George Lucas Says Opening Lucas Museum ‘Almost Broke My Will’: ‘It’s Taken So Long to Get Here’

George Lucas previewed the long-in-the-works Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and Lucas said of the Herculean effort, “I’m fascinated by doing things that people say can’t be done.”

“I’m used to doing the impossible,” said the “Star Wars” creator, who, along with his wife Mellody Hobson, has been working on the museum concept for 17 years. “Part of the problem is I’m a contrarian. I’m fascinated by doing things that people say can’t be done. This one almost broke my will.”

In addition to a gallery packed with life-sized props from Star Wars movies, the 300,000 square foot spaceship-like museum next to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum features more than 30 galleries packed with Lucas’ collection of narrative art — from an extensive collection of Norman Rockwell paintings to works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Maxfield Parrish and Frank Frazetta, to rooms of photography, comic book art and Western paintings and sculptures.

Why narrative art? For Lucas, art and culture are inextricably combined.

“It’s something that I felt very, very strongly about in terms of honoring illustrators, artists who illustrate stories that are already written, and most of the stories are myths; they’re not real, but the illustrations make them real,” Lucas said. “A picture is very powerful, and the stories are very powerful, and you combine them together, and those two elements create a society.”

Lucas also recognized the museum staff and creators, saying “the great people that we’ve assembled to do this have been a big advantage.” The museum is designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stansec, with landscape architecture by Mia Lehrer.

Check out some of the movie-themed pieces at the museum, which opens to the public Sept. 22.

Founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson preview the museum for the media.