Were the Prequels in Star Wars really planned from the beginning?

Question

I've heard many people confirm that George Lucas planned all along to have Star Wars Episodes 1-3. I still have trouble believing that Lucas planned this all along and it wasn't an oppurtunity to get back into the limelight and money...One way to solve this is to ask "in 1978 did the original Star Wars really say "Episode 4" on the screen?"

Answer 1

Yes as someone else already said it was actually planned as a 12 part story, but after reading it it became a 3 part, then as people begged for more he released 1-3, there aer no plan for 7-12 to ever be released, hoever if you want to kinow the story they are out as books.

Answer 2

At the time he was making Episode IV, George Lucas probably doubted he'd get the resources to make five more movies. But while the prequels weren't neccessarily planned from the beginning - that is, Lucas didn't always know he'd get the chance - he did have the backstory in mind.

The way I understand it, Lucas began the Star Wars story imagining it as just one film. Very soon, it became clear that the story just wouldn't fit, so he broke it into nine parts and starting in the middle, with Episode IV. However, as he continued the trilogy he realized that his whole story actually fit in just six films. In other words: George Lucas has no story in mind beyond what happened in Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. (Of course, that can be debated endlessly, and we may never know for sure, but that's the official stance on the matter.)

And don't get confused by the EU. George Lucas didn't write it - the authors did. Lucas is letting other authors play in his sandbox, albeit with some restrictions - i.e. "no Yoda backstory," that sort of thing. The EU doesn't cover the ever-elusive Episodes VII - IX. It's original and separate.

Anyway - apparently, the opening crawl didn't say "Episode IV - A New Hope" until its 1981 re-release, but The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980 with the "Episode V" title. Even before then, though, Mr. Lucas had hinted that there was more backstory that he might get to tell someday.

With ILM's spectacular effects on Jurassic Park, Lucas was convinced that special efforts were advanced enough to go back and make the prequels. So it wasn't just a sudden "hey, let's get more money" decision - he had been waiting for the right time.

The bottom line: he had had the story in mind all along, but he didn't have the means until the 90s.

Answer 3

No, no, no... for the people saying it showed Episode IV: A New Hope, they were not old enough, or are now too old to remember, that Star Wars in it's original theatrical release was just Star Wars. Honestly, whether or not all six episodes thus far were originally envisioned that way, it's up to whatever Lucas wants to tell us to make himself richer. Star Wars the movie was made as a standalone movie. If it had some how been a bust and no studios wanted to make any more, it would have been fine just by itself. Just like the Matrix. Had it busted in theatres, we would have just he Matrix and not the other two crappy sequels.

As for Episodes 1 to 3, was this how Lucas envisioned it back in the 1970's when he first thought of Star Wars... probably NOT !! He says he knew the prequels would be more elaborate and he could not make them with the 70's film technology, but then why didn't he just wait for the technology to make them all in sequence?

To me, it's been fun and I've enjoyed everything that's happened with Star Wars, but at this point, Lucas is just full of crap and that's the lore with him...

Answer 4

Yes and episode IV a new hope did show up on the screen at the beginning of the original Star Wars. Originally he planned a nine movie series but decided that the middle three episodes offered more action than the rest . So to get more interest from the public at the time, Lucas made and released the middle three episodes first. Twenty years ago he said he wasn't going to do the rest but of course, he changed his mind. Whether or not the final trilogy will be made, who knows?

Answer 5

i began answering this and my comp tousled so im gonna make this undemanding. I dont understand why persons placed the prequels down plenty. in the experience that they'd obvious the ordinary 3 then how elements a million-3 wouldnt be a wonder to them. None of it replaced into new or distinct. adult males and ladies persons placed them down for too a lot CGI, even if they'd favor to be idiots considering the thats the reason Lucas put off putting out a million-3 for 30 years. He had more beneficial plans for a million-3 even if couldnt do em yet in 80 3. He wanted to ascertain technologies advance first. Ep 3 is my effortless of all 6 even if pick that they'd stuck to the 1983 script in additional techniques. a million. Anakin vs Obiwan replaced into over a powerfull crystal which may ruin the sith or solidify Palpetine's powers. 2. Padme (below one extra call) is arrested contained in the first hours of Palpetine's Emperial rule, and is killed for the length of a get away attempt. 3. rebellion to be leaders attempt to get away corouscant and would favor to conflict their way through a blockade Palpetine places in orbit to administration the federal authorities. also i favor that they'd kept a deleted scene, the position Padme, Ackbar, Mon Mothma (i decide on they'd kept her interior the perfect movie. For a year or so in the previous than EP 3 were given right here accessible contained in the marketplace were pictures of the more youthful Mothma exhibiting up, and note of her huge function), and some human beings conversing about how amazing to wrestle Palpetine's energy.

Answer 6

Yes, it did have Episode 4 on the screen, but only after the first year of running in the theatres. The credit was added in after Empire was released as Episode 5.

Lucas had always planned it as a nine part story.

Answer 7

Star Wars was originally supposed to be a collection of three trilogies, with the only characters present from beginning to end being R2D2 and C-3PO.
Rumor and urban legend has it that at the end of the final film (#9), the droids are babysitting and R2 "urges" C3 to tell the child a bedtime story.
When C3 finally agrees, his tale is supposed to begin "A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

Answer 8

He wrote the back story later.

Answer 9

yeah, what the guy above said

Answer 10

of course he did...he said so