“Star Wars” creator George Lucas abandoned efforts last week to build a museum on Chicago’s lakefront, handing a victory to the lead attorney who helped to oppose the plan, Thomas Geoghegan.

Critics of the project, which would have brought Lucas’ vast collection of “Star Wars” memorabilia and other work to a futuristic building on Chicago’s shoreline, may cheer Geoghegan as a courtroom Jedi. Others see his successful campaign as a loss for the city—if not quite a win for the Dark Side.