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I give the side-eye to people who call it "A New Hope" or "Episode IV."

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 61 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Nope. It was originally just Star Wars.

George Lucas (who lies all the time) claims he always planned for it to be Episode IV, but that introduction was only added when it was re-released ~~before~~ after The Empire Strikes Back came out... and when people initially saw it, they laughed.

Edit: Got the chronology wrong

[-] zcd@lemmy.ca 32 points 4 months ago

The best star wars was when George didn't have total control, the first movie was saved in the editing room

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago

He divorced that editor, so she couldn't save his bacon later.

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

LOL! Lucas is petty, but that's not WHY he divorced her.

She wanted to leave, but he made sure she got ziltch from Star Wars as a result.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I didn't say that's why he divorced her

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Well I'll be damned. TIL!

Although even if he did plan it to be "episode IV..." WHY START AT 4?! lol

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Partly because it fit in with the whole idea of being a modern Flash Gordon serial, where you drop in partway through the story. I think it worked pretty well, personally.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Unfortunately, all of his references to old Republic serials (especially the wipes) go over the head of most audiences and even did in 1977. He's a better movie nerd than he is a director in my opinion.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

The wipes are glorious.

It's one thing they preserved in the prequels (at least, the ones I watched) that I appreciated.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

It's just too bad people don't understand that and other serial references, because I think Lucas wanted people to get it.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Part of the disorientation of the first cold open

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago

Because he outlined the story from the events of Phantom Menace all the way to Return of the Jedi before the first movie even went into production.

Then he decided to tell the second part of the story first, THEN realized the script was too long for even that and split it into three movies.

He wasn't sure he'd be able to commit the whole story to film, so he thought the introduction of Vader's son and the destruction of the super weapon was the most important part and was able to stand up on its own.

When he realized he could actually finish the second act of the story, he surprised the viewing audience by calling Empire Strikes Back "Episode V" and retroactively calling Star Wars "Episode IV A New Hope".

[-] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I'm completely convinced that this story is all just Lucas retconning his career.

[-] stephfinitely@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Based on how documented the prequel are I can see he pen a story outline but didn't have it funny figured out. So when he did get to write the script, he actually figured out the actual stories, and I'm sure the story changed in his head over the 3 decades of working on the 6 movies.

[-] nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

Maybe, maybe not - but I do remember the review of “Return of the Jedi” in my teenage magazine from 1983/84, where indeed they quoted Lucas as saying that there would be 9 movies in total. I think there was even mention of 3 prequels, but it’s been 40 years so… I might be wrong on that.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

He did say that by 1983, yes.

[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

When did they change it? When was empire called episode 5?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Yep. When it was re-released after Empire.

[-] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 months ago

Am I misremembering? I saw it when it came out and I thought the film had a title card that said Episode IV and everybody in the theater laughed at that. Sometimes different cuts of a movie get released in different areas.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

1981: In April, Star Wars was re-released, with the addition of the subtitles "Episode IV" and "A New Hope" added to the opening crawl.[13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases#Release_history

[-] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 months ago

Makes sense. I saw the re-release and just merged the two in my brain.

this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
367 points (95.1% liked)

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