George Lucas purchases $52M London mansion — a sign he could be latest celebrity to leave the US

Star Wars” creator George Lucas has reportedly snapped up an extravagant $52 million London home in what is said to have been one of the UK’s most expensive real estate transactions in 2025.

According to The Times of London, Lucas, 81, purchased the St. John’s Wood mansion in an off-market deal in September. Although it is unclear whom he bought the dwelling from, reports state that it was previously owned by a prominent lawyer.

Up until now, Lucas has been primarily based in California, where he was born and raised, however sources close to the famed filmmaker told the outlet that he is eager to spend more time in London.

While he has not commented on his recent property purchase, the publication called attention to the fact that he is “rumored to be critical” of President Donald Trump’s policies, although he has never taken a public stance on the current state of politics in the US.

Like many celebrities, Lucas has spent much of his career living in California, although he has eschewed the traditional Los Angeles mansions in favor of creating a spectacular estate near Nicasio.

Known as the Skywalker Ranch in a nod to his iconic on-screen character Luke Skywalker, the property spans 6,000 acres and is home to multiple buildings, including an enormous Victorian-style primary residence, which serves as Lucas’ main home.

The dwelling sprawls across 50,000 square feet of living space and features a two-story research library, a 35-seat movie theater, a music room, and a solarium.

According to his website, Lucas came up with the vision for the property himself and then commissioned local architecture firm TWM Architects to build it in 1985.

“The main house, a Victorian-style mansion with art deco touches, is Skywalker Ranch’s warm centerpiece,” it states.

“Completed in 1985, designers used vintage materials whenever possible in the main house’s construction; the tight-grained redwood paneling in its hallways is first-growth redwood rescued from one of California’s earliest bridges, and the campus’ rock walls were made using stones found on the property.”

The property extends far beyond Lucas’ private residence to include several commercial properties, including a 26-room bed and breakfast and a technical building where many of the filmmaker’s projects are conceived and edited.

Lucas purchased the first parcel of land for what would become his private Californian mecca in 1978 and has been expanding the property ever since—adding multiple new structures to turn it into what has been described as “one of the film industry’s most legendary campuses.”

“Skywalker Ranch, located 40 minutes north of San Francisco, is the pastoral home to Lucasfilm’s celebrated sound design, mixing, and audio postproduction facility, Skywalker Sound,” the ranch’s website reads.

“Skywalker Sound occupies the 153,000-square-foot Technical Building, which features a world-class scoring stage, six feature mix stages, 15 sound design suites, 50 editing suites, an ADR stage, two Foley stages, and the 300-seat Stag Theater. The property also includes the iconic main house and the beautiful Lake Ewok.”

The inn houses guests of Lucas’ companies, specifically Skywalker Sound, and features uniquely designed suites that are all themed around people whom he “admires,” according to the website.

“The rooms and suites have surprising monikers, such as ‘Akira Kurosawa,’ ‘Dorothy Parker,’ and ‘George Gershwin,’ among others—all named in tribute to people that George Lucas, Skywalker Ranch’s founder, admires. Photographs, art, books, and rare artifacts decorate each room in honor of its namesake.”

Additional guesthouses that are dotted across the property are used as offices by filmmakers and producers, with each boasting its own private movie theater “for screenings and reviews.”

“All were built in the 1980s, but crafted in the style of a particular era: Brook House as 1913 Craftsman, Carriage House as 1915 Barn, and Gate House as 1870 Victorian/Craftsman,” the website adds.

In recent years, Skywalker Ranch has also become home to an enormous Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Skywalker Retreat known as Summit.

“Inspired by a vision to provide a haven for filmmakers to conceptualize movies rather than physically make them, George Lucas imagined Skywalker Ranch,” the website for the retreat states. 

“The facilities were originally custom-designed to accommodate the creative, technical and administrative needs of Lucas’ production company.

“In 2018, Summit Skywalker Ranch was reimagined as a creative retreat for likeminded businesses to stay and experience the Skywalker vision and features a gallery of narrative art from George’s private collection.”

The property also features a working Wagyu cattle ranch, organic produce gardens, an olive orchard, and a 26-acre vineyard that was established in 1991, six years after Lucas’ personal home was completed.

In addition to his enormous ranch property in Marin County, Lucas is also the proud owner of an extraordinary compound in Carpinteria, CA, another dwelling that he spent years building up.

The first of the homes that make up the estate was purchased in 2010 for $19.5 million, but Lucas razed the existing dwelling to the ground to make way for a Cape Cod-style property that still stands.

Then, in 2019, he added an adjacent abode to his collection, this time for $28 million. That property features another Cape Cod-style dwelling, as well as a guesthouse, a treehouse, and a barn, sources told The Wall Street Journal at the time.

It’s unclear whether Lucas has any intention of selling these homes now that he has purchased another abode further afield.

Should he decide to relocate to the UK, even temporarily, he will become the latest in a line of Hollywood A-listers to have made a move away from the US since Trump was reelected in November 2024.

Some, like Eva Longoria, who is now living between Spain and Mexico, Ellen DeGeneres, who has moved to the UK, and Rosie O’Donnell, who relocated to Ireland, have publicly decried Trump’s administration and made clear that it was his policies that pushed them to find a new home outside of the US.

Others, including Richard Gere, have been slower to link their relocations with his administration, despite being outspoken critics of Trump in the past.