Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About The Prequels

An opinion that has developed in the years since the Prequels is that George Lucas doesn’t understand Star Wars. Web critics RedLetterMedia have discussed it quite a bit, as has actor Simon Pegg, saying that Prequels were a monumental misunderstanding of what made Star Wars great, and likening them to infanticide.

But of course George Lucas understands Star Wars. He just doesn’t see it through the same lens as the fans. To Lucas, Star Wars isn’t a cultural touchstone that defined his childhood. When work on the Prequels began, to him, it was the three movies he had made over nine years. So of course his vision was never going to quite line up with the fans’ because they are two fundamentally different ways of looking at things.

Ultimately, George Lucas did exactly what he intended, which was to tell new stories set in the same universe. Were those stories flawed or even bad? We’ll never stop discussing that. But the Prequels being poor, or not matching up to fan desires and expectations doesn’t mean that the fans have a better understanding than Lucas himself. It just means that they both see Star Wars from a certain point of view.