As far back as 1995, Lucas worked on the draft of a new Star Wars film.
Long before the title The Phantom Menace was announced to the public, Lucas himself had conceived of a new storyline. Perhaps he had an eye on building a story after Return of the Jedi. However, he dared to set the time period in the past and set the focus on Darth Vader's childhood.
Lucas himself says in the bonus video that he wanted the new trilogy to be more visual than the earlier old trilogy. The reason for this is the advancement of computer graphics and other visual technologies. In the old trilogy, Yoda was a puppet, so it was impossible to create images of him walking and jumping. Therefore, there was a limit to the expression of the characters. This is called the limit of story design. These limitations limited the overall scenario, quality and development of the film. Lucas was very frustrated by this. This was very frustrating for Lucas, even though the film did well at the box office, despite its ability to dispel the notion of a children's science fiction film. Then he sold the computer department to that Steve Jobs, made him invest enough money and stepped away from directing and went into seclusion. To wait patiently for advances in visual technology. In the meantime, the visual technology developed little by little, such as Jurassic Park, directed by his friend Steven Spielberg, and The Terminator, produced by his rival, James Cameron.
In 2000, CG technology proved to be of a certain degree of perfection, and Lucas took up the challenge of writing the screenplay for Episodes 1, 2 and 3 in earnest. Even if the limitations of the story design could be overcome, if the scenario and background settings were weak, it would be ruined. We've waited patiently.
The old trilogy caused a stir with the idea of Darth Vader being the father of the main character Luke, an idea that no ordinary person would ever think of. This put Lucas under pressure to come up with even more extraordinary ideas. He thought that if he could capture Darth Vader's childhood on film, he could create a number of settings and ideas that would open up a whole new world of possibilities for story design.
We wanted to recreate the visual experience for audiences who already knew Darth Vader as a father. It's also Lucas's way of clarifying the questions of the old trilogy in Episodes 1, 2 and 3.
For example, Anakin created C-3PO as a child, Palpatine is from the same planet as Luke's mother, Obi-Wan was a Jedi apprentice when he was young, and so on.
Lucas also raises political themes. The story of the birth of the Galactic Empire. To explain this transition from democracy to dictatorship, Lucas studied republicanism in modern history for many years. He uses models such as Napoleon and Washington after the French Revolution and Nazi Hitler to compound, develop and enrich the script. Even by himself, Lucas can create a difficult but complete film.
According to Lucas, he wanted to visually appeal to the general public with themes that were only understood by a few enthusiasts in the old trilogy. The Glass Showcase Episode.
The war in Iraq had just begun at the time of the release of Episode II, and Star Wars was in danger of being influenced by the Bush administration.
As a result, the new trilogy would also be a commercial success, but it would be ridiculed for clarifying the conclusion of the story in a way that was easy to understand. This is because the life of Darth Vader has been completed as six films in one.
Now I thought about having someone else take over the company, a work that has matured in 40 years. Lucas himself is no longer young. He admitted that he was too young to devise the story by himself.
After selling the company and its rights to Disney for the release of The Force Awakens, Lucas gave his permission for several screenwriters to write the film. Lucas's protégés are planning to recreate a new hope in The Force Awakens and take the movie world by defying the audience's imagination with The Last Jedi. No one can stop this. It goes so far out of control that even Lucas can't stop it. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)