George Lucas Says He Was Going to Make 3 More ‘Star Wars’ Movies But “Decided to Retire” From Directing

George Lucas , the mind behind the legendary Star Wars franchise, revealed that he intended to helm three more movies, but decided to retire from directing instead after 2005’s Episode III: Revenge of the Sith .

During a recent interview with Norah O’Donnell on CBS Sunday Morning , Lucas, alongside his wife and business partner, Mellody Hobson, opened up about bringing the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to life in Los Angeles.

After Hobson noted that the “level of detail” Lucas put into the museum “nearly killed him,” the director added, “Well, I’m 82, so there is a limit to…” Related Stories Lifestyle Inside the Star-Studded Opening Night of the Lucas Museum: "A New Institution Is Being Born" Lifestyle Why George Lucas' Museum Building Mogs LACMA's New David Geffen Exhibition Hall

“When I did this,” Lucas continued, referring to the museum’s creation, “I decided to retire from making movies, which was a big deal because I had three more Star Wars to make. 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. You know, all art depends on technology.”

Lucas directed four Star Wars films across his career, beginning with the franchise’s first installment, 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . While he handed off the directing duties to Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand, respectively, for the next two films in the original trilogy (1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi ), he still wrote and executive produced them before returning to the director’s chair for the prequel trilogy (1999’s The Phantom Menace , 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith ).

In 2012, Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise to Disney for $4 billion. In addition to the sequel trilogy (2015’s The Force Awakens , 2017’s The Last Jedi and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker ), Disney has continued to expand the universe with shows like The Mandalorian , Andor and The Acolyte , and the 2026 film The Mandalorian and Grogu . The next movie in the franchise, Star Wars: Starfighter , starring Ryan Gosling, hits theaters next year.

During the museum’s star-studded opening night on Saturday, Hobson spoke on the stage, emphasizing that Lucas “was driven to create a space that would showcase the brilliant illustrators that he thought were too often overlooked and ignored. And if critics say a museum on narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, well, we like popcorn movies in our family,” as she dubbed the space “a director’s cut.”