10 Reasons You’re Wrong About The Star Wars Prequels

2. The Backlash Is Just Boring At This Point

Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith
Lucasfilm

Whether it's a decade's worth of memes having finally rehabilitated their image or not, can we all just agree that hating on the prequels is... well... really boring at this point?

Look, I get it. There are clear aspects of Episodes I, II and III that categorically do not work. That said, can we please acknowledge the toxic effects this kind of backlash has had? Ahmed Best, who brought Jar Jar Binks to life in the prequels, was driven to depression by the hate that went his way. No one needs to hear your sh*tty Jar Jar joke, especially when the character was intended for younger audiences in the first place.

Jake Lloyd, who played Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, retired from acting partially because of negative coverage of his performance. Hayden Christensen also received a barrage of abuse, and while Lloyd's personal circumstances have not improved, it is genuinely moving to see Best and Christensen welcomed back to Star Wars with open arms.

At the end of the day, these films are approaching two decades of existence and they're as much a part of Star Wars as any of the other films. If you don't like them? Fine. But the insipid response that used to dominate internet discourse grew tedious a long time ago, and that goes just as much for the sequels too.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.