Hayden Christensen defends George Lucas' Star Wars prequel dialogue. The star first joined the popular science-fiction franchise in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones as Jedi Anakin Skywalker. Christensen is set to return to Star Wars in the new Disney+ television series Obi-Wan Kenobi as Darth Vader, Anakin's Dark Side persona. The upcoming series also sees Ewan McGregor reprise his role as the titular character who must protect a young Luke Skywalker from the reach of the Galactic Empire 10 years after Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
Following the conclusion of the immensely popular Star Wars original trilogy in 1983 with Return of the Jedi, creator George Lucas began formulating ideas for the stories that led to the events of the original films. In 1999, Lucas released Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the first of three prequels. They told the story of the fall of the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic and the rise of Emperor Palpatine and his evil Galactic Empire. The films were quickly derided by critics and fans for its wooden acting, reliance on computer graphics, and awkward dialogue.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Christensen defended Lucas and the dialogue of the prequel films. The trilogy received its fair share of criticism regarding its dialogue, including from many of the film's actors. Whether it be about the coarseness of sand, where to create a perimeter, or the massacre of Tuskens. When regarding the dialogue of the prequels, Christensen steps back and views the language and world, as created by Lucas, as a whole. Read what the actor had to say below.
"George Lucas creates such a unique world where everything is so specific, from the way these characters look and the way that they talk, and I feel like sometimes people lose sight of that and they expect them to speak the same way that we speak – and that’s not what we were going for."
Christensen explained that Lucas had such a particular vision for his sci-fi world that every detail within that world was carefully crafted to fit into his overarching master plan. This includes the unique way characters speak. The actor implies that although the audience is watching humans and aliens interact with each other on screen, the characters are not of this world and were created to exist in a separate galaxy far away. Christensen views Star Wars through this lens and explained that the characters in that universe will be different in many aspects to ours.
Although Lucas has defended his writing previously, calling it reminiscent of the 1930s Saturday matinee serials that used to run in movie theaters, the director has also admitted that he is not a good writer in terms of dialogue. He explained that he was more of a world and plot builder and his dialogue was meant to push the story along. With the help of his friends, actors, and script doctors, the Star Wars original trilogy became what critics and audiences have grown to love. However, throughout the years, the prequel films have also developed a passionate following. Perhaps initially out of irony, there is a strong community of support for those movies and the legacy of Star Wars media they built.
Source: The Guardian
