“A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY…”
George Lucas was high-minded to bring to life his biggest ambition: remake Flash Gordon, after releasing his debut American Graffiti, which was a huge success and so, well-acclaimed by the critics. However, not successful in making his way in this new masterpiece. As a result, he decided to create a whole new story, initially called Whills’ Diary, but had the same idea to talk about jedi’s training.
At first, it was rejected by most of the big movie producers until it was accepted by Alan Ladd Jr., responsible for 20th Century Fox. The movie was programmed to be written and directed in July of 1973 for US$ 8 millions. Some of the elements of the franchise were thought of since the beginning, such as the Palpatine Style to build up the Empire and the Sith, but the transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader and neither the sequence of eleven movies weren’t really planned, according to evidence in Lucas’ scratches.
“YOUR FOCUS DETERMINES YOUR REALITY”
George Lucas bore in mind, since the beginning, following “The Hero’s Journey” in its twelve steps building such an irreproachable narrative, according to Travis Langley, Psychology teacher of Henderson State University and author of Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind book. With that, the director created the model of blockbusters known in the modern days, meaning producing entertainment content to catch people’s eye and cause impact achieving, consequently, an enormous financial strike.
The first movie (Star Wars: A New Hope) was launched on May 25th of 1977 and, by the time, was the highest grossing of all times raising US$ 775.3 million dollars, followed by Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), with US$ 547.9 million and finished the trilogy by Star Wars: The Return of Jedi (1983) with US$ 475.3 million.
“WE’LL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU. NO ONE’S EVER REALLY GONE. A THOUSAND GENERATIONS LIVE IN YOU NOW”
Apart from that, it’s imperative to remember that Star Wars keeps its success due to the constant production of series and movies in distinct formats since live-actions until animations, such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. Because of that, from the elder to newer generations get to know a little bit of the franchise and develop a penchant for its subject, special effects and compelling narrative. Who doesn’t like all that lightsabers, extraterrestrial looks, soundtrack and droids?
“I AM ONE WITH THE FORCE AND THE FORCE IS WITH ME”
#5 curiosities about the franchise:
- Why “May The Fourth” if the first movie was launched on May 25th?
If you think it’s just because of how it sounds, you’re right. Due to the similarity to the “May The Force Be With You” quote, May 4th was elected the Star Wars’ Day.
2. How was the order of the movies established?
Actually, there’s no explanation for that, however, there is a hypothesis that George Lucas used a literary technique called In Media Res, or ‘in the middle of things’, which means the story starts without any introduction. And it was used by Sheakspeare in Hamlet and by Homer in The Iliad.
3. Why R2-D2?
During the post-production of American Graffiti (1973) the sound editor asked Lucas to say the abbreviation of the “roll#2 of the second dialogue”, which was R2D2. He enjoyed the sonority, then kept to use it later in Star Wars.
4. Yoda and Einstein? What do they have in common?
As Yoda is the symbol of wisdom in the movies and Einstein is one of the most renowned scientists of history, Stuart Freeborn (the special effects makeup artist) inspired the character look in the scientist, mixing the face of the former with the latter.
5. Chewbacca inspiration.
This is simple and cute. Chewbacca was inspired by George Lucas’ dog, which was furry and weighed 58 kilos.
AUTHOR’S TIP: If you have never watched the Star Wars movies and series and want to know more about each of them, (or even would love to rewatch!) click here and have fun!
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The article below was edited by Ana Carolina Micheletti.
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