05/04/2026
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... A crew of diverse talent was assembled to do something they'd never done before, and guided by a singular vision, changed the galaxy forever.
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" was actually 1975 in Van Nuys, California. Inspired by Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces", George Lucas had a vision for an epic space opera. Borrowed from many influences, but unlike anything anyone had ever made or seen before.
The team came from distant corners of filmmaking craft, visual and technical, and were challenged to break nearly all of the traditional rules of cinema, and also establish a few new ones in the process. Challenges that continue to inspire the next generation of storytelling pioneers.
Their success in making Star Wars: A New Hope, and the films and series that followed, originated from a place of uncertainty, financial pressure, conflict, tension, exhaustion (sound familiar?); all of which were converted into extraordinary opportunities because one critical, driving force.
Vision.
Nearly fifty years later, the challenge hasn't changed, only the tools have. AI is flooding every field with capability faster than we can absorb it, generating unprecedented possibility and unprecedented confusion in equal measure.
But the Force was never in the technology. It was never in the budget, the timeline, or the odds. Vision is the thing that calls reality forward and it still has to originate from someone who dares to see something that doesn't exist yet, that no one else seems to see, and to hold an impossible picture in their minds long enough for the rest of reality to catch up.
Thank you, Industrial Light & Magic.
And 'May the Fourth' be with you.
——————
Photo: ILM’s original crew for Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) poses in the front lot of their original studio (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm).
