George Lucas Captivates Fans with Ageless Looks and New Museum Vision
George Lucas, the visionary behind the iconic Star Wars franchise, has recently captured the attention of fans worldwide not just for his groundbreaking contributions to cinema but also for his youthful appearance in a recent Vogue shoot. At 82 years old, Lucas has become an unexpected sex symbol, with fans expressing admiration for his style and ageless looks.
The shoot, which promotes his upcoming $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, features Lucas posing with his wife Mellody Hobson, 57, in the stunning museum that is set to open this September. The five-story, 300,000-square-foot building will house an extensive collection of paintings, illustrations, and movie memorabilia, with a focus on the art of storytelling from the time of cave paintings to digital film.
Fans have taken to social media to express their surprise and admiration for Lucas’ appearance, with one comment stating, “I wasn’t expecting Lucas to have an ‘Abercrombie model’ phase in his twilight years—wait, what?” Others praised his hair, saying, “He has aged like a fine wine,” and “unreal hairline at like 100 years old, wtf is wrong with him.”
Lucas funded the project himself after selling his production company and the rights to Star Wars to Disney for $4 billion in 2012. He emphasized that the museum would focus on the art of storytelling from the time of cave paintings to digital film, detailing the “mythology of society.” Despite the futuristic design of the building, which resembles a spaceship fitting into the Star Wars universe, Lucas clarified that it’s not a Star Wars museum.
“Everybody calls it a Star Wars museum. But it’s not a Star Wars museum… because people aren’t gonna come to a Star Wars museum. They can go to Madame Tussauds for that,” he told CBS.
The exhibits will showcase items from his films, including set designs, character and costume sketches, storyboards, and stage sets. However, most of Lucas’ collection consists of paintings by renowned artists such as Renoir, N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Maxfield Parrish, and Norman Rockwell.
“I think more people will come in for Rockwell than will come in for Star Wars. Norman Rockwell can tell a whole story in one picture,” he said. Lucas was captivated by the 20th Century New York painter from age eight, when he knew he wanted to be an illustrator and storyteller.
The museum will be located in Exposition Park, near the University of Southern California, where Lucas earned a degree in film in the 1960s. At the time of the monumental Lucasfilm sale—including his company’s Industrial Light & Magic and the rights to Indiana Jones—Lucas compared parting with Star Wars to losing a family member.
“These are my kids, I loved them. I created them,” he told CBS at the time.
However, after selling the Star Wars rights to Disney, Lucas didn’t hold back in expressing his dissatisfaction with The Force Awakens, the first film in the franchise following the sale. In a 2015 interview with Empire Magazine, Lucas admitted he wasn’t happy with the film, stating that Disney “wanted to make a retro movie” and didn’t follow his planned direction for the series.
He also mentioned that he felt the film was too similar to the original trilogy, saying, “They wanted to make a movie for the fans… They decided they didn’t want to use the stories I created.”
He did somewhat backtrack on his initial criticism of The Force Awakens after the film’s release. In later interviews, he acknowledged that while he had concerns about the direction of the film, he ultimately appreciated the work done by J.J. Abrams and the team at Disney. He even praised the movie’s success, though he still expressed that it wasn’t quite what he would have done.
