There was a period when the Star Wars prequels were considered a low point for this beloved franchise. The sequels have since become even more divisive among fans, of course, and the kids who grew up watching The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith have helped change the narrative.
Now, Hayden Christensen is widely praised for his work as Anakin Skywalker, while even longtime fans have grown to appreciate the ground broken by filmmaker George Lucas in terms of the technology he pioneered.
While developing these movies, the writer and director came up with a long list of ideas, many of which never actually made it to the screen. We've rounded up a mixture of awesome and awful concepts cut from the prequel trilogy, including scrapped origins, major plot twists, and developments capable of changing the foundations of this series as we know it.
To find out more, either click on the "Next" button below or head to SFFGazette.com to read the whole thing on one page. Many thanks to Jeremy Chong for the banner image above (and yes, we'll explain what the female Maul's significance later in this feature!).
8. Anakin Skywalker's Extended Family - AWFUL
The Phantom Menace strongly hinted that there might be something strange about Anakin's birth and the similarities to the immaculately conceived Jesus were impossible to ignore.
The plan had been to eventually reveal that Emperor Palpatine created the young Skywalker through the Force, manipulating events to ensure he'd eventually have an immensely powerful Sith by his side. In fact, Lucas even considered repurposing the "I am your father" line for this big reveal!
Thankfully, the filmmaker came to the conclusion it was too convoluted. At another point, Lucas also thought about revealing Anakin and Boba Fett were biological brothers; that also felt too contrived and would have surely been widely ridiculed.
7. Revenge of the Sith's Alternate Title - AWESOME
While Lucas went into the prequel trilogy with a rough idea of where he wanted the story to go, he was once again very much making it up as he went.
Before settling on Episode III's title, Revenge of the Sith, the filmmaker considered other options. The Creeping Fear was one, and that was later announced as the movie's moniker as part of an April Fool's Day joke! On a more serious note, he also mulled over Rise of the Empire and Birth of the Empire.
Both would have worked well, though we'd say Lucas' throwback to Return of the Jedi's original title - Revenge of the Jedi - ended up being a pretty cool name for this trilogy's finale.
6. Han Solo's Origin Story - AWESOME
Talking of Revenge of the Sith, with the prequels now just 20 years away from A New Hope, Lucas started thinking about ways to connect the two trilogies.
He decided fairly early on to feature Chewbacca and intended to reveal that an orphaned Han Solo was being raised by the Wookie on Kashyyyk. The future smuggler was going to help repel the attacking clones but the director decided there wasn't room and ditched the idea of these two having a father/son relationship.
Interestingly, an adult Lando Calrissian cameo was also briefly considered before it was widely decided it didn't really make sense in terms of the franchise's timeline.
5. Qui-Gon Jinn's Extended Role - AWESOME
While Qui-Gon Jinn's death in The Phantom Menace still stings, it paved the way for Obi-Wan Kenobi to take Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan. Many feel the boy's turn to the Dark Side began with that loss and early plans called for Qui-Gon to play a larger role beyond his death.
One idea had been for Qui-Gon to appear as a Force Ghost, attempting to stop the child he once met on Tatooine from embracing the way of the Sith.
The Clone Wars ended up putting a slightly different spin on the idea, but we didn't get to see Qui-Gon again in live-action until last year's Obi-Wan Kenobi (Lucas was who originally decided to have the Jedi Master teach both Yoda and Ben how to defeat death).
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