Movies - TV
How George Lucas' Private World-building Became The Star Wars Prequel Series
By RAFAEL MOTAMAYOR
The “Star Wars” movies are undoubtedly a cinematic achievement, bringing iconic characters and a legendary soundtrack into an ever-expanding galaxy with endless storytelling potential. “Star Wars” creator George Lucas had devised such an extensive history and deep lore for the franchise that it prompted him to develop a new trilogy that would serve as a prequel series.
In a 2019 interview on StarWars.com, Lucas shared that he based the plot of his prequel trilogy on the backstories he had written to establish the world of “Star Wars” prior to the very first film. “I had all the backstory, I had basically the three scripts. Or at least the material that was in the three scripts. Then it's just a matter of doing the details,” Lucas admitted.
For the prequel trilogy, Lucas still had to come up with many in-universe explanations for the sci-fi concepts introduced in the original trilogy and fill in the gaps in the backstories. For instance, Lucas included hundreds of Jedi in the prequel films to match what was revealed in the original trilogy and envisioned a history of greed and selfishness on the part of the Sith that nearly caused their extinction.