Why Was Star Wars Made Out Of Order?
Star Wars movies were made out of order because George Lucas had laid out much more of the story in his mind than could fit in the first film.
Star Wars has become such a major Force (capital F), a behemoth of storytelling, that we need movie and series guides just to know what order to actually watch the entirety of the franchise. But that wasn’t always the case and in many ways, Star Wars being made out of order has come to define some of what people love, and hate, about George Lucas’s approach.
It’s easy to forget now, but when Star Wars first hit the big screen all the way back in 1977, it wasn’t totally certain within industry circles that the movie would be a hit. Far from it. In fact, George Lucas reportedly was so worried about the performance that he left the continental United States in order to avoid the stink of possible failure.
But what went overlooked at the time, and didn’t really crop up until the next movie in the franchise came out, was that this first movie wasn’t actually the beginning of the Star Wars story. In fact, viewers were picking up the tale a whole four episodes in. In this way, Star Wars being made out of order would appear to have been decided retroactively.
So why did things shift to calling the first movie Episode IV – A New Hope after the fact and why was Star Wars made out of order? Well, the answer lies in how George Lucas envisioned the entire story and how he didn’t think the first film would have a chance at getting made at all.
At its core, the Star Wars movies and story made out of order is a look into Lucas’s vision and scope of the franchise, coupled with how movies in Hollywood were actually getting made at the time.
George Lucas Mapped The Star Wars Franchise And Story Before The First Movie
As George Lucas was putting together the entirety of the Star Wars storyboard in his mind, he had an idea about the histories and backstories around many of the characters. In his head, it wasn’t just about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader but rather about really everyone in this world and how their stories would overlap and intersect. Star Wars was made out of order on screen, but not in his mind.
This web was so large, and the stories so refined, that he saw the entirety of it to be too much for one film, or really even three. And in that, there was a problem. Because while he had a large scope for what things could look like, he also knew that to get a movie made in Hollywood in the 1970s (or even now) there had to be a central story and a tight arc.
In pitching the movie, at least to start, there was simply too much going on. So he decided to pick the elements of it that would get a studio excited and also be the easiest to tell. That’s why Star Wars (later titled Episode IV – A New Hope) picked up on the franchise, at the time, half of the way through. This, in essence, became part of why Star Wars was made out of order.
George Lucas had been writing and working on Star Wars for a number of years before it would ever hit the screen. It went through numerous iterations with the characters, tone, names, relationships, and even the plot moving during this time. One of the first versions was called The Adventures of Starkiller and had Anakin Starkiller as the main character. This was obviously later revised.
And as he worked through the different story elements, crafting them and honing in around just the story he wanted to tell, it became clear that there was way, way more than one movie. Star Wars was made out of order but it wasn’t for lack of effort, far from it. It was because there was so much going on.
Star Wars Is Made Out Of Order And Later Becomes Episode IV
Eventually, George Lucas was able to get to the core of the story he wanted to tell, and one that a studio would actually agree to finance. The latter part was harder than it would seem, especially considering the overwhelming popularity of science fiction in movies that we see now.
But in the mid and later-70s, this simply wasn’t the case. Space operas weren’t at all considered commercially viable, so even getting the cash to make the flick wasn’t easy. Studios, at the time, didn’t know that Star Wars was made out of order. They thought they were just getting one flick.
As George Lucas was writing the film, he said that he kept having to shift things around, taking elements from different parts of the story and rearranging them into a narrative arc that made sense and would appeal to viewers.
In doing this, there were also parts of the story that had to be left on the cutting room and writing room floor. But Lucas did say he was already thinking about making more movies down the line.
By the time he was done with the Star Wars script, he had three movies mapped out but it wasn’t clear those would ever be made (in order or not). That’s because there was a pretty solid fear that the first Star Wars movie would bomb.
In fact, George Lucas was so convinced that it was going to flop that he went to Hawaii for a couple of weeks around the movie’s release.
But it ended up not being the case and it was, of course, a massive success. In total, the film has earned almost $776 million dollars at the box office on its just $11 million budget (which was more than originally planned, but who cares now?).
Because the first movie was a success, and there would clearly be other movies coming in this franchise, Lucas was free to go ahead and rename the film to Episode IV – A New Hope. That wasn’t in the original title, but on subsequent titlings and releases it became the actual name. This signaled that the story was picking up somewhere, around the middle and viewers quickly found out Star Wars was made out of order.
