The Pioneer of Star Wars Publishing: Interview with Lucy Autrey Wilson

The journey of Lucy Autrey Wilson is an inspiring one that should be remembered and celebrated by all Star Wars fans. Starting at Lucasfilm as the company’s first permanent employee, Wilson began her path in 1974 as a bookkeeper and assistant to George Lucas. However, the turning point of her career was in the late 1980s, when Wilson became the Director of Publishing—launching an original Star Wars program expanding the franchise’s storytelling by establishing the Expanded Universe with new books, comics, magazines and music initiatives. Tatooine Times had the honor and privilege of talking to Lucy Autrey Wilson, diving into her unique journey, from her thirty-five and a half years at Lucasfilm to transitioning into multimedia art: “The older I get, the more I realize I was supremely lucky to be at Lucasfilm during that period of history, to have had the opportunity to develop an entirely new creative universe within the umbrella of Star Wars, with almost total freedom to do what we wanted, and to have had the thrill of working with so much talent.”

Over the years, Lucasfilm has published countless content, from books to comics to video games, you name it. Nowadays, it’s easy to take all of that for granted, but it had to start somewhere. As head of publishing, Lucy Autrey Wilson and her team forever shaped the Star Wars universe, producing unforgettable interconnected stories and conceptualizing multimedia and multi-book initiatives that later inspired ambitious projects, such as the all-new era of Star Wars, The High Republic. In 1996, as George Lucas was preparing for the release of the Star Wars Special Editions and later the prequel trilogy, Shadows of the Empire was born. With a new novel, a comic book miniseries, a video game, an original soundtrack, toys and trading cards, this multimedia publishing initiative was the closest thing to a movie since Return of the Jedi. “I was always looking for ways to keep the publishing program fresh and interesting—both for the fans, and for myself and my department. It was important to give Star Wars fans something new and exciting now that their interest had been reinvigorated by the latest novels and comics.” Wilson added, “I was in charge of everything we published in books, comics and soundtracks, working closely with our then primary partners Bantam Books and Dark Horse Comics. Happily, the head of Lucasfilm Licensing, Howard Roffman, was enthusiastic about a non film tie-in project extending beyond publishing, which then brought the toy department, games group and merchandise folks in. The Timothy Zahn novels, and subsequent stand-alone titles had reinvigorated the fan base, but there were no new movies in production. So, the concept of making a movie without a movie was our combined idea of how to keep things interesting.”

After Shadows of the Empire, the novels began to lose some of their appeal and sales were declining. Wilson decided that it was time to spice up the program again with something new. That’s when The New Jedi Order, a multi-book story arc was created—spanning nineteen novels, three e-book novellas, and three short stories, with twelve All-Star authors contributing to the initiative. Wilson recalls soliciting ideas to a group of science fiction authors (including Star Wars veteran Kevin J. Anderson) about juicing up the Star Wars publishing program: “The writers told me about a non licensed science fiction multi-book series they were aware of—where the storyline was pre-planned and released over a number of titles with a strong continuous storyline. I was also aware, from earlier conversations I had had with folks in New York at either DC Comics or Marvel comics (I had meetings at both houses, even though we were not working with them at the time), how the editors there would coordinate and pre-plan all of the elements of a new multi title storyline before launching a new series based on one of their super heroes. Those two concepts, merged into one—my desire to do a pre-planned and coordinated multi-title Star Wars story in both book and comic form.” Wilson continued, “I then had to decide when to launch this new concept, and with the prequels then in development, I held onto the idea and made it part of the legal agreement for the publisher who won the rights to publish novels tied to the new movies—which turned out to be Ballantine Books. The editors at Dark Horse Comics were also major story contributors.”

Lucy Autrey Wilson looked back at her successful career at Lucasfilm, reflecting on the reason for staying interested in Star Wars for so many years: “George Lucas created an entirely new universe and a classic mythological story of good versus evil. There was so much that could be done in that fictional world. I was always trying to bring Star Wars fiction up to the level of some of the books I had studied in English Literature courses in college. And, happily, on occasion I think we did that. But, the thing I am most proud of is that many of the things we published brought in kids to the love of reading, who were not big readers to begin with. To me, reading is one of the great pleasures in life. One day I was in a bookstore checking how many Star Wars titles they had in stock. I looked down and saw a young boy, sitting on the floor, completely immersed in a Dorling Kindersley Star Wars title. That moment made me feel very good about my job.”

In 2003 Wilson left Lucasfilm Licensing and went back to Skywalker Ranch to work for JAK Films, producing books of interest to George Lucas. This new challenge in nonfiction publishing allowed her to once again work directly with George Lucas. “It was hard. In the beginning I was completely out of my depth. Publishers I knew outside the company were all telling me to run away as fast as I could. Somehow, I persisted.” Wilson continued, “George Lucas is an expert at what he does and he expects people who work for him to be the same. He is not one to throw around compliments for no reason. Generally, I would only hear from him when I did something that he didn’t like. The last book I published in my career was the book Blockbusting, which took an incredible amount of research and effort. I was called to a meeting with George, where I feared the worst. Instead, he welcomed me with a rare compliment about how much he liked the book. That was a great memory.”

After a long, fulfilling career at Lucasfilm (from 1974 to 2010), Lucy Autrey Wilson took another leap of faith, transitioning from an incredibly successful business career to that of an artist. “While at Lucasfilm I came into contact with an incredible mix of artistic talent working on Star Wars, both at the company, through various book publishers, and through Dark Horse Comics. Some prime examples are Drew Struzan, Ralph McQuarrie, Doug Chiang and Dave Dorman, and too many more to even attempt to list. Also, because George Lucas is a huge art collector and appreciator of art, we were surrounded by his collection on the walls of the offices at work, including original paintings by Norman Rockwell and Maxwell Parrish (much of which will now be in his museum). This was all very inspiring.” Wilson continued, “I am not in the same class as any of the artists mentioned. My personal art interests are more eclectic and experimental. I mostly enjoy learning new techniques in multiple disciplines, rather than concentrating on any one field of study. I doubt my art efforts will be as successful as my work career transition, but I do count myself lucky to be able, in my post career years, to pursue what now interests me artistically without having to worry about its commercial viability.”

The Star Wars publishing galaxy is now richer than ever before, but as fans we should never forget the pioneering efforts of Lucy Autrey Wilson and her amazing team. If you are an art enthusiast, then make sure to check out lucyautreywilsonart.com and don’t forget to follow Wilson on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.