I give the side-eye to people who call it “A New Hope” or “Episode IV.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    60
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Nope. It was originally just Star Wars.

    George Lucas (who lies all the time) claims he always planned for it to be Episode IV, but that introduction was only added when it was re-released before after The Empire Strikes Back came out… and when people initially saw it, they laughed.

    Edit: Got the chronology wrong

    • zcd@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 month ago

      The best star wars was when George didn’t have total control, the first movie was saved in the editing room

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        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.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 month ago

          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.

          • ripcord@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            The wipes are glorious.

            It’s one thing they preserved in the prequels (at least, the ones I watched) that I appreciated.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 month ago

              It’s just too bad people don’t understand that and other serial references, because I think Lucas wanted people to get it.

      • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        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”.

        • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          Yeah, I’m completely convinced that this story is all just Lucas retconning his career.

          • stephfinitely@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            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.

    • Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Am I misremembering? I saw it when it came out and I thought the film had a title card that said Episode IV and everybody in the theater laughed at that. Sometimes different cuts of a movie get released in different areas.

    • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Maybe, maybe not - but I do remember the review of “Return of the Jedi” in my teenage magazine from 1983/84, where indeed they quoted Lucas as saying that there would be 9 movies in total. I think there was even mention of 3 prequels, but it’s been 40 years so… I might be wrong on that.