‘The Beast’ Star Samuel L. Jackson Had the Perfect Reaction to Meeting His Own Jedi Self
George Lucas has spent nearly two decades trying to get his personal museum off the ground, moving the project between three different cities before finally breaking ground in Los Angeles. That long, occasionally rocky journey finally reached its payoff this past weekend, when the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art threw open its doors for an opening night gala unlike anything Hollywood had seen in years.
The star-studded crowd wandering through the galleries included everyone from Mark Hamill to Oprah Winfrey, all getting an early look at a collection George Lucas spent decades assembling. Amid all that glamour, though, it was a much smaller, more personal moment that ended up stealing the spotlight online.
Samuel L. Jackson did a double take at the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, according to Deadline, after coming face to face with a lifelike figure of Mace Windu, the Jedi Master he played across the ‘Star Wars’ prequel trilogy. The 10-second clip, filmed by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva, shows Jackson visibly startled before breaking into a grin at the uncanny likeness standing beside him.
Samuel L. Jackson does a double take at the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Video: Nellie Andreeva/Deadline) pic.twitter.com/yJvmhuMgnk
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 20, 2026
The Mace Windu figure captures the character in full costume, complete with brown Jedi robes and a tan tunic, rendered with enough realism that even the actor who originated the role needed a second look. That kind of detail lines up with the broader ambition behind the museum’s collection, which leans heavily on Lucas’s own archive of props, costumes, and concept art built up over decades of filmmaking.
Jackson’s reaction quickly became one of the most shared moments from opening night, with online viewers calling it the perfect response to stumbling across a hyper-realistic version of yourself frozen mid-pose. It’s a fitting bit of levity for a museum built around exactly this kind of storytelling craftsmanship.
The museum sits on an 11-acre campus in Exposition Park, spanning nearly 300,000 square feet across five levels, with more than 100,000 square feet dedicated purely to gallery space. Inside, visitors can find over 1,300 works spanning artists like Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, Frank Frazetta, and Jack Kirby, alongside the complete Lucas Archives covering the years 1971 through 2012.
Star Wars material makes up a significant portion of that archive, including props, costumes, and vehicles such as Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder and General Grievous’s Wheel Bike, displayed alongside lifelike figures of characters including Luke, Leia, Darth Vader, and C-3PO. The building itself was designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, with landscape design handled by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA.
The museum’s path to opening night wasn’t a smooth one. Lucas originally pursued a location in San Francisco’s Presidio before four years of failed negotiations pushed the project to Chicago in 2014, where legal opposition from preservationist groups eventually forced its abandonment in 2016. Los Angeles was finally announced as the permanent home in January 2017, with construction breaking ground the following year before a series of delays, including the COVID-19 pandemic, pushed the opening from an original 2021 target all the way to 2026.
That long road makes the finished result feel like a genuine milestone rather than just another celebrity-backed vanity project. George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, reportedly poured close to $1 billion of personal funds into bringing the vision to life.
In a statement tied to the museum’s public opening, George Lucas explained the thinking behind the collection, saying, “The artists in this collection didn’t just create images, they connected our modern imaginations with our ancient emotions,” according to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s own press materials. That framing positions the museum less as a personal trophy case and more as a broader celebration of visual storytelling across centuries.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens to the public on Tuesday, September 22, with general admission tickets priced at $25 for adults.
What would your reaction be to seeing a lifelike version of your own Star Wars character?
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