I give the side-eye to people who call it “A New Hope” or “Episode IV.”
Well I’ll be damned. TIL!
Although even if he did plan it to be “episode IV…” WHY START AT 4?! lol
Partly because it fit in with the whole idea of being a modern Flash Gordon serial, where you drop in partway through the story. I think it worked pretty well, personally.
Unfortunately, all of his references to old Republic serials (especially the wipes) go over the head of most audiences and even did in 1977. He’s a better movie nerd than he is a director in my opinion.
The wipes are glorious.
It’s one thing they preserved in the prequels (at least, the ones I watched) that I appreciated.
Because he outlined the story from the events of Phantom Menace all the way to Return of the Jedi before the first movie even went into production.
Then he decided to tell the second part of the story first, THEN realized the script was too long for even that and split it into three movies.
He wasn’t sure he’d be able to commit the whole story to film, so he thought the introduction of Vader’s son and the destruction of the super weapon was the most important part and was able to stand up on its own.
When he realized he could actually finish the second act of the story, he surprised the viewing audience by calling Empire Strikes Back “Episode V” and retroactively calling Star Wars “Episode IV A New Hope”.
Yeah, I’m completely convinced that this story is all just Lucas retconning his career.
Based on how documented the prequel are I can see he pen a story outline but didn’t have it funny figured out. So when he did get to write the script, he actually figured out the actual stories, and I’m sure the story changed in his head over the 3 decades of working on the 6 movies.
