George Lucas' $1 Billion Museum Opens Tomorrow—and Star Wars Is Only the Beginning

After 17 years of delays and a $1 billion investment, George Lucas' museum finally opens to the public in Los Angeles tomorrow, and one of its biggest surprises is how little of it is devoted to Star Wars.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open on Tuesday, 22 September, unveiling a 300,000-square-foot landmark designed to celebrate the way humans have told stories through images for thousands of years.

Founded by Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, the museum contains more than 100,000 square feet of gallery space spread across 35 galleries. Its inaugural exhibitions feature more than 1,300 works spanning painting, illustration, comics, manga, photography, murals and cinema.

Star Wars Is Only the Beginning

There is, inevitably, plenty to excite Star Wars fans. The Star Wars in Motion exhibition features concept designs, props and costumes from the first six films, including Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder from A New Hope and General Grievous' Wheel Bike from Revenge of the Sith.

Outside the galleries, visitors will also encounter cinematic sculptures depicting characters including Yoda, Grogu, Padmé Amidala and Princess Leia, while a Naboo starfighter hangs inside the museum's library. But these familiar faces represent only a fraction of Lucas' enormous vision.

From Banksy to Frida Kahlo

The museum is designed to cut across traditional boundaries between 'high' and popular art, placing celebrated fine artists alongside illustrators, comic-book creators and filmmakers.

Visitors can see works by Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, Diego Rivera and Artemisia Gentileschi, while dedicated spaces explore comics, manga, children's illustration and monumental murals. A fifth-floor gallery also includes works and acquisitions from British street artist Banksy.

The collection is built around the idea that an emotional connection to a story or image can make it meaningful regardless of its traditional artistic status.

That approach is central to what Lucas has described as a celebration of 'the people's art', rather than a conventional institution built around a narrow definition of fine art.

A 17-Year Journey To Opening Day

Getting the museum to this point has been almost as protracted as some of the stories inside it.

Lucas first pursued museum plans in San Francisco and Chicago before the project ultimately found a home in Los Angeles. He has described the 17-year process as a journey that 'almost broke' his will, making Tuesday's opening the culmination of nearly two decades of work.

The futuristic building itself is part of the spectacle. Designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec, its flowing exterior uses more than 1,200 uniquely shaped curved panels and rises above a 13-acre public landscape.

Lucas' Broader Vision for Narrative Art

The museum represents something larger than a monument to the filmmaker's most famous creation. Its galleries stretch from prehistoric storytelling and mythology to modern comics, murals and cinema, reflecting Lucas and Hobson's belief that visual storytelling is a universal human tradition.

Star Wars may be the easiest way to get some visitors through the door, but Lucas is attempting something more extensive inside it: to establish a permanent home where the stories people connect with, whether painted, printed, photographed or filmed, can be treated as art. After 17 years of planning, that project finally begins tomorrow.