George Lucas is still Star Wars’ landlord at Skywalker Ranch

Disney bought Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas for $4.05 billion in 2012, but the creator didn’t sell everything. According to Clone Wars actor Matthew Wood, Lucas still owns the physical Skywalker Ranch — and Disney pays him rent to work there.

The One Thing Lucas Kept: Skywalker Ranch

Speaking at Spacecon 2026, Wood — the Skywalker Sound editor who voices General Grievous — explained that Lucas built the “beautiful location in Northern California” after the success of the original Star Wars films and American Graffiti.

“It’s about 40 minutes north of San Francisco… out in nature right before you get to wine country,” Wood said. “He made this wonderful place to work, wonderful place to create art, and he’s donated 90 percent of the land that he purchased to an open space moratorium. It’s open space and can never be developed on.”

Disney Pays Lucas to Use His Own Creation Hub

Though Disney owns Star Wars IP, the physical post-production facilities remain Lucas’s property. “Since the intellectual property of Star Wars is owned by Disney, I work for Disney now – but we work at Skywalker Ranch, and we pay George Lucas. He’s our landlord, because all the rents and the physical properties are his,” Wood revealed.

“And he loves having us there. He’s a filmmaker at heart, so having us working at his location I think feels good to him.”

Why Lucas Sold Star Wars But Kept the Ranch

Lucas sold Lucasfilm in 2012 to retire and build his museum, saying he anticipated streaming upending Hollywood and “decided he lacked the skillset for the new era”. He told the Wall St. Journal: “Disney took it over and they gave it their vision. That’s what happens. Of course I’ve moved past it. I mean, I’ve got a life. I’m building a museum.”

He drew up sequel trilogy plans as part of the deal, but Disney went a different direction. Still, Lucas remained creatively tied to The Clone Wars — the last Star Wars project with his direct fingerprints. He created the Bad Batch and was “super involved” in early seasons, per Lucasfilm animation supervisor Keith Kellogg.

Lucas’s Ongoing Clone Wars Legacy

Even after the sale, Dave Filoni consulted Lucas during The Clone Wars Season 7. “We still talk and if I’m stuck I will bug George for ideas, because he is the canon,” Filoni told IndieWire in 2020. Sam Witwer, voice of Darth Maul, said Lucas was calling Filoni with “nice little comments on the episodes” as the final season aired.

Dee Bradley Baker called The Bad Batch Season 3 “the final element of The Clone Wars that George Lucas had his fingerprints on,” since Lucas originated Clone Force 99.