I’m a huge Star Wars fan, I went to the George Lucas museum and  the $210 R2D2 cookie jar wasn’t the most surprising thing I saw

The greater Los Angeles area boasts more museums than any metropolis in the world — over 800, with 100 in LA proper alone — but none of them offer a $210 R2D2 cookie jar, until now.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened last week, adding a sprawling $1 billion campus to Exposition Park, already home to USC’s famed Coliseum, BMO Stadium, the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum and the California African American Museum.

After more than a decade in development — including failed potential sites such as Chicago and San Francisco — the museum finally opened to the public last Tuesday.

George Lucas himself and his wife, Melody Hobson, personally welcomed the first 100 guests through the doors.

While tickets were virtually impossible to score during the first few days, I was lucky enough to secure a $25 ticket for Monday morning, and I was thoroughly blown away throughout the day.

As a 49-year-old male who has been a Star Wars fan for practically my entire life, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was everything I had hoped it would be — and much, much more.

The Exterior

All the drone footage you may have seen of this remarkable facility simply doesn’t do it justice. You have to see it in person.

Standing inside, I was reminded of a line from the film that quite literally made this museum possible: Lucas’ 1977 blockbuster Star Wars, later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.

In one scene, young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) approach what Luke calls “that small moon” aboard the Millennium Falcon.

“That’s no moon. That’s a space station,” Kenobi replies, which Solo scoffs at, adding, “It’s too big to be a space station.”

That small moon was actually the space station known as the Death Star, and Solo’s line is just as apt for the Death Star as it is for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

It’s easily the biggest museum I’ve ever visited. I tried photographing the exterior from the ground with my phone, but no angle could capture the sheer scale of the place.

The 300,000-square-foot museum, designed by Ma Yansong in a distinctive figure-eight shape, sits on a 13-acre site between Vermont Avenue and Bill Robertson Lane. The campus also features lush gardens dotted with striking bronze sculptures.

The Park and Gardens, designed by Studio-MLA’s Mia Lehrer, transformed what was once a vacant parking lot into an impressive public space with an amphitheater, hanging garden and more than 300 new trees.

This free public space features 10 statues, including two depicting iconic Star Wars heroines: Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Queen Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman).

Mark Newman and Giovanni Nakpil’s Princess Leia Frees Herself from Jabba the Hutt (2025) depicts a powerful scene from 1982’s Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, where the gold-bikini clad Leia used her shackled chains against her captor, Jabba the Hutt, choking him to death (spoiler alert…)

Newman’s Padmé Fights Off Nexu (2026) depicts Padmé using a pillar and chain to fend off the vicious creature in the Petranaki Arena in Attack of the Clones.

Near the southern entrance, The Introduction (2025) by Lawrence Noble features another beloved duo: Yoda and Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda.

All three are stunning tributes to iconic Star Wars characters and scenes, and like the museum itself, they’re even more impressive in person.

The Star Wars Exhibit

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is not solely a Star Wars museum, but many of its biggest highlights can be found in the cinema exhibit, which features an incredible collection of treasures from the franchise.

The item that struck me most was the full-scale podracer young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) used in 1999’s The Phantom Menace.

Lucas’ first directorial effort since the original 1977 Star Wars, the prequel chronicles Anakin’s early life on Tatooine and reveals him as the only human capable of competing in the dangerous podraces ubiquitous throughout the galaxy.

Crafted by Doug Chiang with a scale model of Anakin in the cockpit, the physical prop was built alongside several miniature podracers used to create the film’s digitally rendered race. Seeing the massive vehicle in person, surrounded by those tiny models, was particularly impressive.

There are also full-scale versions of the airspeeder Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) use to track down bounty hunter Zam Wesell (Leeanna Walsman) in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, along with Zam’s own airspeeder.

For Gen Xers who grew up on the original trilogy, the display featuring the speeder bikes used by Princess Leia and an unnamed Imperial Scout Trooper will certainly hold a special place in the heart.

The exhibit also features Luke’s original landspeeder from the first film, General Grievous’ wheel bike from Revenge of the Sith, Darth Maul’s speeder and original costumes worn by a wide range of characters, from Luke Skywalker to Darth Maul (Ray Park).

There’s also a treasure trove of concept art by Ralph McQuarrie, including early designs for C-3PO and R2-D2.

And at the edge of the exhibit sits a bronze statue of another beloved Lucas creation: Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones.

The ‘real’ art

If you were heading to the Lucas Museum expecting 300,000 square feet of wall-to-wall Star Wars and Indiana Jones exhibits, you’ll be quite disappointed. But admirers of traditional artwork will be thrilled by the sheer diversity of its collection.

Lucas has long been one of the world’s most prominent collectors of Norman Rockwell’s work, and the museum features a substantial collection of his paintings and illustrations.

The Rockwell gallery not only features a number of his Saturday Evening Post art pieces, but other pivotal pieces such as the 1964 painting The Problem We All Live With, depicting Ruby Bridges being escorted to an all-white school in New Orleans.

One of the most memorable pieces in the gallery is Rockwell’s 1958 The Runaway, displayed in both its graphite-on-paper study and final oil-on-canvas version.

The painting depicts a 1950s soda counter, where a police officer appears to be treating a young boy to a meal. On the floor beside him sits the boy’s small bindle, suggesting he has run away from home.

But the work becomes even more striking when viewed alongside Richard Williams’ 2014-15 painting The Militarization of the Police Department — Deadly Farce. Williams recreates the same basic setting, but instead shows a police officer in full riot gear looming over a young Black boy who recoils from him.

The museum also houses Frida Kahlo’s famous self-portrait, comic artwork by Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, John Romita Jr. and Robert Crumb, as well as a treasure trove of pieces from the Lucas Archives.

The theaters

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art features two theaters with a rotating lineup of films screened throughout the day.

The Robert Flaherty Theater screens documentaries, while the Slava Vorkapich Theater features short films, including the long-awaited public debut of Star Wars Detours, a 2012 animated series created by George Lucas with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.

Although 39 episodes were produced, the series was shelved after Disney’s 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm. In July 2026, Green announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the Lucas Museum would finally screen a selection of the episodes.

When I arrived at 10 a.m., I checked the theater’s film guide and was surprised to see the second episode of Star Wars Detours listed as the first screening of the day.

I settled in with a sizable crowd and watched the episode, set between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, offering a comedic glimpse into this franchise in a galaxy far, far away.

The episode was hilarious, weaving together several storylines, including a Gamorrean Guard hoping to become a bounty hunter to impress a woman, diner owner Dex getting a dubious business proposition from musician-turned-restaurateur Max Rebo, and a glimpse at a bratty young Princess Leia and her many decoys.