EJ Moreno looks at the re-evaluation of the Star Wars Prequels…
Re-released last Friday to celebrate its 25th anniversary and timed to May the Fourth, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace impressed with an $8.1 million domestic haul during its rerelease.
It’s going for about $14.5 million globally, which is pretty impressive for what was once one of the most hated films. For comparison, the 40th-anniversary rerelease of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi opened to $5.1 million in April last year and is considered one of the more nostalgic favorites of the bunch.
This box office hit for the franchise coincides with an overall swing in all things Star Wars prequels. Something like this feels strange if you were around in the early 00s. These movies and the horrid fan reaction pushed George Lucas to sell Star Wars/LucasFilm to Disney, removing himself from all things films. Now, one of the more maligned films from his resume is number two at the domestic box office.
Is it revisionist history, hate for the modern era, or the slow reworkings of the prequel trilogy ideas from one mastermind? In a mixture of all of it, one man can take credit for the reinvention of what was once considered DOA, and that’s Dave Filoni.
George Lucas enlisted filmmaker Dave Filoni to create an animated film based on The Clone Wars. Set shortly after Episode II — Attack of the Clones, the cartoon film was meant to bridge the gap and fill in the expansive world created in live-action films.
It had the opposite reaction, giving fans and critics more fuel in the fire that felt like an anti-Star Wars movement growing. The general public wasn’t happy with what was happening, and the diehard fans quickly rejected anything. The film would find new life, serving as the pilot episode to the television series of the same name, which premiered on Cartoon Network two months after the film’s release.
Filoni’s The Clone Wars series shockingly received a positive reception and later acclaim from critics. Its growing popularity propelled it to become Cartoon Network’s highest-rated show during its initial run. All of this was happening in the backdrop of a film met with lackluster fanfare and the eventual sale of Star Wars to Disney.
This all came from a filmmaker with the time, patience, and ability to flesh out Lucas’s ideas. Filoni took the pieces presented in the films, like Anakin Skywalker’s slow turn to the Dark Side and the Jedi/Sith struggle, and made them feel like well-realized ideas.
While it’s not entirely too fair to compare what you can do as a storyteller with a trilogy of films to multiple seasons of a show, it was almost a night-and-day reception to ideas that honestly weren’t too far off of what was already there. As a longtime apologist of Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, it felt like someone could clarify what I enjoyed for the masses.
That’s not to say that Filoni didn’t present many of his original stellar ideas. Ahsoka Tano is all you need to say to prove that he had what it took to save it all. Seeing Ahsoka and Anakin’s unique story come together and tear us apart was a stroke of genius masterwork that the franchise has tried to replicate often after.
With Clone Wars ending, Filoni moved to Star Wars Rebels. It was another animated series used to fill in the gaps between films, this time between Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars film. We also got introduced to another fan-favorite character in Ezra Bridger.
Between the new characters or revamping once-dead characters like Darth Maul, Filoni earned enough Star Wars tokens to cash it in for a big prize. In the streaming era, Lucasfilm asked the filmmaker to work his magic again by giving an overlooked character idea from the Lucas days a makeover. This time, though, it would be live-action.
We can not take anything away from what Jon Favreau did for The Mandalorian, but it always felt like a way to backdoor many of Filoni’s ideas into a new era. Favreau did some great work throughout this time, shaping the future, but it was exactly what Star Wars was already doing in animation: reclaiming Lucas’ ideas through a new vision.
It was only a matter of time before The Mandalorian introduced Clone Wars and Rebels characters. We’d meet live-action Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano, who would take prominent roles in the stories.
It was seeing the childlike wonderment of the prequels with the Filoni motifs, and it would soon be all Star Wars fans and the studio wanted. Soon after, Disney+ would have shows based on Boba Fett, Obi-Wan, The Bad Batch, and more. It was all set in the prequels’ once scorched lands but mainly warmly regarded.
None of this was perfect and met without criticism, but we saw nostalgia aimed nowhere near the originals but the films that divided the 00s.
Hell, we even have Hayden Christensen back in the franchise and being warmly regarded again. His appearances in Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi were met with fans rejoicing, something a fan in 2002 would have thought would be undoable.
In 2023, Dave Filoni became Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer, putting the filmmaker in a position of power like never before. Originally brought on to craft the animated spin-off, Filoni now helms the entire arc, taking his appreciation of the prequel him.
Not only will we see Filoni pen the script for The Mandalorian & Grogu, but he’s also working on a film project that combines everything we’ve seen on Disney+. The Mandoverse—or Filoniverse movie—will combine the storylines of Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and the forthcoming Skeleton Crew.
While Rey Skywalker is also getting another shot at the film universe, fans (and the studio) seem far more focused on bringing to life this nostalgic trip.
A re-release of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith will really test this theory. The streaming numbers for Star Wars are pretty weak, but theatrical fans want to venture back to space politics and Midi-chlorins. Putting out the other entries will see if there’s just a clamoring for what 1999 had to offer or if Filoni truly helped rehabilitate this once-doomed era.
Either way, it’s fantastic to see all things prequels finally having their time to shine. Again, as someone who saw the madness George Lucas had cooked up back then, it’s nice to see that with some fine-tuning by Filoni, it all fell into place.
SEE ALSO: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at 25 – Still a franchise low-point?
What are your thoughts on the Star Wars prequels 25 years on? Has Dave Filoni’s work brought them a newfound appreciation? Let us know your thoughts on our socials @FlickeringMyth…
EJ Moreno
