Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson Narrate a Dazzling Drone Show at the Lucas Museum Opening

Few passion projects in Hollywood have taken as long to reach the finish line as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, first floated the idea more than 16 years ago, and earlier plans to build it in San Francisco and Chicago both fell through. The road to the finish line was anything but smooth.

CNN reported that the project has cost Lucas roughly $1 billion of his own money, while critics have questioned whether the museum is a vanity project and pointed to steep membership fees. CNN also noted management turbulence ahead of the debut, including the exit of the former director and CEO and a round of layoffs.

All of that seemed to fade into the background on Saturday night, when the museum finally threw open its doors for a celebration. Lucas and Hobson hosted the opening night gala at Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, ahead of the public opening on Sept. 22. The 300,000-square-foot building was designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec.

The moment that had everyone talking, and the one Deadline captured on X, came after dark. Winfrey and Jackson introduced and narrated a drone show over the rooftop, transforming the Los Angeles night sky with imagery drawn from the museum’s collection. It was the kind of spectacle that fits a museum devoted to storytelling.

Guests first toured the galleries, then headed to the fifth floor for drinks, food and entertainment, before moving out onto the roof at 9 p.m., where Winfrey and Jackson addressed the crowd. Jackson teased a special visitor who had crossed time and space to be there, and Winfrey followed by describing what the traveler carries: the stories humans have told and left behind.

The visuals leaned into the breadth of the collection. The drone show was produced by Nova Sky Stories and moved across centuries and mediums, from the Cave of Altamira and N.C. Wyeth’s The Storybook to Julie Bell’s The Huntress, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon and Maxfield Parrish’s Ecstasy. Naturally, the Millennium Falcon made an appearance too.

That mix says a lot about what the museum is trying to be. Earlier in the evening, guests saw work by Norman Rockwell, Banksy, Frida Kahlo, Gordon Parks and Judy Baca, among many others. The collection totals 40,000 pieces, including illustration, murals, comic art, children’s book illustration and science-fiction art.

‘Star Wars’ fans had plenty to cheer about as well. Mark Hamill, Jackson and Hayden Christensen were all on hand for the event. Jackson’s tie to the museum predates the opening, as he narrated a sizzle reel shown at a 2025 panel that previewed items like the original landspeeder and Anakin Skywalker’s ship from ‘The Phantom Menace’.

The guest list read like a Hollywood yearbook. Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Guillermo del Toro, Tyler Perry and George R.R. Martin all showed up. Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Nicolas Cage, Queen Latifah, Eva Longoria and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also walked the red carpet.

The music kept pace with the star power. The night featured a 27-piece orchestra, a performance by Voices of Fire and Jon Batiste, and a closing set from the Black Eyed Peas. Tom Cruise, Spielberg, Pharrell Williams and Jensen Huang were among the nine co-chairs who anchored the evening.

For everyone who wasn’t on the guest list, the wait is nearly over. The public gets its first look on Tuesday, and adult tickets cost $25. If the opening night drone show was any indication, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art intends to make an entrance that matches its ambitions.