The legendary filmmaker’s first visit to San Diego Comic-Con focused on art conservation—but, yes, there was also some ‘Star Wars.’
To close out San Diego Comic-Con with a bang, George Lucas made his first appearance at the long-running pop culture fest alongside filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and award-winning Lucasfilm designer Doug Chiang. But the panel topic wasn’t a new Star Wars project; it was the importance of keeping art accessible to the public, especially during unprecedented times, at the Lucas Museum opening next year in Los Angeles.
Fanboys, fret not, though—during a quick sizzle reel of featured works, eagle-eyed attendees were able to catch glimpses of renderings depicting a life-size Naboo Starfighter as part of the curated works. Additionally, there was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it look at General Grievous on his wheel bike as well as concept art for Indiana Jones.
The Lucas Museum confirmed to io9 that these works are included in the museum’s collections, with more announcements to come about its inaugural installations. io9 previously reported that the collection would also include Luke’s full-size landspeeder from A New Hope, the original plans and model for the Millennium Falcon, a Darth Vader costume, and a full-sized Yoda model.
Mostly, though, the panel centered a conversation about storytelling and the importance of accessibility. “This museum is dedicated to the idea that stories, mythology—any kind of story that is written to affect people and to build community—is extremely important to society and creating societies and creating community,” Lucas explained. “Art illustrates that story, and that’s the right hand of building a community: you need the art to make it seem real. Even back in the Renaissance or the Stone Age, you’ll always have a story that people believe is mythology: it’s not really true. But people believe it and it binds them together with a common belief system. That common belief system is what is really important. And what we’re doing here with the museum is to try to make people aware of the mythology that we live by.
