14 Star Wars Moments George Lucas Wanted You To Forget

12. Star Wars: The Phantom Edit

Why would George Lucas want us all to forget that the Phantom Edit - an alternate cut of his film made by someone else entirely - exists? Well, frankly, because it dramatically improved on his own movie. No matter how many times Lucas claimed he wanted to see the recut, which trimmed out 18 minutes of superfluous fat, or how LucasFilm as a company seemed to tacitly approve of its existence, the Phantom Edit represents something that Lucas was never able to achieve - a near universally acclaimed edit that actually improved the original. For every edit Lucas was criticsed for - much to his near comedic outrage - the Phantom Edit offered a bitter tasting precedent that it wasn't just the fans complaining about obligatory changes that was the root of criticisms of his own edits, it was rather the shoddiness of his post-release reworking.