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Star Wars creator George Lucas has purchased a £40 million (approximately $52 million) mansion in London, according to reports. Lucas, 81, bought what Bloomberg described on Tuesday, November 4, as a home in a “prime enclave” of North West London in September. The house was previously owned by a senior City lawyer, per Bloomberg and The Times of London. The outlets report that Lucas’ purchase is one of the largest on the London property market this year. The Times reports that it is the largest property purchase in the British capital since fashion designer Tom Ford reportedly bought a home in Chelsea for £80 million ($104 million) last November. Lucas also owns the famous Skywalker Ranch, his 4,700-acre property that comprises the filmmaker’s offices, headquarters for various business operations and film production facilities, in Marin County, California. In December 2019, the director bought a beachfront property in Carpinteria, California, for $28 million, per The Wall Street Journal. The sprawling site comprises a Cape Cod-style home, a guesthouse, a tree house and a barn. The outlet reported that home is situated next door to the Carpinteria beach house he purchased for $19.5 million in 2010. That property boasts a four-bedroom contemporary house, a two-bedroom guesthouse, a yoga room, an exercise room and a courtyard with a pool, per Architectural Digest. Carpinteria, situated approximately 11 miles from Santa Barbara, is a popular destination for Hollywood stars looking for a quieter life. Other celebrities who owned properties in the city in late 2019 included Ellen DeGeneres — who has since moved to the U.K. with wife Portia de Rossi — and Kevin Costner. “It’s more isolated than Malibu or Santa Monica or any of those places,” luxury real estate agent Tim Hoctor, who represented Costner in the sale of his home, told the Wall Street Journal in December 2019. Hoctor noted that Costner ultimately decided to keep his property. Lucas, meanwhile, earned his fortune as the creator of the popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. In 2012, he sold his production company, Lucasfilm, and the rights to both works, to Disney for $4.05 billion in cash and stock. “For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said Lucas said at the time. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. I’m confident that with Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy, and having a new home within the Disney organization, Star Wars will certainly live on and flourish for many generations to come. Disney’s reach and experience give Lucasfilm the opportunity to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment, and consumer products.” Under the direction of Disney, Lucasfilm produced a new Star Wars trilogy released between 2015 and 2019, several spinoffs, including Disney+ TV show The Mandalorian, and a new Indiana Jones film released in 2023.
