George Lucas’ long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens to the public this week, and Deadline reports that the museum’s star-studded opening celebration brought together a jaw-dropping collection of Hollywood filmmakers. Among the most notable names in attendance were Steven Spielberg and John Landis, who appeared together in a group photo featuring some of the biggest directors in movie history.
The gathering is particularly notable because Spielberg and Landis have had a complicated history since Twilight Zone: The Movie. The two filmmakers were friends and worked together as producers on the 1983 anthology film, which featured segments directed by Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. On July 23, 1982, during production of Landis’ segment, actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in a helicopter accident. Spielberg subsequently ended his friendship with Landis. A 1988 Los Angeles Times report noted that Spielberg had stopped speaking to his former friend following the tragedy. More than four decades later, Spielberg and Landis were among the filmmakers gathered for the opening celebration of Lucas’ museum in Los Angeles.
The impressive group photograph also features Robert De Niro, Tyler Perry, Matthew Robbins, Caleb Deschanel, Nathan Fielder, D.B. Weiss, Ron Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard, Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, Christopher Nolan, Francis Ford Coppola, David Benioff, Lee Daniels, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, Frank Marshall, Denis Villeneuve, Jon M. Chu, and George Lucas himself.
The event was the culmination of years of work by Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, located in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, houses more than 40,000 works and was created to celebrate visual storytelling across illustration, comics, photography, painting, and cinema. The museum’s permanent collection includes everything from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo to comic art and cinematic artifacts.
Hobson told Deadline, “George kept saying, would this person come, do you think this person would come. I said, they would all come, George.” And they certainly did. The opening-night celebration featured a massive Hollywood guest list, including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage, Jack Black, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, Denis Villeneuve, Spike Lee, Jon Favreau, Christopher Nolan, Queen Latifah, Tyler Perry, and many more.
Lucas’ Star Wars legacy was well represented, with Ford and Hamill among the guests and a substantial area of the museum dedicated to the franchise. The museum’s inaugural cinema exhibition, Star Wars in Motion, features vehicles, props, costumes and illustrations from the first six Star Wars films.
Hobson added, “If critics say that a museum of narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, oh, we like popcorn movies in our family.”
Lucas himself said, “I believe it wholeheartedly that you get to decide what art is.”
The museum’s opening also featured a drone show incorporating images inspired by works in the collection, including R2-D2, Captain America, Banksy, and Frida Kahlo. Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson introduced and narrated the presentation, and the evening concluded with a performance by the Black Eyed Peas.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public on September 22, 2026.
Will you be going to the museum? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re scrolling down, check out this photo, featuring George Lucas and a whole lot of filmmakers – including Steven Spielberg and John Landis: