I often wonder if George Lucas always intended Star Wars to have the sleek, colorful, and ornate aesthetic we see in the Prequel Trilogy rather than the "used universe" look of the Original Trilogy. The PT's polished appearance wasn't a departure from Lucas's vision but rather a fulfillment of it. When Lucas created the original Star Wars in 1977, he was working with significant technological and budgetary constraints. The "lived-in" look of the OT—with its grimy Millennium Falcon, weathered droids, and utilitarian Rebel bases—was partially born from necessity rather than pure artistic choice. Lucas and his team at ILM were pioneering new special effects techniques, and the "used universe" aesthetic helped hide limitations while adding believability. Consider how the PT showcases gleaming chrome ships, elaborate royal costumes, grand architecture, and vibrant lightsaber duels. This aesthetic aligns much more closely with the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials that initially inspired Lucas. The PT feels like pure space opera—operatic, theatrical, and visually extravagant. Examples: Lucas's earliest concept art by Ralph McQuarrie shows more sleek and stylized designs than what ultimately appeared in the OT. As soon as Lucas had the technology and budget, he began "improving" the OT through Special Edition changes that added more color, movement, and visual flair. The PT's aesthetics more closely align with Lucas's other space fantasy work like Willow, with its emphasis on myth, ceremony, and visual spectacle. In interviews, Lucas often spoke about the PT showing "a more civilized age" before the Empire, suggesting this polished look was always part of his vision for the Republic era. What do you think about this interpretation? Have you noticed other aspects of the PT that suggest it represents Lucas's purest vision for the Star Wars universe? Or am I just thinking about this too hard?
I actually disagree that the PT deviates greatly from the OT's aesthetic, it simply chooses to spend some more time in settings that are richer or closer to galactic centre, or possess some other reason to appear clean and sterile (Kamino being a medical and training facility for example). When we got to Tatooine, what do you know, it looks much as it always did, juxtaposed against the shimmering silver Naboo ship landed in the outskirts. Even Naboo has its industrial areas like the hangar and plasma... chamber... room, and it has foggy swamps not unlike Dagobah. Coruscant has some less salubrious areas where common folk who aren't senators of Jedi hang out. The Droid Factory on Geonosis is a mess of sparks, grinding metal, and fumes, possibly the most 'used' location in the saga. Mustafar is a another heavily industrialised setting, where even its slick interior feels like it was once an operational mining facility. Apart from the Naboo chrome ships, the rest of the PT's offerings are much more in-line with the OT's design choices, such as the Trade Federations un-foldable vehicles or the Jedi's interceptors, not to mention the Clone Army's box of toys. Meanwhile the very first location we ever see in the OT is the gleaming white corridor of a consular ship. We also see Cloud City is similarly clean and orderly, though both have their own grimier underbellies. The Imperial interiors we see also have a nice blend of sleek control areas and more functional depths. There is a certain level of 'refined civilisation', but that's less about rewriting the OT's look as it is as providing a contrast within the context of the Old Republic being less totalitarian and restrictive. There's a clear progression in the PT away from the clean perfection of Naboo's upper crust as the Clone War rages on across planets like Utapau and Kashyyyk, neither of which cleanly fit into the mould of 'clean smoothness'. I think a lot of the illusion that the PT is deviating from the OT probably comes more from its early choice of characters: Outside of Jar-Jar and Anakin, the main cast of TPM is made up of regal Jedi, nobles of Naboo, and Senators from the height of the Senate, giving less of a civilian's point of view that we see in Han or Luke. Though again I feel as the trilogy goes on, and Anakin's influence grows, it starts to mesh with the OT more. There's also a familiarity and loosening up of characters like Obi-Wan and Padme once we get to know them over a longer period. So to answer the question in general: No, I don't think the PT represents a large break with the reasoning behind the OT's design aesthetics, merely a slight shift of focus to areas of the setting less conducive to more weathered locales, at least to begin with, and where deviations are made (that shiny silver royal cruiser) it's clearly to show how wealthy the society that built it was, not a statement about its design being the optimum for all ships in the setting. There is a widening of scale in some ways, CG leading to bigger exterior backdrops, larger armies or crowd shots, and better compositing with alien backgrounds (which the OT could only muster for a couple of bluescreen matte painting shots). But on the whole I don't think making the OT smoother or PT rougher would support the stories either is trying to tell. They use the same techniques of design work and apply them to each planet or ship as required to make sense with their history. A swamp like Dagobah was never going to be a clean, functional space, regardless of when ESB was made, for one example.
