Star Wars: George Lucas was warned including young Anakin in The Phantom Menace would ‘destroy’ the franchise

‘You’re going to destroy everything,’ Fox executives told the Star Wars creator

George Lucas has said he was warned that including the character of Anakin in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace would “destroy” his beloved sci-fi franchise.

The Phantom Menace was Lucas’s first long-awaited prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy. Released in 1999, the film was received poorly by many critics and fans.

Now, the filmmaker has described the film’s conception in a new book, titled The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005.

As reported by Polygon, Lucas’s enthusiasm for a prequel was initially met with excitement from executives at 20th Century Fox film studios. 

However, when he mentioned that the film would feature the character of Darth Vader in his youth, as a 10-year-old Anakin Skywalker, the mood changed.

A young Anakin (Jake Lloyd) talks to his mother, Shmi (Pernilla August) (©Lucas Films)

“You’re going to destroy the franchise; you’re going to destroy everything!” they told him. 

The director also said that he told Lucasfilm that he was “making a movie that nobody wants to see”.

The character of Anakin and Jake Lloyd, the child actor who portrayed him, were the focal points of much of the criticism surrounding the film. In the years since the movie’s release, Lloyd has opened up about the toll that the media attention and criticism took on his mental health.

Mark Hamill, known for playing Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy and recent sequel trilogy, addressed the character’s reception in 2017, while speaking to Vulture at the Sundance Film Festival.

“I couldn’t believe some of the things they wrote about the prequels, you know. I mean really, beyond ‘I didn’t like it,'” he said. 

“I’m still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only ten years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialogue.”