George Lucas Officially Confirms 3 More Unfinished Star Wars Projects

Fans have long wondered what George Lucas might have made had he never quit directing. While speaking with CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the opening of his new museum, Lucas revealed that he walked away from three more Star Wars movies. He shared:

Well, I’m 82, so there is a limit to—when I did this, I decided to retire from making movies, which was a big deal because I had three more ‘Star Wars’ to make.

Lucas explained that time was the biggest factor behind his choice. He wanted to put his energy into his passion project, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. He shared, “But I realized that I was running out of time, and I did want to make this museum, and I’d spent a lot of time developing digital technology for the movie business.”

Lucas would’ve had to give away another decade of his life to a Star Wars trilogy if he hadn’t decided to step away. As a result, his museum dream has now been realized.

George Lucas’ Unfinished Movies Could’ve Been Star Wars Episodes VII-IX

George Lucas had begun a sequel trilogy before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012. In an interview for writer Paul Duncan’s book, he said, “At that time I was starting the next trilogy; I talked to the actors and I was starting to gear up.”

Why did George Lucas sell Lucasfilm in 2012? He tells me why in this extract from my new book The #StarWars Archives Eps I-III. My unboxing video here: https://t.co/M907YGZsjm pic.twitter.com/MEPRStOil8

— Paul Duncan Lives! (@Kershed) December 3, 2020

But Lucas and his wife were about to welcome a daughter, and the prequels alone had taken him ten years. At 69, he joked he would “still be working on ‘Episode IX!'” So he chose family instead. Lucas admitted, “I’ve spent my life creating ‘Star Wars’ – 40 years – and giving it up was very, very painful. But it was the right thing to do.”

He also expected more creative say in the sequels, but Disney went another way. He shared, “Things don’t always work the way you want it. Life is like that.” When Disney bought Lucasfilm, they had shared that the deal included “a pretty extensive and detailed treatment for what would be the next three movies.”

However, Lucas later told CinemaBlend, “The ones that I sold to Disney, they came up to the decision that they didn’t really want to do those. So they made up their own. So it’s not the ones that I originally wrote.” So Lucas’ version of Episodes VII-IX exists only on paper, leaving fans forever wondering what might have been.

George Lucas’ New Project Had a Star-Studded Opening

After years in the making, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened with a glamorous Los Angeles gala on September 19, 2026 (via THR). George Lucas’ old friends Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Steven Spielberg were all there, joined by fellow filmmakers Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola, and Peter Jackson.

The guest list went well beyond Hollywood directors. Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, and Kim Kardashian walked the red carpet too. Pharrell Williams and Lewis Hamilton served as co-chairs, and the night ended with a drone show and a surprise Black Eyed Peas performance.

Designed by architect Ma Yansong, the spaceship-like building in Exposition Park holds about 1,200 works across 35 galleries, from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo to Jack Kirby, Peanuts strips, and Star Wars concept art.

Lucas told CBS Sunday Morning, “The advantage of architecture is it lasts. A movie comes out, six weeks, it’s gone.” Still, he rejected calling it his legacy, sharing, “I don’t think about legacy. I’m not a big one for awards.” His wife and co-founder, Mellody Hobson, once suggested donating the art elsewhere, but Lucas refused. She recalled, “And it was like the most intense version of him I had ever seen.” From then on, the museum was non-negotiable.

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