Growing Up Star Wars: Episode II, The Sequels, er, um...the Prequels.

Dateline: 1983. Return of the Jedi is released upon the world, the final chapter of the Star Wars trilogy. The Empire has been defeated. Darth Vader and the evil Emperor have been vanquished. The Rebel Alliance is triumphant and peace prevails upon that galaxy far, far away. Story over.

Only, we all know it isn't. After all, the three movies we have are only chapters 4-6 of the Skywalker saga. There is much more to be told. How did the Empire come to be? What drove Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side? What were the Clone Wars? These were questions that needed answers. Fortunately, given the production timeline for the original movies, being around three years per film, then 1986 should see the release of Episode I, and we would all start getting our answers.

1986 came...and went. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Not even a whisper of a new film. The most I had heard was from some pulp magazine published that same year that gave a vague plot description of what would be the next story, involving B-movie princess Sybil Danning (Look it up, people!) playing the Dark Side witch who would seduce Anakin and transform him into Darth Vader (Seriously!) I think the magazine that ran the story was owned by Mrs. Danning, as almost every article had her involved one grandiose movie sequel or another (Terminator, Indiana Jones, Alien, etc) with none of these predictions coming true. This may have been a forerunner to the modern website WeGotThisCovered.com.

1987. Star Wars still had a presence, but it was fading faster than a Force ghost. Two Ewok T.V. movies and the Ewok/Droids Adventure Hour cartoons came out fast and fizzled just as quickly. Marvel Comics Star Wars line. More prominent was West End Games' excellent role-playing game (I still have most of the books. They serve as great inspiration for even my non-Star Wars writing.) and the Disney/Lucasfilm collaboration on their Star Tours thrill ride. But that was all. We couldn't even get a rerun of The Star Wars Holiday Special, and everyone loved that! Right? Right?

Time marched on. We fans got on with our lives. We still had our VHS versions of the movies to watch, but that was all. Somehow, we survived.

Around late 1990-early 1991, I was inspired to try my hand at writing my own Star Wars novel, and glorious fantasies raced through my mind of my single-handedly bringing the franchise back to life, gaining the adoration of millions. (The entire story of that particular train wreck can be found in my October 16, 2019 blog post. I encourage you to read it, if you haven't already, as I will not be retelling it again.) Let's just say that a certain small-time author named Timothy Zahn beat me to that particular punch and, let's face it, the world is better off for it. Well played, Mister Zahn. Well played indeed.

We all know the story from there. Star Wars came back in a big way. Books, comics, toys, video games. Everything geared toward telling the further adventures of our beloved Star Warriors in a galaxy far, far away.

But we were still left scratching our heads. How did this all start? Where were the new movies we all expected? (Deserved? Demanded?)

"All I need is an idea."-George Lucas

Hyperjump to November 1994. A spark of hope begins to burn brighter as George Lucas finally announces that he has begun writing the long-awaited Episode I. Tantalizing tidbits began to come from official sources. The Star Wars Insider began running articles on the search for locations, actors, and the like. Liam Neeson as a Jedi? Awesome! Natalie Portman playing Luke and Leia's mom? Yesss! And some Scottish dude named MacGregor was reported to be playing young Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Never heard of him. He'll probably never go anywhere after this.)  More reports leaked. Photos of newly constructed sets and ships began popping up like daisies. And finally, on Thanksgiving weekend of 1998, the world got its first look at the new saga as the teaser trailer drops in theaters (We saw it with A Bug's Life) Reports of people paying full ticket prices to get into the theater to see the teaser and leaving immediately thereafter abound. Six more months and two more trailers would pass before May of 1999 and the return of the greatest space saga to ever grace the motion-picture screen.

I saw it that opening weekend. I felt twelve years old again as the theater darkened and my pulse quickened. The immortal words A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... came on screen and the full-to-capacity theater went berserk, so much so that when John Williams' title fanfare blasted through the speakers, it was barely audible. Things finally settled as the opening crawl began to fade and we all settled in to be enthralled.

Two hours and sixteen minutes later, it was all over, and the crowd...was dead silent. No one really seemed to know how to react. I expected to hear applause and there were literally crickets chirping in the background.

I walked from the theater confused. I liked it, that much was certain. The visuals were terrific, the pod race an instant classic, and the nobody Scottish dude was surprisingly good, but it felt...off.

I'm not hating on the movie. Not at all. As I said, I enjoyed it. George Lucas did not ruin my childhood. But while this film looked like Star Wars, it didn't exactly feel like it. The same thing three years later with Attack of the Clones. Fun. Looked great. Introduced Boba Fett and his dad. Still felt off. 2005's Revenge of the Sith, the "final" film of the Star Wars saga did a better job, but still left some questions unanswered, and many more of us shaking our heads as to why Lucas ignored certain established, and critical, points of continuity. But it was all over now. The story had been told, and there was nothing we could do about it.

I have long theorized that the biggest problem of the prequels has not been the script or the acting or the jarring lack of continuity, but we the fans. We all had over a decade to form our own theories as to what would happen, how Vader and the Empire would rise and the Jedi would fall, and very little of what came about fit into those theories. As a writer, I know that it's a trap that we all fall into. we all want to make the fans happy, but we also want to tell the story that we, the writers, want to. There is no way to make everyone happy. Just can't be done. George Lucas told the story that he wanted to tell, and he was unjustly crucified for it. I could relate, and I was resolved that we would never see another Star Wars movie again. (The Clone Wars doesn't, doesn't count.)

Once more we moved on. I began publishing sweeping sci-fi tales of my own, rightly giving Mister Lucas credit for his influence. But there would never be another Star Wars.

Little did we know that there was a mouse looming on the horizon.

Coming soon: Growing Up Star Wars: Episode III, The Re-Awakening.



#starwars #anewhope #theempirestrikesback #returnofthejedi #thephantommenace #attackoftheclones #revengeofthesith #lucasfilm #georgelucas #thestarwarssaga