The Star Wars: A New Hope, the first installment of what would become a saga of nine films and the starting point for one of the biggest and most profitable franchises in the entertainment industry.
The history of the Star Wars film saga is divided in three: the original trilogy, the prequels, and the sequels. The first trilogy has a special place in the hearts of fans and is regarded as the best in the saga, especially Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In the late 1990s, George Lucas continued expanding the Star Wars universe with the prequel trilogy, which focused on the life of Anakin Skywalker, from his days as a young slave in Tatooine, to his rise as Sith lord Darth Vader.
The prequels, written and directed by Lucas, failed to recreate the success of the original films, and were heavily criticized (and even ignored) for years. Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney, the Mouse House began working on a new trilogy, starting in 2015 with Star Wars: The Last Jedi did in 2017. The sequel trilogy wasn’t the big Star Wars return fans were expecting, prompting them to look back at the rest of the saga and “forgive” George Lucas in the process.
Why Star Wars Fans Turned Against George Lucas
As mentioned above, the original trilogy is very special to Star Wars fans, and maclunkey”, among other changes. Another infamous addition was Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker’s Force Ghost in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, replacing Sebastian Shaw. All these changes even left some mistakes in some versions of the original trilogy, such as colorless lightsabers.
Lucas meddled with the original trilogy for different reasons: to give it the look he envisioned from the beginning, to match with the prequels, etc. Speaking of the prequels, these are what sealed fans’ hatred towards Lucas. The concept for the prequels is good – exploring and expanding Darth Vader’s story was something the Star Wars universe could really use, and fans were eager to know more about the character. It was good in paper, but not in practice. Furthermore, the prequels showed Lucas’ poor directing skills, and not even the talents of Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Samuel L. Jackson could save the films. For fans, the prequels were the worst thing to happen to the Star Wars saga at the time, and the one to blame was, of course, George Lucas.
The Prequels Have Been Forgiven, And Lucas With Them
Time heals all wounds and that’s the case for the Star Wars prequels. The arrival of the sequel trilogy prompted fans to revisit the prequels, and with that has come a radical change in the opinions of many. For example, Disney’s sequel trilogy. There’s also the nostalgia factor, which plays a big role in the reevaluation of the prequels. To many, the prequel trilogy was their first approach to the Star Wars universe, and that’s enough to “forgive” them and Lucas, in the process.
Disney Star Wars Has Made Lucas Look Better
Perhaps what has played a bigger role in the process of fans making their peace with George Lucas are microbiotic world” and introduced creatures called “the Whills”, who feed off the Force and control the universe.
Once Disney acquired Lucasfilm, all these ideas were scrapped and the studio went for a trilogy that introduced a new generation of heroes (Rey, Finn, and Poe) and villains (Kylo Ren, Snoke, and General Hux), and had the original ones serving as mentors – though it rescued some ideas, such as better sequel trilogy than Disney’s, but at least he had it all planned out, something that Disney didn’t. The Star Wars sequels went through many writers and versions, and each one ended up having a very different vision of what this universe is about, only proving that Disney didn’t have a plan for the trilogy as a whole. In that sense, George Lucas did things right, and even if the prequels weren’t the best, they were part of a plan that explored the story of the Skywalkers.
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Whether you love or hate the prequels and/or sequels, at the end of the day, George Lucas is the mind behind the whole Star Wars universe, and it would be very difficult (not to say impossible) for a franchise of this calibre to exist without flaws. The legacy of Star Wars goes beyond the changes he has done to the original trilogy, the reception the prequels have gotten, and how the sequels handled the story. George Lucas has a talent to create new worlds and a whole mythology to go with it, and ultimately, fans and critics will respect him for that, independently of the mistakes he has made in the Star Wars saga.
