George Lucas defended his Star Wars prequel films from the naysayers.
On Friday afternoon, the legendary filmmaker was honored at the 77th Cannes Festival with a Palme d’Or for his accomplishments in the world of cinema. He sat down to discuss his career, where the 80-year-old touched on the slander against the prequel films back in the early aughts.
Around the time Episode I, II, and III were released—from 1999 to 2005—critics slammed the pics for catering to kids. Lucas explained that it must have slipped everyone’s minds that Star Wars was made for children.
“It was supposed to be a kid’s movie for 12-year-olds that were going through puberty, who don’t know what they’re doing, and are asking all the big questions: What should I be worried about? What’s important in life?” he said, per the Hollywood Reporter. “And Star Wars has all those things in there. They’re buried in there but you definitely get it, especially if you’re young.”
According to Lucas, the negative assessment of the prequels came from “critics and fans who had been 10 years old when they saw the first one,” and who weren’t terribly excited about watching a movie made for kids.
Lucas recalls fans hating on Jar Jar Binks and claims they did the same with the beloved C-3PO. “Everybody said the same thing about 3-PO, that he was irritating and we should get rid of him,” Lucas explained. “When I did the third one it was the Ewoks: ‘Those are little teddy bears. This is a kid’s movie, we don’t want to see a kids’ movie.’ I said: ‘It is a kids’ movie. It’s always been a kids’ movie.'”
The Star Wars prequel films were comprised of 1999's The Phantom Menace, 2002's Attack of the Clones, and 2005's Revenge of the Sith. The trio followed the original series, which featured 1977's Episode IV: A New Hope, 1980's Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and 1983's Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Lucas has done pretty well for himself ever since, landing at the top of Forbes' celebrity billionaires list with a net worth of $5.5 billion.
