20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
Everything you never knew about the best film in the prequel trilogy.
As much as most Star Wars fans have pretty mixed feelings about the prequel trilogy, there's a strong consensus that the finale, Revenge of the Sith, is by far the strongest of the three.
It may have its wooden dialogue, questionable acting, and unintentionally hilarious moments, but it also satisfyingly dovetails the prequels into the original trilogy, while paying-off Anakin Skywalker's (Hayden Christensen) transformation into Darth Vader in rewarding fashion.
It goes without saying that, like its two predecessors, Revenge of the Sith's production was extremely challenging and ambitious, as George Lucas continued to grapple with state-of-the-art digital filmmaking tech which, in the opinion of many, ended up being his undoing on these films.
But the absolutely gigantic scale of the production, which didn't hit cinemas until almost years after shooting started, ensures there are a ton of fascinating behind-the-stories to sink your teeth into.
From the radical divergences of Lucas' original script to some of the unexpected technical challenges the VFX team faced, the certain "guest director" who helped Lucas out, and everything else in-between, these are the 20 must-know facts of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith...
20. The Original Cut Was Almost Four Hours Long
It's true of basically every movie ever made that the original cut ends up being significantly longer than the whittled-down version that makes it into cinemas, though in the case of Revenge of the Sith, the length of the original edit is quite extreme indeed.
The film's final release clocks in at a fairly hefty 140 minutes, but the first cut? Just shy of a stonking four hours, with the opening battle and Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) rescue sequence concluding over an hour into the film alone.
Fans being fans, a petition was inevitably started to try and convince Lucas to release the four-hour cut, though considering it would require him to spend money polishing another 100 minutes of material - much of which may have featured heavily incomplete VFX - it's likely not worth the bother.
Still, it sure would be neat if the epic four-hour version materialised one day.