Growing up when the Star Wars prequels were being released has its perks—mainly that I love the prequels because they were my Star Wars that I got to see in theaters, but it came with plenty of people tearing them down and making fun of them time and time again. But as we’ve gotten more Star Wars content, it feels like everyone has started to change their tune on how they feel about them. Even Mark Hamill has stepped in.
In an interview for J.W. Rinzler’s biography about The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark producer Howard G. Kazanjian, Hamill talked about the movies and how the prequels were received back in 1999–2005. And if Luke Skywalker liked the prequel movies, that means that they have to be good, right?
“I was impressed the prequels had their own identity,” said Hamill. “They were criticized because they were exposition-heavy and more cerebral and probably, like he said back in 1976, they weren’t as commercial. It’s a darker story. But in the age of social media, people’s voices are amplified, and I’m shocked at how brutal they can be, not just in the case of Star Wars films, but across the board.”
The truth of the matter is that the internet existed and people could share their anger and thoughts about a series they loved for the first time, and it then trickled down into a cultural hatred of the prequels that didn’t really extend to all the fans of Star Wars, just the very vocal. So, I like that we’re all talking about them in a different way and that Mark Hamill is sharing his support of them because they are good movies. Sure, there are things we could have lived without, but in general, the prequels gave us a lot to work with and explore in the series.
We wouldn’t have Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi without the prequels. We wouldn’t have the cartoon series or any of the subsequent characters and stories we’ve come to love. Those all came out of the prequels, and while there are things that some want to change, that doesn’t mean those movies are bad. They’re good actually, and I will defend Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith until my dying day because it is a movie that meant a lot to me when I first saw it.
Star Wars is generational. There are going to be kids who watched the sequel series and will defend it to the ends of the earth in the same way that I will with the prequels. We love to protect the things we know and appreciate, and I think that’s what makes this series so special. So Mark Hamill recognizing that the prequels are impressive and that it was George Lucas trying something new? I love to see it.
(image: Lucasfilm)
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