Why were the Star Wars movies made out of order?

Question

And this question is my sons idea so charge him the 5 points.

der_grosse_e yer full of it. Dismal box office takes for I,II & III??? I & III are in the top 10 all time gross, and II is number 19. I'm sure alot of movie producers would be ok with such "dismal" showings. See the link:
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross

a_b He also said that he would never release 4-6 in their original condition, but they will be at Walmart on Tuesday the 12th Sept., so lets keep our fingers crossed about 7-9 huh?

Answer 1

The first Star Wars movie filmed (Episode IV: A New Hope) was from midway in the series as it allowed George Lucas to have a solid story line, coupled with action and effects, yet could stand on its own.

...remember, nobody knew that this type of movie would even be successful, let alone lead to five more installments!

With Episode IV in the can, and a box office juggernaut, the logical course of action was to film Episode V and Episode VI - as they had the same cast of characters and the plot line could be followed from Episode IV.

With time, and with improvements to technology, Mr. Lucas went on to refine his first three Star Wars films, and eventually to shoot three more, which told the story of how things got to be the way they were in Episode IV.

Yes, it was something of an afterthought (according to some), but in any event, by filming in the order he did he managed to get his story told and to make a boatload of $$ in the process!

Answer 2

You know way back in the late 70s a young visionary put together a remarkable science fiction film called STAR WARS (not episode IV a new begining or hope or whatever just STAR WARS) This young maverick produced this film on a shoe string budget of only $8 Million dollars (compare to the subsequent but comtemporary START TREK I which cost over $40 million). George Lucas' original inspiration was the samurai movie THE HIDDEN FORTRESS by Akira Kurasawa Start Wars caught the imagination of the film going public and revived the sagging Sci-fi genre. Revived is an understatement. It was the spearhead of an explosion of science fiction movies. Cheap copies vomited out by the 100's. During this time George Lucas enjoyed some financial success and he was stuck in a quandry. "What the hell to do next" Lucas had kept his sequel options open by having darth vader spin away out of control. But at the time he had no idea of where to go next. They used the new found wealth and still fertile imagination to produce one of the best films of the series THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. AT that time that was film number 2 but he did start talking about a trilogy of trilogies. Nine films total with STAR WARS as number one. Sadly Lucas and his cronies became saturated with wealth and success. Bloated with toy money they felt they could do no wrong. As it is they have done very little right since. This francise started to spiral towards the planet when the first ewoks appeared (Ewoks..cute..make good toys) It was only later when ILM was ready to belly up to the moola trough that they started talking about a grand vision with the original STAR WARS becoming episode 4. Subsequent releases of STAR WARS were re-edited (sorry stan) to include EPISODE IV A NEW BEGINING. This is just another sad example of a sincere talent ruined by early success and the ensuing greed. When you are so powerful that no one can tell you they think your idea stinks you tend to include evey stupid idea that clutters your mind (this is the same thing that is wrong with the last Harry Potter Book). The last films are nothing more then advertisements for toys and video games. How else can you expain the endless boring chases that pollute the last three movies (I don't remember which the last three [episodes 1-3] in my mind are now all blended together. How teh else do you explain Jar-Jar Binks? Last I heard was that Lucas HAD been planning a SW 7-9 but due to the dismal box office of SW 1-3 they are only going to publish the last three scripts on the internet. Of course now they have the animated series and supposedly a live action TV series is in the works so all that might change. What ever does happen you can be sure that Lucas will claim that it was his original vision all along.

Answer 3

Probably because George Lucas had plans for only Episodes IV, V and VI in 1977. Also, there was no guarantee that Episode IV: A New Hope - originally released as just "Star Wars" - was going to be a hit. When it turned out to be a box office bonanza, there was no question that there would be sequels. However, Lucas apparently didn't yet have the backstory fully fleshed out.

Besides, the story is more meaningful presented out of order. If you see the movies in the "actual" order, you miss out on the delicious shock of Luke Skywalker learning that Darth Vader is his father.

Answer 4

George Lucas originally planned 15 stories and changed his mind a few times dropping his planned movies to 12, then 9 then ultimately the 6.

After Return of the Jedi, he said he would wait until technology had improved enough to get the special effects better. After ILM did Jurassic Park, he thought it was time to make more and he did them as prequels to the original 3.

Answer 5

My mom is a huge Star Wars fan and according to her, George Lucas proposed his stories to the studios and they were not interested in any of them except Star Wars...then that became a huge hit, so they continued with the following 2 films. I'm assuming that they waited so long to make the first three films because back then there was not a demand for it and in the mid 80s George Lucas was doing so many other projects. People who have read the books were requesting the rest of the films to be made and so finally he did it.

Answer 6

The 4th novel in the series had the strongest plot. The first 3 had weak plots, as we saw in the movies.

There are 9 novels in all. There has been rumors that the last 3 novels would be made into movies, but Lucas has said no.

Answer 7

Because George Lucas wanted to savor the surprise of Darth Vader being the father of Luke so he made 4, 5 ,and 6 so you would find out when luke found out :) *yes i'm a star wars nerd*

Answer 8

When Lucas came up with the idea of Star Wars, the technology wasn't out the way he wanted to protray the story. So he waited the year for technology to catch up with his thoughts. Perhaps he will do the same for the last 3

Answer 9

George Lucas wasn't sure that his movies would be received well, so he wanted to put out the most exciting one first to make sure people liked it.

Answer 10

Sponge-bob.