As a piece of cinema history, still feels like a brand-new toy from 1999. When George Lucas decided to turn his Star Wars backstory into a trilogy of new films, he had to, , “develop an entire world.” That entire new world was , a film that redefined Star Wars by making everything that was old and rundown look shiny and new.
ditched the cobbled-together a space truck with a supercharged engine — for the chrome-plated hotrod starships of the Naboo fleet. Obi-Wan Kenobi was no longer a bearded, wise old man in the desert; he was a clean-shaven baby-faced warrior played with precision by the indie movie darling of the time, Ewan McGregor. A clean-shaven, very young McGregor — paired with Natalie Portman’s various ornate gowns as Queen Amidala — is probably the most perfect way to think about what the film did back then.
In both 1999 and 2024, the best version of is the idea of , not the movie itself. This may or may not have been the intent, but as turns a quarter century, the truth of how to love is to treat it like a brand-new toy that is best enjoyed if we leave it in the box. Contrary to pervasive myths or fan assumptions, George Lucas did not have the specifics of laid out back in the 1970s when he crafted the first — “Episode IV” in 1981.
In , he admitted that “the story for the three new films was meant to be the backstory of the other films.” Right away, anyone who knows anything about writing at all should have a warning bell go off in their mind. .