If Lucas couldn’t get the rights to Flash, then he’d simply create a world of his own that didn’t have to adhere to someone else’s rules or work with someone else’s characters. By denying Lucas Flash, King Features had inadvertently sent him down the path toward creating Star Wars. Flash Gordon, in fact, wouldn’t appear on the big screen until 1980, in a Dino De Laurentiis–produced stinker trying hard to cash in on the science fiction craze Lucas had spawned with Star Wars — an irony that was never lost on Lucas.
