George Lucas Asked Three Directors to Helm Prequel Trilogy; All Refused for the Same Reason

The creator of the Star Wars universe, George Lucas, wished to entrust the filming of the prequel trilogy to other directors. This is, after all, what he did in the case of The Empire Strikes Back, when Irvin Kershner was behind the camera, and with Return of the Jedi, when that role was filled by Richard Marquand. When working on the first three episodes Lucas wanted to limit his role to being an executive producer and only oversee the process of creating the entire story.

Related:George Lucas Reveals Why Duels in Prequel Trilogy are More Dynamic

In a recent episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast the director of Apollo 13, Ron Howard, revealed that offers to direct the new trilogy were received, in addition to him, by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis.

The directors refused to cooperate and urged Lucas to take on the project himself. None of the filmmakers wanted to shoulder the responsibility of developing such a large universe. So Lucas had no choice but to take on both writing and directing the screenplays himself, for which he was later heavily criticized.

It is worth mentioning that Howard and Spielberg are already connected to the Star Wars universe. The former, after all, directed the production of Solo: A Star Wars Story, proving that he is capable storyteller for this universe. Spielberg, on the other hand, was one of the few who believed in Lucas' project when he was working on Episode IV. He was even considered for directing Return of the Jedi.

What do you think, would hiring other filmmakers help the prequel trilogy?

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Marcel Bojar

Marcel Bojar

In love with cinema from the earliest years. He completed a course at the Wajda School, and later worked on several film sets. Currently, works in a cinema where, in addition to regular screenings, he runs New Horizons of Film Education, sharing his passion and knowledge with children of various ages. He started working at GRYOnline.pl in May 2023. Given that his profession allows him to keep up with the latest movies, he mainly focuses on writing film news. A few years ago, he gave up sitting at a desk and playing on the computer in favor of couch gaming on a console. He would like to finally make his own film, although he started saying that he is already too old for that.