In 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm – and, of course, Star Wars – from George Lucas for $4.05 billion. The celebrated filmmaker was ready to retire from Hollywood, and already planned to found his own museum. More recently, Lucas has admitted he already anticipated streaming upending the Hollywood model, and he decided he lacked the skillset for the new era that was coming. Lucas drew up his own sequel trilogy plans, sold them to Disney as part of the deal, and then moved on.
Videos by ComicBook.com
It turns out, though, there was one thing Lucas kept. Speaking at Spacecon 2026 (via The Popverse), Matthew Wood – a Skywalker Sound editor who voices General Grievous – revealed Lucas is still Disney’s landlord. “After the success of the original Star Wars films and American Graffiti and whatnot, [George Lucas] built out this beautiful location in Northern California,” he explained. “It’s about 40 minutes north of San Francisco. It’s out in nature right before you get to wine country up there. And he made this wonderful place work, wonderful place to create art, and he’s donated 90 percent of the land that he purchased to an open space moratorium. It’s open space and can never be developed on.”
Wood continued, “And now, funnily enough, since the intellectual property of Star Wars is owned by Disney, I work for Disney now – but we work at Skywalker Ranch, and we pay George Lucas. He’s our landlord, because all the rents and the physical properties are his. And he loves having us there. He’s a filmmaker at heart, so having us working at his location I think feels good to him.”
George Lucas Will Never Fully Let Star Wars Go
There’s something quite magical about the idea George Lucas is still part of Star Wars in some way. Even The Mandalorian and Grogu credited Lucas, with Jon Favreau revealing he talked to him about Baby Yoda. Apparently Lucas was the one who suggested Grogu would make a mud hut, even hinting there was a biological drive to do so in the species. It led to many Star Wars fans joking about how hard it must have been for Yoda to live on Coruscant.
Meanwhile, Lucas has happily established the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art – due to open on September 22, 2026. He may not be making movies anymore, but Lucas still loves the medium, and this museum has been a lifelong dream for him. Described as “a home for the art that connects us,” it naturally features quite a few Star Wars exhibits – as well as homages to the pulp sci-fi and fantasy that inspired Star Wars in the first place. Lucas made one of his rare SDCC appearances last year while promoting the museum, and he’s sure to do the rounds ahead of its official opening.
The more interesting question, though, is whether Lucas will be involved in next year’s Star Wars 50th anniversary celebrations. The original theatrical cut of A New Hope is returning to theaters as part of that, and it’s been heavily implied Lucas himself agreed to that. Lucas has previously taken the stage to celebrate the anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and this is infinitely bigger. What’s more, his protege Dave Filoni is now co-president of Lucasfilm Studios, and the two are known to be in regular content. It’s amusing to imagine a conversation about Star Wars driving into discussions about rent and property maintenance.
Lucas always intended Skywalker Ranch to be more of a filmmaker’s retreat than a headquarters for Lucasfilm. He imagined it as a home of creativity, the kind of place people go to when they’re seeking inspiration rather than to actually make the movies. It was designed personally, with Lucas sketching out floor plans, and became the embodiment of his independence. It’s so perfectly in-character for Lucas to keep ownership of that environment, likely in part because he wanted to maintain it and keep it so separate from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Even more amusingly, it means he’s still getting checks from Lucasfilm over a decade after he sold the company.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
