When people think about George Lucas playing a tiny role in his own fictional galaxy, they probably think of his brief turn as the blue-skinned Baron Papanoida in Revenge of the Sith. But it turns out he made an appearance in Star Wars a few years before that–in a sneaky easter egg from The Phantom Menace that’s finally been confirmed.
Speaking to former ILM matte painter Caroleen “Jett” Green for his newsletter, reporter Clayton Sandell found the answer to a long rumored mystery: that somewhere, somehow, George Lucas made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Theed’s royal palace during The Phantom Menace. It turns out that unlike his turn as Papanoida, Lucas wasn’t actually in-person. And the cameo wasn’t his idea at first–because Lucas’s face appears painted into one of Green’s matte paintings to extend the background of the palace in the movie.
The moment comes just under two hours into the film, as Padmé and a squad of Naboo guards run through a long hallway in the palace during the film’s climactic battle before they’re surrounded by enemy battle droids. It turns out, way in the background in the arch above that huge window, there’s a small oval relief that has none other than George Lucas himself painted into. Here it is in slightly more detail, courtesy of one of Green’s original matte painting files:
“I decided to get a picture of George, and I put it on this plaque,” Green said of the decision, noticing that in the painting the area was otherwise blank. “I thought, ‘Well, that’ll be cool. By the time you shrink that down, his face is just a blur.’” After Jett showed the detail to a supervisor, Lucas himself had to come and provide direct approval.
“George is really quiet,” Jett recalled of the moment. “He looks at it, and he goes, ‘Oh, naughty, naughty.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but it’s you! It’s your face.’ And then there’s silence again. And I’m just sitting there with everybody. And for some reason, I can’t describe the feeling, but–I knew that I wasn’t going to get in trouble. And then George says, ‘Okay. Leave it in.’”
And there, Star Wars history was made. It was far from the first time Lucas has made an appearance within the movies, either: beyond his physical cameo in Revenge of the Sith, a scream using Lucas’ voice that was made for his 1973 movie American Grafitti has been used in the background of the likes of Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, replacing the Wilhelm scream as the stock scream of choice. But 26 years later, we now know just when and how exactly that Lucas first officially stepped into Star Wars, of a sorts.
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