I appreciate your thoughtful analysis and agree with some of your points about continuity between certain locations in both trilogies. However, there is a deliberate aesthetic differences that were intentionally created for the PT. Doug Chiang, the Design Director for Episodes I and II, has explicitly stated that much of what was designed for the PT was deliberately different from the OT. This wasn't accidental or merely location-based - it was a conscious design choice to create a distinct visual language for the Republic era. Consider these deliberate design departures: The entire Naboo aesthetic with its Art Nouveau influences and organic curves has no parallel in the OT The sleek, symmetrical architecture of Coruscant's upper levels contrasts sharply with any Imperial design Jedi starfighters and Naboo vessels use completely different design languages from OT ships The ceremonial and ornate qualities of political spaces reflect a different philosophical approach to design While certain locations like Tatooine maintain consistency, these are exceptions rather than the rule. The PT wasn't trying to match the OT's aesthetic - it was (to your point) establishing something deliberately for different regions of the galaxy. Moreover, the design/aesthetic over all was different to show the transition from one era to another. Again, that comes from Lucas and his production designers.
While agree that Lucas wanted each location to have a distinct style, I don't feel it's an OT vs PT thing, as that contrast already existed in the OT. Sure, they wanted to create new designs not seen in the originals, but by using the same design goals generally. As I mentioned the Trade Federation is very 'used future', but the designs couldn't be easily mistaken for Imperial ships and vehicles. Meanwhile the AT-TE feels like a direct cousin of the AT-AT in a way that reinforces their shared heritage. Once again, a private, elegant suite like those on Cloud City isn't a million miles away from Padme or Palpatine's apartments on Coruscant, meanwhile The Works is closer to Cloud City's foundries than the Senate rotunda. If in 1986 Lucas had set a movie on Naboo or something I can't really imagine why it would be any less ornate or rennaissance-esque in its sensibilities. There is a greater focus on those spaces, but not to the extend that the PT uses different methods of world-design. You might as well say that the aesthetics of the A-wing in ROTJ are distinct from those of the X-wing. That would be true, as would the observation that the A-wing is closer to the Jedi Interceptor than the X-wing if you really analyse it. Also I'd argue with the statement that Coruscant is that different from something like, say, the perfect symmetry of the original Death Star, or the highly polished Star Destroyer floors, for instance. Perhaps a tiny bit more colourful at the opera house, but otherwise in keeping with that colder, grey Imperial palette (the sunsets do add some orangey vibrancy to the city at times).
First of all, thanks for the thoughtful reply! You've made some good connections I hadn't considered before. I still think the PT and OT aesthetics are fundamentally different though. Those differences aren't just about showing different locations - they're about Lucas finally being able to make the Star Wars he always wanted. You mentioned "if in 1986 Lucas had set a movie on Naboo, I can't imagine why it would be any less ornate" - but that's exactly my point! The technology of 1986 simply couldn't have created the Naboo we saw in TPM. Those massive practical sets with digital extensions, the underwater city, the elaborate palace interiors - these would have been impossible or severely compromised in the 80s. We might have gotten a "version" of Naboo, but it would have looked dramatically different. Regarding Coruscant vs the Death Star/Star Destroyers - there's a fundamental difference between utilitarian military installations with clean lines and a planet-wide city with thousands of years of architectural history, ornate political buildings, and endless layers of development. The Death Star's symmetry serves a functional purpose; Coruscant's variety and ornamentation serve storytelling and worldbuilding purposes. About the A-wing/Jedi Interceptor comparison - individual ship designs certainly evolve across eras, but we're talking about overall aesthetic philosophies. The PT introduced fundamentally different design languages (like Naboo's Art Nouveau influences) that simply don't exist anywhere in the OT. Check out Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art for the OT - it's WAY more stylized and elegant than what we actually got in the films. Those paintings look a lot more like what we eventually saw in the PT. Even Cloud City (the "fanciest" OT location) was pretty stripped down compared to McQuarrie's original vision. Lucas has talked about how he conceived Coruscant during the original Star Wars development but just couldn't make it happen with 1977 tech. There was no way to create those endless cityscapes with practical effects back then. This isn't really a matter of opinion - Lucas himself and several PT designers (including Doug Chiang) have straight-up confirmed that the prequels finally let them realize Lucas's original vision that was impossible with 70s/80s technology.
