Star Wars: Blogs | Smugglers Rants | What if...The Phantom Menace had been the first Star Wars film?

Smugglers Rants

by: janlomona

date posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:26 AM | updated: Sep 30, 2005 3:58 AM

What if...The Phantom Menace had been the first Star Wars film?

Here's a poser for everyone...
What if, in 1973 when George first started putting pen to paper, he had made a slightly different decision.
Instead of going with the story of Luke Skywalker, what if he had opted to begin with the first story, that of his father Anakin? And so in 1977 he released the most successful movie ever - The Phantom Menace, in 1980 Attack of the Clones and closed the original trilogy in 1983 with Revenge of the Sith?
Fast forward 14 years to 1997. We've all gone nuts because we've just had the magic of the Star Wars trilogy special editions on the big screen and George has announced a new trilogy of films, starting in 1999 with Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope...
Interesting thought isn't it? But how different would the Star Wars that we have spent almost 30 years with be?

Would we see more of Coruscant?
Would Luke and Leia kiss in Empire?
Would Obi-Wan refer to Vader as Darth in their battle on the Death Star, or would he call him Anakin?
Endor or Kashyyyk?
Would the Emperor be a constant presence through the trilogy?

It's a wierd one, to imagine the films to be anything but what they are, but personally I think they would be VERY different films if Lucas had made them in their numerical order. And knowing then what he knows now I think they'd be significantly changed.
What do you think?

http://blogs.starwars.com/galantesdiary/4

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	jediknight2210 Where did you dig up that old fossil?
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:38 AM Awesome blog! Wow, awesome idea. I think that it would be pretty cool to see what it would have been like, but Han Solo would be lame, I mean who could play him like Harrison Ford can? I think we would see more of Couruscant, but it would not be named that, becuase Lucas adapted that name from the EU Continues...

jediknight2210
Where did you dig up that old fossil?

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:41 AM

I do not think we would see Luke and Leia kiss.
I think Obi-wan would still call him Vader, because he thought of Anakin as dead, and in ANH you can see he is uneasy speaking about Vader.
I am not sure about the Endor or Kashyyk, althougth it would have been Wookiee's if technology allowed it.
I do think the Emperor would be constant, I don't like how he is left out, but we can't change that now.

	jediknight2210 Where did you dig up that old fossil?
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:41 AM Once again, Awesome blog!

	jediknight2210 Where did you dig up that old fossil?
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:42 AM Oh, another thing. Would ya think we would see a young Han and Lando?

janlomona
Smugglers Rants

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:44 AM

It is a wierd one isn't it? Being practical it makes you wonder who would have played all the parts. So no Sir Alec as Obi-Wan, no Harrison as Han.
No Carrie as Leia!
Who would play them today (not that we'd know any different, we would have never seen them in those roles. Carrie would have probably been Padme, Natalie as Leia for all we know. Mark Hamill as Anakin? No, he's not even tall enough to be a Stormtrooper...)
Makes you think doens't it!
And would George have directed them all? No Kershner on Empire? Would it be remotely the same film?

Ilovebib
a weak-minded blog

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 10:38 AM

I have to say I'm not sure if TPM would have worked...it's certainly not the best of the six, It's lacking a hero to identify with (Anakin is very young...) and also if people would have seen ROTS before the OT...It's preety depressing and would not be as successful as it is now, when we have the OT in mind. But, it is nice to think about this, it's an interesting idea.

jediamos5
something about nothing

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 11:07 AM

I have to agree with llovebib on this. TPM, in all its glory, like the other 2 prequels, does not strictly follow Joseph Campbell's hero cycle, which was the sole aspect of Ep IV that everyone could relate with. The idea of any young kid, from extremely humble beginnings, becoming the savior of the galaxy is the kind of age old story that will last for thousands of years. That is why everyone fell in love with it in 1977. The rest just came about due to IV's popularity.

	darthmexican92
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 11:50 AM So would mark play anakin and hayden be Luke

Commander_Kobb

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 12:43 PM

Hey, Im new to starwars.com. I have loved star wars since before the special edition trilogy came out. Anyways, I think the films would have been dramatically different. First, how would they have done the clones? They hed trouble getting the AT-AT's to look decent on Hoth, so how would they have gotten hundreds, if not thousands, of people who look the same in one shot in Tipoca City?

Commander_Kobb

date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 12:43 PM

The lightsaber duel between Yoda and Dooku would have been impossible. how about the massive droid armies that would have taken months to film? How would they have shown the vast metropolis of Courascant? Or the Senate Chamber for that matter? Too many things in the new trilogy would have been impossible, so he was likely forced to do ep 4-6 first, since all these things were not a part of the story.

	swfan123456789
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 1:02 PM well i thnik if TPM came out first starwars woulda flopped and benothing of what it is today i mean to me and many others its the least favorite film in the saga it has its moments of glory and then again bossnass or jarjar or even little anakins yippie ruins thoses moments

	EpisodeIIIROTS
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 3:25 PM I think Episodes IV-VI would be visually different, but would follow the same stroyline we know today. It also makes me wonder how the prequels would be different if they were the first films in the 1970s. Without the CG technology, the films would have been filmed on a smaller scale causing Lucus to tell the stories differently then we see now.

	Darth Kore Somewhere Far Far away...
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 4:46 PM If only we could travel to a parallel dimension and see it. Wait a minute! if we went to a parallel dimension, do we tell our other self or the SW fans of that world about our versions? who tells first? I'd ask my parellel self to buy me the dvds of his SW and I'd buy him this world's Star Wars. HUH?

	Darth Kore Somewhere Far Far away...
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 4:47 PM my parellel self-What? why did your movies get released all out of order? what would the 2 George Lucas' think of each others movies if they saw it?

	Lord Tapia3
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 9:00 PM I agree, The Saga would be way different!! I don't think, their's anyone who can argue with this one...Don't get me wrong, the Trilogy is awsome!! but Revenge Of The Sith is the Best!! Technology=Better!! The Emperor would of been in more....But Honestly, it's best the Saga ended up this way!! Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation......

	darkqueen3 Lord Vader... Yes Master RISE
date Posted: Sep 24, 2005 10:19 PM Thats a good blog but I think the saga would be better if we keep the same way it is now but that made me think a little bit

	skywalker27199
date Posted: Oct 16, 2005 4:07 PM I like it the way it is now. I wouldn't change it , I am glad that phantom menace wasn't the first movie.

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