Star Wars: Seth Rogen Recalls the Time George Lucas Claimed the World Would End in 2012

During an appearance on today’s episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, actor and comedian Seth Rogen, appearing in support of his new memoir Yearbook, told a story about Star Wars creator George Lucas, and how he allegedly bought into a conspiracy theory that claimed the world would end in 2012. After aggressively defending that position in a magazine interview (Lucas would later say it was a joke), Lucas reportedly said something to him that made him assume it the legendary filmmaker’s real position. He also said that he imagines Lucas won’t be especially happy with the book when it hits the stands tomorrow.

The book is full of stories like that, with stories about everyone from religious figures to Hollywood icons being put through the comedic wringer. And he expects to hear back from some of them, for sure.

“We [made] a joke like, if you’ve got a spaceship to escape Earth, can we get a seat on that thing?” Rogen told O’Brien. “And he was like, ‘No.’ It makes me think he wasn’t joking because, if you were joking, you would just say ‘Yes’… But, no, he said, ‘No.’ To this day, I am confounded and plagued by that story.”

He also told O’Brien a story about Nicolas Cage, who allegedly got up and left — twice — under the guise of two different meetings. Complete with a pair of Ghost Rider jokes along the way.

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend is a weekly, long-form interview podcast that sees the veteran latenight host sitting down with comedy luminaries and other A-list celebrities to get deeper and more personal than he could do in the pellet-sized interviews on TBS’s Conan.

Rogen’s Yearbook is due out tomorrow. You can read the official synopsis for the book below.

A collection of funny personal essays from one of the writers of Superbad and Pineapple Express and one of the producers of The Disaster Artist, Neighbors, and The Boys. (All of these words have been added to help this book show up in people’s searches using the wonders of algorithmic technology. Thanks for bearing with us!)

Hi! I’m Seth! I was asked to describe my book, Yearbook, for the inside flap (which is a gross phrase) and for websites and shit like that, so… here it goes!!!

Yearbook is a collection of true stories that I desperately hope are just funny at worst, and life-changingly amazing at best. (I understand that it’s likely the former, which is a fancy “book” way of saying “the first one.”)

I talk about my grandparents, doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, bar mitzvahs, and Jewish summer camp, and tell way more stories about doing drugs than my mother would like. I also talk about some of my adventures in Los Angeles, and surely say things about other famous people that will create a wildly awkward conversation for me at a party one day.

I hope you enjoy the book should you buy it, and if you don’t enjoy it, I’m sorry. If you ever see me on the street and explain the situation, I’ll do my best to make it up to you.