Why George Lucas Returned To Star Wars For The Phantom Menace, In His Own Words

Summary According to George Lucas, the technology didn't exist to make his prequel trilogy until the 1990s.

It wasn't just the technology; it was also its affordability.

Even the original version of The Phantom Menace didn't remain unchanged, with Lucas releasing a 3D reissue in 2012.

According to George Lucas himself, there was a simple reason why he eventually returned to Star Wars to make Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Modern viewers are used to a constant stream of Star Wars movies and TV shows, but looking back it's surprising to note a gap of 16 years between the original trilogy and the sequels. George Lucas may have had more stories to tell, but for quite some time it looked as though he'd never get around to it. So why did Lucas return?

Lucas and his creative team reflected back on Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in an interview published on the Star Wars website. According to Lucas, it was only in 1994 that he finally began to consider returning to Star Wars, and he started work on the script on November 1, 1994. In Lucas' view, it was only in the '90s that he felt it would even be possible to start work on the prequel trilogy.

Technology Had Held George Lucas Back From Working On The Prequels

"I didn't want to tell a limited story."

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Looking back at the trailer for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, it's easy to see that Lucas wanted something much more panoramic than anything he'd made before; the trailer opens with wide shots of stunning environments, including the lavish beauty of the planet Naboo. The planets of the Star Wars prequel trilogy are far more lavish and fantastical than those of the original trilogy, and that was the point according to Lucas.

"With Episode I, I didn’t want to tell a limited story. I had to go into the politics and the bigger issues of the Republic and that sort of thing. I had to go into bigger issues. And in order to do that, I had to come up with a way of doing it, and that’s what digital technology brought me. I had Yoda but he couldn’t fight. I had cities, but I couldn’t build models that big. I had lots and lots of costumes, but I couldn’t afford to make them. So there were a lot of issues that were just practical -- Episode I wasn’t doable for a long time, so I waited until we had the technology to do it."

There were other constraints, though. It's generally been forgotten, but Lucas' true genius as a filmmaker lay in his ability to keep the budgets under control; while Lucas could potentially have made these movies earlier, the technology simply wasn't affordable in his view. As he continued:

"The first three Star Wars films were designed very, very carefully to be done cheaply. We didn’t go to any big cities, we didn’t have a lot of costumes, we didn’t have a lot of extras. We didn’t have a lot of the things that cost money on a movie like that. So it was really driven by what I could afford. You have to remember, the first film was made for 13 million dollars. Today, that same film costs 300 million dollars. Even in those days, 2001 cost like 25 million dollars. And I think we had more special effects than that did."

Movie title Estimated Budget Star Wars (later retitled A New Hope) $11 million The Empire Strikes Back $18 - 33 million Return of the Jedi $32.5 - 42.7 million

While these figures don't factor in inflation, they do indicate just how frugal Lucas really was when producing his movies. The prequel trilogy had higher budgets, but a similar return of investment, because Lucas kept the costs under control. It wasn't just that the technology was now available; it was also that it was affordable.

George Lucas Would Continue Improving The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

It wouldn't take long for him to add yet more elements to the prequels

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Always a tinkerer, George Lucas would return to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace again some years later. In the aftermath of James Cameron's Avatar, Lucas decided to have his movies converted to 3D, and The Phantom Menace hit theaters again in 2012. Again, the development of the technology had held Lucas back until the moment was right; "We've been looking for years and years and years of trying to take Star Wars and put it in 3D," he told Access Hollywood, "but the technology hasn't been there."

There won't be any more tinkering, of course, because Disney would be wary of causing controversy. Oddly enough, that would probably disappoint Lucas, who seems to have viewed his movies as living texts - always changing, always being updated and modified. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace perfectly demonstrates his perspective.