Thanks to Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak, many fans have just learned that a long time ago in a galaxy far far away George Lucas wanted every “Star Wars” film to have a different director. The source of this material? We’ll have to jump back decades for this nugget that has just surfaced. In 1980 Alan Arnold released the often forgotten ‘Once Upon a Galaxy’ which examined the making of “Empire Strikes Back.”
In it, producer Gary Kutz was quoted as saying:
“The problem you encounter when doing a follow-up to a very successful picture is that there are directors who shy away from the project for fear of being overshadowed by the reputation of the first film. George Lucas and I interviewed several directors, and one said: ‘I don’t feel like it would be good for my career now to do something that is in a sense a successor to someone else’s work.’ But neither George nor I saw Empire as that kind of project. In terms of a saga of interrelated stories we always wanted to have each picture directed by a different person, to add a slightly different style or focus to the overall development, so that when they were eventually seen in a group one could see how the individual filmic styles added to the development of the characters.”
You can see Szostak’s tweet below:
“[George Lucas and I] always wanted to have each [#StarWars] picture directed by a different person… so that when they were eventually seen in a group, one could see how the individual filmic styles added to the development of the characters.” – producer Gary Kurtz, March 1979 pic.twitter.com/T3BTBJ4kp2
— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) September 22, 2019
This worked fine in the original trilogy which saw George Lucas giving us “A New Hope,” Irvin Kershner tackling “Empire Strikes Back,” and finally Richard Marquand giving us “Return of the Jedi.” However, when it was time for the prequel trilogy it seemed that Lucas decided this was no longer the route to go and directed all three movies himself. Disney initially wanted to return to a new director tackling each episode of the franchise when J.J. Abrams gave us ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ but we’ll now see the director returning for ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘ to finish off the Skywalker Saga.
Do you think that the “Star Wars” franchise would have been better if Lucas hadn’t directed the prequel trilogy? Should Disney have continued going this route with their own trilogy or would you have preferred to see what a direct sequel by Abrams would have been preferred over Rian Johnson‘s ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Comic Book
