Star Wars: Episode VIII Director Defends Prequel Trilogy

When it comes to the Star Wars universe, fans have long been divided over one of the franchise’s trilogies. The original trio of films are all but revered amongst fans, and last year kicked off a brand-new trilogy to critical success. However, the prequel trilogy consisting of Episodes I – III have been at the center of an on-going debate since it kicked off in 1999. Now, the director of Star Wars: Episode VIII is speaking out about the prequel trilogy and defending it with a rather interesting point.

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Over on Twitter, Rian Johnson chose to speak out in defense of the prequels when a group of writers took the films to task. Saladin Ahmed wrote, “While the prequel sucked, their main problem isn’t that they sucked, it’s that they were a bad idea.”

Jeet Heer responded to Ahmed to agree, writing, “Completely agree — prequels were bad idea even apart from poor execution. Ideally, Star Wars would exfoliate away from past to new stories.”

However, Johnson had a completely different take on the prequels. “Pssst,” he tweeted “Devil’s advocate: the prequels are a 7 hour long kids movie about how fear of loss turns good people into fascists. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”

Of course, fans of the Star Wars franchise have been stuck between these two opinions for some time now. Some fans disparage the prequel trilogy because of its childlike tone, but others defend it for the very same reason. The Star Wars prequels were geared for two different audiences: longtime fans and newcomers. When George Lucas released Star Wars: Episode IV, there were few prejudices he had to worry about. But, in order to successfully bridge that gap years later for the prequels, Lucasfilm opted to give Episodes I – III a more varied tone.

And, clearly, their existence is still something fans argue about. In fact, the debate may never end.

Star Wars: Episode VIII is written and directed by Rian Johnson, continuing the saga films. Star Wars expands their universe with Rogue One, the first of their new standalone movies that take place without a focus on anyone named Skywalker.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits US theaters December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it’s the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core “Skywalker Saga” of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue Onetells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: “Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.”

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters today.