For first-run audiences, this would have been too confusing a title, and because it wasn’t clear that any more movies would be made it didn’t make sense at the time. But in Lucas’s mind, the story was already fleshed out both before and after when we first met Luke Skywalker.
The Prequel Trilogy Came Next
Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi were released in 1980 and 1983 respectively, coming fairly quickly after the first film. Because, again, George Lucas did have the scope of the story already pretty much mapped out and set. All that had to happen was get everyone back and the rest was movie history. Worldwide those films made more than $1.7 billion at the theaters. For those purposes, though Star Wars was made out of order, the original trilogy fit together linearly.
But everyone knew that the story had actually “started” on the fourth story which meant that there were (potentially) prequel movies that needed telling as well. Of course, because of the nature of the Star Wars universe, there was also the chance that more movies in this universe and galaxy could pick up after Return of the Jedi.
After all, the original actors weren’t getting any younger. So continuing on from there would have probably made more functional sense than going back in time to sort out the backstory for Darth Vader in particular.
And sure, while now it’s easy to see the prequel trilogies as the next “logical” step, that wasn’t always the case. 16 years passed between when Return of the Jedi hit theaters and when Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released. During that more than a decade-and-a-half, the plan for the next Star Wars story was changed more than once.
While Lucas had tied up really any loose ends by the end of Return of the Jedi (Luke and Leia are related, Darth and the Emperor are dead, everyone is happy), there was still a thought the sequel trilogy would be the next in line.
But Lucas made it somewhat clear that he had no real interest in doing that, feeling like the full story scope of the original group had been done and there was nothing else really to explore in the “after” of the Death Star exploding (for the second time).
But in the mid-1990s, renewed interest in Star Wars began to pick back up and Lucas then felt it was a good time to go back and tell the Anakin Skywalker origin story. He got started on that in 1994 and The Phantom Menace came out in 1999.
Was it the perfect movie to come out after all the hype and hoopla? Most definitely not. And in general, the prequel trilogy ended up being a pretty disappointing affair even if it did lend some clarity to the overall story.
The Sequel Trilogy Closes Out The Skywalker Saga But George Lucas Had Different Ideas
In 2012, wanting to retire and move on from the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas sold the rights to Disney for more than $4 billion dollars. The stories and characters were now in the Mouse House’s hands and Lucas was mostly out of the mix. While he had written some possible treatments for more movies, none of them were used.
Lucas hasn’t spoken much about his thoughts on the matter or how the movies were taken after he took his hands off the steering wheel. Though he hasn’t exactly come out and praised them. It was reported that his ideas for more stories would have centered on Princess Leia uniting the Galaxy and that he didn’t think the Emperor was, in any way, still alive after Return of the Jedi.
The movies would have also focused on Luke Skywalker rebuilding the Jedi order. This part was dealt with, some, in how Star Wars took things. We know Luke trained Ben Solo and he picks up Grogu in The Mandalorian so that stayed true to Lucas’s goals.
But by and large, the movies were Disney fodder, and Lucas was left out of the decisions making process.
More Star Wars Movies Are On The Way, And Will Again Be Out Of Order
The landscape of Star Wars, as a franchise, has certainly changed in recent years with the series on Disney+ becoming more important to the story’s fabric. These series have done much to fill in timeline gaps, expand on secondary characters, and really just give the whole thing a more nuanced approach.
So getting movies and series out of order isn’t all that much of a big deal anymore. In fact, it’s something of the standard. With that, it’s no real surprise that the next Star Wars movies will all come in different timelines.
James Mangold’s movie will go way back in time and detail how the Jedi came to be. Dave Filoni’s movie will be about the New Republic, weaving together shows in The Mandalorian’s timeline. And finally, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s film will come after The Rise of Skywalker, setting off a future for the franchise.
In all, looking back on it, it doesn’t seem weird that George Lucas released originally released the Star Wars movies out of order, starting with the fourth film in the franchise. But that is through the lens of our current state of movie franchises. At the time, it was pretty unheard of but spoke to the massive world he envisioned for the Galaxy, the Empire, the Jedi, the Sith, and more.
