Standalone movies Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, for example, were costly failures. 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker sparked a backlash from fans and we haven’t seen a new Star Wars movie since.
On the TV show side of things, while the likes of The Mandalorian and Andor enjoyed critical acclaim, The Book of Boba Fett, The Acolyte, and Obi-Wan Kenobi look to be one and done. Still, Lucasfilm is soldiering on, with new Star Wars movies and TV shows coming from next year.
Last year, Lucas suggested Star Wars’ new bosses got a lot wrong with the Sequel Trilogy. “I was the one who really knew what Star Wars was,” he said, “... who actually knew this world, because there’s a lot to it. The Force, for example, nobody understood the Force. When they started other ones after I sold the company, a lot of the ideas that were in [the original] sort of got lost. But that’s the way it is. You give it up, you give it up.”
In July, Lucas made his first ever appearance at San Diego Comic-Con to reveal some of the items headed to The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. A special video preview of the museum showed guests can expect to see Luke's X-34 Landspeeder from A New Hope, General Grievous' TSMEU-6 Wheel Bike, and even the Speeder Bikes from Return of the Jedi. There will also be concept art and much more from that galaxy far, far away.
In February, current Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy responded to reports that she was set to retire later in 2025 after it was indicated that the veteran film producer was looking to move on at the end of her contract this year.
Deadline reported that Kennedy was working with Disney boss Bob Iger on a succession plan 13 years into the job, with Star Wars Rebels creator and current Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni apparently in a “strong position” to take on the role. However, she insisted: “The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring.”
"I will never retire from movies," she continued. "I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring."
While Kennedy confirmed that Lucasfilm has “every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road” on an eventual succession, she is “continuing to stay at Lucasfilm.” That involves producing the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu movie and Star Wars: Starfighter.
It sounds like plans are very much in the works for Kennedy to step down from her current role as president of Lucasfilm, but that doesn’t mean she is leaving the company behind or retiring from the movie business.
“I’m not going to be here forever,” she said. “George [Lucas] asked me 13 years ago to step in, and now I’m looking at who’s going to replace me. And as I said, we have a bench of people internally to handle the business, the creative side. The job has grown also since I stepped in. There was no streaming, there weren’t a lot of the things that we’re involved in right now going on. So it has grown.”
Kennedy also denied she was being “pushed aside” or “in need of being replaced,” insisting that was “absolutely not the case” and “could not be further from the truth.”
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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