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Samuel L. Jackson’s Double Take at Mace Windu Steals the Spotlight at the Lucas Museum Opening

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Some celebrity moments are impossible to script, and this one came with a Jedi robe. When George Lucas threw open the doors of his long-awaited museum in Los Angeles, the biggest names in Hollywood turned up to celebrate. One quiet encounter in a gallery, though, quickly became the highlight of the night.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been a long time coming. Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, first proposed the idea more than 16 years ago, and plans to build it in San Francisco and Chicago were both abandoned. CNN reported that the project has cost Lucas around $1 billion of his own money.

The opening night gala took place on Saturday, September 19, with Lucas hosting friends including Oprah Winfrey, Guillermo del Toro, Laura Dern, Mark Hamill, Spike Lee and Greta Gerwig. Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson also attended. It was Jackson who provided the moment fans are talking about.

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Deadline shared a 10-second video on X, filmed by Nellie Andreeva, that shows Jackson doing a double take at the museum. In the clip, he poses beside a lifelike figure of Mace Windu, the Jedi Master he played in the ‘Star Wars’ prequels, complete with the brown robe and tan tunic. The post has drawn 28.7K views, 1.3K likes, and 224 reposts, and one fan called the double take the perfect reaction.

The figure is part of a bigger picture. The museum is billed as a first-of-its-kind institution dedicated to the universal tradition of visual storytelling, tracing art from prehistoric cave paintings through illustration, comics, cinema and murals. It sits on an 11-acre campus in Exposition Park and was designed by architect Ma Yansong.

Inside, CNN counted more than 1,300 objects currently on display across 30 galleries, drawn from Lucas’ private collection amassed over 5 decades. The wider collection totals about 40,000 pieces, including comic art, children’s book illustrations and science-fiction imagery. The inaugural exhibitions honor illustration giants such as Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Frank Frazetta.

Lucas has said the museum is not a shrine to ‘Star Wars‘, but fans still have plenty to see. The museum’s press materials highlight concept designs, props and costumes tied to the saga’s vehicles, from Luke’s Landspeeder in ‘A New Hope’ to the first physical build of General Grievous’ Wheel Bike in ‘Revenge of the Sith’. One review noted that figures of Luke, Leia, Darth Vader and C-3PO stand around as if waiting to board a flight.

Jackson’s connection to the space goes back to before the opening. A sizzle reel shown at a 2025 panel, narrated by Jackson himself, previewed items such as the original landspeeder and Anakin Skywalker’s ship from ‘The Phantom Menace’. That makes his reunion with his own character all the more fitting.

The public will get its first look on Tuesday, September 22. Adult tickets cost $25, and critics have long questioned whether the museum is a vanity project for Lucas, with high membership fees adding to that criticism. CNN also noted turbulence in the museum’s management ahead of the opening, including the departure of its former director and CEO and a round of layoffs.

Whatever the debate, the opening night made clear how much affection Hollywood has for its creator. For fans, the sight of a beloved actor meeting his ‘Star Wars’ counterpart in a gallery says more about the franchise’s staying power than any press release. A simple double take has become the image that defines the whole event.

Which Star Wars piece would you most want to see at the Lucas Museum?

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