Do we like George Lucas?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No campaigning against anyone, billions pledged to education, and a thin but clear record of one dumb analogy and some fair arguments about AI.
George Lucas grew up in Modesto, California, the son of an office-supply business family, and wanted to be a race car driver. Film school at USC changed that, and Francis Ford Coppola helped get his first feature, THX 1138, released in 1971. It flopped, then American Graffiti (1973) became a smash and set him up for Star Wars in 1977.
Star Wars turned him into a billionaire and a franchise machine: Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, the Indiana Jones films with Steven Spielberg, then the divisive prequels from 1999. In 2012 he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, and he has since stepped back to smaller, more personal projects. He is not an ex-boss who keeps lecturing fans online either.
The nearest thing to a gaffe on the record is a late-2015 Charlie Rose chat. He called the new Star Wars too retro, and used a deeply inappropriate slavery comparison for Disney buying the company. He put out a statement saying he “misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy, and for that I apologise.” It was a one-off, not a pattern, and there's nothing in what we found of him going after any group since.
On the harm check, nothing turned up of him campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, women, migrants or the climate; we found no words from him on any of those. At Cannes in 2024 he answered critics of the first six films, saying most characters are aliens and pointing to Princess Leia and Queen Amidala as heroic leaders. He also said “You can't just put a woman in pants and expect her to be a hero.” That's a creative argument rather than an attack, though not everyone will love it.
The recent news is mostly his museum and his take on AI. Told it makes films easier to make, he compared resisting it to sticking with horse and buggy and said “That's progress, it's the future.” Plenty of filmmakers and fans disagree, and that's a fair argument rather than a harm one. The museum, in Exposition Park next to USC, was shown to the press on 2 September, with artists from Banksy to Frida Kahlo and a Naboo starfighter at the door.
The good stuff is real. He signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, and in 2012 said he was dedicating the majority of his wealth from the Disney sale to improving education. He chairs the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which runs Edutopia, and it gave $175 million to USC in 2006.