This long before TPM...

"Now the fun begins..."

I was thinking - we are about two and a half years out from a brand new Star Wars trilogy. A series of movies that we have not yet been introduced to. The possibilities are endless. The last time we were remotely close to this was leading up to The Phantom Menace.

So, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what we knew (or maybe more entertaining - what we THOUGHT we knew) about Episode 1 at a similar time. This might give is an idea of the kind of information that could be available this time around. My quick math says that we would be looking back to NOVEMBER 1996, a few months before the release of the Special Editions.

What did Episode 1 look like at that time?

 

It looked a lot better in 1996 then it does now.

 

FANBOYS

 

I'm not sure I was watching Star Wars back in 1996...

 

I wasn't born yet.

 

Wait, you weren't even born in 1996? Wow! Just... wow! You must be having the time of your life right now!

As far as I can recall, they didn't announce the coming of the PT until 1997, after the SE.
Do I recall incorrectly?





Star Wars is full of mysteries
/LM

 

Can't remember the exact timeframe, but I still remember discussing with friends in high school an article stating that Charlton Heston was going to play Yoda and some other stuff such as Anakin being a kid.

 

I actually want to say that Lucas first announced that he would be doing the PT definitively in 1994, but I can't remember when they said it would be coming out in 1999.

 

Another wow! I didn't know anything about that until after the SE releases. I guess my learning about it coincided with them announcing 1999 as the year of Episode I. I'm pretty sure they did that in 1997.





"Always in motion, the past is"
/LM

 

Best line of the day!

 

The thing this time around, however, is that the slate is essentially clean. Before, we were all able to speculate what the PT was going to be like and how that led into what happened in the OT. I think this allowed people to create their own backstories of how they wanted the PT to be (and led many to be disappointed that it wasn't what they were expecting or thought it would be) because they knew what the end result was.

 

I watched ESB when the SE was released, but I never even heard of TPM until it came out. Then i went crazy with joy!

 

I didn't start to get really pumped about the Prequels until 1998. I was still high off of the Special Editions (didn't care for the changes, but it was nice seeing the Trilogy on the big screen again), was out of the Army and was going to college and working 3rd shift at night. I remember going to Walmart at midnights to get groceries and pick up those old Power of the Force line of action figures, back in those pre-Ebay dark ages when I had to actually hunt for goodies! I'll never forget seeing the STAP teaser figure at Target in late 1998, and it finally hitting me that this was, for sure, coming.

 

It looked something like this:

 

First official announcement was in Variety, October 4, 1993. GL had effectively committed himself to doing it the previous year.

Back then it was initially intended that all three would be shot back to back, with Episode I released in 1997, the other two in 1998 & 1999 (like LOTR).

 

I vaguely remember this. I was 9 years old when TPM came out so it's kinda blurry. I do strongly remember seeing the OT in theaters for the SE. Also remember the Lucas interview on PBS. My dad had taped it on the VHS...i probably watched it 20 times.

 

Wow. Thanks for correcting. I thought it was 1994, but 1993, wow! Almost 6 full years before the release.