Star Wars is hotter than ever right now, yet you rarely hear about George Lucas these days. Since signing away his rights a few years back, the director has kept a low profile of late, minus the occasional news headline every now and again, but he’s set to make a comeback very shortly — if not quite as himself. That’s because Matt Angel will play a young, soon-to-be notorious version of the film legend in a new episode of The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow.
The time-traveling series, which finds a motley crew journeying through time to fight forces of evil, will soon introduce the iconic filmmaker, one who’s responsible for the most famous sci-fi franchise of all-time. He’ll first appear in the ninth episode of season 2, titled “Raiders of the Lost Art.”
The outing will also see the return of Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), in a time aberration that finds Lucas quitting film school and therefore, never making any of his classic movies. The change, according to executive producer Marc Guggenhaim in an interview with EW, will have devastating effects on two key members of the team:
Because of circumstances, the time aberration in episode 209 is George Lucas quits film school. As a result, he never makes Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark. As a result, Ray, who became an engineer because of Star Wars, and Nate, who became a historian because of Raiders, slowly start to lose their brilliance, because those things that inspired them to become who they are didn’t exist.
We were watching a cut of it, and I said to Greg [Berlanti] that 209 is either going to be the episode where we’ll say that the show found a new gear in terms of how zany it can be, or it’s the episode that’s going to get us all fired. It really is. You’re laughing out loud, I think with it, but it’s like, ‘Are we really doing this?’ It’s the ’70s bar fight on steroids. The whole episode is that level of crazy.
With Star Wars at nearly fever pitch intensity, this upcoming instalment of the show should definitely resonate — especially for those, like Nate and Ray, who find their wellbeing deeply inspired by the iconic film series.
The ninth episode of season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow is scheduled to air on January 24 on The CW.
