'Star Wars' creator George Lucas breaks showbiz hiatus for new exciting role

Star Wars creator George Lucas is breaking his showbiz hiatus for a new exciting role.

The Lucasfilm founder lent his voice to a character in Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, set to hit the theaters on July 1.

Minions & Monsters producer Chris Meledandri explained how Lucas, who has been largely absent from the filmmaking world since selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, joined the cast.

“I had this privilege of meeting George about two years ago,” he recalled in an interview with Collider, “and what led to my meeting him is how much he loves Illumination movies, and specifically Despicable Me, and even more specifically, the Minions.”

The Illumination founder said that it had been a great thrill to learn about Lucas’s interest and share it with the team because he is among a very small group of individuals whom the entire studio respected to an extraordinary degree.

“An idea for a character came up out of the story,” Meledandri recounted , “and so I said to Pierre [Coffin], who co-wrote the movie with Brian Lynch, and Bill Ryan, who produces with me on the film, and I just said, ‘Well, what if we could get George?’ And they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I had no idea, but I got such a fast yes.”

The Indiana Jones franchise's pioneer recorded his lines in France, and Meledandri tells Collider that he has expressed willingness to do more voice work.