Summary
- George Lucas defends the Star Wars special editions as a reflection of his ownership of the franchise.
- Lucas made changes to match the visual style of both trilogies, ensuring all six movies flowed together seamlessly.
- Adding prequel actors and CGI upgrades were logical changes that solidified Lucas' ownership of the Star Wars franchise.
George Lucas' Star Wars special editions, with some changes being well-received and others notably less so.
Interestingly, George Lucas made an appearance at CinemaCon 2024 where he defended the changes made in the special editions (via The Star Wars Underworld on Twitter/X). When asked about the divisiveness of the Star Wars special editions, Lucas stated: “I think a film belongs to its creator. When Michelangelo made the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he looked at it and said: I’m going to redo this part.” This outlines how the Star Wars creator feels about the special edition discourse; they are Lucas' movies, and if he wants to change them, he has every right to do so.
Lucas Can Make Any Additions Or Removals From His Own Films
As evident by Lucas' comments, the Star Wars special editions reflect his ownership of the franchise. This is not to say Lucas was self-indulgent and changed Star Wars simply because he could when he released the special editions, but instead that he has every right to make any amendments he wishes. After all, the bulk of the changes made to the original Star Wars trilogy were to partner with the release of the prequels, thus ensuring all six movies flowed together and reflected the same, overarching story Lucas had previously envisioned.
5 Worst Changes Star Wars Made From The Original Cuts
With the evolution of technology in filmmaking, George Lucas felt it necessary to make many revisions to the original trilogy that no one asked for.
Lucas' ownership of the Star Wars franchise as its creator gave him every reason to make changes to the original Star Wars films. While some may disagree with some of the minor changes such as Return of the Jedi's musical number, Jabba the Hutt's A New Hope appearance, or Greedo shooting Han Solo first, the bigger changes to match the visual style of both trilogies make a lot of sense. These changes were simply about Lucas furthering his ownership for the franchise he created, explaining his defense of them.
Some of the bigger, and ittedly much more logical, changes made to the original trilogy involved adding prequel actors. For example, Hayden Christensen's Force Ghost was added to the end of Return of the Jedi, while Ian McDiarmid was added to the Emperor's scene in The Empire Strikes Back. All of this allows these six movies of the Skywalker Saga to flow mostly seamlessly from one to the next. As proven by Lucas' comments, the Star Wars creator had every right to do so to solidify his ownership of the franchise, just as Michelangelo did with the Sistine Chapel.
Source: @TheSWU
