Chronologically-speaking, The Phantom Menace is the first of the Star Wars movies in order, but in real life, it was the space opera’s fourth theatrical entry, arriving 16 years after Return of the Jedi concluded the Original Trilogy. Although Episode I was an overwhelming financial success, making over $924 million worldwide during its initial theatrical release, it was met with mixed reviews, with one of the major criticisms being its more juvenile tone compared to its predecessors. This has prompted years of discourse over this aspect of the movie, and now the 80-year-old George Lucas, the man who created the Star Wars universe, has come to the defense of The Phantom Menace’s tone.
The first Prequel Trilogy installment marked the first time that Lucas was the director and sole writer behind a Star Wars movie since the original, now known as A New Hope, was released in 1977, and he did the same on Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Although Lucas hasn’t been involved with the Star Wars franchise since selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 (aside from naming a character from The Mandalorian), naturally it’ll always be considered his crowning professional achievement. So while taking part in a discussion about his career at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was awarded with a Palme d’Or, there was a fair amount of Star Wars discussion, including him defending The Phantom Menace with the following (via THR):
It was supposed to be a kid’s movie for 12-year-olds that were going through puberty, who don’t know what they’re doing, and are asking all the big questions: What should I be worried about? What’s important in life? And Star Wars has all those things in there. They’re buried in there but you definitely get it, especially if you’re young.
George Lucas went on to argue that those who gave The Phantom Menace bad reviews (it has a 53% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and 56% Audience Score) were “critics and fans who had been 10 years old when they saw the first one” and didn’t want to watch a children’s movie. Coming out of The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Banks earned an especially big thrashing from audiences and arguably serves as the best representation of the movie’s juvenile side, though the backlash sadly led to actor Ahmed Best nearly dying by suicide. The negative reaction to Jar Jar reminded Lucas of similar complaints that emerged from A New Hope and Return of the Jedi:
Everybody said the same thing about 3P0, that he was irritating and we should get rid of him. When I did the third one it was the Ewoks: ‘Those are little teddy bears. This is a kid’s movie, we don’t want to see a kids’ movie. I said: ‘It is a kids’ movie. It’s always been a kids’ movie.
While the amount of people who rank The Phantom Menace high up on the ranking of Star Wars movies is few and far between, it still has some good moments, like Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s fight against Darth Maul, which we ranked #2 of the best lightsaber duels. For his part, George Lucas doesn’t regret targeting Episode I towards a younger demographic rather than trying to deliver something more mature simply to appeal to those who’d grown up on the Original Trilogy. With Star Wars, it’s a fine balance of both appealing to existing fans and drawing in new ones, something that resumed on the theatrical side once the Sequel Trilogy launched in 2015.
You can revisit The Phantom Menace and all the other Star Wars movies and tie-in TV shows with a Disney+ subscription. If you’d rather look to the future, then our guide of the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows has you covered on what’s slated for the coming years.