George Lucas on Disney’s Star Wars: Why He Stepped Aside — And What He Really Thinks

George Lucas is done debating Star Wars. He sold Lucasfilm to Disney back in 2012 for a bit over $4 billion, and at 81, he has other things to build. Literally. He says he has moved on, and based on what he is focused on now, I believe him.

Lucas on Lucasfilm: He meant it when he said he moved on

In a new Wall Street Journal interview, Lucas did not sugarcoat where he stands with Star Wars today.

"Disney took it over and they gave it their vision. That’s what happens. 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."

That is... pretty definitive. He sounds both content and a little defiant about it: Disney has their version of the galaxy, and he has a very different project that is eating his time and attention.

The museum: a giant, gleaming home for the art that usually gets ignored

Lucas is pouring himself into the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening in Los Angeles in 2026. The whole idea is to champion the stuff fine-art institutions often snub: illustration, comics, concept art, and commercial art that regular people actually love. He has been consistent about this for decades — when he could not get Hollywood to visualize Star Wars in the mid-1970s, he hired illustrators like Ralph McQuarrie to render C-3PO, R2-D2, and Tatooine so studios could finally see what he meant.

His approach then is the museum’s mission now. He put it plainly in the interview: he relied on artists to help people "get the picture," and he is building a public place to take that kind of work seriously.

"I’m making a museum for what I call the orphaned arts. The art people respond to in the real world."

The collection is massive — over 40,000 pieces Lucas has gathered across six decades, from comic art he picked up in college to 160 works by Norman Rockwell, one of his heroes. Architect Ma Yansong designed the building to look like a cross between a spaceship and a cloud: an 11-acre, futuristic structure that appears to hover above the ground. Pretty on-brand, honestly.

Getting here was not simple. Lucas spent around 15 years trying to make this happen, running into roadblocks in both San Francisco (his first choice) and Chicago before landing in Los Angeles. His wife, Mellody Hobson, was instrumental through that saga and is now the museum’s co-founder and chair.

"When you step into the building, you’re stepping into George’s brain."

Meanwhile, Lucas’s origin story just got a graphic novel

If you want a fresh angle on how we got from a filmmaker with a wild idea to a pop-culture empire, there is a new graphic novel for that. It is called "Lucas Wars: The True Story of George Lucas and the Creation of Star Wars," and it retells his climb — the vision, the battles, and how it changed Hollywood. It first came out in French in 2023 and is now available in English, translated by Jeremy Melloul. Journalist Laurent Hopman wrote it; storyboard artist and illustrator Renaud Roche handled the art. It runs 208 pages and is out now from Macmillan imprint 23rd Street Books. Yes, you can buy it on Amazon if that is your thing.

Quick refresher: the six films from the Lucas era

All produced by Lucasfilm Ltd.

• Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) — Director: George Lucas — IMDb: 8.6/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 94% — Worldwide box office: $775.3 million
• Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — Director: Irvin Kershner — IMDb: 8.7/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 93% — Worldwide box office: $549 million
• Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) — Director: Richard Marquand — IMDb: 8.3/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 84% — Worldwide box office: $482.3 million
• Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) — Director: George Lucas — IMDb: 6.5/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 54% — Worldwide box office: $1.046 billion
• Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) — Director: George Lucas — IMDb: 6.6/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 62% — Worldwide box office: $656.6 million
• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) — Director: George Lucas — IMDb: 7.6/10 — Rotten Tomatoes: 79% — Worldwide box office: $902.8 million

Where this leaves Star Wars now

Disney’s version of Star Wars is still multiplying across movies and TV. Lucas’s version endures in the DNA of all of it, but he is clearly focused on building a monument to storytelling itself — and to the artists who make stories tangible.

What do you think of Lucas’s comments, and where Disney has taken Star Wars?

The Star Wars franchise is streaming on Disney+.