The Hollywood Reporter recently asked George Lucas what his next steps will be, following the 4.05 billion sale of Lucasfilm, ILM, and effectively the Star Wars juggernaut, to Disney. The bulk of the money from the sale will go to a foundation that will focus on educational issues, following a philanthropic course most visibly set in recent years by Bill and Melinda Gates, among others.
Lucas is no stranger to philanthropic efforts, having formed The George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to creating more integrated processes for getting children the information they need to learn, better coordination of teachers, administration, and state and governmental educational requirements. It is not currently known whether Lucas will direct the majority of the funding to this existing foundation, or whether he will branch out into funding additional efforts, as he did with his 2006 donation of $175 million to USC.
Reps from Lucasfilm noted that this continues Lucas’s “Giving Pledge,” made in 2010, where he stated, “I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future—and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt—as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.”