George Lucas flies to Fairbanks the week he records for Minions & Monsters

George Lucas flew from Dupage Airport in Illinois to Fairbanks International Airport on June 20, a five-hour trip aboard his Gulfstream V (N138GL) that reached 43,000 feet and a top ground speed of 539 knots. The flight arrives the same week the 82-year-old filmmaker made his first acting appearance in 19 years, per a Deadline report: Lucas recorded a voice role for Illumination's Minions & Monsters while in France, and the film opens July 1.

Lucas has been largely absent from Hollywood since selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, but the Minions role marks a quiet return to public life. The Independent notes that Lucas told the studio he is open to more voice work, and the flight to Fairbanks — far from his usual circuit between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago — suggests a side trip for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opens in September at Exposition Park.

The Gulfstream V had been shuttling between California and the East Coast in recent weeks, with stops at Teterboro, Appleton, and Oakland. The Fairbanks leg, however, is an outlier: no major film festival or conference is scheduled there, and the city's airport is a common refueling stop for transpolar flights. It is likely the aircraft paused in Alaska before continuing west, possibly toward Lucas's recording sessions in France.