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George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has been no stranger to controversy when it comes to the franchise’s direction. While the original trilogy is widely regarded as providing some of the best movies of all time, the prequels released between 1999 and 2005, particularly The Phantom Menace, received a more mixed reception.
In an article for the Star Wars website reflecting on The Phantom Menace, Lucas explained his perspective on the criticism, attributing it to a fundamental misunderstanding of the intended audience. He asserted that the prequels were designed for 12-year-olds, emphasizing, “When it came out, we got blasted out of the water, and then the movie had this patina around it of failure and stupidity and whatever. The films were designed for 12-year-olds. I said that right from the very, very beginning and the very first interviews I did for A New Hope. It’s just that they were so popular with everybody, that everybody forgot that.”
Lucas believed that the negativity surrounding the prequels stemmed from the audience’s misconception about the target demographic. As he noted, when he returned to create The Phantom Menace 20 years later, the original audience that had embraced the first Star Wars film had grown up. “So if you were 10 years old when you saw A New Hope, you would be 30 years old when you saw Phantom Menace. So you weren’t a kid anymore,” he explained.
Lucas contended that the disappointment from older viewers, who once cherished the original trilogy as children, contributed to the unfavorable reception of Episodes I, II, and III. Despite the criticism, Lucas did not produce another Star Wars movie after the prequels and ultimately sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012. The franchise continued with a new trilogy to conclude the Skywalker Saga, several Star Wars series on the small screen, and the promise of more new Star Wars movies in the future.