George Lucas presented his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art at Comic-Con 2025
George Lucas and Guillermo del Toro attend Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art at Comic-Con International 2025: San Diego on July 27, 2025 in San Diego, California
It was perhaps the first big post-Covid Sunday panel at Comic-Con: Star Wars creator George Lucas, 3-time Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro and Oscar-winning Death Becomes production designer Doug Chiang gathered to talk about the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) in a very crowded room H.
This was Lucas' first time performing on stage at San Diego Comic-Con.
The panel was moderated by Oscar nominee Queen Latifah.
“This is a temple to folk art,” Lucas said of the Mobius strip-shaped building designed by Ma Yansong, which will open next year in 2026 near the University of Southern California campus in downtown Los Angeles.
“I refused to sell them,” says Lucas, who has collected vast amounts of comic books and thrifted art since his youth.
One of the motivations for opening the museum was the director's need for a place where he could display his 40,000 works of art. But more than that, it's about creating an epicenter that respects the pop art that tells the myths that formed the basis of our culture.
"(Art) is more about the connection and emotional connection to the work, rather than how much it costs or what celebrity did it. I don't think that's something anyone will tell you. If you have an emotional connection, it's art.If not, just move on to the next picture,” Lucas added.
Del Toro, who sits on the new museum's board of directors, says that after surviving the Los Angeles fires earlier this year, he sees the new museum as a place to house his personal art collection.
Chiang says the museum is "giving respect to an art form that was previously not held in high esteem." The designer credits comics for helping him launch his creative career. However, during his youth, comics were not respected. He credited Lucas for telling him that when creating any art there must be a story behind it. Chiang worked in the art department on Star Wars: Episodes I-III before becoming a production designer on current Disney Lucasfilm projects such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and The Skeleton Crew.
Chiang shared, “I hope this museum inspires the next Norman Rockwell or Frank Frazetta.”
A video narrated by Episode I-III star Samuel L. Jackson was shown in the room, featuring some of the standout artwork expected by museum visitors: General Grievous' motorcycle, the landspeeder from the original Star Wars, and Anakin Skywalker's spaceship from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Much of the Star Wars art, particularly the work of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, will be housed in the Film Gallery, one of the museum's 30 to 40 galleries.
Other works include paintings by Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, and comics by R. Crumb and Jack Kirby.In the museum you can see the very first drawing of the character Flash Gordon from 1934, original Peanuts comics from the 1950s and 1960s, the original drawing of the first cover of Iron Man from 1968, and the first pen and ink sketch of Black Panther from 1968.
Lucas, speaking about his admiration for Rockwell's "Freedom from Want", said: “Family is important, it holds society together, even when it’s hard.” As Lucas noted in the promotional video, family is the main reason he builds the museum.
"We understand that stories shape the world," del Toro says, "one of the branches of storytelling that is brutally abused is propaganda. Art celebrates the work of incredible people, but it also celebrates what belongs to us: Myth, which belongs to us. Propaganda belongs to a very small group. Myth unites us, and propaganda divides us."
The panelists also discussed how the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art building has no right angles, only curves.
This is explained by the fact that the life of art is endless, it outlasts humanity and passes on to the next generation, which will be able to appreciate it.