Were you caught by surprise today when Disney announced it was purchasing Lucasfilm for $4 billion? Then you obviously haven’t been following the close relationship of George Lucas and Mickey Mouse over the years.

Here’s the photographical evidence.

Mickey Mouse and George Lucas first met when they created Star Tours

Star Tours opened at Disneyland in Anaheim, California in January 1987. It was the first attraction to open at a Disney park that was not based on a Disney-produced film.

Mickey met the Star Wars characters, like R2D2 and C3PO

Together, Mickey and George released other rides at Disney Parks

They included Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Indian Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, and Michael Jackson’s Captain EO. To date, Mickey and George have teamed up on seven ride/show projects.

They went about their business for the following 20 years

…and Disney continued to add more and more Star Wars merchandise to its theme park shelves.

Then it was time to reunite for a Star Tours revamp!

In April 2005 George Lucas revealed that a new Star Tours ride was in development. The new ride, featuring different storylines and outcomes every time you rode, opened in summer 2011 at Disney World and Disneyland. A third one is set to open at Tokyo Disneyland next year.

Following a successful reopening, Mickey and George got down to business

It’s unclear when Lucasfilm and Disney began talking about the purchase, but we assume it went down like this…

“Hey, George! I have an idea. I want to buy you.”

“What do you say to $2 billion?”

“Mickey, let’s work this out the Star Wars way: Duel!”

“Buy me for $5 billion!” “No, we’ll buy you for $3 billion!”

“Screw it, let’s settle at $4 billion.”

And they lived happily ever after!

With today’s announcement, three more Star Wars films – Episodes 7 through 9 – were confirmed to be in development. Needless to say, Hypable will be covering the release of each one.