George Lucas probably isn’t dead, but Dave Filoni says his spirit is guiding ‘Star Wars’

Is George Lucas okay? The 78-year-old director, producer, and Star Wars creator handed over the reins to his creation to Disney in 2012 and has kept a relatively low profile ever since. Opinions vary as to how well Disney has curated Star Wars, but streaming shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now Obi-Wan Kenobi have all been hits with fans.

Much of that is down to Lucasfilm’s Executive Creative Director Dave Filoni, whose encyclopedic knowledge of a galaxy far, far away has resulted in smart and popular new extensions to Lucas’ original story. But when he spoke at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim he appeared to refer to Lucas in the past tense:

“It’s not just one person, because we know the only person who really was was George, and he created this, and we get to play in it. That is like, I think, the spirit of everything we should be doing. He’s hopefully looking over all this and still guiding it because he left us such a great galaxy to play in and that’s how I feel about it.”

While we’re (fairly) sure that Lucas is still alive, Filoni really does seem to be talking about him like he’s dead. Either way, comments about Lucas still being the “spirit” of everything they do ring true.

One of the most touching aspects about Obi-Wan Kenobi is how closely entangled it is with Lucas’ somewhat unfairly maligned prequel trilogy. The first episode opens with a beautifully edited summary of the three movies, continues with a flashback to Revenge of the Sith‘s Order 66 sequence, and Obi-Wan’s character is clearly a continuation of where Lucas left him 17 years ago.

Here’s hoping Lucas’ fingerprints remain on Star Wars, though as long as Filoni is steering the ship the future is bright.

Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s third episode will air on Wednesday 1 June.