George Lucas and the Making of ‘Star Wars’ Get the Graphic Novel Treatment with ‘Lucas Wars’ (First Look)

The life of George Lucas and the making of his 1977 opus Star Wars have been the subject of countless books and documentaries, but those stories have never been told quite like this.

On Sept. 16, Macmillan imprint 23rd Street Books is giving Lucas and the story behind his space opera the comic book treatment, with graphic novel Lucas Wars hitting the shelves.

An English translation of the French story that was first published in 2023, the 208-page tome tells the story of the many obstacles and near-figurative deaths Lucas had to overcome in order to make what would become one of the most consequential movies in pop culture history.

Tracing Lucas from an aimless youth who, after surviving a near-fatal car accident, decides to go to film school and make movies, to his friendships with Francis Ford Coppola and partnership with his wife Marcia Lucas, to the many battles with 20^th Century Fox, the book by journalist Laurent Hopman and storyboard artist and illustrator Renaud Roche gets into it all.

Hopman acknowledges that any biography carries some degree of subjectivity but says he wanted to stick to the historical reality as much as possible.

“I didn’t want to take any kind of literary license,” he said via email to The Hollywood Reporter. “As a viewer, I find it extremely frustrating when a biopic plays fast and loose with history. Whether it’s a movie like the Freddie Mercury biopic or a series like The Offer about the making of The Godfather, I walk away disappointed when I realize facts were sacrificed just to crank up the drama. I understand why it’s done, obviously, but I truly believe there’s a way to respect reality while still crafting a script that’s gripping and intense. So I took the bare minimum of liberties. Every time a reader asks themselves, “Did this really happen?” the answer is yes.”

As a writer of what he calls a “biographic,” Hopman saw his job of taking the immutable facts and create an intense narrative out of them. “My role was…to decide how to stage them, to bring certain moments into the spotlight more than others, in order to build a gripping story—but without inventing anything, without changing the chronology, without creating conflicts or drama out of thin air.”

The graphic novel overcomes two tricky challenges. One, is that the decade-sprawling story often features people sitting and talking in office or boardroom settings. Roche took to his bag of artistic tricks gleaned from an animation career of using camera angles and framing to help wring the drama of those situations.

Secondly, in retelling a true story with very recognizable people, the creators hit a comic book paradox: realistic faces often clash with expressiveness. “Either you get faces that look very accurate but feel stiff, or you get faces that are very expressive but veer into cartoon territory,” Hopman explains. “One of Renaud’s real talents is his ability to stylize his characters so they’re both highly recognizable and highly expressive.”

For Roche’s part, the hardest person to draw turned out to be Carrie Fisher. Part of it was that the artist finds it easier to draw men, but also because Fisher, in his view, had a mirage-like look that changed constantly.   

“I think she in particular has a look that changes a lot depending on the angle, the lighting, or how she’s made up or styled,” says Roche. “And God knows hairstyle is important in Star Wars for her character! I had tons of photo references, and sometimes I felt like I wasn’t even looking at the same person.”

The graphic novel was first published in France in 2023. The English-language edition, translated by Jeremy Melloul, hits shelves Sept. 16.

Check out an extended look, spotlighting the movie’s casting process, below.