@jaimestarr, I won't refute all your points, other than continuing to feel that the deviations aren't as great as you're making it out to be, but I do want to address two small points. For one, the Naboo palace interiors at least were shot on location in real palaces in Italy and Spain. So hardly impossible to pull off in the 80's. As for the Coruscant comparison, Cloud City (which I always go back to) already showed a similar futuristic cityscape with skyscrapers that evokes a similar feel to Coruscant, if slightly less built up (the special edition did add a few more vistas, but the designs were already formalised in 1980). Shots like these for instance: Those shots aren't that different to this:
Listen, I get what you are saying....I really do. That said, I must ask: do you refute that Lucas himself and his production PT designers state that they intentionally had much of the PT have a different aesthetic than the OT? Again, I am not suggesting that there is no connective tissue...clearly there is. Secondly, are the examples you just gave me from the OT from the Special Ediction and are changes/shots/fx that were spiffed up in 1997? Maybe not?
Oh no, I made sure to double check all the shots I chose were from the original While I agree that Lucas and the PT chose to focus on some different areas, what I disagree with is that the methodology behind designing those locations every changed. Rich places remained elegant and smooth, other places retained more lived-in details, and it all depended on what was required for each setting. None of that specifically changed between the trilogies.
I don't put much stock in mining the revision process to gauge "real" intent. Maybe a Lucas OT with less budget and technological limitations would've looked significantly different, maybe not. I will say I think the "used future" label applied to the OT is generally overstated, and a lot of the Disney content leans too far into this style, producing something that doesn't seem as authentic to me as the environments and technology found in the I-VI saga.
Although there may be some truth to the 'used universe' concept being partially due to budget and tech constraints, I believe it was primarily a story choice. There are a lot of 'used universe' elements in parts of the PT, especially in ROTS-as well as the fact that the OT has some notable 'elegant and aesthetically pleasing' elements and locales as well. To me it was simply a choice GL made in order to emphasize how different the era of the Old Republic was (more elegant, prosperous and formal) vs. the era of the Empire (elegance is more rare, and everything but the Empire is more 'ragtag', specifically with the Rebels, to emphasize their struggle, and representing more difficult times across the galaxy as a whole). That's how I've always interpreted it, and it made sense to me, given the state of things during those times.
Lucas did intend for the sleek chrome ships to appear. In the first draft of ANH, Lucas wrote that the Sith Knight who comes to Utapau was flying a chrome ship. 4. WASTELAND BLUFF – FOURTH MOON – UTAPAU Kane Starkiller and his two sons carefully make their way up a rock bluff overlooking the parked silver SITH spacecraft. Kane inspects the craft with his electrobinoculars. It's not surprising that there's a difference, especially since we only saw the Outer Rim planets in the OT, amidst a war. We know that he had to make compromises and adjustments to the designs of the OT. He liked what Macquarie brought to the table.
Lucas has always been focused on merchandise for Lucas Star Wars have always been movies for children thas why the tone of ROTJ is different from ESB Lucas wanted childrent to continue buying Star Wars toys ESB was darker more mature Lucas didnt want families to get away from Star Wars the Prequels as movies have a more childish tone except for ROTS Lucas style has always been family oriented originally Lucas wanted Kira and Sam to be children in his version of the Sequels
This thread has made me appreciate more how the first scenes of ANH aboard the consular ship connect with the gleaming city on Coruscant. It's not a leap of logic to assume the ship just came from there, after rendezvousing with some Rebel spies, of course. It's visually consistent.
I would say that, indeed, Coruscant is a PT aesthetic that is most like the OT films. Mustafar too. However, when you look at Naboo (especially the Gungan city) these are way beyond what we saw in the OT. Again, it's not a bad thing. I just think the PT actually looks a lot more like McQuarrie's original art/aesthetic.
