George Lucas says he is done making Star Wars movies, explaining that he “moved past” the franchise after selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and is devoting his time to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. In a new interview, the filmmaker said Disney “took it over and they gave it their vision,” adding, “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.”
The remarks arrive as work accelerates on the museum, a long-planned institution dedicated to narrative art across film, comics, illustration and photography. Designed by architect Ma Yansong and funded by Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, the project includes multiple galleries, theaters and education spaces on an 11-acre campus in Exposition Park. The founder has said the aim is to elevate popular visual storytelling that traditional fine-art museums have often overlooked.
Lucas acknowledged that some Star Wars material will be present when the museum opens, noting one gallery will feature vehicles and designs from the saga, a nod to visitor expectations rather than an attempt to revisit his old film universe. He emphasized that the museum’s broader collection spans tens of thousands of works, including pieces by Norman Rockwell, and that its mission is to place narrative art from many cultures on equal footing.
The filmmaker’s stance underscores the creative handoff that occurred when he sold Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, a deal that led to a new trilogy and a surge of series for streaming under different stewards. While the brand continues to expand with upcoming theatrical and television projects, Lucas’s comments suggest his focus is fixed elsewhere—on an institution he describes as a “temple to the people’s art,” built to celebrate the craft that shaped his own career and the broader storytelling traditions it draws upon.
