George Lucas is one of the most legendary figures in the history of science fiction, which comes with the territory when you’re the creator of Star Wars, a property that has endured for almost 45 years as a hugely popular and beloved brand, and continues to find a new audience with each passing generation.
But what does the man himself make of interstellar travel? Well, according to Seth Rogen, he’s very picky about who he’d allow on board his apocalyptic spaceship should humanity ever be forced to flee Earth and find another home among the stars. In a new interview, Rogen revealed the bizarre interaction he and creative collaborator Evan Goldberg had with Lucas when they were shooting the breeze waiting for a meeting with Steven Spielberg to start.
“Me and Evan were called into a meeting with Steven Spielberg. We got to the meeting and we were waiting in his office for him, it’s like a doctor’s office. They take you in first and you wait for them to come in. And he came in with George Lucas! It was mind-blowing. They’re there together. It truly, for a nerdy kid, one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in my entire life. At which point, Spielberg, if I recall, is kind of making phone calls and doing some stuff. He’s like, ‘I need a few minutes’, as George Lucas sits down and talks to me and Evan.
Very quickly, the conversation turns to, ‘How’s it going?’. ‘Not great. We’re nearing the end of 2012 and the world is gonna end’. Essentially. To which me and Even are like, ‘Is he joking?’. A question that still haunts me to this day, I think I know the answer, is, was he joking? I really don’t think, it did not appear he was joking.
We made a joke like, if you’ve got a spaceship to escape Earth, can we get a seat on that thing?. And he was like, ‘No’. Again, it makes me think he wasn’t joking because, if you were joking, you would just say ‘Yes’ to at least placate us to grant our wish to go on the spaceship. But, no, he said, ‘No’. To this day, I am confounded and plagued by that story. I don’t know if he had a spaceship.”
As much as it would be firmly within the typical ‘eccentric billionaire’ wheelhouse to be convinced that you’d need a spaceship in the worst case scenario, Lucafilm representatives actually debunked the boss’ belief in Mayan prophecies almost a decade ago, and in pretty hilarious fashion no less.
After the Pineapple Express star first made the details of his exchange with Lucas public, the studio genuinely released a statement that said he wasn’t serious about the world ending in 2012, but he was an adamant believer that the world is flat, that Stonehenge was built by aliens, and that the sun revolves around the Earth, before going on to say that “these are among the many subjects he commonly discusses at length with Elvis, who he’s going to digitally insert into Indy 5 along with a roster of famous dead actors.” So at least the company was more than happy to lean into the absurdity of Seth Rogen‘s claims.