There is no question that Star Wars has made George Lucas a very wealthy man. Before the first movie was released back in 1977, Lucas agreed to have his paycheck lowered by half a million dollars in order to retain the merchandise rights to the movie. This decision would go on to make Lucas one of the richest people in the world and would change the way the entire industry would approach merchandise.
Of course over the next few decades, Star Wars would continue to make money for George Lucas. The movies themselves would break box office records with all but one of them being the highest-grossing movie of the year. (Attack of the Clones was the only Star Wars movie to be the No. 2 highest-grossing movie of the year, losing out the top spot to Spider-Man in 2002.) Because Lucas held the merchandising rights to the franchise, toys, games, T-shirts, and pretty much everything else you could put Star Wars on added to his fortune as well.
However, in 2012, the shocking announcement was made that George Lucas would be selling Lucasfilm to Disney, and with it, all the rights to the Star Wars franchise. So does that mean for Lucas? Is the franchise creator still making money off of new Disney-era projects like The Mandalorian?
The answer can be a little bit complicated.
George Lucas and The Mandalorian
While George Lucas is no longer involved in any official capacity, his name is still in the credits of every episode of The Mandalorian. You can see in every episode a credit reading “Based on Star Wars by George Lucas.” According to the WGA, this means that Lucas should be getting at least the minimum required amount for a “created by” credit.
But more than that, a key part of the deal when Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney was that half of the $4.05 billion would be paid to him in Disney stock. As of this writing, Lucas is still the second-largest non-institutional holder of Disney stock. This means that Lucas still benefits financially from the success of any new Star Wars project, including The Mandalorian.
Though Lucas sold the company for $4.05 billion, there are reports that with the success of Disney stock since the sale (thanks to projects such as Disney+ and The Mandalorian), Lucas could have made as much as $10 billion off the sale so far.