In a 2020 retrospective on StarWars.com, Lucas talks about what was going on in his life in 1979. It seems he was too busy starting his own companies — Lucasfilm and the special effects house Industrial Light and Magic — to direct. Either project would require his full attention, and he would have been stretched too thin. In his words: 

“I was moving Industrial Light & Magic up here to San Francisco, where it was supposed to be in the first place. And I was working on making Lucasfilm, which existed, but … we didn’t really have the merchandising part […] So I knew I had a lot to do and it would be very hard because, when I direct, I really am there 24/7. And I thought I would need a little extra time to sort out Lucasfilm. And so that’s why I felt I needed to hire a director … I couldn’t run a studio, build ILM, and direct a movie at the same time.”

Kershner, the director of films like “Hoodlum Street,” “A Fine Madness,” and “S*P*Y*S,” was selected to helm “Empire,” which was, to remind readers, a sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time. The reason for Lucas’ selection is simple as well: Lucas knew Kershner in film school and liked his movies. Kershner and Lucas had, according to StarWars.com, met one another at the University of Southern California when Lucas was a student and Kershner was a lecturer. Lucas, along with many of his famous directing peers, is part of a filmmaking camp often called the Film School Generation, in that they were the first generation of filmmakers to attend (then-novel) film schools prior to their filmmaking careers.